My 9/9 Party Experience:
Summary from 4pm-12:30am (if you don't want to read my ramble lol):
Rides:
HM (FP)
7DMT (FP)
Hall of Presidents
Peter Pan (FP)
BTMR
Splash Mountain
Buzz Ranger Spin
Space Mountain (x2)
Characters:
Winnie the Pooh 4-some
Pirate Goofy
Minnie Witch
Donald and Daisy Pumpkin/Princess
Magic Shots:
Poison Apple
Hitchhiking Ghosts
Hatbox Ghost
Ghost Buggy Driver
Flaming Pumpkin
Headless Horseman
Halloween Activities:
Parade (1st one)
8lbs of Candy
Wishes while walking and stopping for finale in Hub
Party Orange Bird Card
Watched 3/4 of Hocus Pocus from afar while waiting for Main St/Hub Magic shots after midnight
I'll try not to be to wordy
-Arrived at gates 3:40ish to really long lines at the gate. As another posted mentioned, should have been smarter and lined up at an empty turnstile to the left knowing they would open it up. By the time I realized it, it was too late as the masses shifted so we stayed put.
-It was Holy-50-gallons-of-sweat-hot-as-Hades hot on Sunday afternoon. We had enjoyed "milder" Florida temperatures all weekend so was not prepared for that. Should have had the cooling towels ready to go at that point
-Entered the park probably a little after 4pm? I think the gates opened at 3:55
-Overdramatic 5yr old was acting like he was about to pass out from heat so took him straight to bathroom to cool him off and give him a cooling towel. He was magically instantly better :rolls eyes:
-There was 2-3 CM out front of firehouse passing out Party Cards with zero line. We grabbed that and went inside and waited about 5 minutes for the general SOTMK packs of cards (only one computer working, so eventually they just gave us the packs without scanning bands)
- Walked down Main St since we didn't care for any of the bypass stuff and grabbed quick group picture and the Poison Apple Magic Shot @ 4:17p
-Haunted Mansion FP, wait time posted was 40 min at that point
-Walked to HoP (~4:50pm) for my dad and to cool off, but next show was in 25 min so we decided to use our next FP of 7DMT before it would expire at 5:30, and off the ride by 5:10p and walked back to HoP.
-Back to HoP and stood in the waiting area maybe 5 min and out of show approx 5:40p if I had to guess
-Used our 3rd FP for Peter Pan and out by 5:55pish
-Got in line for Pooh Characters around that time, they had not opened the queue yet so we lined up against the wall with the others. Around 6pm they opened up the queue and we were maybe 8 people ahead of the last people inside the actual queue at that point. Easy access to exit gate though, so I grabbed food at 6:04 at Cosmic Caseys.
The Muenster Burger was not available on the Mobile App but was available in person and the lines were short at 6:04p. I really liked the Muenster Burger btw.
-Brought the food back to my kids and Dad and they ate in line. My dad said the Photopass Photographer already at her post asked if my kids wanted pictures with the honey pot props and got some really great pictures of them at 6:17p My dad then decided to go put his costume of Dumbledore on after eating, and came back in line. Pooh and Co came out right on time. One group of 3 took a realllllllllllly long time of interacting with each character one at a time as one person of their party at a time, so that really ate some clock (One of those people didnt join their party until about 10 min prior to the meet, grrrrr, but I digress). When we got to the characters they announced that Pooh and Co had about 5 minutes before their break. Our photos are time stamped at 7:27p so makes sense. My dad wanted to do more photos but I told him we're not going to be one of those people lol
-Did Winnie the Pooh ride, since we were there, maybe 10-15min total wait and ride time. Line started at the bee track but moved quickly
-On way to ride Splash and BTMRR afterwards the rain and lightning picked up and sure enough, both were closed due to weather. We decided to try and do Pirates real quick since indoors, but everyone else had same idea and line was backed up to outside of the entrance, so we decided to just take a break under cover by the ToT line/Pecos backside and rest and grab a drink. Rain started to lighten so we attempted Splash again but still closed so decided to just do ToT trails by there which moved quickly. Ran through 2-3 times each and decided to do more ToT. Did Country Bears ToT, JC ToT, and then by Pirates ToT, and decided to attempt BTMRR/Splash one more time before giving up, even though still lightly raining...and success, BTMRR open and walk on! Never rode it in the dark, that made it more fun. Photo wasn't working though so didn't get that.
-Now it was 9pm and saw Frontierland pretty packed for parade so we found a front row spot by the River bypass and popcorn cart b/c ppl didn't realize where the tape had come off the wet ground. People then started to crowd those areas after us and they were asked to clear the path for bypass traffic, so we lucked out there.
