We went to the July 18th Animal Kingdom MM and can answer any questions. I am very non dramatic and didn't have any expectations really, so I can just give you answers based on our experience! It was my birthday, it was free and we thought we would try it out! It was me, my husband, 17 year old son and 20 year old daughter. My daughter wanted to meet characters and my son wanted rides and free Mickey bars so we all experienced different things here and there.
I will say, it was way more crowded than I thought it would be, but that was probably because when people on podcasts talked about how many tickets they have for these events they were just way wrong. My daughter loved it, but was kinda sad because they weren't checking for wristbands (after party had started) in some of the places so that may have been the problem in the places she was in. They did check our wristbands going into Pandora for sure. There was just so much to cram into 2 1/2 hours and we didn't get to come close to doing it all. We were there around 6:30, but of course all the regular park attenders were still there then so obviously still crowded then. And I think it just takes awhile to get people out of the parks...
I wasn't hungry, but the rest of my family loved their meals from Flame Tree. Yes, there was a long line when we were there, but we are patient people and it was free. The only bad part was that it ate up a lot of our party time. So go way earlier. We just didn't plan that well.
Also, to note...they said you could check in at the resort at 6 pm. They were checking people in well before that, so go early because by the time we got to the lobby before 6 there was a good line! People were getting onto the buses for AK with wristbands before 6 pm!
I'm sure there are other things you might want to know, so let me know!