Party Season is now underway for 2024 at Walt Disney World, with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party now through the end of October and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party almost immediately thereafter until December 20, 2024! This covers growing crowds during Magic Kingdom, why this is happening (and will only get worse), and how to avoid it.
In particular, this covers my experience with mix-in during the 2024 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween (MNSSHP). Obviously, since it’s still spook season and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) doesn’t begin until November. Regardless, the idea is exactly the same. These crowds have been a growing problem for the last two years at both MNSSHP and MVMCP.
This doesn’t cover the event at all. Just the window of time before it starts when guests can enter Magic Kingdom early for the pre-party. If you’re looking for step-by-step strategy for the event, consult our Guide to the 2024 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or our Guide to the 2024 Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party instead.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Magic Kingdom mix-in, it’s the time between 4 pm and 6 pm when Magic Kingdom is still open to day guests but before MNSSHP or MVMCP officially begins. As a result, there are both regular ticket holders and special event hard ticket holders both in the park at the same time. Hence the name: Magic Kingdom mix-in.
There are a few reasons for allowing special event guests to enter Magic Kingdom prior to the official start time, most of which are beyond the scope of this post. We’ll focus on a fairly straightforward logistical one, which is that a hard start at 7 pm would result in a massive crowd all trying to enter Magic Kingdom at once and becoming frustrated (mild understatement) when it took an hour of valuable party time to get inside the park. The mix-in staggers entries to a greater degree, which is good for guests and park operations.
Nevertheless, Magic Kingdom mix-in crowds have been increasing over the last few years, as mentioned above. This is happening regardless of crowds during the day or during the event itself. To the contrary, what you encounter at mix-in is almost entirely divorced from daytime or party attendance.
To that point, I’ve observed this dynamic at Magic Kingdom several times already this year beyond what’s documented here. On every single one of those days, wait times and ‘feels like’ crowds were both absurdly low during the day. Our latest wait times report covered the Lowest Crowd Level Month & Week at Walt Disney World Since 2021! Although it should be evident from the title alone, the parks are really slow right now.
On party days, Magic Kingdom is the slowest of the slow. We’re talking average wait times that are 14-15 minutes and, at worst, 1/10 crowd levels. Many of these days don’t even register as 1/10 on thrill data’s scale, and are instead 0/10. I’ve been in Magic Kingdom on some of these days, and they give me flashbacks to the post-reopening period in 2020. Not quite that dead, but still quite slow.
This is the off-season and lower crowds are to be expected to some degree. The current “degree” is just much less busy than I anticipated, and I expected fairly low crowds. In any case, it’ll also get progressively worse over the course of Party Season. See Best & Worst 2024 Crowd Days at Magic Kingdom for a fool-proof list of the least and most crowded dates at Magic Kingdom between now and December 2024. This includes a handful of red flag dates to avoid at all costs.
Despite absurdly low daytime attendance, the MNSSHP I attended was sold out…just like every other party so far this season. And just like every date will be by the time it’s over. There are only a half-dozen parties that still have tickets available and, rest assured, those will all sell out very soon. Ditto Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Only one date is sold out right now, but November and December are also further into the future than September and December. That’s the explanation there, nothing more.
On this particular day, I returned to Magic Kingdom at around 3:15 pm. This was easily the worst crowd I’ve ever seen this early for mix-in at any hard ticket party at Magic Kingdom. That’s an observation I’ve had repeatedly over the last few years. These Magic Kingdom mix-in crowds are only getting worse–a trend we expect to continue.
It should be noted that this was still 45 minutes before special event guests would be allowed to enter Magic Kingdom. Moreover, that this was on a very hot day (albeit not nearly as bad as last year) with feels like temperatures flirting with triple digits.
Fortunately, Walt Disney World has gotten better about handling the ever-increasing mix-in crowds. This year, there’s a new corral system and very clear signage indicating where guests should go:
This is pretty well organized–a massive improvement over last year. It also may not look like too bad of a crowd…but it’s only 3:15 pm.
