DW and I were there last night as well. I must say, I am a little sad to find out that people got in at or before 6 with their lanyards, because we arrived at the MK entrance right before 6 and asked a castmember who said we couldn't get them until 7 and that we would have to exit the park to get them. We didn't see anyone with lanyards at that point, so we entered the park because we had a SDMT FP between 6-7. So we went and did that, and then exited the park around 6:50 and then saw the line set up for obtaining the lanyards. By the time we got near Main Street on our way to get our lanyards, we saw plenty of people who already had their lanyards.
We had originally planned on doing the plaza viewing dessert party that night, but ended up changing it to the first night of our trip (1/20). I am glad that we did, because we would have lost a lot of time between watching HEA and then just trying to navigate our way out of the hub, which was a mob scene.
We stopped at Cosmic Ray's for some food and then at about 7:45 we did both lines for photos with Princesses at Fairytale Hall. During DAH we did:
Dumbo - right at 8 as HEA was starting
Tea Cups
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Country Bear Jamboree
Magic Carpets
Tiki Room
Buzz Lightyear
People Mover
Photos with talking Mickey
Photopass photos on Mainstreet.
This was the last night of our seven day trip and our third stop at MK, so we did not have an overly ambitious plan. But we were able to do all of the above, including two breaks for ice cream/popcorn, by 10:10. We then just hung around Main Street enjoying the atmosphere. Everything that we did was a walk on.
The worst part of the evening was the transportation back to the Boardwalk. The Boardwalk shared a bus with Swan and Dolphin and Yacht and Beach Club. That's fine. But we got in line at the bus stop at 10:55, and no bus came until 11:18. By then the line was extremely long and people were impatient. So the bus was packed. Again, not unexpected. But the driver did not announce the stops, so people were unsure of where we were when we stopped. And for those at the Swan and Dolphin and Yacht and Beach Club, it wasn't clear if stops would be made at each side of those resorts. Boardwalk was the last stop, we got dropped off right at midnight.
Overall, I think it was worth the money. I agree with a previous poster who said that the crowd level was what you would expect on a 1/10 day. There were always people around or in sight, but not crowded by any means.
