Somewhat disappointed in the MNSSHP

[Cinderelley]

When we went Friday, There were plenty of people checking our wristbands. We couldn't get into the stores without showing our wristbands or candy lines or even enter Adventureland. There were other small touches missing though such as the fog at the entrance and the giant blow up spider in Tomorrowland. Those types of things are what disappointed me.

[lovinmesomedisney]

When we went Friday, There were plenty of people checking our wristbands. We couldn't get into the stores without showing our wristbands or candy lines or even enter Adventureland. There were other small touches missing though such as the fog at the entrance and the giant blow up spider in Tomorrowland. Those types of things are what disappointed me.

I was not asked ONCE to show my wristband. I guess there were different crews working different nights, but ESPECIALLY on a Saturday night, something should have been done, and yet NOTHING was. I have been to DW 17 times in the past 15 years. I love it, but I will not do any parties anymore. Unless of course, I do like everybody else. Use one of my regular days as entrance early and stay for the party for free!

[TheVBs]

So, what you are proposing, is to cheat the WDW policies? This will get Moderator attention.

This is exactly why I will get my money back, not a refund, but my money back. It will take escalation through layers of WDW Management, threat of a small claims suit, and me taking pictures of Trespassers there while they should be out. Keeping a small journal of my discussions with CMs, their names, and their reaction to getting escorting the Trespassers out. I think we all know that WDW does nothing to enforce the rules.

If I run into this on Thursday and I feel I am getting raped by having to pay for something others are stealing from me, I will get my money back.

Wow. Just a thought.... and I'm really being genuine, not trying to be snarky or smart, so please don't take offence.... do you really want to go to this event with that mindset? If this is where your energy and focus is, you might be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy here. We plan on trying out this party for the first time on our trip next year. I have no intention of giving the possibility of witnessing the complaints here a second thought. We'll either enjoy it and want to do it again on a future trip, or we won't. Just a thought....

[LauraByTheSea]

We were there on the 23rd, and had a blast. Didn't once think about if anyone was crashing our party. We were too busy collecting CANDY!

[Zawadi]

Does anyone know whether the MNSSHP wristbands are different colours for each party?

We saw a family in AK last Friday (01 Oct) around lunchtime all wearing MNSSHP wristbands (green with purple Mickeys and orange writing). Presumably they obtained then at the party the previous evening Thurs (30 Sept).

We always remove our wristbands when we return to our hotel at the end of the night.
Just found it odd that people were still wearing MNSSHP wristbands in the middle of the day in another park. (Yes, sometimes kids like to keep them on, but adults too?) My immediate thought was that they were going to cheat the system and return to MK on a hopper ticket before 7pm and stay for the party, but then I may have been wrong.

[BigRedDad]

do you really want to go to this event with that mindset?

Yes, I am going with that mindset. I plan to have fun and enjoy the party. However, if I am paying $260 to enjoy and others are stealing that money from me, I hold WDW responsible for that.

I have a very sadistic view of society and justice. I feel people should pay for their crimes 10-fold. This would prevent much of this garbage that happens at WDW and in our country. I personally feel anyone without a party ticket that has not exited by say 7:15PM (give them a little leeway) gets arrested for trespassing. Lets just take a rough estimate here. Say there are 10,000 people at the party at $50 per person, this is $500,000 worth of activity being stolen from people that are paying for it.

Imagine if you bought a ticket for the event, but people that are at the park refused to leave and left the park at capacity. You were not permitted to enter because of this and you cannot get a refund. What would you do?

[TheVBs]

Yes, I am going with that mindset. I plan to have fun and enjoy the party. However, if I am paying $260 to enjoy and others are stealing that money from me, I hold WDW responsible for that.

I have a very sadistic view of society and justice. I feel people should pay for their crimes 10-fold. This would prevent much of this garbage that happens at WDW and in our country. I personally feel anyone without a party ticket that has not exited by say 7:15PM (give them a little leeway) gets arrested for trespassing. Lets just take a rough estimate here. Say there are 10,000 people at the party at $50 per person, this is $500,000 worth of activity being stolen from people that are paying for it.

Wow. Ok. To each his own I guess.

Imagine if you bought a ticket for the event, but people that are at the park refused to leave and left the park at capacity. You were not permitted to enter because of this and you cannot get a refund. What would you do?

