If you’re as obsessed with Disney World as we are, then you are not only WELL aware of the upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration this year, but you’re orienting your entire calendar around it!
Get ready to celebrate 50 years of Disney World!
But let’s get real: as momentous and once-in-a-lifetime as this experience will surely be, it’s going to be CAH-RAY-ZAY for a variety of reasons. So if you’re still debating whether or not to visit for the occasion, here’s why you probably SHOULDN’T!
Want to know why you SHOULD go to Disney World for the 50th instead? Click here!
Disney World’s 50th Anniversary Celebration is going to be undeniably epic and extraordinary and, for a lot of fans across the globe, a can’t-miss spectacle! That’s all well and good, but for LOTS of other people, it’s just not the right time for a visit.
Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom
From the surefire hordes of tourists to queue lines so long we’re already having nightmares about them, here’s why you shouldn’t visit Disney World for the 50th anniversary.
Where To Find ALL of the 50th Anniversary Statues at Disney World
You’re More Likely to Spend Most of Your Time Waiting in Lines
People come from all over the world for one-of-a-kind memory-making rides, restaurants, and shows at Disney World! What they DON’T come from all over the world for is never-ending lines, which is most likely what you’re going to experience during the 50th.
Brace yourself. 50th Anniversary crowds are coming.
With the parks certainly at capacity, and with more crowds than the parks have seen in a looooong time, that means Disney World is going to be swarming. Rides, transportation, merchandise lines, and restaurants are probably going to look like dizzyingly long queues at ALL times. And if you thought you had issues with virtual queues and Mobile Order hiccups in the past, just wait until you see how crazy things get in October!
Mobile Order Wait
If you’ve ever seen our coverage of New Year’s Eve in Disney World…imagine that, but…bigger. New Year’s Eve is typically one of the busiest days of the year in Disney World. Typcially at least Magic Kingdom reaches capacity. Imagine the crazy crowds of New Year’s with even MORE reason to feel that FOMO. If you haven’t planned a trip yet for October 1st, it sure feels like a zillion and one other people HAVE!
Oh…my.
In general, as much as it pains us to say it, you’re more likely to be spending most of your time waiting in lines than experiencing classic attractions or one-of-a-kind snacks. Womp womp!
We NEVER Thought This Ride Would Have NO Wait in Disney World 😳
Good Luck With Dining Reservations
If you thought it was impossible to snag a table at Be Our Guest or Oga’s Cantina before, you can pretty much FORGET about it during the 50th Anniversary.
Oga’s Cantina
Not only will Disney’s most notoriously hard-to-get reservations be out of reach, but this will trickle down to other restaurants and bars that are usually easier to get into! Due to the frenzy of hungry travelers filling the parks, that means even your tried-and-true standbys might suddenly turn into mosh pits.
Forget it
So unless you want to spend your entire vacation eating nothing but Capt. Cook’s (and no offense to Capt. Cook’s, but it’s no ‘Ohana), you might want to consider visiting another time.
Our BRAND NEW Secret Tip For Getting the Hardest Reservations in Disney World
You Won’t Be Able to Ride All The Rides
Since a bulk of your time in Disney World would be spent twiddling your thumbs in ride queues, that also means you’ll run out of time to hit up all the attractions you’re eager to experience. It’s just simple mathematics!
Queue for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Naturally, the big talk NEW attraction for the 50th, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, is sure to be in high demand, so you’ll be lucky if you’re one of the rare few to snag an elusive virtual queue option to ride it on the big day!
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is opening soon!
Sure, you could be one of the first to ride this WILDLY anticipated new attraction, but you’ll need to be up before 7am to secure your virtual queue spot, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get it! And since Disney hasn’t released when Disney Genie+ and Individual Attraction Passes will be made available, the only option we can plan for right now is the virtual queue.
PHOTOS & VIDEOS: Go INSIDE Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in Disney World With Us!
Hotel Prices Will Be Sky-High (What’s Left of Them, at Least!)
Sure, everyone expects to splurge a little (or a lot) on a Disney World trip, but that’s nothing compared to what you’re likely to spend on lodging on the dates surrounding the 50th anniversary.
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa = $$$
Again, it just boils down to basic supply and demand. With more crowds and more demand comes more cost. This means Disney resorts (and other off-property resorts, too) are likely to be HIGH. Even Disney’s “value” properties will have price tags that probably won’t seem like a value at all.
