My report for tonight, Sept 9.
I'm DVC, so got in at 2pm. Park was pretty dead. Watched the 2pm parade, did a round of Sorcerer's, rode Buzz, Carousel, Jungle Cruise, Splash, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion plus ate dinner before 6pm.
Saw the clouds rolling in, so I hit 7DMT to try and beat the storm--35 minute wait listed, was closer to 25. Then I hit Space Mountain, it was listed at 40, but was actually 30, thunderstorm started when I was there. Rain itself wasn't all that heavy, but it was enough to close outdoor meetings and lightning closed a lot more. Peoplemover had a line (!), I decided if I'm going to wait in a line, I'll just do Buzz again. Wait was shorter than I thought, only about 10 minutes, so I decided to head over to Pirates.
Pirates was interesting--line out the building, listed at 35 minutes, but it ended up being way, way shorter. But oddly, the extra overlay stuff was gone--no extra cast members for the ride. What I did notice was that it was loading from both sides--which I don't remember from previous parties, I wonder if, because everything else was down, they pulled people off the overlay and used them to open up the second side? Or maybe they just ditched the changes.
Decided to go ahead and watch the first parade from Frontierland since it wasn't particularly packed. Rain stopped before the parade started (though no Horseman since it was still wet), so rode Big Thunder after the parade.
Then decided to go ahead and meet the Gravediggers, only about 5 groups in the line. Hadn't really thought about anything to say until I got in line, best I came up with was to say "I guess it's my time to go" when they came to get me, and "I've always been told to be nice to people on the way up, because you never know who's going to lower you down." I like to think they laughed on the inside. Or at least groaned.
10-minute warning for fireworks came after that, I had no problems finding a good place in the Hub (with the caveat that I am a single guy, so I'm not trying to find a place for strollers or scooters).
Hit a few more rides and started the serious candy collecting after that, finished with the Midnight Hocus Pocus show--not crowded there at all, if anyone was anywhere past the Partner's statue, it looked like it was pretty much by choice.
My verdict--rain made things dicey, came too late for anyone to change attendance plans, and if it messed up meet and greet plans I could see it throwing a big kink in the night. With that in mind, though it didn't feel crowded outside of the rain times, and ride waits were consistently way less than posted wait times. My luggage scale says a little over 6 pounds of candy, my pedometer says a little under 20K steps, overall a good night.