Well now, this is an entirely different scenario. If I bought a ticket to a party and was not even allowed into the park, I have no doubt Disney would offer a refund.

However, if I bought the ticket, were able to enjoy the party and take advantage of the special activities, but noticed that there were non-ticket holders there as well. I would complain to Disney, but not ask for a refund.

What I most definitely would not do is set off on any vacation or special event with the intent to look for other people doing things they shouldn't be. I do my best to have a positive outlook, it makes me happy and I genuinely believe it makes my life better.

If I spent nearly $300 for my family to attend a wonderful party at the Happiest Place on Earth, then spent that time trying to catch everyone I could who was doing something wrong, I would be a very unhappy person and I may as well flush my $300 rather than spend it on the event. Just my point of view....

[badkitty]

I was not asked ONCE to show my wristband. I guess there were different crews working different nights, but ESPECIALLY on a Saturday night, something should have been done, and yet NOTHING was. I have been to DW 17 times in the past 15 years. I love it, but I will not do any parties anymore. Unless of course, I do like everybody else. Use one of my regular days as entrance early and stay for the party for free!

"Like everybody else"? That is a bit extreme. There are plenty of people who follow the rules (and many of them are in this thread), myself included. I have always been asked to show my wristband and I would never stay for a party I didn't pay for. I would think very few people actually plan to stay for the party for free.

Was your band visible? Or others in your group? Maybe the CMs could see it and didn't need to ask.

[badkitty]

Lets just take a rough estimate here. Say there are 10,000 people at the party at $50 per person, this is $500,000 worth of activity being stolen from people that are paying for it.

I don't want to start an argument here but do you really think 10,000 people are trying to cheat the system? I don't think that many people are still in the park that haven't paid for the party. For the guests that haven't left, I think many folks just don't understand that they have to leave. I have seen many CMs trying to explain to confused guests that even though the rides are still open and there are a lot of people in the park that they have to have a special ticket to stay.

Imagine if you bought a ticket for the event, but people that are at the park refused to leave and left the park at capacity. You were not permitted to enter because of this and you cannot get a refund. What would you do?

I really wonder if that many tickets are sold for the party to max out capacity. I have never witnessed anyone refusing to leave. That would be very sad indeed.

[badkitty]

Does anyone know whether the MNSSHP wristbands are different colours for each party?

I have noticed that the parties have different colored bands throughout the week. I don't know if they reuse a color.

[dnickels]

So between this and all the other threads about party tickets / entrance times, the best summary I can come up with is...

We want the 'official' written policies enforced to get / keep other people out of the park
-no entry before 7 pm for those on party tickets
-no one else but party ticket holders in after 7 pm
BUT
We want the 'unofficial' policy applied to get us extra time in the park
-entry at 4 pm, don't you dare make me wait until 7 for the party ticket holders
-and the unofficial feel free to linger and buy things for an hour or hour and a half after closing time for regular ticket holders.

Am I the only one who sees a little inconsistency here?

[Renfairwedding]

Wow. Just a thought.... and I'm really being genuine, not trying to be snarky or smart, so please don't take offence.... do you really want to go to this event with that mindset? If this is where your energy and focus is, you might be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy here. We plan on trying out this party for the first time on our trip next year. I have no intention of giving the possibility of witnessing the complaints here a second thought. We'll either enjoy it and want to do it again on a future trip, or we won't. Just a thought....

I was thinking the same thing. What fun is it to go looking for cheaters instead of just having fun.

[11290]

I have never witnessed anyone refusing to leave. That would be very sad indeed.

I can tell you for a fact that there are quite a few people that "refuse to leave" while the sweep is in progress.

In most cases a discussion with a coordinator or a manager convinces them that they have to vacate the park but sometimes Security has to come to help them out.

The sweep takes from 30 to 45 minutes to complete and the worst area is in front of the Castle while the shows are in progress. People tend to try to hide out in the crowd watching the show thinking that we won't see them.

To the posters that say they have never been asked to see a wristband, if it is clearly visible, most CM's will not ask, only if it is not visible. Colors change for each of the parties and we don't know what color they are using until about 3:45 of that day when they are handed out.

I was at a bridge position once last year during the sweep and stopped a person without a wristband that turned out to be a fairly high level manager at MK. She had put a jacket on over her clothing and her name tag was not visible on her jacket. She really gave me a hard time, especially when I asked for her ID. She backed off a bit when I asked her why her name tag was not visible according to costuming standards.

