Julie Travels: Disney World 50th Anniversary Trip

I’m excited to relive the magic today, sharing about my trip to Walt Disney World with my brother in October for the 50th Anniversary, especially since I’m headed to Disney World for another trip starting today! Since it’s also Valentine’s Day, I created this fun Mickey Valentine treat board to celebrate my trip! Get my wooden Mickey treat board here.

So back to my October trip – it was a long time coming, having been rescheduled 3 times due to the pandemic, so we were EXCITED! And, it was a great way to kick off my 40th birthday month!

Where we stayed

We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort and LOVED it! The resort is massive, but that made it feel like an escape, and we loved how quiet our section of the resort (Jamica) was. I arrived a day earlier than my brother, so I got to enjoy the pool, the pool-side restaurant, and explore all the amentities.

We took advantage of the easy access to the Skyliner, as Caribbean Beach is a skyliner hub to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We rented a car for this trip, so we drove from the resort to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, which was super convenient.

The rooms are basic hotel rooms and served their purpose for us. We loved the double sinks, the fact that the sinks were separate from the shower/toilet, and the room felt spacious overall with lots of storage.

What we did

Resort Day and Disney Springs

We had four full park days plus a 3/4 park day and were really excited to be there for the kick off of the 50th Anniversary Celebration! With the crowds anticipated, and the fact that you currently need park reservations in addition to tickets, we opted to not get park hoppers this time. This allowed us to maximize our time in each park for one full day, then had a bonus day (our 3/4 day) at Magic Kingdom, without having to spend time traveling between parks.

I enjoyed my resort day, and then once my brother arrived, we loved getting to explore Disney Springs a bit. We had dinner at D-Luxe Burger and it was delish! After dinner, we got cookies to go from Gideon’s and they were incredible and totally worthy of the hype. After a little shopping, we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest before our first full park day.

Hollywood Studios

Our first park day was Hollywood Studios and we loved getting to ride Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (MMRR) for the first time! Other highlights included exploring Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, and one of my personal faves – Tower of Terror. Park crowds were relatively low, so our wait times were very reasonable.

We took advantage of the 30 minute early park entry for resort guests – I’ve heard mixed reviews of the early park entry option, but we really appreciated it and felt like it gave us a head start at each park. On this day in particular, the park opened at 8:30 a.m. for resort guests. We got to Hollywood Studios at 7:30 a.m. and walked right through security and the turnstiles with no wait. We were second in line for MMRR by 7:40 a.m. and they let us on the ride right at 8:30 a.m.. So, while we did have to wait for the park to “open” for resort guests, it was an enjoyable wait. We were off MMRR by 8:45 a.m. and headed back to Toy Story Land promptly after that, ahead of the park-open for non-resort guests, putting us ahead of the (small but still present) crowds. We enjoyed a quick snack at Woody’s Lunchbox, then continued our exploring.

We zig-zaged the park a few times throughout the day, which definitely wasn’t the most efficient way to explore the park, but we preferred to zig and zag rather than wait in longer lines. In the midst of our zigging and zagging, we had a delicious lunch at the Brown Derby Lounge and a fun cocktail break at Oga’s. It was a wonderful first day, and we left the park after dinner at 50’s Prime Time since there wasn’t a nighttime show and we felt like we had accomplished everything we wanted to. Leaving about a half hour before park close put us ahead of the mass exit, so we walked right on the Skyliner and were back in our room about thirty minutes later.

Animal Kingdom

Our next park day was Animal Kingdom, which is my brother’s favorite park! We drove on this day, and arrived right at 7:30 a.m. which was the resort-guest open time. We walked right back to Pandora and right on Flight of Passage. By 7:45 we were off that ride, headed to Na’vi River Journey. After a quick snack break at Creature Comforts, we walked back to Africa to enjoy those rides, then looped the park toward DinoLand so I could ride Dinorsaur (my fave!).

From there, we enjoyed the first ever showing of KiteTails and love, love, LOVED it. This new show takes place on the Discovery River and features magical kites being flown by cast members on jet skis. It is so fabulous and definitely a must do. There are two different shows: Jungle Book and Lion King – we saw them both and loved them both!

We spent the rest of our day at Animal Kingdom riding rides (a few multiple times!), lunching at Satu’li Canteen, and seeing shows. This was our lowest crowd day and it was amazing! We headed out of the park about an hour before park close, again having seen and done everything we wanted.

