A Duo of Delightfully Dead Halloween Parties
The schedule for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party kicks into high gear now that we’re in September, with multiple events per week in Magic Kingdom–in some cases every other night. MNSSHP bumps up to 3 nights per week until October, at which point it’ll happen 4 nights per week, including every Thursday and Friday.
However, the first two parties this September have been delightfully dead, reminding us of the good ole days of these events years ago. On our recent visits to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, we waited in line less than 10 minutes for the Seven Dwarfs, got parade spots at the last minute, and enjoyed a largely-empty park!
Now, before you get excited about the prospect of low crowds at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party throughout September and October, temper your expectations a bit. There are several simple explanations for the low crowds the last two nights, and why that won’t necessarily be the case going forward…
The first explanation is Hurricane Dorian. These early party nights are disproportionately attended by tourists (locals have more flexibility in when to attend, and most favor the cooler dates that are more in the heart of spook season), and a lot of people canceled their Walt Disney World trips. This is easily the biggest and best way to account for ~70% of the lower crowds.
However, it’s not the only explanation–and these other variables could impact attendance numbers at future Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party nights. A couple are of particular interest to me…
First, there’s the possibility that Extra, Extra Magic Hours in Magic Kingdom and elsewhere are causing on-site guests to get up earlier, and thus, finish their days earlier.
The idea of leaving a theme park for the day by 6 pm is practically heresy to me, but people entering Magic Kingdom around 7 am could feel satisfied or tired by late afternoon.
This, in turn, could lead to fewer same-day sales of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets. Spontaneous party ticket sales occur when people arrive at Magic Kingdom not realizing they’ll have to leave early.
While savvy planners who read sites like this one couldn’t fathom showing up to Magic Kingdom and not knowing the park hours, this happens more than you might think. (Remember, plenty of guests still don’t use FastPass+ because they don’t know about it, or assume it costs extra.)
Second, there’s more to do in other parks this year. The big one here is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which is going to be the big draw for many guests this year now that it’s open.
Obviously, this is just one land (with only one attraction right now), but it’s enough to move the needle. That means it’ll pull at least some people out of the other parks and into Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Third, it’s possible that pent-up demand is starting to be exhausted. The first several parties, which are more spaced out, were pretty busy (albeit not as bad as last year).
Even though many Disney fans grouse about Halloween being celebrated in August, many guests want this, a fact that’s borne out in attendance numbers.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t note that even as of this morning (September 6, 2019), crowds at Magic Kingdom are still really low. We were on hand for Extra, Extra Magic Hours and it was a ghost town. Even after that ended and the park opened to day guests, it’s been really quiet.
With each passing day, the hurricane is less and less of a viable explanation for the low crowds. Whether this translates to low crowds for tonight’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party remains to be seen, but we’re expecting exactly that.
Explanations that I wouldn’t consider particularly compelling are pricing and the parties being too early on the calendar. If either were true, the first several parties would’ve also been impacted, and they were not. At least, not to this extent. If I had to guess, I’d say year over year MNSSHP attendance was down a little (maybe 10-15% lower) at the early parties, but not to a significant degree.
As we speculated in our Unlimited No So Scary Halloween Party Pass post, we suspect that the motivation for selling the Party Pass is not (primarily) to cram more people into Magic Kingdom on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party nights. Rather, it’s to help with lagging attendance at the late August and September parties, which are likely seeing slower ticket sales than normal.
Setting this speculation aside, our main reason for this post is simply to share some photos I took during the last two Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties. So…here they are:
Most of these can be presented without commentary, but a couple are worth discussing.
Above is a picture of the waiting area for the Seven Dwarfs. If you’ve seen this on a normal night, you know it’s normally packed with people, and the wait is best measured in hours.
There were 4 parties in front of us, and we waited under 10 minutes.
Even on an off night, I couldn’t believe this. (Later that same evening, Sally and Jack Skellington also had a ~10 minute wait.)
We didn’t do the dessert party, but in walking by, it appeared that maybe 10-15% of the tables were full.
Presumably, there were a lot of cancellations due to the hurricane. (If you’re considering this dessert party, we’d direct you towards our Review & Viewing Tips: Not So Spooky Spectacular Halloween Fireworks post, which covers the best views. Tomorrowland Terrace is not one of them.)
Both nights, this was how Main Street looked about 15-30 minutes before the first Boo to You parade.
Normally, these sidewalks start filling up 45 minutes or more in advance. One night, I snagged a prime flagpole spot after the Headless Horseman ran.
We also took a lot of character and PhotoPass photos, as most of those had no wait. At this point, I think our next Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party posts will be ones dedicated to the PhotoPass photo ops, the various characters at MNSSHP, and maybe a new 1-night itinerary.
If anyone else has ‘requests’, we’ll take those into consideration. (Gotta justify attending so many of these things somehow!)
