We are planning to go to our very first party on 10/31!! ...we do not plan to use a park ticket that day, we will just use the party ticket. Do you know if we may FP's the day of if those issues are still valid?
This has been explained in bits and pieces this year, but let me try to put it all together.
The October 31 party always sells out.
If you are only using a party ticket, you will not be able to enter the Magic Kingdom until 4:00 pm.
The Magic Kingdom will close to the general public at 6:00 pm.
There are no Fastpasses during the party.
I believe the last Fastpasses available to book are at 5:30 pm.
The system will let you book Fastpasses any time that day with your party ticket - but you will only be able to use Fastpasses after 4:00 pm.
You could book a Fastpass for as early as 3:30 to 4:30, and hope you get into the park and to the attraction by 4:30 (plus whatever grace period they might give after 4:30). And you could try to book two for later than that, such as 4:30 to 5:30 and 5:30 to 6:00.
If you wait until October 31 to book Fastpasses for October 31 which you could use between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm... I will be shocked if there are any Fastpases left.
(Last year, if you were a DVC member with the appropriate type of DVC ID card, you could enter the Magic Kingdom at 2:00 pm with a party ticket. That would give you more time to use Fastpasses. But I still wouldn't count on booking on October 31 to use on October 31.)
People have reported that as long as they booked Fastpasses for the other days of their trip first, and booked the Fastpasses using the party ticket after that, they did not have problems.
If I got any of this wrong, I'm sure someone will let me know.