Epcot 35th Anniversary

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

So we are going to try to make it to Epcot Sunday October 1st for the official 35th anniversary. I want one of the I was here shirts. So I started this thread in case any other fiends will be going or as a place to post whatever throughout the year about the 35th anniversary.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

26 minutes ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

So we are going to try to make it to Epcot Sunday October 1st for the official 35th anniversary. I want one of the I was here shirts. So I started this thread in case any other fiends will be going or as a place to post whatever throughout the year about the 35th anniversary.

Per the Passholder e-news I received today, I can order an "I was there!" shirt on-line.  Whether I was there or not!  And apparently ahead of time!

Get ready for a spectacular September!

Purchase your Epcot® 35th anniversary T-shirt for Epcot's® big day on October 1! Available in-Park or ahead of time on the Shop Disney Parks mobile app. ___________________________________________________________ Anything for a buck! TCD

[caveat lector 181]

3 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Anything for a buck! TCD

Sad but true sir.

Kind of devalues (read: cheapens) the experience

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

We did make it up to Epcot for the 35th anniversary. Unfortunately my alarm turned off so ended up waking up late and missing the show at 10:01.  I have a feeling it was a mixture of it being a Saturday at F&W and the 35th anniversary with special day of merchandise that caused the park to be packed when we got there. I didn't pre order my shirt so we waited in line for an hour and a half to get our shirts and pins. The odd thing was they weren't really advertising where the pop up shop was selling things and/or where the line started. Which at 11 am was the third row of "monuments/legacy" things up to the turn stiles and then hugging the buildings down to innovations through the building towards the back doors, in all it took us about 1hr 45 mins from getting in line to walking out the back door bags in hand. One thing I did notice is they were making sure everyone in line knew there was a limit of 10 items per person, though if you bought your 10nitems then got back in line I don't think anyone would have known, and we were hearing where couples were going in and buying 10 items each and checking out separately (hopefully these were big families and not eBay sellers).  After that we wondered for a few mins, then headed over to get our October F&W buttons ?. Now here's a thing that annoys me, when we were there the 16th of Sept they had a MB scanner at the button pick-up, if you had your hard pass you could show that or scan your MB. Well today I made my mom leave her bag in the car (no way I was standing through bag check) and in her bag was her pass, ok no problem MB will work. Get to the counter to get our buttons the CM says "nope only with your pass and photo ID". Luckily he did just end up giving her a button, I kept thinking it's a 0.25 button. I could understand when they were giving out glasses but buttons??? At that point it was looking like it might rain and we were getting warm and ready to leave. They had closed the east bag checks and security line (where we had come in) and just had the center one open, and the parking lot had started to empty out some around where we were parked.  Traffic was horrible on I4 so I ended up getting off at county line Rd and taking 92 back to seffner then down to MLK and onto 75. 

 

To sum it up, I can say I was there, didn't see anything special, but wasn't a bad day out. 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

I saw some pics of the crowds at park open - holy moly!  I think you're right it was a combo of the anniversary and Saturday F&W because I don't think I've ever seen Epcot that crowded.