Going to Disney World for the 50th Celebration? Read This First!

There are 4 approaches to visiting Disney, in my opinion, that will help you get the most out of your vacation for the 50th celebration. Which approach you take depends on what you and your family enjoy as well as whether this is your first Disney trip.

Here are the 4 approaches:

• Scavenger Hunts (Fab 50 statues, Hidden Mickeys, Hidden Remys)
• Attraction-centric (more rides, more thrills!)
• Food and Treat-centric
• Gift Shop-centric

Depending on how long your Disney stay is, it may be possible to apply multiple approaches. If you do try multiple, make sure you plan ahead of time to make sure you don’t tire your family out trying to cram everything in a 12 hour period.

Let’s dive in further to each of these approaches, and what I’ve done for each of my Disney visits (I’ve tried each of these approaches).

Scavenger Hunts

Walt Disney World offers more than just a theme park with your favorite attractions like Space Mountain and Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It also has additional ways to keep you and your kids entertained for the duration of your visit, specifically with Scavenger Hunts! One popular scavenger hunt is the infamous Hidden Mickeys — those Mickey Mouse heads hidden in the designs of carpets and wallpapers and brick around the entire Walt Disney World Resort. There are approximately 1,000 hidden Mickeys scattered around the Disney property, making every child’s “I Spy” game even more magical. You can find guide books online that help you navigate the parks and the resorts to find each of these hidden Mickeys; or you can try to find them on your own! I speak from experience when I say it is a little more difficult to find these hidden Mickeys than you might think. Finding hidden Mickeys is a free activity that can start as soon as you arrive at your Walt Disney World Resort!

The second popular scavenger hunt is Animal Kingdom’s Wilderness Explorer journey, where you search the park for specific animals. The more you find, the higher you rank as a Wilderness Explorer! Start your Wilderness Explorer journey at the wooden station at the front of the park (as you head towards the Tree of Life, the Wilderness Explorer station will be on your right at the end of the walking bridge between the Oasis and Discovery Island). This station is open between 10am and 6pm for you to get your handbook for your self-guided journey. Visit the troop leaders around Animal Kingdom to earn your Wilderness Explorer badges, and don’t worry, you can complete this journey over the course of several days!

Special scavenger hunts have also been added in 2021, including the Fab 50 Golden Statues and the Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak Scavenger Hunt. The Fab 50 Golden Statues are scattered across the 4 Disney Parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom) and feature 50 popular Disney characters. There are a total of 36 separate statues (with some including multiple characters). I found the statues in Magic Kingdom a little challenging, but once I found them all, it was incredibly satisfying. In addition to the Fab 50 gilded statues, there are also 50th celebration pressed penny machines and commemorative coin machines around the Disney property as well! Most of the pressed pennies are $1 each, or 8 for $5. The commemorative coins are $5 each (as of October 2021).

In celebration of the opening of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot, Disney has also created a special scavenger hunt called Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak Scavenger Hunt. This paid scavenger hunt can be started at any of the gift shops at the front of the park, where you’ll receive a map with stickers to place on it as you find hidden Remy statues around World Showcase. Each statue has a different ingredient needed to make Remy’s favorite recipe: ratatouille!

Attraction-centric

The second approach to getting the most value and fun out of your Walt Disney World trip is to ride as many attractions as you can. As with any theme park, the wait times for popular rides will only increase as the day goes on and the crowds cram into the parks. The most popular attractions at Disney World include Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Seven Dwarves Mine Train, Expedition Everest, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and of course Avatar: Flight of Passage. There are two ways you can “guarantee” you get to ride all of these attractions: first is to “rope drop”, and arrive at the parks before they open (Disney resort guests get early access to the parks as well), and the second is to purchase Genie+. If you’re going to rope drop, you likely won’t have to purchase Genie+ until later in the day or later in your trip if you’ve planned to have 2 days per park. Standby wait times are generally low at rope drop meaning you can ride 2–3 attractions before most people even arrive at the park. If you have young children or otherwise can’t get to the parks early enough, Genie+ may be an option for you but it comes at a price. The base price is $15 per guest, and includes essentially a “fast pass” (now called Lightning Lane) for certain attractions; allowing you to “skip” the standby line. However, certain attractions are not included in this base price and will cost you an additional $7-$15 per person per attraction. I definitely recommend you do your research on peak park times and average wait times for your targeted attractions to make sure Genie+ is worth it for you. Kyle Pallo, PCDev, and several other Disney Vloggers have released some great videos detailing their Genie+ experiences and tips on YouTube.

This attraction-focused approach will take some planning. Besides the fact that you will need park reservations along with your park tickets, you’ll want to research which attractions are at which park and where they are located. Then you’ll want to monitor average wait times throughout the mornings prior to your trip to see which attractions you should sprint to during rope drop and which you can save for your second or third attraction of the day. At rope drop, attractions such as Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and even Tower of Terror will be “walk-ons” for most weekdays (weekends can be chaos, so I usually visit parks on week days).

Food and Treat-centric

And of course no Disney experience would be complete without some classic foods and decadent treats. But, there are so many new booths at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival for the 50th and so many 50th themed desserts throughout all the parks and resorts that you could also spend days just finding and trying them all. This is another approach that will require some research and planning because you want to make sure you mix in some real food for lunches and dinners and not just eat dessert all day for your entire trip. Some of my favorite lunch items included Soy-glazed sticky ribs (Epcot), Chicken Dumplings (Animal Kingdom), Ronto Wraps (Hollywood Studios), and Waffle Sandwiches (Magic Kingdom). And my favorite desserts….well let’s be real, they were all delicious! But you can never go wrong with any dole whip, which are available at several resorts, including the Polynesian, and Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.

Don’t forget about Disney Springs either! D-Luxe Burger has some of the best burgers I’ve ever had on Disney property, and Gideon’s Bakehouse, while an incredibly long wait, has large half-pound cookies. And the October featured cookie, Frankenstein, is a cookie creation that should be on the menu year-round.

Gift Shop-centric

A big draw for guests this year has to be the special 50th celebration merchandise. While most gift shops across Disney property have similar items, you can find some hidden unique items in various shops. Plus each park has its own non-50th merchandise that is worth perusing as well. Main Street, USA (Magic Kingdom) has several shops that could take several hours to get through, not to mention all the shops on Sunset Boulevard (Hollywood Studios) that offer Pixar and Star Wars souvenirs as well.

Gift shops will get pretty crazy once park hopping starts at 2pm, so if you plan to use the gift shop focused approach, be sure to get to the parks early to browse the stores without the stress and pressure of all the other guests.

Technically there is a fifth approach I didn’t mention before, and that’s the “let’s just wing it” approach. A Walt Disney World vacation is expensive and takes careful planning just for the flights, transportation to/from airports, resort stays, park tickets, and park reservations. Do you really want to waste the time and money you put into that part of the planning by just “winging” it and hoping you get enough attractions completed and treats tasted to make it all worth it? I say take the extra day during your planning process to discuss as a family what everyone would like to accomplish during the trip and that should guide you toward an approach outlined above. And like I mentioned, if this is your first Disney visit and you’ve allocated 2 days per park, you could try multiple approaches. Happy planning, and be sure to enjoy The Most Magical Celebration on Earth!