Disney World Fall Trip Recap: Part 1
We’ll continue sharing experiences from our recent Walt Disney World trip with something we haven’t done in a while: a trip report. While our construction updates and our crowd post tell some of the story, it’s been a while since I sat down and posted stray thoughts and photos from Walt Disney World in trip report form.
Actually, this is not exactly a trip report. It’ll still have that same rambling, anecdotal style that “everyone” “loves” but instead of fully revisiting every single thing we did every single day, this will offer commentary that doesn’t fit in other posts, accompanied by random photos often unrelated to the topic at hand.
We did the first few days of this Walt Disney World trip at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort (as we spent a lot of time at the resort, most photos in this installment are from the Poly), where we’d most recently stayed a couple summers ago in the over-the-water Bungalows with a visit to the new Villas, as well.
In the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to expand our coverage of third party and off-site hotels, which has meant that we’re falling a bit short of staying at every hotel at Walt Disney World every other year in order to refresh our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews.
It probably also doesn’t help that we’ve stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter three separate times this year–sometimes deals for certain resorts make them too good to resist. Speaking of which, both that resort and the Poly, as well as countless others, have been featured on Priceline Express Deals this year.
As mentioned a few weeks ago, we still have an article about how to score those Priceline deals in the works. Unfortunately, since I started writing it, the Priceline Express Deals have pretty much dried up for late October and November, and I don’t have any screenshots (except for the Swan & Dolphin), which has been the hold-up in publishing.
This is a common thing for October, and I figure since there aren’t any Priceline deals right now, there’s no harm in waiting to publish. I just mention this now in case you were awaiting that article and thought maybe we forgot about it.
Back to the Poly, not only was our room read when we checked arrived at ~9 a.m., but we had also been upgraded to the Hawaii building–King Kamehameha Club Level.
Timing wise, I think we got really lucky with this reservation, as the day we arrived the resort was a ghost town (a friend remarked that they’d never seen the parking lot so empty), whereas the day we checked out we were told the resort was at full occupancy for that night.
We’ve already covered the roller coaster of crowds in our A Tale of Two Seasons: Fall Crowds at Walt Disney World post, so I won’t rehash that here. On a tangentially related note, I’d love to hear feedback from those who have attended Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year–good or bad.
I’m working on a post titled “Is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Still Worth It?” and would love to share reader accounts/quotes in that post. We’ve heard a lot of complaints about crowds, wait times, and character lines at the party, so we think this is a topic worth addressing. If you’d like to share your experience, please include the date you attended, your observations, and ultimate ‘conclusion’ about whether MNSSHP was worth it to you in the comments below.
Prior to this trip to Walt Disney World, we were debating whether to use Amazon Prime Now or just pack some snacks with us so we didn’t even have to mess with that.
We chose the latter, and arrived at the Poly with a suitcase half full of apples, bananas, pumpkin bars, and other assorted stuff. We joked that we were probably the first Club Level guests ever to BYOB (bring your own bananas).
As much as I love Trader Joe’s pumpkin cereal bars (seriously, they’re delicious), they don’t hold a candle to pork belly, poke, and the other appetizers prepared in the lounge.
Suffice to say, most of our snacks remained in the suitcase until we transferred over to Caribbean Beach.
During our stay, we heard a couple other guests in the Club Lounge indicate that they’d also been upgraded, so we weren’t alone in this. I was curious just how many people were upgraded, as our building didn’t seem nearly as ‘dead’ as the rest of the resort.
Then again, maybe people who book the King Kamehameha level are more likely to spend time hanging out at the resort? (We sure did!)
I’m not about to complain about free food, and we definitely got bang for our (zero) buck at the King Kamehameha Club Lounge. However, if we paid anything close to rack rate–or even the normal ~$200/night premium for Club Level–we would’ve been disappointed.
It’s one of those nice ways of ‘treating yourself’ if you totally divorce yourself from the cost, but it wasn’t that good. No matter much pork belly you eat or beers you drink, it’s tough to justify from a rational perspective.
The emotional side of us loved it. Convenient breakfast, “free” dinner & desserts, and excellent espresso on-demand throughout the day was really nice.
