One of the big Limited Time Magic events for 2013 was the Monstrous 24-Hour “All-Nighter”.
For the second time, in recent memory, the Magic Kingdom would stay open for 24 hours, from 6:00 a.m. on May 24 to 6:00 a.m. on May 25. Also, sister parks in California, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure would also be open for 24 hours.
Unique to this event would be special appearances by Mike and Sully in the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It! party/parade, the two serving as Grand Marshalls in the Celebrate a Dream Come True, a Monster Mania Dance Party, special merchandise, food, beverages and other surprises.
Very early in the morning, long before the official start of the Monstrous Summer all-nighter, Mickey and Minnie came out for an interview in their pajamas.
Soon, Magic Kingdom’s Vice President Phil Holmes also made an appearance.
Sure enough at 6:00am on May 24th, the Monstrous Summer All-Nighter began with a special opening ceremony at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom.
While this blogger only last til late morning, All Ears Deb Koma was in the parks til the wee hours of the morning and Kristin Ford and her family made it until 4:45am!
Special thanks to everyone who attended our Breakfast Meet and Greet!!!
Check out Chip and Dale doing Meet and Greets in their PJs!
Did you experience the Monstrous All-Nighter? If so, leave your comments below.
This was the worst experience I’ve ever had at the magic kingdom. My husband and three kids were stuck in gridlock following the fireworks. It was kind of scary. Main street was packed with people pushing and shoving without getting anywhere for about a half hour. People could have been trampled and worse if a health or other emergency occurred. Disney needs to better plan for these events by controlling the traffic better or limiting the number of people coming in until the crowds disperse after wishes.
Me and my family are passholders and we got there around 9:30 at night. The crowd on Main St was like being in the middle of a riot. We had 2 children riding in a stroller ages 4 and 1. Our 1 year old became so terrified at one point do to the rude people that kept trying to walk over the stroller my wife had to take him out and walk ahead as best she could while me and my daughter continued to fight the crowd. The crowd control was very poor and extremely dangerous. I read stories on the WDW Facebook pages of similar stories including people getting in fights and one lady fainting on Main St. We lasted less than 2 hours before we decided to leave. The crowd on Main St was still out of control but they decided to open up the gates and let people exit behind the buildings on Main St.
Disney was clearly not prepared for the influx of guests coming into the park while guests were leaving. You’d think a park such as Disney would’ve thought about this ahead of time.
My daughter and I did the full 24 hours in the park. We are pass holders so we go to Disney often but this was something we didn’t want to miss. We were very tired when it was all over but had a great time!
We decided when we got there we would pace ourselves. We had two goals. First was to ride every ride and see every show at least once, the second was to make it for all 24 hours! The first few hours the park opened had very little traffic and we were able to ride many rides in that time period. The rest of the day the crowds seemed like normal summer crowds until the evening when the it really started to build.
We stayed away from Main Street during the first Electrical parade and Wishes because we knew it was going to be bad. We watched Wishes from Fantasyland. I had never done that before and I really enjoyed it.
After 1 AM the MK had quite the party atmosphere. We didn’t really know how the night would go when we got there. I was worried about just killing time to try to make it all night but Disney did a great job of keeping everyone entertained. Not only were almost all the rides and shows open but they had extra events throughout the park.
The dance party from 2 AM until 5:30 AM in front of the castle was something to be seen! The amount of people walking around in pajamas was amusing too. I was surprised at the number of people that stayed the entire night but everyone seemed in good spirits. It was something to see the sun rise twice while we were there. I thought Disney did a good job overall.
I went with a friend and my husband! We got there around 10pm and made it until around 3am because my husband had to go to work today. We arrived in the park just as Wishes was starting.. and after that was CHAOS! tons of people moving in + tons of people trying to leave = a whole lot of not moving! Once that crazyness cleared the rest of the park was nice although a bit humid. They sold out of tshirts quite early but I was able to get one from disneystore.com this morning!