As promised, here are more details about our day at MK on Friday.
We're visiting local family throughout the week, but it was just my wife and I in MK on Friday. We did a lot of shopping, but did not spend hours in line for anything.
Our must do's were Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and TTA People Mover. We could have done a lot more attractions with short waits, but we wanted to take it easy and spend more time relaxing, enjoying the sights, etc. We also knew we would be back next year to ride rides with kids/grandkids.
Here's how our day went:
We decided to go to bed early (10 pm is early for us) and wake up at 4:30 am. We figured even if the first bus didn't arrive until 6:45, we would prefer sitting at the bus stop to standing in a potential crowd trying to get in to the park. Around 5:30 am, we walked from Jambo over to Kidani because the bus normally stops there first. There were about 10-12 people already waiting. Just a few minutes after we walked up (maybe 5:45ish), the bus pulled up and we were off!
I think it was around 6:15 am when we arrived to MK. We breezed through security and joined a smallish crowd that had formed at the tapstiles. A few minutes later they started letting us in. The crowd moved quickly. I heard someone near us comment that everyone waiting outside MK at 6 am "knew the deal" about how to use their magic bands, etc. which avoided a lot of delays in the lines.
We got our commemorative park maps and headed through the train station. I noticed the sign for merchandise virtual queue near Tony's and joined it (my number was something like 820). We strolled around Main Street taking pictures, etc. We avoided the going INTO any of the stores at this point... just enjoying the scenery.
We took pre-dawn photos at the castle and wandered around some more until the sun started to come up. We made our way back to the castle a little before 8 am to see if there was going to be any kind of opening ceremony (there was, but it was just a simple welcome show, nothing special for the day other than referring to 50 years in the narration).
After the 8 am opening show, my wife asked me to get a balloon popcorn bucket. I got in line for the cart near the castle, which snaked around the corner, but wasn't all the way to Cosmic Ray's. It moved fairly quickly. I think I spend maybe 20-30 minutes waiting and chatted with nice people in the line around me to pass the time.
As others have said, since most everyone there were die-hard fans (who else would be crazy enough to get up at 4:30 am to be there that early on a major anniversary?), I noticed a different vibe. On regular days, I often avoid "talking to strangers" because I don't want to impose on their conversation or have them think "who is this strange guy talking to us?" But it just felt more open to chatting with everyone around you than normal (although that may have just been how I perceived things).
I rounded the corner (yay, I can finally see the cart again!) and my wife texts me asking me to get two balloon buckets. So, I ended up with two pink buckets because, as I learned, each color is at a different location. I told my wife I would wait again and get her a blue one (which was the other color she wanted) when we saw them. We know plenty of people who we give the extra pink one to. Thankfully, I talked her off the ledge of needing to have ALL the colors!
While I was in line for popcorn, my wife decided to go explore Adventureland (I suspect she was actually headed there to get a Dole Whip!) and discovered and got into a line of people waiting to join the virtual queue for the exclusive pins. I joined her around the tunnel into Frontierland. We waited 20-30ish minutes to get the front and successfully got signed up for that virtual queue.
It was now between 9-10 am. We rode Pirates which was a walk-on. Then we started making our way over to Cinderella's Castle for our 10 am breakfast (we treated it as a "brunch") ADR. I check-in at CRT and we strolled through the castle looking at the mosaics, getting photos of the crowds in the hub, etc.
We had a nice meal at CRT. Around 11 am, as we were departing the castle, I got the text that we could enter for the merchandise shopping. We headed over to the Big Top and got in line. Magic Bands and Christmas Ornaments were already sold out already, but it seems they had plenty of everything else. We had toyed with the idea of getting an ornament, but we weren't heartbroken that they were sold out.
We got a few shirts, a water bottle, mug, and pins. My main gripe with Big Top would be that the first room was way to tight (as in not enough space between the shelves to maneuver), but it was nothing compared to the pinball machine we experienced later at the Emporium.
I got my wife an Icee on the way out (they were available at the snack bar in the center of the second Big Top room) and we went over to Tomorrowland where I also got something to drink and we sat, rested, and chatted for a while. We took some pictures at the purple wall.
By now, it was early afternoon... we decided to look in the Emporium (the queue was still kind of long looking, but much less than in the morning). We waited maybe 15-20 minutes to get in, which wasn't bad. But it was packed with people and really difficult to navigate. We ended up just getting a pair of Mickey and Minnie plush dolls and getting out of there.
