On the 4th of July we spent the morning and afternoon by the pool and headed to the MK around 5:30 - 6:00. We knew the crowds would be crazy and figured that we wouldn't get on any rides if we went earlier in the day - so we would go later and if we couldn't get in, we would take the monorail to the GF or Poly to watch the fireworks from the beach.
We got into the MK without any trouble, just before the fireworks started people were still arriving, so I don't think they closed (at least not to resort guests). We stood on Main Street USA by the flag pole at the opposite end from the castle. When the fireworks started there were going off behind the castle and also in the lagoon, so we were actually surrounded by fireworks - it was amazing - like something you see on TV. I think the view from the Poly of GF would have been great as well.
One tip I learned the next day when we were at AK. A CM told me that on the 4th AK was not crowded at all - so if you want to go somewhere on the 4th, you might want to go to AK in the morning / afternoon and then to the MK at night. Looking back, we actually wished we would have tried that.
After the fireworks we made a quick escape to the exit (the fireworks were at 9:00 and the park was open until 12:30) - we walked out to the buses and were able to get a seat on a bus that arrived about 10 minutes after we got to the stop. That night we actually took a bus to POR and walked back to Riverside. It was just my BF any I so the walk was quite nice for two adults. I'm not sure how much fun it would be with young ones, but we enjoyed it and found that we could make it back to our room before hte bus would have dropeed us off (due to all of the stops in Riverside).
Overall the buses were full, but we were always able to get onto one. The most crowded buses were the ones in the evenings leaving Marketplace and Pleasure Island. We always got the bus at Markeplace since it was the first stop.
As far as PS reservations go....we didn't make any until a week and a half before we left. We wanted to make 4 reservations for dinner and one for breakfast and were able to get all of the dates and times we wanted. A list of where we ate is below. If you want to know more about any of the places, let me know and I will share the details:
Flying Fish - Boardwalk
San Angel Inn - Epcot - Mexico
Brown Derby - MGM - Fantasmic Dinner Package
Fulton's Crab House - Marketplace
Boatwrights - POR
Rainforest Cafe - Marketplace
We usually grabbed lunch on the go in the parks and ate breakfast at the hotel in the food court - plenty of options between POR and POFQ
Any other insights I can share - please let me know. I know this website was a tremendous help before our trip.