Conventional wisdom is to arrive 30 minutes in advance of mix-in, and that’s for knowledgeable guests who plan ahead. Many more (perhaps most) arrive right at 4 pm, not realizing there will be friction to the process and it’ll take a bit of time to actually get into the park.
When it comes to Walt Disney World, one mantra to remember is: “if you’re early, you’re on time…if you’re on time, you’re late.” (I never appreciated my dad’s military cliches as a kid, but boy have they been useful as an adult doing the very serious work of visiting theme parks.)
As you can probably gather, this crowd only worsens between 3:15 pm and 3:55 pm.
There are more corrals that continue to fill up, and it becomes more chaotic outside the park as there’s only so much space at the turnstiles themselves. Disney needs to keep pathways clear to allow guest flow into and out of the park, as well as routes to transportation open.
Additionally, Magic Kingdom is still open to day guests, so not all of the turnstiles can be used for the parties until 6 pm.
In terms of practical advice, we have a few recommendations about how to navigate this.
First, if you have regular admission to Magic Kingdom, don’t use the special event turnstiles! This might seem obvious, but we’ve heard from so many people over the years who exit the park and re-enter (or from Annual Passholders who just show up at 4 pm for no real reason).
Anyone with regular admission is much better served by utilizing an in-park check-in station. Go to Fantasy Faire near Mickey’s PhilharMagic in Fantasyland, Tortuga Tavern across from the Pirates of the Caribbean in Adventureland, or Stitch’s Great Escape across from Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland. Tortuga Tavern is the least busy, Stitch’s Great Escape is busiest–but it’s also closest to the front of the park and often opens earlier than the others. This is advantageous if you plan on queueing up for the Jack & Sally meet & greet in Town Square before the party starts.
There’s really no other reason to use the SGE check-in location. And honestly, there’s really no other reason to line up right at or before 4 pm. In our experience, the sweet spot is around 4:30 to 5 pm. The initial rush is over, but you’re beating everyone else who doesn’t think to do this until the party starts.
If you don’t have regular admission and you’re trying to get the absolute most out of your party time, we’d recommend arriving at around 3:15 pm. Maybe a tad earlier. This may seem like bad advice given the crowds you can plainly see in these photos, but any earlier and you’ll see diminishing returns.
There will be crowds at 3 pm and even before that. But it’s safe to assume, I hope, that all of your time has value and it’s not worth arriving a full hour earlier to save ~5 minutes entering the park. Granted, time inside Magic Kingdom is probably worth more than time outside it, but how much more?
If that’s an extra hour of pool time or enjoying your resort (which also costs a lot of money and has a high value!), it’s a fair tradeoff. Spending less time in these crowded corrals in the (potentially) scorching sun is the way to go.
Which brings us to the third option: arriving between 4:30 pm and 5 pm.
This is the exact same idea as going to the in-park wristband distribution a bit later, mixed with the above notion that all of your time at Walt Disney World has value. To each their own, but if I’m on vacation and staying at an on-site resort, this is what I’m doing. All waking vacation time is valuable, and one of the biggest mistake Walt Disney World planners make is not recognizing this.
If spending more time at the pool or even taking a longer nap will leave you more rested, it’s going to increase the likelihood that you can stay until the bitter (or rather, excellent) end of the night as opposed to leaving early. You can also do an early dinner outside the park, enjoying food that’s actually edible as opposed to eating in Magic Kingdom.
I don’t know your family or your priorities and can’t give definitive advice–these are just a few options to consider.
As for why this is happening, there has always been an initial rush of guests around 4 pm, but many people didn’t know they could enter Magic Kingdom early in the past. That or they didn’t care as they were already in the park. This has changed in recent years as Walt Disney World better advertises the perk, presumably to help justify the price increases.