Turning back to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party attendance and crowd patterns, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. There’s a strong possibility that the lower numbers can be primarily explained by weather-related cancellations. It’s also probable that other factors are coming into play, and we’ll see lower attendance at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party year over year in September and October, too.
Frankly, that needs to happen, as last year was way too crowded. Even if party attendance turns out to be 20% lower, it’s still about 20% higher than it should be. (Last year was out of control.) We’ll keep monitoring the situation, putting those Party Passes to good use, and letting you know what happens with crowds. In the meantime, hopefully you enjoyed this speculation and photos from our last couple of evenings at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
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Your Thoughts
Are you hoping for continued low attendance at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party? Have you done MNSSHP in the last couple of years and found the crowds to be excessive? Do you agree or disagree with our analysis here? 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 love your blog and rely heavily on your advice. I would love for you to do a post on a 1 night itinerary for the MNSSHP. We will be at the party on Oct. 14th and do not plan to meet many characters or trick or treat. We are hoping to spend most of our time at the parade, at Hocus Pocus, and the fireworks. Thanks so much!
I went to the Halloween party 9/15 I really enjoyed the shows the parade was just ok. This date was so busy we were stacked. I didn’t get close to rides! But it didn’t stop a thousand Mother’s from bringing their infants till 12 midnight. Their beast of burden “the dads” looked like they were going to fall over. When getting the bus back they carried large carriages and bags that dropped again and again. All the babies cried they wanted to go to bed. All I can figure out is these young mothers want to go to Disney themselves so the babies get dragged along. I’m not saying there is nothing for babies but it’s very limited. It’s 100 degrees in the shade babies dehydrate very quickly if you took them early am when it’s cooler for a few hours but ten and twelve hours is absolutely abusive. Get a babysitter till he or she can walk and talk. I am sure this is not going to be well received
I agree with you.
I am a mother.
Would never ever consider keeping children awake past 9:00pm.
I was also at 9/10 Halloween Party and very unhappy by the crowds and wait times but I think we can thank Dorian for that. I was surprised more people with kids didn’t leave earlier, they were there till midnight and the place was packed.
we were also there 9/10, which had been predicted by another site to be the second lowest attended party of the year. we were also delayed by dorian. ride wait times were fine with us, we stood in line almost o time at all, but the character wait times were unreal. i can’t believe how long some of the lines are. we went to the 2nd parade and had no trouble finding a spot just 15 minutes before, and we even found a decent fireworks spot shortly before as well. but it definitely wasn’t dead, not even close. we did stay until midnight, my kids managed ok.
9/10 party ended up being packed. Average wait was 10min with maybe 3 20 min wait when we showed up at 4pm. By 7pm waits had doubled. I’m wondering if Dorian kept people away then they rescheduled for this week/next? We lined Main Street during 1015 castle performance and sat down when it ended for late parade, along with enough others to fill half the curb on
Main immediately. I shopped while husband held our spots for about 20 min, I came back it was 3 rows deep everywhere. We were mad but disappointed. We always do an early September show and it seems like they haven’t been excellent for a few years. I think we would have “got more done” just going during the day than the party.
We were there too. 20 min. Wait all night for haunted mansion. Crowd never went down and my son usually rides it multiple times but it was too busy. Crowds were crazy. Wish we had kept our scheduled trip for last week
we went 9/10 and walked on to haunted mansion. there was a 5 minute wait after the stretching room to board but that’s really not uncommon on a normal park day. we rode probably around 10pm maybe… i thought ride wait times were fine at the party but character and photopass lines were unreal. that’s what killed me. i really hate the exclusive character idea, it’s such a waste of time when they could have some of these characters out at other times/locations. we waited over an hour for moana and she started meeting before the party started. we also trick or treated at the end of the night and those lines were non-existent by that point.
What is the DATE of this article? What are the DATES of the parties that you claim were dead? Quit being so freaking lazy and PUT A DATE ON EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR ARTICLES. You are doing a HUGE DISSERVICE to your readers. SHAME ON YOU.
While I agree that a date on the post would be helpful, your tone is really unwarranted. He says in the second paragraph, “However, the first two parties this September have been delightfully dead.” It’s also literally one click of your mouse to see that the first comment on this post was September 6th, which gives you a general (+- 1 day) idea of when it was posted.
Not sure why you feel it’s acceptable to comment in such an abusive tone.
while perhaps the tone of the comment could have been more polite, it’s not an uncommon request on this site to ask for dates to be mentioned. dozens of people have asked. i can understand if it’s perhaps a formatting site issue to complicate things by dating articles, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for dates to be manually put in at the start of each post, and when referencing things like two dead halloween parties, to mention what dates those were.
People are going to think I’m crazy, but a few months ago I happened to meet a VIP that works at Universal. He mentioned that the smoking ban is really hurting DW’s bottom line. He said from people not going to more importantly, people spending less time in the parks. He mentioned the average family with a smoker will now leave earlier causing an impact of food/snack/souvenirs/etc. I’m sure they will be many of you that says “good, just less lines for me!” Bottom line, it has made a large financial impact on Disney!!!
