I am planing a trip for September 2018. We always visit MK on Tuesdays and Fridays bc they are always low crowd days and we go a different night to view the parades/fireworks. However, this trip I noticed MNSSHP is predicted to be on Tuesday and Friday night. The park closing at 7:00 doesn’t not bother us, but during the early part of the day and afternoon does MNSSHP effect the crowd level? Also can you make dining reservations and still be in the restaurant after 7:00?
From what I recall they start letting people in around 4 pm with tickets. If that is still accurate we found that it got increasingly busy after 4. For us by 5:30 it was getting pretty busy for a Christmas Party for a 4/10 day (2015) so we left. You can still be in the restaurant after 7pm but I believe you have to schedule it pre 7pm. Someone can correct me otherwise.
I would not hesitate to go on a party day. We got a lot done in the AM and mid afternoon. More than all day at a non-party day. This trip in September we have hoppers so we will avoid the non-party days except to hop at night for fireworks.
Thank you! That is what I was thinking. We are usually done touring a round 3:00 each day so I plan to get an early dinner reservation and then leave. Hopefully bc there are no fireworks bc of the parties the mornings will be slow. We plan to do a morning at the hotel one day and go over to MK at about 4:00 and use our fast passes,eat dinner and watch the fireworks. We usually go in January so all of these parties and events are throwing me off my normal! We have been to MNSSHP but never at the park the morning of.
I just read that they predict an early magic hour those days. I wonder if that is Disney’s way of trying to increase crowds.
Still prob the best days though if we can make it that early! 
I might do two Fridays with the extra morning hour at MK. Less heat.
Yes, last September we had a dinner reservation before 7pm on a MNSSHP night. We were not going to the party that night so the restaurant gave us plastic bracelets to wear on our way out of the park.
From what I can remember, crowds were not bad during the day until probably close to ~5pm-6pm. But I scheduled time for us to do Pirates Adventure-Treasure of the Seven Seas and use a few FPPs around that time to help with crowds.
Thank you for confirming that for me! I figure the crowds will still be lower on those days in the morning than on the few late night firework days so we are going to go for it and just plan a dinner around 5:30 or 6:00.
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Last year there were parties on Tues, Thurs, Fri and Sun.
Given that there are more party days than non party days, and that many people would instinctively avoid a day when the park closes early (and especially since therefore they can’t see the fireworks from inside the park), and also a day when there’s EMH if they’re offsite, the party days I think are often less crowded.