I should probably put air quotes around “dinner” above, as it’s definitely not the lounge’s intent to serve as a replacement for dinner, but that’s exactly what we made it, all those stupid single-serving plates be damned.
What we also really enjoyed was the space of the lounge. Every day after the breakfast rush, I could take my laptop to the Club Lounge and grab a table by the window with a view of Cinderella Castle.
I’m a huge sucker for having an “office” with a view, and this is right up there with the public library in Laguna that overlooks the ocean.
A big part of the reason this is a trip recap instead of a proper trip report is that so little of what we did is worthy of a play by play recap. It wasn’t our original intent, but due to the heat, we spent the middle of each day at the Poly, relaxing and working.
We’ve come to appreciate soaking up the ambiance of resorts and focusing less on attractions, but the other byproduct of this approach was that it was much easier to get up for sunrise photography every single morning of the trip and follow that with doing rope drop most mornings. We’d then take a midday break most days, returning a couple hours before sunset and staying until park close.
I distinctly remember the ‘Summer Nightastic’ celebration at Walt Disney World and during August visits even before that, when Magic Kingdom would open at 9 a.m. and had Extra Magic Hours until 3 a.m. We’d arrive for park opening, and stay all day until after park closing for photos, only to get up the next morning and do it all over again, rope drop until park close.
At the time, anything less felt like we weren’t getting enough value for our money. Given that we were paying like ~$69/night for Pop Century and carefully rationing 10-day no expiration tickets over the course of several trips, we most certainly were getting enough value for our money. We had to save up just to afford that though, so our perspective was different.
Now, we rarely do rope drop to park close uninterrupted, and spend way more time at the resort, and still have that same perspective that doing things differently would mean getting less bang for our buck. The resort stays (even discounted ones) are typically the most expensive aspect of a WDW trip, and taking advantage of their amenities midday is more enjoyable to us than trudging through the middle of the day in the parks when heat and crowds are at their worst.
(Now, we have an upcoming stay booked at All Star Movies, and I’m guessing we won’t take advantage of its amenities quite as much as we did the Poly’s!)
It has taken us a long time to break that ingrained “rides! rides! RIDES!” mentality at Walt Disney World, but I’m glad we’ve come around.
This is totally a ‘different strokes for different folks’ scenario, and I would never implore others to follow in our footsteps, especially since everyone’s circumstances and frequency of visits differ, but it’s at least something to consider. Walt Disney World’s resorts at the Moderate level and above offer so much, and a lot of that is often overlooked.
Another thing we did that I really enjoyed was took the water taxis to and from Magic Kingdom. Even in the hot weather, I love these peaceful cruises across Walt Disney World’s lakes.
For one, they are more reliable than the monorails, so there’s no worry of ‘holding for further traffic clearance’ for 10 minutes…or an hour.
More importantly, I love the approach. Seeing Cinderella Castle rise over the Train Station and getting glimpses of Main Street is really special.
One night we were arriving right as a monorail passed, and seeing Main Street’s popcorn lights reflected off its windows as the castle glowed orange and blue–this view was downright magical. It felt like glimpsing into a boundless utopian scene, like a Blade Runner aesthetic if only the future were written by optimists.
For some reason or another, this reminded me of riding Space Mountain years ago, before the queue ceiling was installed. Back then, one of my favorite things about the ride was craning my head around for the glimpses back into the queue, which felt like a distant space station to which we’d eventually return. It sounds hokey, but one thing I love about Walt Disney World is the elements that leave room for interpretation, evoking a certain atmosphere or feeling, and letting your imagination fill in the blanks.
Okay, this has already crossed 1,500 words and I don’t feel like I’ve really said much about the substance of our Walt Disney World trip. I’ll end this installment here, hit reset, and pick up with more anecdotes from our visit in Part 2.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Any feedback on your experience at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year? What do you think about park time versus resort time, and the relative ‘value’ of each during a Walt Disney World trip? Think Club Level is ‘worth it’? Enjoy the water taxi rides, or prefer the air conditioned luxury of the highway in the sky? Other feedback on this Walt Disney World trip recap? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I saw Sarah at French Quarter’s Floatworks one evening last week! I wasn’t sure it was her until someone walked up to her table and said she was a big fan. I’m one as well, just didn’t want to say, “me too!” from the next table 🙂 Thanks for all the articles and tips. I read every one!