Art of Animation
So unless you conveniently win the lottery right before October 1st, a trip to Disney World for the 50th anniversary might be a tad sky-high for the vacay budget. Even scarier…
So many choices 😂
…that pic above shows ALL the hotels rooms still available in Disney World for October 1st (and it’s kinda hard to count a pad of dirt in the woods for 100 bucks a night as a “room” but you get what we’re saying!). So unless you already have a room booked or are cool with staying at some TBD hotel miles away from Disney, your options are…limited, to say the least.
The BIG Problem With Disney World’s Moderate Resorts
Park Pass Reservations Will Be a Headache
Even in the “off season” and on non-holiday days, getting a Park Pass Reservation for your Disney World park of choice can be a hassle. So just imagine how hard it will be for October 1st!
Toy Story Land crowds
No doubt, Magic Kingdom will be a hot ticket. That park, in particular, is likely to hit capacity real quick. So it would be a real bummer to travel all the way for the 50th, and not even be able to get into the O.G. park celebrating the anniversary! We’ve seen Park Passes snatched up FAST for both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT on October 1st multiple times now over the past year. At the time of writing this, unless more are released (which is still possible — we’ve seen it happen a number of times already for that day), there are NO Park Passes for anyone available at both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
Crowds at Magic Kingdom will look MUCH worse than this
Oh and Park Hopping? We’re betting you can pretty much forget about it. If parks are consistently at capacity, which they’re likely to be that day, at least in Magic Kingdom and possibly EPCOT, then this won’t be an option come 2PM. We haven’t seen parks at capacity where we COULDN’T hop to them since Park Hopping returned but if we were big betting folk, we’d take a wild guess Magic Kingdom on October 1st will be in that boat.
Expect lots and lots of people
Long story short, for those Disney-lovers who don’t like to plan MONTHS ahead for dinner reservations or Park Passes, and prefer a more impromptu experience, then the 50th anniversary is NOT the time for you to plan a Disney World trip. You might also want to rethink your travel plans if you’re not a big fan of oppressive crowds! We fully anticipate some shoulder-to-shoulder sardine action in the bottleneck areas of the parks, so if just the thought of that gives you anxiety, you may want to consider postponing those vacations for a few months.
Key Takeaways
Disney knows how to throw a party, and the 50th celebration will be one for the ages! It’s a party that will last for 18 months, but these are the reasons not to wait and why you SHOULD plan to visit on October 1:
- It’ll be MEGA crowded — we’re talking possibly the most crowded we’ve seen Disney World in a LONG time. That means more bodies looking for food, rides, and all the other parts of a day in Disney World. If you’re there, you’ll be one of the masses fighting to have a good day.
- If you don’t already have a Park Pass, good luck actually getting in — Park Passes are booked solid for now and we’re not thinking Park Hopping will be a viable option on this day (we could be wrong though!).
- If you don’t already have a hotel room, good luck finding somewhere to stay — Hotels? Yeah, they booked up.
- You likely won’t be able to do everything you want to do — with the crowds and SO much going on, this isn’t going to be a “normal” Disney World day. You won’t likely get in as easily at all the spots you’d like to eat, ride lines will be long, and you’ll spend a lot of the day in “hurry up and wait” mode.
You can send your well wishes from afar, and save your vacation for another time! If you’re looking to get the most of your Disney World vacation and it just so happens to fall around October 1st…maybe consider shifting it a bit later, if possible. This will NOT be the day for the casual Disney World guest to check out Magic Kingdom and, to some extent, EPCOT. The parks will be PACKED with the ride or die Disney World fans and it will likely have a noticeable impact on your day. But here’s the silver lining — the 50th Anniversary Celebration will be lasting 18 full months, so you don’t have to suffer the crowds to still experience the party!
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What is your main hesitation for not visiting Disney World for the 50th anniversary? Let us know in the comments!
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I booked a trip for the 50th the first day I could. We are going to be there the week before so we should be able to do everything before that Friday and then we can enjoy the park and the celebration.
Question. We have a reservation for that day at MK. Would we be able to leave and go back later that day?
