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!
We attended The Halloween Party Tuesday 18th September. It was hot, very crowded, and the lines were long for everything. it seemed like a normal high season evening. It was very busy getting food, and long waits to meet characters.
We arrived for the show a half hour beforehand, and could only find spots quite a way from the stage. This did give us a good view for the parade. Why was there 30 minutes between the headless horseman and the parade itself?
After that we were done with the heat and crowds, so left before the fireworks.
The event did not seem special to us, and was just another money grab. The fact that MK closed early for this event 50% of the evenings we were there also made it a less pleasant trip.
I don’t think we’ll return to WDW in the forseeable future.
We too were at the party on 9/18, same experience. It was our first and we are one and done. It was so much more crowded than we had anticipated. We gave up on the shows and parade so basically we paid extra for some ride time and candy.
We are going back for Christmas again this year and debated the Christmas party before but it is definitely a no for us now.
We did MSSSHP on Oct. 2nd. It seemed much less crowded than our trip last year, but I think that last year we had no choice but to go on a Friday if I recall. October 2 seemd to have very light crowds and ride times were very short and overall crowd density seemed light. Our theory was that the unbearable heat was keeping many people away. I was in costume as the Hat Box Ghost and had to shed most of my costume during the parade and cool off before dressing back up for the rest of the evening.
My husband and I went to the party on Tuesday, September 11. We got in right at 2pm (we are DVC members) and started enjoying a few rides. We had a few FP, but the only one we really needed was for Peter Pan. Our POTC and Haunted Mansion ones weren’t even needed as they were a walk on. It really didn’t feel crowded at all…until 5pm rolled around. Man, what a difference! I thought the crowds would stay at that level, but it was noticeably more crowded by 5pm. So we did a few easy attractions: Tiki room and Country Bear and ate at C Harbor House before the official start time. We got our wristbands (which there was a line for earlier) and saw Philarmagic. Once we walked out, my husband was ready to get the Oogie Boogie popcorn bucket, so we headed to the popcorn cart. We then walked around a bit, and the wait times seemed a bit long to me, so we rode the Ariel ride and Winnie the Pooh. We were going to get some candy to bring back for the kids, but the lines were ridiculously long, like snaking back and forth long …. for candy….that you can get at WalMart. We headed to ride on Pirates since it was supposed to be a bit more done up, but CM there told us it was closed. We priced there were only a handful of people at the candy line over there, so we basically filled our bags there, along with a bit more from Country Bear. We walked and secured a spot sitting on the Christmas sleigh to watch the parade. Then immediately went to the castle to get a spot for the show. It was already filling up. Thankfully it was just me and my husband finding a place to sit. I don’t think I could have found one for the whole family. The highlight of the night was the Hocus Pocua show. It was amazing! I wasn’t expecting much, but it blew me away! We left after the fireworks as we were both getting tired (apparently I had come down with a cold) and we wanted to relax back the resort. So was the whole thing worth it? Since we bought our tickets at a discount and we have potentially had 10hrs in the park, I think it was worth the money. If I could buy tickets at $75 and get in at 2pm again, I would probably do it and bring the kids next time. It was worth it to have such low crowds and waits before the event as well as the parade, and shows. But if I had paid full price and not had the extra hours, I would have to re-evaluate my position. It was pretty crowded once party-goers started coming in. There were still tickets being sold out front when we went in at 2pm. So maybe they are selling more than they used to? I really don’t have much to compare it to though as it was our first time going.
Oh, my! I think that is terrible that they didn’t have the non-allergenic treats for your kids! That is NOT the Disney way. That really concerns me about the way things are going. 🙁
I attended MNSSHP on Friday 9/14 with several people who have been every year. We all agreed they are selling more tickets than they used to. Ride times were 30-45 min when they used to be 20 min or less. We did find a good spot for fireworks and the second parade. Loved the specialty food and drinks served only at the party. Still worth it overall.
We went to MNSSHP on 9/16. We enjoyed trick or treating and loved the parade, but probably won’t do the party again due to the high cost and large crowds we encountered. All the meet and greets we considered had lines way too long for our two kids, and even some of the rides had longer waits than what we would have expected for a party night. We talked about it later and realized that we could have added two nights to our stay at Pop for the same price that we spent on Halloween party tickets for our family. To us, that would have been a better value. I am glad we tried it, but it was a one and done for us.
Cool to see you still use a Black Rapid (?) strap. Is that a Peak Design anchor I see?