Agree, now that our family is “grown” I am looking forward to more time at the resort. And yes, I do all the planning, so if someone asks me a question about Disney that I don’t know, I say I need to check with the Brickers 🙂
We were also at Disney World over Columbus Day weekend, and I had really mixed feelings about the trip. It was the first time my family had ever travelled to the World at that time of year, mainly because I am a school teacher, and it is too difficult to arrange travel in my calendar that time of year. (We normally travel from Maine to the parks once every two to three years for 8 day trips either during April vacation or leading up to Christmas, when it falls on the calendar correctly.) This was a large family trip that included my husband, two sons (10 and 5 years old), my adult brother, and my parents (68 and 60). My father has has health problems that required him spending most of the trip in a wheelchair. We planned this trip knowing that it might be our last one all together (sorry to be depressing), and we wanted to make sure we could attend the Halloween Party (10/4), also a first for us. We slept in that morning before heading to Disney Springs for some shopping and dinner at Homecomin’, and then we made our way over to the MK at 4pm. It started out well – the fall decorations were lovely, the kids were excited about the prospect of trick or treating in the park, and the crowds seemed really low – we were able to easily fit in several rides before the party officially started. But after that the wheels fell off. The park felt SO crowded (even for us who have often been there around Easter), and the heat and humidity were intense. While we were still able to go on rides and through trick or treat lines with relatively short waits, moving around the park was really hard and often stressful with my father’s wheelchair. We skipped the first parade, thinking we would just catch the second one, but leading up to Hallowishes, my father became too stressed out by the crowds to enjoy himself, so my brother returned to the resort with him. My husband, mother, and five year old made it through the fireworks (albeit in a spot with a pretty terrible view) before they also decided to call it a night. My ten year old stayed with me, and we moved back to Frontierland to watch the second parade, which we loved, then hopped on to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain before calling it a night. Upon reflection, that last hour and a half was really the only party of the official party that I truly enjoyed. Crowds finally became a little more manageable to navigate, we were no longer trying to satisfy so many different personalities, and we even had the happy surprise of being given two full to the brim trick or treat bags by castmembers who were closing out the Splash Mountain candy line.
If someone were to ask me if the party was worth it, I would have to say, probably not for most. I think the party (as we experienced it) can best be enjoyed by small groups of people, and probably even then only when the people have similar expectations and goals for the evening. If you are trying to do a mix of everything (rides for some, shopping/dining for others, character photos, etc,) you will almost certainly all end up disappointed. We thought after reading lots of online reviews that we would be ok if we stuck to a plan of riding our favorite rides, trick or treating, and watching the parade and fireworks. We weren’t interested in standing in line for character photos or watching the Hocus Pocus show, and if we had a chance to try some of the party foods we would, but we weren’t going to go out of our way to find them. But in the end, even our agenda proved way too difficult to accomplish, mainly because of the trouble navigating through the crowds, but probably made worse by our reactions to the heat and humidity. (At one point in the evening, I even teared up out of frustration, thinking about how much money we had spend on a special event when it appeared that we weren’t even going to end up experiencing several of its special offerings.)
We are unlikely to travel at this time of year again any time soon, but if we ever do again, we would only consider the party when our kids are older and if reports of lower crowds become the norm. For locals or frequent travelers, it may still be worth it with the large crowds because it is probably easier to slow down and enjoy the atmosphere, but for us, that just wasn’t possible. (Sorry if this is too long for the comments section – I wasn’t sure if I should leave my feedback here or via email!)
We went to the party on 10/4. We thought by going to a earlier in the month Halloween party on a Thursday night would be a good idea. However when we arrived at the gates we noticed a “sold out” sign. The lines for the rides were never super long, although we didn’t ride as much as planned. The lines for trick or treating were longer than what we expected, but the cast members still handed out tons of candy. The crowds for Boo to You were so dense that we didn’t see much of it,
We stayed until well after midnight and the park was still packed to the gills.