So I actually worked at Disney world for the 25th anniversary, I worked at the front desk. So here’s what we advised the guests to do, on the anniversary date we’d told all of our guest checking in for the week previous to avoid the magic kingdom like the plague because it would be insanely busy. Every resort did the same. I had that day off. My friend and I went into the magic kingdom about 3:00 PM and there was literally no one there. We waited 5 minutes for Splash Mountain. We rode it 5 times in an hour. Space Mountain and all the other attractions were the same. We had warned so much that we had hardly anyone there. Yes..it might be busy but don’t give up hope… Just be prepared.
Hey! I’m planning a trip to orlando from oct 14th – oct 21st. We really wanted to go to MK and Epcot. Do you think the parks will be full and with long lines during the days following the anniversary?
Lots of people may have been PLANNING to come for the 50th but Disney are doing all they can to keep them away. No free fastpasses, no extra magic for value(d) and moderate guests, no Magical Express, charging for parking at the hotels, no parades, many major shows no back and closure of Expedition Everest.
All the magic is going and all that is left is a theme park with less varied intellectual property than Universal and less thrilling rides than Six Flags
Are you all thinking this will be all month or is this mainly just October 1 (week of)? We’re looking at coming with family the week of the 20th. We could wait until January but ready for a visit asap!
Micah, since the celebration lasts 18 months, I would expect crowds and the challenges that come with crowds will ebb and flow. We might see some high numbers through October, but since it’s still in-school season for most kids (and adults who work or learn in schools), I would expect crowds would not be outrageous for the entire month of October. That said, we do see Disney Park Passes and Resort reservations that show as full or appear to be full, so that could indicate high crowd levels even with school being in session. All this to say: I can’t really say for sure. But if you go in October with the understanding that it could be busy and keep your expectations relative to that, you’ll have a blast!
Sol, from the looks of the Disney Park Pass calendar right now, there’s still availability — which generally means the Parks still have capacity for those dates. However that is subject to change (guests could still scoop up all those DPPs), and green may still mean the Parks are busy since we don’t actually have numbers for Disney regarding what capacity levels currently are. I wish I could give you a more straightforward answer, but there are too many unknowns.
Jessica, since implementing Disney Park Passes, Disney has said you can leave your reserved Park and return later in the day (say, if you need a mid-day break). I think I could confirm onsite that day just to be sure since policies can change (without notice, often).
FatDadIsCool, that sounds like a fun plan! Enjoy your trip.
Hi, I have reservations for everything I want and I am going down the 16th through 23rd. I didn’t realize it was their 50th until after I booked everything . Is that a good time to go
. I even got Cinderella Castle which I know is hard to get
Sheila, we’re still seeing Disney Park Pass availability during that period, so at least in that regard, there’s still available capacity for the Parks. That doesn’t mean it won’t feel crowded, but hopefully the busy-ness of early October will pass by then.
Just what I want from your newsletter. Thanks for the downer. What’s next? Ten reasons to hate Mickey Mouse?
You couldn’t pay me enough to go that day. I’m not in huge crowds especially not with covid going on.
I have a MK park pass for October 1, but since I was only planning on going for 9/30 and 10/1 (driving up from South Florida) I’ll probably cancel my trip (and my Disney resort room price was around double the normal amount, so I’ll save money on that). I’m going for a week in November though and was able to get reservations for Space 220 and California Grill for then, can’t wait!
When you say you should not go for the 50th, are you talking all 18 months?? We have our (cancelled 2020) trip scheduled for April 2022 and now I’m a little nervous of the crowds. This isn’t an annual trip for us, so I want our boys to have an enjoying time and be able to do as much as possible without unbearable crowds.
We were booked as soon we could. Starting a week before October 1. Had all the parkreservations and dinner reservations we wanted. But then we had to cancel, because we aren’t allowed to come into USA yet. We’re disappointed, but now we can come from November It will be early 2023 probably and hope we can see some of the 50 years decorations etc. (18 months I’ve heard?)
We’re from the Netherlands btw.
Rachel, we’re expecting a larger influx in early October than we’d normally expect, but we’ll report on crowd levels as the months pass as well.
EJ, sounds like you upgraded yourself!
After reading these questions and comments, I’m beginning to get nervous about crowd levels in early December. That’s when I’ve scheduled 4 days. Any projections at this time for early December?