Hi there!
Attended the MK Halloween Party last night 9/10/19 and it was definitely NOT dead. Very, very crowded. Mostly with screaming/crying toddlers and preschool kids and their families with runaway strollers aimed for ankles. I was shocked at how busy it was.
My husband and I are on a universal only trip right now but because we are touring the two parks faster than expected we are going to jump to Disney tonight for a last minute Halloween party. We are going to be those people without magic bands on standing at the ticket counter at 330pm haha! We have went twice in 2015 and 2017… but had our children then. DOES ANYONE THINK IT WILL STILL BE VERY SLOW? starting to pick up again? Or extra busy due to people “making up” their trip cancelled due to Dorian?
You first posted this a few days ago maybe even a week ago but you don’t specify in the article the dates of the 2 parties that were dead. You should update with dates. I know you do sometimes in your articles when you do updates but you should always do that when your topic includes dates so someone reading this now will not necessarily think that: because the 2 most recent parties had low crowds and there isn’t even a hurricane around, they better high tail it to a party in the near future. OR given this review, people will have these great expectations for the party they have scheduled only to be really let down. Even if most people might not think that a few probably will and you owe your readership more accuracy. You have a reputation after all.
Went to this year’s first Halloween party. I believe it was Aug. 16th. I thought it was a waste of money. It was very crowded with long lines waiting 30-45 min for penny candy!! The ride lines were about the same times. Trying to walk through the lines with young children was difficult. Characters were few and far between. We ran into the Ugly Step Sisters. One was nice and posed for a picture, the other said simply that she was done working and “Out of here”. While walking on park grounds children do not understand rude characters.
Also, in order to see the parade we put our children up on our shoulders…we saw nothing but we hope the kids did.
Save your money folks and go during the days when your children can actually enjoy seeing the characters and parade.
What camera did you use for the castle photo? It’s amazing! Enjoyed your post. I wish I lived closer so I could enjoy the empty park!
Your firework photos are spectacular. Would love seeing more!
I think it is a combination of factors. I have done haunted houses for many years in the past. Not quite the same but it could be similar in trends. Halloween is a holiday that traditionally has maybe a week of buildup unlike Christmas with two months. Stretching to August pushes the envelope. But it is not unusual to have a bit of burst at opening weekend or week from the curious and repeaters. Then it falls off and gradually builds until the holiday. Disney is certainly unique but remember it was not too long ago that they only did one weekend. Disney was late to the Halloween scene to begin with. So now they may have over reacted a bit. As a big Disney fan I find the cost pretty high for no more extras that you get. And remember it is a special party. Everybody pays. No season tix or four day packages etc. And few repeats. I am surprised they get the crowds they do. Remember it is mostly new found money. They already fill the park once that day so they get to double dip. So combine the storm, the usual slow week in September, the slower buildup for Halloween still eight weeks away and it is a wonder they have any crowd at all.
Hi Tom, really interested in the photo pass issue, as we expect to be there next year. Something about meet and greet with Lotso would be appreciated (my son loves him)
Greetings from Spain!
Hi Tom! A one day itinerary would be nice! We’ll be attending mid October, so we are expecting bigger crowds, so a good planning would be nice for our first time at MNSSHP!
Thanks
Went to the MNSSHP last night and it was empty. I think the longest wait was 10 minutes. Prime spots for the parade and fireworks and we showed up at the last minute for both. We really enjoyed it and felt like we had the park to ourselves.
“Even though many Disney fans grouse about Halloween being celebrated in August, many guests want this, a fact that’s borne out in attendance numbers.”
I believe that those many Disney fans that do grouse about the ever increasing numbers of MNSSHP special ticketed parties taking a significant amount of beautiful evening hours away from daily ticket holders during the late summer and fall season is certainly understandable. While there is a demand for these special ticketed events, they do not have that exclusive special feel to them like they used to, and it comes at the expense of others. When something is offered so much, it becomes the new normal and not exclusive and special. Problem is this normalcy is out of reach of many folks due to the cost. Yes, some can say well forgo the daily park ticket and just purchase MNSSHP tickets instead to experience Halloween at MK. Sure, but at almost the same cost, that is a hard sell for a few hours with many MK goers having small children that can’t run till midnight to make one feel they got their money’s worth.
Was I alone in thinking the party on Aug 20 was more crowded than the year prior? We were there Aug 28 last year and while still crowded, it felt worse this year. Seas of humanity everywhere. I wish they would go back to a lower cap of tickets. 🙁 I think the after hours/early morning magic events have replaced the holiday parties in this regard. Hmmph. We toured very differently this year though, last year was more character centric, this year rides. Longest wait was 30+ for Space. I was just sad our views for parades/fireworks were much better last year. And we got to same locations around same time, maybe earlier!
Love your empty party pics though. Sooo jealous. Oh how I dream of being a local.