We attended the MNSSHP on Thursday Oct. 4th. Our plan was to get to MK right at 4 and immediately get in line for Jack and Sally but as Disney timing usually goes we were about and hour and half late arriving back at the park after going to the hotel to get into our costumes. We went over to the Jack and Sally line first thing but it was wrapped all the way around the courtyard so we tried to take a sneaky “selfie” with them when the Mayor called but weren’t very successful. Our companions had Disneybounded as “Pooh” and “Tigger” so we headed over to the Hundred Acre Woods to get in line for the photo op with all the characters. While waiting half of our party went over to Tomorrowland to get the Munster Burger for dinner. We ended up enjoying the burger, albeit, quickly while winding our way through the character line. Then we took the PeopleMover around Tomorrowland to see the sights and also to see the inside of Space Mountain in the dark without actually riding it (since one of our party isn’t into rollercoasters). We were able to meet Stitch in his Elvis costume afterwards which was so cool. I love that you get to dress up, even as an adult, for the party because it really makes for some great character photos. After Stitch we went to Storybook Treats, by way of the Teacups (to see the lighting) to have the Maleficent cone, which was my favorite treat of the night. We then stopped by to see the ghostly woman on the lawn at Haunted Mansion. Then we went to Pirates to experience the actors. This was one of our favorite parts of the night. The live actors really added a lot to the queue line for those who stopped to actually talk to them like we did. At that point the first parade was just about to go so we headed to the Bakery where there was no line and got the Pumpkin Cheesecake and Poisoned Apple cupcake, as well as some caffeine to get us going. We saw the parade from a distance as we enjoyed our treats and then headed to the end of Main Street for a great view of the fireworks. We ended up standing right in the middle of the street and the view was perfect although we didn’t get the 360 view of the fireworks from this location. The fireworks show was great and really makes me miss real fireworks shows. The Villians Spelltacular afterwards was one of the best stage shows I have ever seen at Disney and we were able to get a good spot for viewing, mostly, right at showtime. Afterwards we headed to Frontierland were we had a perfect view of the late parade and enjoyed some great character interactions during the parade as I think the actors appreciated all our hooting and hollering for them. When the parade ended two of our party went to ride Space Mtn and two, including me, when to meet Jack and Sally. The line was much, much shorter and of course in true Disney fashion they see everyone in line even after “closing” time. We met Jack and Sally around 12:30 and then headed out of park. While we didn’t get to do everything that we wanted to during the party I absolutely think it was worth it and I would do it again in the future. I do think a weekend party might be a different story but the party during the week was the way to go for my group.
Went to mnsshp October 8 2018,the park was at it’s max candy lines went fast the atmosphere was fantastic guests were dressed in coustoms everywhere this is a must do when your visiting DW great for young and old the fireworks show is the best of all parks had loads of fun!
We did the oct 2 Halloween party.
It did not seem too crowded
We wanted all the specialty photo shots and the lines were never more than 5 people except The one in front of haunted mansion and that was right when the party started
We did one character meet n greet. Lines too long. Good spot for the second parade –which we liked way better than the Disneyland Halloween parade. Good spot for Hocus Pocus and fireworks. We’ve done three Disneyland land Halloween parties previously and they don’t dress up in Florida like they do in California. And it may have just been because it was late but the treat trails only had either one or two stations handing out candy– which was probably a good thing since our luggage was almost too heavy.
We stayed at Polynesian too. No upgrades for us. Only saw one other person in our section the whole week we were there.
Tom and Sarah,
I loved this recap, reading it put a smile on my face and added some pixie dust too! Honestly this article was wonderful, can’t wait to read the next installment! Thank you!
First Halloween party for us, we went Thursday Oct 4th. It was definitely more crowded than my daughter and I expected from our research. The stage show and first parade were crazy packed but we had littles with in our group so we couldn’t wait for the second parade. We ended up with an ok view for both. People who had great viewing spots must have staked them out hours ahead, which seems like a crazy way to spend party time to me. We had first timers with us so we had gone to MK during the day and ridden quite a few rides so we were able to get to all the remaining ones on our list, with the exception of Pirates…just too tired to go across the park after Space Mountain. We ended up not having a great fireworks view. We went up by the carousel where we’ve had good views in years past but not for these so maybe they’ve changed where they shoot them from? The kids ended up with a lot of candy but we never got any of the special treats or photo ops because we were too busy navigating crowds to get to rides or events. We did have a group of 13, which included a double stroller, so that probably was part of the issue, as well as not getting to the park right at 4 like my daughter and I wanted, again due to waiting for the whole crew to be ready. It was very hot, close to 90 in the afternoon, and didn’t cool off much as the night wore on. As to whether it’s worth it…I’d be willing to try it again but only on a Tuesday night, or maybe a Thursday of a non holiday weekend, and only if it was our smaller group of dedicated Disney lovers. We’d stick to our original plan (before we added 8 newbies to our group) which was to hang at the resort all day and hit the park at 4.
Did the Party September 25th for the 7th or 8th year in a row. The parade and the fireworks is still epic and is the reason we love the party and can not break the habit of going. The crowds get bigger every year and it seems that more rides are closed every year. The lines for characters are insane at this point and very disappointing overall. We never bother with the candy as we find it not worth the time waiting or something we can get at the grocery store. The one thing I am enjoying more is the special photo pass spots that create neat photos.