It was still worth it to us, because we love the fun of the Halloween Party. However we may be trying to attend a September party next year in hopes of fewer crowds.
Love trip reports!! Looking forward to reading along 🙂
My family and I attended the MNSSHP ON 10/8. I was rather disappointed. It was a sold out event and the crowds were crazy! Granted it was Columbus Day, fall break for many people, and several evacuated to Disney for hurricane Michael. This was my first Halloween party and it was quite disappointing. It rained immediately at the start of the day which lead to be a huge blessing because we made a beeline to the 7 dwarves and only waited an hour to get photos with them. My other wish list was jack and sally but it was not doable. If we would have attempted, it would have been at least 3 hour wait and would have spent more than half of the party in lines for characters. Mine train was an hour wait to give an example how long the wait times were for rides. The trick or treat station lines were extremely long. In a nutshell : I rode two rides, Trick or treated a little bit, Saw the fireworks, saw hocus pocus, and 1 character shoot and that was it. Still a lot done considering how packed it was but I wanted to do so much more. If it wasn’t a sold out event I’m sure we would have. Would like to experience it again on a slow night and not a sold out event. So if it’s busy…no not worth it. If it’s not sold out…definitely worth it.
We were there on 10/8 also. My son LOVES Jack Skellington and we were disappointed that the lines were 3 hours long. We decided to skip it and check back later. Even at around 10PM the line was hour and a half long. I hated to disappoint my son but we decided to just take a look at Jack and Sally instead. Just so happened they were on break and when we turned to leave they came walking right past us and Jack placed his hand on my son’s head and said Hello young boy. That really made his day and literally no wait for that! Wish we had a picture but for him that memory was good enough!
I attended MNSSHP on Tuesday 9/25 as parts of a girls’ trip with my best friend. This was my first trip to WDW, so the parks felt pretty crowded compared to my past experiences at Disneyland. The party was terrific but I felt like we missed out on a lot because of wait times and crowds. We made a beeline for Jack and Sally at 5 PM and waited until 7:30 to meet them. We missed the first Boo to You Parade waiting in another character line, but had a great viewing spot for Hallowishes and the two later Hocus Pocus shows. We had decent views of the second Boo to You Parade, but weren’t close enough to even try taking pictures and I regret not staking out a better spot. We didn’t go on any rides and didn’t trick or treat. We spent the majority of the party in line to meet a character, or sitting to hold our spot for a show or parade. Overall I felt like MNSSHP was worth it for a one-time or maybe two-time experience (we missed a few characters and I would love to see Boo to You and Hocus Pocus again!) for a big fan of Halloween or the exclusive characters, but anyone with young kids or who feels so-so about the event might not consider it worth the cost and crowds.
My mom and I did MNSSHP on 10/2, thinking it wasn’t going to be so crowded because of it being a weekday night and locals not being there. Boy, were we ever wrong! I had gotten in line to meet Jack & Sally at around 4:30 (we already had our party bands, thanks to being DVC members), and didn’t get out of the line until around 6:15, then made my way over to Tomorrowland for Lots-o’-Huggin Bear, where I waited about 20 minutes before he came out. Even the line to see the Queen of Hearts and the Tweedles in Fantasyland was extremely long (though I did see two guys dressed as Anna and Elsa in line behind me, and complimented their costumes. Found out that they were both hand sewn and amazingly done).
We watched Boo to You from Frontierland in front of Pecos Bill at 11:15, and the Hocus Pocus show at 12 am — both of which were still very crowded. We didn’t bother with the fireworks because we saw them from Bay Lake Tower, where we were staying. The crowd for the Hocus Pocus show was so bad, especially in the handicapped section (close to the castle) where I got my left foot run over by an ECV. Thank goodness I had closed-toed shoes on or else I would have had a broken foot – or at the very least, broken toes.
In our joint opinions, if we were to go back down at a time when they were offering MNSSHP, we wouldn’t do it again unless they offered new entertainment or new characters. I’m all about the characters, especially meeting rare/hard-to-find ones.
