I also posted this on another forum. Sorry for the repeat if you get some of your Disney info elsewhere.
Definitely worth the money but I’d not recommend spending the whole day in the park before the party. We were toast! Of course, it was day 5 of parks so we were pooped to begin with. Checked in by Stitch around 6:00 after two rides on People Mover to rest our weary bones.
After a full day of touring we had 6:45 reservations at Skipper Canteen which I thought would be perfect as we planned to ride BTMRR right at 8 so we could see the fireworks from the ride then tour clockwise. Unfortunately, we didn’t get seated until 7:15. We ordered immediately and still started the party 10 minutes late. Kids left us at the table waiting to pay the bill and it took us a few minutes to find them. They were on Aladdin as the fireworks started. Have I mentioned they are 14 and 17??
Anyway, if you count their Aladdin ride:
Aladdin x 1
BTMRR x 2 (once during fireworks which was amazing) They were loading both sides so line went fast. Maybe 5 minutes.
Splash x 1 walk on (got stuck for a few minutes. They finally turned off the waterfall out of pity)
Snagged frozen bananas and waters
PP x 1 with 22 minute wait (but SB queue is great. DS 17 tall enough to “ring” the bells with his head which was hilarious)
7D x 1 with 20 minute wait
Hub for castle pic
Space x 1 walk on (DS and DH asked CM for back way for repeat ride. He took them through a door and they rode a train all alone ?on another track? Said it was spooky with no one else around but very cool)
Buzz x 1 (DD and I while boys rode Space. Got stuck for 5 minutes right after loading)
Mickey bars, waters, popcorn (at this point I was regretting our late dinner). Goofed off a bit.
We rode BTMRR again at this point and they only had one side loading which took up more time.
POC x 1 (got stuck for 10 minutes. Noticing a theme here?) Done at 11:02 and snack carts were out of drinks and popcorn. Didn’t want anymore ice cream so we gave up.
Sadly, shops are not open on Main Street after the event. I thought Emporium would at least be open. I think they would’ve done decent business. I was able to convince a CM to let me in to buy a reusable bag while the last few stragglers got checked out.
If I had to do it again:
-We would not spend the whole day in the park leading up to the party
-We would have a smaller dinner much earlier and eat more snacks. DH and kids had an ice cream and popcorn each but I was too full. I’d also stock up on waters each time we stopped to avoid the lines when we needed more.
-I’d probably wait until later in the night for PP and hope the lines went down. That was a big chunk of valuable time. 7D line looked the same even at 10:45 so I’d probably still ride early in case it went down (has happened during past parties)