Welcome to part 3 of our Disney World 50th Anniversary Trip Report. This post covers a visit to Magic Kingdom with Early Entry and the final Happily Ever After performance, along with our check-in at Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs.

A Visit to Bell Services

My first task for the day was getting our luggage transferred from Pop Century to Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. This is often an annoying process when you’re in a rush to get to the parks, and today was no different. Simply dropping my bags off took 8 minutes of discussion with the bell services Cast Member. But I don’t want to belabor this complaint. I will add that I used an Apple AirTag to track my luggage and it was my favorite thing ever (except the few seconds I saw the bags en route and assumed they had been dropped off at the wrong hotel, when actually that was just a stop along the route).

Anyways, the buses were actually coming pretty steadily at Pop Century this morning. Emily and Zoe got on one and left, but I was on an immediate follower at 7:49AM and we were in the park together at 8:11AM, 19 minutes before the start of Early Entry.

Early Entry and Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom

We’ll have a full post on rope drop and Early Entry at Magic Kingdom that will be posted shortly after I’m done with this trip report, and which will cover strategy etc. in more depth. This section is more just a report from a single visit. Keep in mind that once Genie+ and Lightning Lanes debut, you’ll have to understand how rope drop interacts with Lightning Lane strategy at Magic Kingdom regardless of whether you plan on purchasing Genie+ or not.

All guests are allowed into Magic Kingdom when the gates open for Early Entry, but only guests of Disney hotels (and select partner hotels), who have access to Early Entry, can get anywhere beyond the hub. Specifically, they’re allowed into Fantasyland and Tomorrowland for the Early Entry period, which is 30 minutes before the entirety of the park opens to all guests.

Signs point the way to Early Entry Cast Members just to the right of the hub. They’ll scan your Magic Band and let you head toward Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

At 8:16AM we were in the pack heading to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This is the northeast bridge out of the hub (Cinderella Castle being to the north). The crowd isn’t as bad as it looks.

Right at 8:30AM, Cast Members open Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. When they load the Mine Train queue—and this is true of most queues—it takes a while to fill the entire queue, so you’ll start pretty far from the entrance even if you’re not that far back.

We had to stay together in the queue until we got to the actual entrance, and at that point (8:42AM) Emily was able to get scanned for Rider Swap. She and Zoe went and rode the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

I don’t think Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was actually operating until at 8:45AM (the line didn’t move much before then), and I wasn’t off it until about 9:02AM, after park opening.

My hope for Early Entry is that you’ll be able to do two rides, getting on and off Seven Dwarfs Mine Train quickly and then off Peter Pan’s Flight before park open. Today that didn’t happen, and by the time we got to Peter Pan’s Flight at 9:05AM the wait had spiked from 5 minutes just a bit earlier to 30 minutes, so we had to skip it.

I knew waits out west—in Frontierland and Adventureland—still wouldn’t pop for a few minutes, so we visited Haunted Mansion, waiting 10 minutes for the posted 13-minute wait.

Not wanting to push our luck, we headed to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Splash Mountain was unfortunately down much of the morning so didn’t make it into our day. We rode Big Thunder separately without rider swap, each waiting five minutes and wrapping up at about 9:47AM. Zoe had fun walking around nearby. With Pirates of the Caribbean at 15 minutes, we headed there, only waiting 7 minutes.

At about 10AM this would usually be time for Zoe’s first nap. We decided to change things up today.

Zoe has been fighting Z’s second nap, and yesterday (our travel day) we just did a single nap. We decided today to stretch our awake windows and do two naps but keep Zoe up late to watch Happily Ever After, which was having its final ever performance at 8:15PM.

With about an hour to fill before the nap, we took advantage of some short waits in Fantasyland, riding Journey of the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Mad Tea Party, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin all with less than 15 minute waits. I earned my Galactic Hero sticker with a score of 999,999 on Space Ranger Spin.

To recap our morning:

7:49AM On Bus
8:11AM In Magic Kingdom
8:30AM Early Entry Begins
(Emily and Zoe ride Carrousel and Winnie the Pooh)
8:59AM Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
9:00AM Park Open
9:16AM Haunted Mansion
9:35AM Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Emily)
9:43AM Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Kenny)
9:57AM Pirates of the Caribbean
10:19AM Journey of the Little Mermaid
10:31AM Dumbo
10:38AM Mad Tea Party
10:51AM Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

Midday Nap at Magic Kingdom

At 11AM it was time for a diaper change and a nap. Since we were in Tomorrowland we visited the temporary location of the Baby Care Center for the diaper change, and I put Zoe in the carrier for a nap. It wasn’t unbearably hot, so just sticking to the shade and the occasional store kept us more than cool, and Zoe slept well.

I grabbed some pictures of some of the 50th Anniversary merchandise. Honestly—there’s a ridiculous amount of 50th anniversary merchandise, so I’m not going to attempt to catalog it all. Here’s a kids’ jacket I really love, though:

While I carried Zoe for a nap, Emily rode Space Mountain (I grabbed a Rider Swap for it), used her Rider Swap for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, rode Barnstormer, and grabbed us Starbucks. (It’s easy to joke about coffee addiction, but during our June trip we did a poor job of staying caffeinated and it took a physical toll some days. We were much more deliberate about our coffee this visit.)

One of the downsides to napping in the carrier, as opposed to a stroller, is that one of us is “stuck” with Zoe for that hour. With a stroller we could both have ridden both Space Mountain and Barnstormer, for instance.

That said, I’m not really sure it’s a huge downside. The nap would usually be a good time for one person to wait in a longer line, there just wasn’t such a line today, which is a good thing. Zoe naps through walking and talking and shopping, all things we like to do mid-morning anyway. But I’ll keep an eye on this moving forward. We have no plans to switch to a stroller, but I want to note if for those of your weighing the two options.