I forgot to mention this, but we didn’t even go anywhere near the rides and the trick or treat lines were so long at the beginning of the night that we decided to wait until near the end of the party to do that. Because my mom was in an ECV (no, she didn’t run over my foot as mentioned above) and I was in line to get character autographs/pictures, she went around to the local candy stops with both our bags and got the candy while I waited.
I would like to also add that meeting Jafar and Tarzan, Jane, and Terk (all in Adventureland) were very short lines, especially for Jafar. I guess nobody likes to meet unpopular characters.
Just curious, the upgrade they gave you at the Poly was done without asking? Any idea if there are criteria or it was just a random, lucky thing that happened?
We went on 9/11 (and yes I realize that could be seen as somewhat morbid but according to touringplans.com it was expected to be the least busiest MNSSHP this year). It was still somewhat busy – multiple hour waits for Jack Skellington and a few of the other character greets. But walking around was easy enough and we didn’t have to camp out hours ahead of the parade/fireworks to get a good spot – we opted for the hub side of main street just beyond Casey’s Corner and had front row. A quick aside – a Youtube vlogger we follow and his wife recently chronicled their visit to Tokyo Disney and what struck me is how polite the crowds were around parades – nobody stood, everyone sat on the ground so that everyone would be able to see. Would really be nice to see that kind of thing here. But enough digression. The good news is there was little to no waits for the rides – we had to wait maybe 15 mins for the Mine Train and less than 20 for the fully dark Space Mountain. All the mountains were open and very little wait on all of them. This is the second year in a row we’ve done MNSSHP and we’ll probably take a breather next year, particularly in light of the price hikes Disney just announced. It’s just too expensive to make it an annual tradition. It’s our favorite Mickey holiday party, but except for the low crowd this year, the parades/fireworks, etc., were identical to last year. I’d recommend it to someone who’s never been before. One other thing to take note of, if you do plan on going to an earlier party in Sept/Aug to beat the crowds, one thing you won’t beat is the heat – so def be prepared for that. We took cooling towels, plenty of bottled water and basically dressed like we were headed to the gym for a heavy workout – moisture wicking fabric, etc. So it was def hot but but manageable if you come prepared.
Keep up the good work!
I always hope to run into you and Sara on our trips. Sounds like we were close this time. 😉 Our visit was Oct. 2-6, with Oct. 3rd as our rope drop to close day and the party on Thursday the 4th. We visited for the party in 2014, but arrived later in October. We found crowds to be very reasonable all week this time but noticed a huge uptick in people at our resort on Saturday before we flew home. Our longest line on the party night was Space Mountain at 35 minutes. It was lower other times but didn’t suit our schedule. Mine Train was almost always around 30 min. At the end of the night it was 25 min. We don’t do character lines but still thrilled at the surprise sight of Jack and Annie at midnight when they were coming back from break to greet more fans!
We used fast passes during our daytime MK visit but again found overall waits to be very reasonable compared to prior visits that occurred in October, November and December of other years. I think hitting the sweet spot before Columbus/indigenous people day was key. We tried to book later in the month, about this time, and things were totally booked at POP. On a side note, we had a refurbished room this visit and LOVED it. The use of space and storage ability was quite an improvement and the beds were awesome! Thanks again for all your work Tom and Sara. We had the heads up from you about bounce back dates and booked for next Christmas. 🙂 There was no card in our room.
I meant we visited for the party in 2016.
Sarah-
Apologies on dropping your “h”. Twice! Ugh.
We attended MNSSHP on 9/7, and still found it “worth it” to us, for the ambiance- smoke etc, seeing everyone in their costumes, the fun of trick-or-treating, and of course, the fabulous parade. Crowds were not bad at all that day, I’m guessing due to school having started back up (even though it was a Friday night). We don’t do character pic lines, but we waited no more than 15 minutes for rides, and LOVED going on Space Mountain in complete dark- they turned off all the stars etc. SOO dark, we did it twice.
