10/3 40th Anniversary of the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World – Photos and Report

Disney sold Limited Edition merchandise – mostly pins, and guests lined up before 6 a.m. to get wristbands for the opportunity to purchase items. There were a few pins I'd like to have had, but not enough to spend 3 – 5 hours in line.  Why not just up the edition sizes of the pins (i.e. – 2000 instead of 750), and have them sold all over the park? Everyone should have the opportunity to buy a souvenir from the day.

Nearly everything was inside the Diamond Horseshoe building, including all of the LE pins. And by the time the line went down, they closed it (around 3pm). 

The upside? It saved us money.

 

 

 

We had lunch at the Columbia Harbour House. We really enjoyed this time with a ton of our friends, and I liked getting a Mickey head tuna sandwich in the kids meal I purchased. I added a side of broccoli as well, which was a nice alternative.

 

 

 

We were planning on heading over to the Main Street Bakery to pick up a 40th Anniversary cupcake after lunch, but we found out that they sold out like an hour after they went on sale. I had no clue at the time that Disney had limited the cupcakes to 120 for the day! Considering how much Disney promoted these cupcakes (including on the map), they really should have been available all day, around the park.

A friend of ours did get in line early for the cupcakes, and they bought 2. Thanks to SB for the photo! The cupcake doesn't look like a fancy cupcake like the Studios had for the 20th, but the topping is nice.

 

 

 

Jeff purchased an orange slush, like he did when he was a boy at the Magic Kingdom:

 

 

Hanging out at the exit to the Enchanted Tiki Room:

 

 

We waited for the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade after hearing that there might be something special added. The one thing different was that the Grand Marshals had been there opening day. I did like our location, with a backdrop of Cinderella Castle:

 

 

 

A friend of ours said that there were still pins left to purchase and the line was shorter at the Diamond Horseshoe, so we went to check it out right after the parade. The line had recently been closed:

 

 

 

We were told to go to the nearby pin store later, that was where the leftover pins would go – but we found out later that the pins would arrive there on Sunday morning.

So…we went to the Haunted Mansion. Jeff points out where the caretaker and dog prints are in the sidewalk. We just learned about this during the wonderful Haunted Mansion tweetup, and have a video of an Imagineer telling us about the queue as he walked our group through it!

 

 

Dinner was at Pinocchio's Village Haus. There was a Blue Fairy pumpkin near the stairs, as well as a book that had the wishes and comments from those who signed it. The comments ranged from tear-provoking comments from parents about their children, to one child who wished for a thousand dollars 🙂  And one wish (seen below) was for Flynn Rider to come back from his adventures:

 

 

We rode more opening day rides, including it's a small world. The kids in the window were having a lot of fun with the signs:

 

 

Next page: Wishes fireworks! (and yes, they were impressive)