Hello. We have tickets for MNSSHP on October 10th, it seems to be the busiest date for wait times. However, I am wondering what that means exactly. Will we be able to ride a bunch of rides, trick or treat and catch the parade and fireworks or will we be fighting crowds and long lines? Thanks
I would expect you to be fighting crowds as you try to move through the park on all the main paths until about ten pm when it will lighten up. We even skipped most trick or treating until then because I refused to wait in line for that. Not sure about ride wait times though. We were so busy with the parade, shows, dance party, fire works, etc., that we rode very very little.
Most rides are walk on.
I’m curious about this too…not going til next year but have a few sets of friends going this year. I always hear that rides are walk ons but is that only after 10pm? How about in the 7-10pm time frame ? A PTP that I made for a friend still shows up to 15 min waits for rides, which is obviously not long, but not “walk on” either. Where are the treats usually handed out?
Walk on for me too last year. Suspect some of it depends on which party: some are more crowded than others
@mjsmomma the rides are pretty much walk on all night especially during parades. In general the second parade is less crowded although when I went last Halloween I thought they were both crowded. It was also Halloween night and a sold out party. The trick or treat lines are spread throughout the party. I think there is a map of the party on Easywdw.com. The party starts at 7 but they start letting people in at 4. You will need to line up at 6 for the more popular villains if you want their autograph
Here are links to the front and back of the 2013 map, showing what attractions are open, what food places are open, and where the trick or treat locations are:
page 1 Disney After Hours BOO BASH Event Map 2021
page 2 Disney After Hours BOO BASH Event Map 2021
I strongly believe in having a strategy / schedule / plan. I have been to two parties. At the first one, I was kind of disoriented in the crowds and the large list of things to do, so for my second party, made a schedule.
5:00 dinner
6:00 get in line for the one popular character meet that was important to us (for something popular like Jack and Sally or 7 dwarves you might want to start sooner)
7:15-7:45 fun stuff, and move in the right direction
7:45 get to Frontierland for first parade
8:15 first parade
8:45-9:00 fun stuff, move towards castle
9:15 castle projection show
9:30 fireworks
10:30 second parade
And this doesn’t even include the main castle stage shows or the dance parties yet.
Keep in mind that paths will be super crowded and moving around the park will take longer than you expect until after the fireworks.
I really wanted to “get my money’s worth” in a good way, meaning doing as many of the special only-at-the-party things as we could… And you can see, there’s soooo much going on!!! We had a great time. 
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Thanks for the links @B_squared. Is there a place where projected wait times for MNSSHP are listed? We are going 9/16. Thanks!
Hmmm… Try this: I went to the TP website, and to Magic Kingdom attractions, chose Haunted Mansion wait times, and there you can plug in any date in particular you want to check out. I put in Sept 16 for you. Here’s the page I got:
http://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/attractions/haunted-mansion/wait-times/date/2014-09-16
When we went last year, (and it was the first party, so YMMV) the ONLY ride we waited in line for was the Haunted Mansion - and that was for one cycling of the outer doors ~ 5 minutes.
If we watch the first parade in Frontierland will it be difficult to get to a good spot to watch the fireworks? I’m concerned about the crowds with all the hub construction.
My experience last year was that when we tried to cross over the bridge to get from Adventureland or LS towards the hub for a view of the castle projection show, the bridge was a solid wall of people. The CMs were trying their best to keep the path open for folks to walk through but those folks had to keep moving. Lots of unpleasant pushing. But of course I’m just one person with one experience, but yeah, it was hard to get back over… One party we ended up just watching the fireworks from behind the castle because all our normal paths to the front of the castle were blocked.
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Yeah, I remember it being very crowded as well.
We watched the parade from near HOP, then went straight over to the hub.
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Thanks! That’s what I was thinking. Is there a reason not to watch the parade on Main Street so you’d be close to the castle?
We went on a Friday in September & line others said parts were crowded. The first parade was very crowded & we were in frontierland. This year we’re going to try a Tuesday that doesn’t have an AP discount.
TP has crowd forecasts for the parties. Have you seen it?
Hello. Yes i did see TP’s crowd forecast thanks so much!! We are going Oct 10th which is listed as the busiest of the party days. That’s why I had asked the original question because I’m getting mixed reviews on it being crowded like a regular busy day with long lines and little hope of seeing the parade and fireworks with good seats and others saying its crowded for the party but not a “true” crowd.
The only reason to not watch it on main street it’s the amount of time you would waste by having to stake out a spot early. Many people watch it from there, less from Frontierland.
Gotcha. Thanks!