I’m headed to Disney Nov 10 -17. This is my first time to stay ON property so I’m super excited about that. Also have a ticket to the Very Merry Christmas Party, Hoop De Doo musical, and the Frozen Dessert Party. I was even able to score a reservation st Cinderella’s table. I just hope the weather isn’t too warm and humid.
We went to the Halloween party on Thursday 10/11. I only have 1 other time to compare it too (approximately 2013 last time we went) and this time was very crowded compared to then. We had 3 families on this trip (4 adults and 9 kids total) and everyone thought it was too busy to justify the cost. We went to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday 10/09, arrived just after the park opened around 9:10am (not even for rope drop) and we got on almost every ride/saw every show we wanted to and were out of the park by 3:30. We went to Raglan Road for dinner and watched the Halloween fireworks from DVC lounge atop BLT at 10:15pm. That was much better experience than the Halloween Party with no lines, relaxing dinner and still saw fireworks.
Thank you for your honest reviews.
I can’t wait to read Part 2 of your vacation recap!! 🙂
I was at the first party (August 17) and it was sold out. To be honest, it was fun, but I am not in a hurry to do it again! It was definitely not a cheap add-on. EVERYTHING was so crowded with people, character line ups were obscene (though trick or treating moved pretty well despite appearing long in some places). The parade was great, stage show great…but extremely crowded. Now, we did watch the parade from the hub and Main Street, so it’s to be expected, but to a point.
Hallowishes…the perimeter bursts are truly special, but to be honest, the rest of the show has now been eclipsed by Happily Ever After. The projections etc feel super dated. This was my first trip seeing Happily Ever After in person, and I must say, I was blown away (and I didn’t think I would be!). Hallowishes is in desperate need of an update!
I have stayed in different Disney resorts though the years with the family ,and have always had the greatest of times.Now that my family has grown up we plan to have everyone and their families come and stay for a week in October of 2019. My question is I would like to take advantage of the Free dining plan if available. When will I hear about the dates if available? Again we just love coming there, it truly is the happiest place on Earth. Thank you.
Free Dining was not available in October this year, so may not be offered any longer as October has become quite busy without this premium.
Your blog was the very first one I found and read when I began planning our 2018 trip for this past June. I will forever be grateful for this because in every post, you remind people in subtle ways (and sometimes not so subtle) that Disney is not just about the rides, rides, rides! Because I read about every blog post you have written here before I really planned ur trip, it was constantly in my mind to make our itinerary based on the fact that there is so much to see, to feel, to smell and experience that is not always on a ride… and yes, I said smell… because walking down Main Street in MK, I was sniffing around, waiting for the popcorn and cake smells to hit me that you had mentioned in a post someplace LOL! My family was extremely appreciative of how much I knew about the parks and little details I was able to point out to them and I continually pointed back to “our good friend Tom Bricker” who saved our Disney trip from becoming a rat race to waiting in line on rides nightmare.
What you share here is so much more than just a few words and some information. You provide a very meaningful service to everyone on how to really take things in and enjoy them at Disney.
Thank you.
100% agree with this assessment – you expressed my thoughts perfectly as well!!
I think we have had our last ‘Parks’ trip to Disney World. Next time we’ll enjoy the resort, a little of what Orlando has to offer, and spend our money enjoying Disney restaurants. We last visited August 12-21, 2018 and the Parks were way too crowded. It is a terrible waste of money to go into a Park and see lineups everywhere. Thank God for Fast Passes, but they require a fair bit of preplanning.
I just attended MNSSHP on Friday (10/12) after a hiatus last year. I was expecting huge crowds and was pleasantly surprised. We don’t typically wait for the special character meet and greets as we have a hyper 6 year old so I can’t speak to those. Attraction waits were pretty short, ranging from 15 minutes to walk-on. Our longest wait was for Mine Train (~25 mins), stepping in line right before park close. We easily got a spot for Hallowishes and the 11:15 Boo to You parade (in Frontierland which was pretty dead). Trick or treat lines were mostly very short with a few random longer lines. We ended up with almost 10 pounds of candy between 3 people so they were more than generous! Overall, it’s still worth it to me and is my favorite ‘special’ WDW event.
Looking forward to hearing the rest of your trip report!