Should you avoid Magic Kingdom on a MNSSHP event night?

source: dawnzy58

MNSSHP, or Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party kicks off this month, a fantastic Halloween event that takes place on select nights from mid September through October. Its fun for all ages and a great way to celebrate this hauntingly good holiday! Magic Kingdom is completely decked out in time for the season, with pumpkins and Disney characters in costume. Ghostly specters dance across the shop fronts on Main Street USA all the way towards the Castle, swirling around the turrets and evaporating before your eyes.

No Halloween celebration would be complete without some trick or treating and there are several stations set up through-out the park, you can pick up a special event map showing all of them - my favorite has to be the pathway to the left of Space Mountain, treat station after treat station all in a row! And those Cast Members are pretty generous with their goodies too!

Special character meet and greets are set up all over the park, where your favorite characters put on their own Halloween costumes for the celebrations - and you're encouraged to wear a costume too (no face masks though!). They have fun filled dance parties with Djs and disco floors themed to particular characters or areas of the park, tons of fun for the younger ones in your party and if you go early enough you'll snag some wonderful alone time with the characters too (keep those cameras to hand!)

source: whami

MNSSHP has it's own parade 'headed' by the head-less horseman, characters in costumes and the infamous 'Boo to You' soundtrack (if you've heard it before I bet you can't help but sing the chorus for the rest of this post!)

The night ends in the only way a night in Magic Kingdom could ever end - with a fireworks show! Hallo-Wishes puts a ghoulish spin on the classic, as Disney Villains try to take over the Magic Kingdom in a spectacle of lights, sounds and blast to the beat fireworks!

With all of this going on, should you really be venturing into Magic Kingdom when an event is scheduled that night? My answer is yes!

MNSSHP is a separate ticketed event, the party starts around 7pm and party goers are able to start coming into the park around 3 hours before show-time. Regular park guests are encouraged to start leaving before the party and they stop allowing them through the turnstiles around an hour or so before the party starts. Cast Members won’t force non-party goers out of the park, but you’ll find yourself politely pushed towards the exit. That being said, it’s great to hang around Main Street as the party gets going, seeing everyone coming in in their costumes, the effort that’s gone into some of them is amazing! I’ve seen many a guest be mistaken for being on the Disney payroll!

During the day you won’t find the party any busier than usual and as the party goers start coming in, most of them tend to hang around the top of Main Street, getting pictures taking, tacking wings back onto their backs etc. You’ll probably see a few fairies and cowboys in the lines but from my personal experience, I’ve never noticed any dramatic increases in the wait times!

As October 31^st draws closer the parties will get busier, so you might want to leave the park a little earlier than planned around that time.

Don’t let an event night put you off a day in the parks, if you have a park hopper ticket you could always head to Magic Kingdom for the morning, then head off elsewhere in the afternoon. If you only have that one day in the park then make the most of it, just know that on event nights you won’t get to see any of the nighttime parades or Wishes as the park closes to regular guests by 7pm.

Do your plans change when you know there’s an event on the horizon?

Until next time,

Sarah