Page 14 - AAA Every Day – AAA Hudson Valley – March/April 2022

My family chose to stay close to the magic by booking get on all our favorite attractions and then some. The
the Wilderness Lodge, considered to be a Magic Kingdom resort. That morning, we were on the boat heading to the big party at 6:30 a.m. It was still dark out and if this were any other day, we would have still been asleep. As we entered the park, each guest was given a special 50th Anniversary Commemorative keepsake guide map. The park was not scheduled to open
until 9 a.m., but resort guests could utilize
their early park entry up to 30 minutes
in advance. We soon found out that
even though we thought we were
amongst the earliest of risers, we
were mistaken. When we arrived at
the park entrance, the crowd level
was already so thick that you could
hardly move as you passed under
the train station to Main Street,
U.S.A.
Like everyone else, we headed to
Main Street’s premier souvenir shop,
The Emporium, to check out the event
merchandise. From here, we headed down
Main Street to the hub to view the opening show.
The crowd size made it difficult to see well, but it was enough to make me excited for what else was to come.
“Welcome to the Party” was a very short but sweet show starring none
other than the man himself, Mickey Mouse, adorned
in his EARidescent anniversary outfit.
We never expected to
get on many rides that day,
especially because at
this point the Disney
Genie+ service
hadn’t launched, but
to our surprise, we got lucky.
We were able to
longest wait was 55 minutes for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, one of the newest and most popular attractions on property. We rode all the Magic Kingdom “Mountains” (Space, Splash and Big Thunder), Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, the Hall of Presidents and even “it’s a small world.” I couldn’t believe it but the guest excitement
about the exclusive event merchandise seemed to create shorter wait times for attractions. To
give you an idea of its popularity, to shop, guests had to join a virtual line with their
smartphones and then wait for hours until it was their timeslot.
At lunchtime, we selected Pinocchio’s Village Haus in Fantasyland, not realizing that you couldn’t just walk into one of the
quick service locations and order food. We had to place a mobile order via the
MyDisneyExperience app and then click on the link “get my order ready.” Unfortunately,
the wait was over an hour. My professional advice after experiencing this new feature
(introduced since the park reopened in 2020) is to order your food well
before you are hungry. Luckily,
we did have a dinner
reservation at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant which we made 60 days in advance (the maximum booking window). The food was delicious.
The daily parade
was replaced by
“Mickey’s Celebration
Cavalcade” which gave
guests the chance to see the
Fab 6 (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy,
Pluto, Donald and Daisy) and more.
Unfortunately, character meet and greets were still not available for us when we visited, but they can be seen throughout the park at certain times of the day. Tip: Cast members can usually tell you where you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of your favorite characters that day.
It was loads of fun trying to find all of the Disney Fab 50 Character Collection. These are golden sculptures
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MARCH/APRIL 2022