Epcot

We headed to Epcot for our next park day, and with a later park opening (8:30 a.m. for resort guests) we were able to sleep in a bit – but still up early enough to grab a boarding group for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. We were successful in our attempt, and got group 67! We took the Skyliner and got there right around 8 a.m., and they started letting people into park then, to queue up in the United Kingdom pavilion area. At 8:30 a.m., we were able to head to our first ride, and we chose Frozen Ever After. From there, we enjoyed an empty World Showcase and I got to snap some pics of each pavilion sans crowds. Next we headed over to the Land to ride Soarin’ and Living with the Land. By this point, it was time to start snacking around the world, and snack we did!

After snacking, our boarding group for Remy’s was called so we got in line, and then waited. And waited. And waited. The ride was down for a bit, and in total we waited about 70 minutes. It was totally worth it – we loved the ride so much! I’ve heard mixed reviews about the 4D effects, but I really thought it was cool and totally immersive – I felt like I was actually in the kitchen scenes from the movie.

After our long wait, we were ready for a mid-afternoon break, and the Skyliner meant it was a quick and easy ride back to our hotel for a bit. We rested, and watched the Texas Tech game (Wreck ’em!) for a bit, then headed back to the park for some evening snacking. We also rode Test Track, rode Soarin’ one more time, and then it was time for the Harmonious nighttime show. Unfortunately, I don’t really feel like we got the full experience of Harmonious. We were behind what felt like an entire group of people over 6 feet tall, so our views were really obstructed. We didn’t scout out a place to sit, because we thought we could just wing it with how many viewing spots are around the World Showcase lagoon, but that was definitely an incorrect assumption considering how new the show is. I’ve heard amazing things about it, and can’t wait to really see it again in the future.

Magic Kingdom

Our fourth and last full park day was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We drove to MK and arrived in time for the 8:30 a.m. resort guest opening. We enjoyed all the sights and sounds of Main Street as we headed toward Fantasyland to take advantage of the rides open before 9 a.m.. Our original plan was to go right to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but immmediately at 8:30 it had a 70 minute wait and we were confident we could ride it later with a shorter wait time (and we did – twice!), so we skipped that and headed to Peter Pan’s Flight. From there we rode Splash and Big Thunder Mountains, then had some breakfast at Sleepy Hollow. After a bit of souvenier shopping, we rode a few more rides and ate a few more snacks, then headed out of the park for my favorite way to take an afternoon break – at the Polynesian!

Our break at the Polynesian turned into a mini monorail crawl, because after our time in the Tambu Lounge, we headed over to the new Steakhouse 71 Lounge at the Contemporary. When we got back into the park, we rode a few more rides, and then it was time to check in for the Fireworks Dessert Party!

We had tickets for the Disney Enchantement Treats and Seats party, which gave us lots of yummy desserts and a front-row seat to the Disney Enchantment fireworks. There are three options for this particular dessert party (before Fireworks, during Fireworks (what we did), and after Fireworks). I really liked our option because it gave us a table to sit at, whereas the others are a standing view (still reserved and, some might argue, a better view of the castle, but I really liked having a seat). One thing to keep in mind is that your table is assigned when you check in, and because we lined up an hour before the Dessert Party started, we were one of the first in line. This gave us a seat right on the edge of the terrace, while others who checked in later were at tables behind us, so not “front row.” Another important note is that even though the description advertises some savory options, it’s really just crackers and cheese, so definitely eat a light dinner before you go.

The park remained open for another hour after the fireworks show, so we took advantage of that and rode Haunted Mansion, then finally got to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The posted wait when we headed back there was 40 minutes, but we rode it twice in 30 minutes! By the time we were done with our second ride, the park was closing, so we headed out, snapping a few pics along the way.

Day five was, sadly, our last day, but we were decked out in our new Disney garb and ready to make the most of it. We packed up everything that morning, checked out of the hotel, and loaded up the car to head to Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride several rides, do some final souvenir shopping, and then enjoy a nice lunch at Tony’s Town Square.

After a bit more souvenir shopping and one final snack, we headed out of the park to head to the airport. We made a pitstop at a CVS pharmacy to take a COVID test (negative for both of us!). Our flights home were seamless and easy.