My strong suspicion is that an increasing number of guests are purchasing Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween instead of regular day tickets, rather than in addition to regular admission. This could be playing out in a ways big and small, from tourists buying shorter duration tickets (3 days instead of 4) to locals skipping out on Annual Passes and getting their “Disney fix” during Party Season.
This might sound like far-fetched theories or grasping at straws to explain this phenomenon, but it’s based on a combination of firsthand experience and extensive feedback from readers and travel agents.
When Disneyland really started increasing prices on Annual Passes several years ago and reduced options for locals, many Californians started skipping APs and instead doing Mickey’s Halloween Party (now Oogie Boogie Bash). This skipped the popularity of these parties, which now sell out very quickly even on dates that aren’t particularly busy.
Priced-out locals wanting to get their Disney fix would also explain why MNSSHP and MVMCP are selling faster than ever, despite pent-up demand otherwise slowing. It would also explain how this is happening in the face of falling crowds, which are the lowest they’ve been since 2021. Low regular attendance and high demand for hard ticket events isn’t even contradictory–it makes perfect sense.
It also explains the larger crowd prior to 4 pm. These are guests wanting to get as much value out of the party ticket as possible because they don’t have alternative admission. This is a contrast to tourists with multi-day tickets that may include a park day prior to the start of MNSSHP or MVMCP, who have no incentive to arrive right at 4 pm.
Consequently, you can expect both Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party to continue selling out even if daytime attendance drops. Priced out locals and even tourists trying to cut costs and squeeze the most value out of their tickets will sustain demand for these special events.
You can also expect price increases to continue. So long as single-day tickets for Magic Kingdom aren’t significantly cheaper (and they aren’t!) than the parties, many guests will opt for MNSSHP and MVMCP instead. Again, we’ve already seen all of these things happen at Disneyland Resort, so these are hardly bold predictions.
For precisely the same reason, this mix-in crowd will also continue to grow, as a higher percentage of guests don’t have alternative admission on party days. And as these higher-knowledge guests learn from past experience, they’ll start arriving even earlier in future years. What was once a crowd at 3:45 pm has already become a crowd at 3:15 pm. It’ll be a crowd at 3:00 pm by 2025, at 2:30 pm by 2026, and so forth.
So how can Walt Disney World solve this problem? (And it is a problem to some extent because Disney doesn’t like congestion like this outside the gates, as it’s a safety and security issue.)
The first thing that comes to mind is letting Disney Vacation Club members enter at 2 pm. This isn’t even my bright idea–it’s Disney’s! They used to do this pre-COVID. Back then, the perk was deemed necessary to entice DVC members to purchase tickets (MVMCP and MNSSHP didn’t sell out regularly). Now, it would be to spread out that mix-in crowd just a bit.
Other than that, Walt Disney World’s best options are ticket deals. They already have the the Florida Resident Discover Disney Ticket and the 4-Park, 4-Day Walt Disney World Magic Ticket that run through the end of this month. Understandably, many locals–who are familiar with Florida weather this time of year–would still prefer an evening special event. I’d thus propose bringing back the EPCOT After 4 Annual Pass and also selling ‘starlight’ tickets (discounted admission on regular days after 4 pm–also not my idea, Tokyo Disney does this).
With that said, these mix-in crowds are actually a good thing to some degree–so Walt Disney World shouldn’t go too far in trying to reduce them. Having a wide variety of guest demographics means people will have different reasons for being there–rides with lower wait times, entertainment, characters, etc. Despite the larger mix-in crowds, we’ve noticed that people are spread out much better during MNSSHP or MVMCP. It’s a delicate balance, and it seems like Walt Disney World has achieved that in the last couple of years at these events.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you experienced these huge Magic Kingdom mix-in crowds before Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party? Are you one of the guests who has chosen party tickets over an Annual Pass or longer duration regular tickets? Thoughts on any of the advice or assessments here? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
