Should You Visit the Magic Kingdom on a Halloween Party Day?

If you are planning to visit the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World over the next couple months, you will run into days where the park closes at 6 PM for the separately ticketed event, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP). Events are typically held each Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. On these days, the park is typically open for 10 operating hours (8:00 AM to 6:00 PM) compared to 13 hours on a typical day (9:00 AM to 10:00 PM), and does not feature a fireworks show (assuming you are not attending MNSSHP). Guests with only a MNSSHP ticket can enter the park beginning at 4:00 PM. But is there a key advantage to visiting on a Halloween Party day? Let's take a look at the wait time data to find out.

If the wait time data during August through October from 2022 is analyzed and parsed between days with a Halloween Party (Party Day) and no party (Non-Party), the average wait time difference was 11 minutes! That is, on average, if you visited on a day with a Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party event, with a daily average wait time of 24.4 minutes, your average wait time was 11 minutes lower than a non-party day, with a daily average wait time of 35.4 minutes. The same data is illustrated below for the 2022 series of MNSSHP. Note that this data is only from the operating day and not the Halloween Party event itself. For event averages see, the MNSSHP page.

2022 MNSSHP Day vs Non-Party Day Wait Times

Notice, too, that wait times last year increased over time, beginning in late September through mid-October, but that Halloween Party days still had considerably lower wait times than non-party days. In August, the average party day wait time was 19.8 minutes, in September it was 20.1 minutes, and in October it was 28.6 minutes. This data suggests that visiting on a MNSSHP day in August or September is your best bet for lower wait times at the Magic Kingdom.

MNSSHP is underway in 2023 too. How have wait times looked so far (through three events)? The average for Halloween Party days is 20.0 minutes while for non-party days it is 28.1 minutes, a difference of 8.1 minutes. Not as big of gap as seen in 2022 so far, but the data set is limited. But the trend continues that wait times are lower on MNSSHP days. This graph will be updated as more events occur.
 

2023 MNSSHP Day vs Non-Party Day Wait Times

The average wait time on a non-party day in 2023 is 27.7 minutes compared to 18.3 minutes on a MNSSHP day, a difference of over 8 minutes!

If you do not mind a few less operating hours (the park does open earlier, and earlier leads to lower wait times in general any day), and no fireworks show/park experiences at night, visiting on a day with a Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party event should offer lower wait times across the Magic Kingdom.

One final graph: can you pick out which days were party days just based on the wait time profiles from August last year within a one week time frame?

Genie+ Pricing Differences

Some interesting trends have appeared with Genie+ pricing between Halloween Party days and non-party days. During each MNSSHP event so far, the price for Genie+ at the Magic Kingdom has been $25 per person. With the lower crowds during the day (shorter operating hours), this is a bit expensive, and the price really should be $23 per person or less. This week, a new trend began for the non-party days. Monday (8/21), Wednesday (8/23), and Thursday (8/24) have featured a Magic Kingdom Genie+ price of $27 per person. So on non-party days, you are now pay a premium for the higher crowd levels, and on party days you are also paying too much for the crowd levels. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.

• 8/11/23: Price: $25, average wait: 20 minutes
• 8/12/23: Price: $25, average wait: 27 minutes
• 8/13/23: Price: $25, average wait: 23 minutes
• 8/14/23: Price: $25, average wait: 31 minutes
• 8/15/23: Price: $25, average wait: 18 minutes
• 8/16/23: Price: $25, average wait: 32 minutes
• 8/17/23: Price: $25, average wait: 29 minutes
• 8/18/23: Price: $25, average wait: 22 minutes
• 8/19/23: Price: $23, average wait: 27 minutes
• 8/20/23: Price: $23, average wait: 23 minutes
• 8/21/23: Price: $27, average wait: 31 minutes
• 8/22/23: Price: $25, average wait: 22 minutes
• 8/23/23: Price: $27, average wait: 33 minutes