[JerseyDad]

......wow...lotsa' interesting observations about MNSSHP. We have only done the "party" once....back in 2005...on Halloween .........and as I remember it...none of the described issues seemed to have reared their ugly heads.

As I recall....they had MK vacated as of 4:00 or 4:30...and was off limits / closed until it opened again at 7pm. (I also somewhat recall that in those "closed" hours...the park was "Halloweened" with more decorations...but...I won't swear to it).

......I don't have any "trick-or-treater" aged children any more...as my daughter was 8 yrs old back in 2005....but it's a shame that so many issues seem to make the experience more than somewhat problematic.

.....what I definitely DO remember is that as we were leaving the park...there were cast members at the exit gates who were loading TONS of candy into the bags of the exiting trick-or-treaters...or giving it to anyone that wanted a sugar over-dose!!

[lynnek]

Yikes!! I was second guessing some previously made dinner reservations at O'hana and then Kids Night Out for the night the Christmas Party is happening--thinking I'll stay with my plans. Jelly Rolls is sounding really good

[seanyred]

In 2004 we went to MNSSHP twice. Back then they closed Tomorrowland earlier then the rest of the park and only party guests were able to be in tomorrowland. I felt that this method worked the best. In 2007 we went to Pirates and Princess and they were no longer using this method and I noticed more stragelers. But I do feel that overall the policy is enforced

[lovinmesomedisney]

"Like everybody else"? That is a bit extreme. There are plenty of people who follow the rules (and many of them are in this thread), myself included. I have always been asked to show my wristband and I would never stay for a party I didn't pay for. I would think very few people actually plan to stay for the party for free.

Was your band visible? Or others in your group? Maybe the CMs could see it and didn't need to ask.

Well, since it was quite warm that evening, yes my wristband was quite visible, but the bare wrist of those without wristbands was also VERY visible. This is why I have such a problem with the way this party was handled. I WAS THERE! I witnessed it. All the people who are saying what may have happened, and what happened when they were there, actually is annoying me somewhat. I guess some people can see no wrong in anything Disney does, but for someone who frequents the place, I see both the good and the bad. I saw the people in the character lines, I saw the people on the rides, and I saw the people at the fireworks and the parades with no wristbands. We had a group of 10, who all paid admission to this party. It was certainly very frustrating. Yes, we still had fun, we still got candy, but we were still frustrated! It is definitely a flawed system that needs to be corrected.

[CaptainSad]

There's a tiny flaw in this logic. Your admission is for any park that day. If you choose to go to MK on a party day rather than another that's open all day, you made the choice to lose the two hours not Disney.

The people Disney are actually shortchanging are those who paid for the party who are being crowded out by non-payers. Disney has an obligation to them and aren't doing it. People should complain because Disney will keep doing it as long as they can get away with it.

My sentiments exactly. I have said in other threads that you can always do another park that day or use your park hopper to EPCOT. Also they have signs stating when the MK closes especially party nights.

[CaptainSad]

The bottom line is that Disney should not take some people's money and not others for the same perks and priviledges. It's ethically wrong, and borderline criminal. It's also a slap in the face to honest people. That's my NSHO (Not So Humble Opinion)

I understand it's a huge undertaking to filter the crowd, but the other park seems to manage it for their Halloween nights, so why can't WDW?

Maybe it is because Disney has Thousands more then the other park. Or maybe what the other park offers for Halloween is not quite kid friendly..

[CaptainSad]

......wow...lotsa' interesting observations about MNSSHP. We have only done the "party" once....back in 2005...on Halloween .........and as I remember it...none of the described issues seemed to have reared their ugly heads.

As I recall....they had MK vacated as of 4:00 or 4:30...and was off limits / closed until it opened again at 7pm. (I also somewhat recall that in those "closed" hours...the park was "Halloweened" with more decorations...but...I won't swear to it).

......I don't have any "trick-or-treater" aged children any more...as my daughter was 8 yrs old back in 2005....but it's a shame that so many issues seem to make the experience more than somewhat problematic.

.....what I definitely DO remember is that as we were leaving the park...there were cast members at the exit gates who were loading TONS of candy into the bags of the exiting trick-or-treaters...or giving it to anyone that wanted a sugar over-dose!!

I disagree with you on the MK being vacated at 4. They have never done that...