We went to WDW from September 24 to October 2. We attended the MNSSHP for the first time on September 28 (Friday night). My sister and I (29 and 27 years old) really enjoyed the party. I especially liked the Boo to you parade and Hocus Pocus show. My sister was really excited by the candies and doing rides (especially the ones that were “different” on Halloween night). The crowd was not super bad, but there was definitely a lot especially for the first show, parade and fireworks. It was hard to have good spots. We got closer on the second parade and for the last Hocus Pocus show. We skipped all the characters since it is not really our thing and it seems like there were at least 20 minutes wait to maybe even an hour for some characters. Overall, we had time to do everything we really wanted but like for the rest of the trip time went really fast and we would have like to have another hour. We only went to WDW once before that. It was in May 2015 and we found that May was a much better time to visit. It might not be representative but we had “cooler” days (but still hot), less crowd and wait time, and more time in the parks since it was the Summer schedule. We went to take advantage of the free dining plan this time. We enjoyed it the Halloween party but I think we prefer to have lower crowds and longer hours.
We attended MNSSHP last year September 17 on a Sunday because I had read it wouldn’t be so busy. That was not the case. We arrived at 4, did BBB with our girls and went over to get in line for the dwarfs and it was already an over 3 hour wait at 5:30. That was highly disappointing. We didn’t even bother with any other characters after that because the wait didn’t seem worth it. (Except for Lotso as we we were leaving because that line was “shorter.”) It seemed like we paid close to $300 for them to get some candy we could have bought for $5. The parade and fireworks were the only redeeming quality to me but the wait times for everything were so long that I still don’t think we’d go back for a while.
Long time reader, first time commenter – ha! Been going to WDW since I was like 4, but don’t remember pre-queue ceiling Space Mountain? Do you have pictures (with vs. without)? In the queue I’m always so stoked to get on the ride, I guess I never pay attention to the ceiling details? …And now I’m a bad fan. I’ll pay more attention to details next time. I promise!
p.s. Wife and I used your Tokyo & Hong Kong DL tips to build out part of our honeymoon (open jaw flight FTW). Big fans of the site!
I never go the Halloween or Christmas parties, because, as an annual passholder, I can’t imagine paying big bucks for things I get to see “free” (LOL) the rest of the time. I was able to catch the Boo to You parade and the Hocus Pocus show on YouTube, and no having to struggle to see the performers!
A friend and I attended the Sept 18, 2018 MNSSHP. I thought all rides and shows would be open. Not true, even though I asked Disney when I added the tickets by phone and they said they would. Some were closed for trick or treat stations. Also, I thought the lines were too long. Many more people than I expected. I prefer the regular parades and didn’t care for the parade during the party. Thats just a personal preference I realize. I’ve been to Disneyworld 13 times and Disneyland twice so I go often. I won’t pay extra and go to this party again. I didn’t think it was worth it and prefer Disney go back to keeping the park open to all for extended hours.
We did MNSSHP on the night of Friday, September 21. It was way too crowded for my taste. I knew it would be a little crowded since it was a Friday night party, but it was hard to navigate through the crowd. The lines for rides weren’t too bad though. One thing worth mentioning is both of my kids have different allergies. One is allergic to milk and the other is allergic to red food coloring so they collected tokens instead of candy. At the end of the night when we went to turn them in for allergy friendly candy, they were out so we left the party with 2 disappointed kids. I sound really negative, we totally enjoyed our four day trip. The day we did the Halloween party was our least favorite day though. I would probably still do the party again. We drove into Orlando the day of the party so going to the party that night saved us some money so we didn’t have to buy park tickets that day.
We stayed at All Star Movies from 9/8-9/15. we didn’t plan on spending much time at the resort due to having reservations and fast passes booked months in advanced that took up our entire day so we didn’t splurge for one of the nicer resorts. We also had a party of 10 including a 6 yo, 5 yo, and 2 yo, and everybody had different things in mind that they HAD to do. The resort was nice and clean but the decor was definitely outdated. My son had no idea who most of the athletes on the walls were but he did enjoy the themes in the different wings. The buses to and from the parks were not too bad. We had a double stroller (rented from a local facility which you recommended) for our 2 year old and 6 year old that had recently broken his foot which did make it a bit difficult to travel at times. We attended the MNSSHP on 9/11. The crowds were not too bad until it was time for the shows and parade. Calling it shoulder to shoulder is giving room to spare. Some of the character lines for the Halloween specific characters were longer than we were willing to wait with little ones. It would be nice if they would put another set of jack and sally characters so that you have a chance to see them and still experience the rest of the party. The wait time to see those characters was over 3 hours. and that was before the party started. The kids enjoyed the trick r treating but it was still pretty warm and the chocolate candy didn’t fare well so it hit the trash before we ever left the park. We all agreed that the best part of the MNSSHP (other than the food and shows) was the Haunted Mansion. We did take full advantage of the free dining plan by using your best value guides. We also picked up the sun bum sunscreen and a few Frogg Togg towels which were life savers. We had a very enjoyable and memorable trip and will definitely return. We will shoot for the Christmas season on our next visit. Thanks for the great tips.