The recent announcement of the Rock Your #DisneySide 24 hour event that will take place at Magic Kingdom on May 23, 2014 has me fondly reminiscing about my experience last year at the Monstrous Summer All-Nighter. That was our first time participating in a 24 hour event at Walt Disney World, and it was such a wonderful and exciting experience that we vowed to attend any and all future 24 hour parties at Magic Kingdom.
Last year, on May 24, 2013, Magic Kingdom opened at 6:00 AM and did not close until May 25, 2013 at 6:00 AM. I read about this event online at the end of April, and knew I had to go! The theme was “Monstrous Summer All-Nighter” because Disney was promoting the upcoming release of Monsters University.
My family arrived shortly before 6:00 AM the day of the event, and found a huge crowd as well as a ton of journalists and members of the media set up with video cameras on a platform. The general mood of the crowd was extreme excitement, which made us even more thrilled and eager to begin this fun day. The usual Magic Kingdom Welcome Show was altered to include Mike and Sully welcoming us to begin our all-nighter. As we entered, we were all given special Disney buttons to wear to celebrate and commemorate this event. Although there was a pretty large crowd at rope drop, that did not translate to long wait times in the morning hours. Since the Magic Kingdom is so large, and we all went off in various directions, we found little to no waits at all the attractions until late morning. At this time, Enchanted Tales with Belle was very new and in demand. It was approximately 8:00 AM when we got in line for that attraction, and only had a 10-15 minute wait. Gaston’s Tavern was also open bright and early, so we enjoyed Lefou’s Brew for the first time with breakfast. Another attraction we walked right on was Space Mountain. This was my five-year-old’s first time riding!
We spent most of the morning riding our favorite attractions and enjoying minimal wait times. We had lunch reservations at The Crystal Palace for 1:00 PM. By the time we made it back to Main Street, USA for lunch, the crowds were starting to get really heavy. There was a long line to check-in at The Crystal Palace, however there were Cast Members walking around with small, blue snow cones as an aid to the heat. There was also a table set up with Monsters University coloring pages and crayons. My daughter was able to color three pages while we waited for our table to be ready. After lunch, we decided to take an afternoon break to escape the heat and crowds, with the intent to return in time to see Wishes nighttime spectacular.
Stay tuned for Monstrous Summer All-Nighter, Part 2, where I’ll describe the atmosphere and special events that that took place during the night and early morning hours!
Contact us today for your FREE no-obligation quote! We are the leaders in concierge services for all booked clients. Call us at 877-8256146 or email us at admin@thewdwguru.com.