-As soon as last float passed we made a bee-line down the bypass towards HM and did the Hitchhiking Ghost Magic Shot (9:36p) with one group in line, Hatbox Ghost with one group in line (9:39p), and then parade had passed so the masses came ah stampeding. We made it to the Buggy Driver Ghost in front of HM with about 8 groups in front of us (the HM Lantern shot had at least 15+ ppl at that point so we decided to skip) and line moved quickly (9:47p). On way out, each magic shot we had done had at least 10 groups of people at that point
-Planned on grabbing a Left Lawn Wishes spot in front of Caseys, but the kids said they'd rather risk missing fireworks for Splash. So we backtracked to ride Splash. On way back saw the Gravediggers had maybe 3 groups waiting to meet and they looked awesome! Unfortunately we didn't have the time to meet (originally planned to meet while waiting for parade). Also heard the Cadaver Dans outside of Country Bears and they sounded great as we slowly walked by them.
-Splash was open with zero wait and got drenched (first time ever for me to get that wet on that ride but was fine since we were already wet from rain). Wishes had just started as we were about to get off the log (photo tagged at 10:12p). There was CM passing out candy as you walked out.
-Bee-lined to Hub for the finale, but unfortunately didn't get a chance to really see the 180 deg fireworks which is my fav part but oh well.
-Went to Tomorrowland and walked on Buzz Lightyear ride (Stitch queue was passed the entrance btw). CM passing out candy as you walked out. (Lotso looked to have about 20 min wait) @ 10:37p
-Rode SM with about 5-10min wait, and absolutely loved it!!!! I still think it was a crappy way to promote an "overlay" but the ride was way better than the normal ride! Plus I got zero motion sickness that I normally get on that ride, so also a major plus. We were so excited when we got off the ride that a CM came up to us and asked if we would like to ride it again without waiting, so she escorted us through the CM bypass and put us right back on the ride again with zero wait, so definitely lucked out with some Disney Magic there!
-Took a quick 10 min break for bathroom/drink/snack. The popcorn cart in front of Space had both plenty of Oogey Boogie and Cauldron popcorn buckets with zero ppl in line @ 11:15p so I decided to take the plunge and got the Cauldron bucket.
-Walked to New Fantasyland, looked like Queen and Tweedles on break? and maybe 3 groups waiting to meet @ 11:30ish, I didn't see Alice or Hatter, I didn't check out 7 Dwarves line (met them 2 yrs ago) but that whole area was dead so I can't imagine it being long. We met Goofy with 2 ppl in front of us 11:40p, Minnie with no wait @ 11:44p, and Donald and Daisy with little wait @ 11:51p
-Hit the Train Station ToT trail, the Little Mermaid ToT trail, and almost made it to the Cosmic Rays ToT outside of Queen of Hearts and Tweedles but it was 12:01am and they shut the door as we walked up and apologized. The Queen and Tweedles were still meeting at that point btw, but I don't think there was another group waiting so was prob last meet.
-Did Flaming Pumpkin Magic Shot on Main St on way out 12:16am
-Did Headless Horseman Magic Shot in front at 12:25am. They had 3 photographers doing this magic shot at same time and each line had maybe 3 groups each.
So all and all it was a great success IMO, especially with the 1.5 hours of rain/lighting storm. Only thing we had to improvise b/c of weather and missed out on that we wanted to do was Pirates ride and Gravediggers M&G, but b/c of that we did ToT earlier than planned, and if we didn't, we wouldn't have gotten much candy. Tons of compliments from CM on our Harry Potter group and my crazy Dumbledore Dad but we still got minimal candy per ToT stop, even when we repeated lines. Definitely not the huge handfuls of old. Between the 4 of us, we still walked out with 8lbs of candy though so it went well. I tried to share info with parents that seemed to be lost and overwhelmed in lines and during parade to help out where I could (I'm typically not the most sociable). The rain definitely put a chink in the plans but I felt we improvised well and only missed 2-3 things else we were hoping to do. We ended up getting 95 photos/videos for the day and we did do the 1 day Memory Maker as this was our only Disney day (this was a Universal trip for us). FYI I couldn't get the 1-Day Memory Maker option to purchase on the webpage, only the advanced and last minute trip duration Memory Makers which was frustrating. Finally I was able to get it on the Disney App. Most photos were instantly added. Our Main St magic shots didn't get added until late last night and this morning, as well as our Splash and Space Mountain ones too. I did submit a Lost Photo form around 5pm yesterday though, so I don't know if that did it, or just coincidence.
Sorry for the wordy, but hopefully helps someone! I'm more than happy to answer any questions that I might be able to help with.