I wanted to get a few pictures of the train station entrance in the daylight, so walked out front. After taking the photos, I noticed a crowd of people outside the gates and glanced at my watch. 1:45 pm!!!!! I told my wife they were going to be letting those folks into the park in 15 minutes, so let's get the heck off Main Street now.
We took some daytime photos/selfies at the castle and I got the text that it was time for pin shopping, so we headed over to Frontierland. There were only a few people waiting in front of me to get in the store, but it moved a bit slow (probably because people had to decide which pins they wanted and it's a really small shop). I ended up getting a Mickey Mouse Review pin, Haunted Mansion pin, and three varieties of the 50th anniversary logo pins.
After pin shopping, we were sitting around in Frontierland, when a nice lady noticed that we had two pink balloon popcorn buckets. She had gotten two blue ones and her daughter wanted a pink one. She asked if we would consider trading one of our pink balloons for a blue one. We did, which made her day and it saved me from having to go get in another popcorn line (and having an extra one we didn't need). Even though she said they hadn't been eating out of it, I still discarded the popcorn later. We just wanted the blue bucket and didn't need more popcorn.
We went back around the corner and got a Dole Whip and relaxed in the shade near the Magic Carpets. Several people were sitting on the ground, propped against the wall fast asleep!!!! That's kind of how we were feeling too by this point.
By now, it was between 3-4 pm. We were still feeling hot and thirsty, so I mobile ordered drinks from Pecos Bills. We finished our Dole Whips and made our way around to Pecos Bills. It wasn't quite time for our window, but they had plenty of tables available and let us go in and sit down. I picked up our drinks and we cooled off in the AC for a while. My wife saw someone near us with what we discovered was the Minnie Mouse sipper. I went back up to the counter and ordered one for her. I did have to then wait in about a 5 minute or so line to pick it up at the other end of the restaurant. We later learned about the matching Mickey Mouse popcorn bucket, which I hate that we missed getting, but we have folks who are locals who will probably be able to get one for us down the road.
We made our over to Haunted Mansion and rode that. About a 20-30 minute wait.
After HM, we started making our way to The Plaza for our dinner 5:45 pm ADR. We saw the princess cavalcade on the way there (we'd seen Mickey/50th and "Party" ones earlier in the day). We're trying to eat light on this trip... I just had the salad and my wife had a sandwich. Both were good, but nothing special. We even resisted getting ice cream. I really only even made this ADR because I didn't want to risk mobile ordering windows being overwhelmed and having trouble getting food.
After dinner (about 7 pm), we strolled over to the hub (where crowds were already starting to form) and camped out a really good spot on the hub to watch Enchantment. The first hour dragged by slightly, but after we got "packed in" there was a lot of energy, chatting, and anticipation (plus the periodic "teasers" on the castle) which made the time pass more quickly.
We enjoyed the show, but we were not "wowed" by it. As others have said, there were fewer fireworks than I would have expected, especially for the finale. We were in a spot where I could turn around and look down Main Street (which I did from time to time), but I never saw anything on the Main Street buildings that I felt I was missing out on by not being further down the street. If we see this show again in the future (it's going to be at least a year), I may get a spot down the street to see what it looks like from there.
After Enchantment, we allowed the crowd to disperse some (also allowing the bus line to die down a little), then went and rode the TTA People Mover. We could have ridden a lot more rides, but it was already an exhausting day even with lots of down time and relaxing throughout the day. We made the conscious decision weeks ago to not go on lots of rides. We've been on all of them many times before and we'll ride them again during future visits.
We started heading out to the bus around 10:30 pm (grabbing our posters on the way out) and probably got in line for the bus around 10:45 pm. I didn't notice the precise times, but we didn't have to wait very long for the bus. I do recall seeing the bus clock showing 11 pm a little while after we left the station.
By the time we got dropped off and walked back to our room at Jambo House (we are one room away from the very end!!!!!), it was around midnight.
Our carriage turned into a pumpkin and we did our best Sleeping Beauty impersonations.
I've never been to Disney on October 1st, but have visited during the years of the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries (not by design... just happened to be there during those years). We've visited in the years since, but it just turned out to be on "random" years and not major anniversaries. Overall, it was a great experience to have "been there" for the actual 50th anniversary.
