I did a pre party on 1/5 on a very crowded MK day.
The lines for check in started to form around 6PM ish and they let people check in already after little past 6PM.
in the beginning there was not a big line for getting the dessert but it grew so i highly recommend to just put as much as you can ok the plate the first time that you dont have to go back and forth.
We went to the garden viewing area around 6:55 (fireworks at 8PM) and the front rows were already full. There is a little area in front of the garden for ECV people and their families so the CM says to sit on the „grass“ and not the pavement that they can let ECV people in.
However people were standing close to the fence to just secure a good viewing spot and eventually i did that too because i‘m 4feet 9 and had 2little kids.
I could not see how the back looks like because people around me were so tall
But people have reported that there is more space in the back because people just generally push to the front for a better view (which is true - i had a super grumpy old grandpa next to me who kept pushing even my 5years old daughter away, so rude!!)
After the show we waited 15min in the garden area until the crowd got better.
I read that strollers were not allowed but we were able to bring in our double stroller. Probably people were annoyed because it took up space but no one yelled at me
I paid the gigantic price for the view. the desserts were just „ok“ .
People started to secure a place around 5PM that day and literally at 5PM the good viewing area outside the garden were gone (people sitting, parkind ECV/strollers, etc)
. But she was ok when we were like in the regular crowd. So I can’t imagine this being worse than that