We hung out on Main Street for a bit, catching the Pooh and Friends trolley and the Main Street Philharmonic. After Zoe woke up we had lunch around 12:45PM at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café because Zoe still loves Sonny Eclipse…and their mac and cheese. We try to feed Zoe a diverse selection of food at home, but on vacation it’s really about getting through the day.

After about an hour meal (jeez, feeding a kid takes SO LONG!) I used my Space Mountain rider swap and we rode PeopleMover (posted 15 minute, actual 5). Then we did that thing we don’t often do—took a midday return trip to the hotel.

Because Genie+ and Lightning Lanes will debut soon and change everything, from a work perspective this trip is mostly about covering the 50th Anniversary and Early Entry. I like building full-day itineraries, but they’ll all need revisiting once Lightning Lanes debut, anyways. I wanted us to relax more this trip, so returning to the hotel midday was part of that.

Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs

We weren’t actually returning to the hotel, we were changing hotels. Heading to Gran Destino in the afternoon allowed us get our luggage and request our crib (it’s not a Pack ‘n’ Play at Gran Destino, see below), which has become a necessary part of check-in for us no matter how many times it’s confirmed as a request in our reservation. Since we were going to be at the park late for Happily Ever After, having these things taken care of was reason enough for this midday journey.

Buses at Gran Destino Tower

We waited 18 minutes for the bus at Magic Kingdom, getting to Coronado Springs a further 19 minutes later at 2:52PM. That 18-minute wait was about as bad as our waits got, but it’s also the sort of wait you should expect leaving a park midday. It’s frustrating at Magic Kingdom, though, because you effectively can’t Uber from that park. I wish they’d compensate with better bus service.

We’ll continue detailing bus times in this report, but I’ll say now we were pleasantly surprised with bus service on this trip. That said, it relied heavily on chartered buses, and I worry that once Disney’s contracts with these charter bus companies end we’ll be back to the lower bus frequency we’ve come to expect.

The other thing I want to point out about the buses is that they usually make four stops at Coronado Springs (including Gran Destino Tower). Every time we left from Gran Destino, we were either on our own bus or the last stop before the bus departed for the park. Coming back to the resort, about half the time the Tower was the first stop, half the time it was the last stop. We always got off at the first stop, walking to the Tower if it wasn’t first.

Our Room at Gran Destino Tower

I’ve reviewed Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs before, but we’ve actually only stayed in deluxe suites the last two times, despite trying to stay in a standard room. We finally got a standard room this visit. With online check-in and an arrival right around 3PM, our room was ready when we arrived and we didn’t have to visit the front desk.

The Gran Destino Tower rooms are some of the best rooms at Disney World. They’re clean, modern, functional, and beautiful. They’re easily the best rooms we’ve stayed in at either the moderate or value tiers, and they rival the best rooms of the deluxe tier.

The one problem I have with the Tower is that the rooms that face the parking lot are burdened with the noise of the buses raising and lowering. You know, that familiar beep beep beep really carries. From the 11th floor it wasn’t so bad as to wake us, or even keep us up, but if you’re struggling to sleep I could see it being something that really gets to you.

As expected, no crib was in the room, but one was delivered in about 15 minutes once I called. We were able to position the crib between the closet and the door, near the sliding bathroom door, and it worked wonderfully. Having Zoe right near the bathroom door wasn’t ideal, but the sliding door was pretty quiet and Zoe’s white noise machine helps.

The closet and distance allowed me to work on my laptop freely at night in bed or on the sofa, and we even watched Sunday Night Football on the TV without waking Zoe. This was all without the Pack ‘n’ Play cover I mentioned in the last post, because it doesn’t fit over this type of crib. Zoe slept through the night for as long or longer than Z does at home on this trip.

Back to Magic Kingdom

I didn’t track the trip back to Magic Kingdom well, but we were back in the park around 5:47PM, Zoe having napped in the carrier on the way and waking up as we arrived. The Princess Cavalcade was going by as we walked in. I really like that the cavalcades are quick and, even though they’re on a posted schedule, feel spontaneous.

I snagged a 6:45PM reservation at Diamond Horseshoe at about 5:45PM. We’d never eaten there before, and they’re currently serving family style food from Liberty Tree Tavern, which includes a plant-based option. Quick service with Zoe can be hit or miss (any meal can, truly), so having an all-you-can-eat style with a variety of options sounded like a good idea.

We passed the time, letting Zoe walk around waving to birds and looking at the Liberty Bell. We got this gem of a photopass on Main Street:

You can check into table service reservations on the app now, which is convenient I suppose. We wound up seated a few minutes early.

While I enjoyed the meal overall, and honestly getting to have a beer at the end of the long day was nice, the plant-based option was a little boring and the service was slow.

I’d be willing to re-try Diamond Horseshoe if it got a unique menu, but our favorite table service at Magic Kingdom remains Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen.We left around 7:45PM and snagged a spot near the middle of Main Street for the show at 7:48PM.

This was Zoe’s first firework show and, really, Zoe’s first time up past sunset since Z was a newborn. Emily and I have had a journey with Happily Ever After. Neither of us originally loved it much, and we both don’t like how much fireworks disrupt the traffic flow of the parks at night (yes, we are that petty), but we came to love it during a month in Florida filled with park visits and stays at the monorail resorts, primarily theme park view rooms. To see the final show as a family was a really great experience.

We hustled out the park as soon as the show ended and got on the first post-fireworks bus back to the hotel. We were about the fifth family on it, but it filled up quickly and after the 8:15PM firework show, which is about 20 minutes long, we were back in our room by 9PM, a wonderful day behind us.

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