Read the other sections in this blog series
Part 1 - List of attractions visited
Part 2 - How to plan for such a challenge
Part 3 - Hollywood Studios recap
Part 4 - Epcot recap
Part 5 - Animal Kingdom recap
Part 6 - Magic Kingdom recap
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts
Let's start our detailed view of how I managed to visit every major attraction at Disney World in one day. I'll start with the first park of the day - Disney Hollywood Studios. I'll walk through how we toured the entire park, from start to finish.
Hollywood Studios was, in a sense, the "easiest" park to plan for - I know the traffic patterns in the parks at opening, and they generally don't change from day-to-day. So I simply had to put together a plan to visit the four biggest attractions once each as quickly as possible. Note that when I plan for my customers people, I usually try to get them two rides on each of the biggest attractions without waiting (because they are even more fun the second time), but for my purposes, one was going to do.
Part 1 - List of attractions visited
Part 2 - How to plan for such a challenge
Part 3 - Hollywood Studios recap
Part 4 - Epcot recap
Part 5 - Animal Kingdom recap
Part 6 - Magic Kingdom recap
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts
Let's start our detailed view of how I managed to visit every major attraction at Disney World in one day. I'll start with the first park of the day - Disney Hollywood Studios. I'll walk through how we toured the entire park, from start to finish.
Hollywood Studios was, in a sense, the "easiest" park to plan for - I know the traffic patterns in the parks at opening, and they generally don't change from day-to-day. So I simply had to put together a plan to visit the four biggest attractions once each as quickly as possible. Note that when I plan for my customers people, I usually try to get them two rides on each of the biggest attractions without waiting (because they are even more fun the second time), but for my purposes, one was going to do.
Arrival: 7:33pm
Second car in the lot
Hollywood Studios officially opened at 9:00am. However, I know the park usually opens 15-30 minutes earlier than the "announced" opening time. And we simply had to be the first people in a turnstile line. So my brother (who accompanied me for part of this adventure) and I arrived at 7:33am, and were the second car in the parking lot! (Added bonus - nearby parking means quicker trip to Epcot later in the day.)
Waiting at turnstile
Other than people with breakfast reservations (who have their own separate line), we were the absolute first people at the turnstile. The weather was chilly (near record lows for October), probably upper 40s as we arrived but heading to the mid-60's - perfect weather for speed touring!
Empty park ahead of us!
8:45 - park opens
If you've ever been at Hollywood Studios at park opening, you know that 90% of all people rush to Toy Story Midway Mania. We had to get there ahead of the mob. Thankfully, my brother and I are very fast walkers, so we entered quickly, and rushed to Toy Story Mania. How fast were we? Here's a photo of the people in front of us - nobody! Note that there was a swarm of people behind us!
Even though we weren't planning to use Fastpass, since we were the first people at Toy Story Mania, we went ahead and got Fastpasses anyway (return time of 9:40), to give to someone as we were leaving the park.
If you've ever been at Hollywood Studios at park opening, you know that 90% of all people rush to Toy Story Midway Mania. We had to get there ahead of the mob. Thankfully, my brother and I are very fast walkers, so we entered quickly, and rushed to Toy Story Mania. How fast were we? Here's a photo of the people in front of us - nobody! Note that there was a swarm of people behind us!
Even though we weren't planning to use Fastpass, since we were the first people at Toy Story Mania, we went ahead and got Fastpasses anyway (return time of 9:40), to give to someone as we were leaving the park.
Attraction 1 - Toy Story Midway Mania (8:51am)
This'll be PACKED in 10 minutes
After getting the first Fastpasses of the day, we entered the ride, and were the first ones in the queue! It's always fun to see NOBODY in a line that I know will be completely filled with people in ten minutes.
First riders of the day
I enjoyed being the first riders on Toy Story Midway Mania for the day! I destroyed my brother (I didn't think to get a photo of the score - oh well) and I think I aggravated my carpal tunnel syndrome too.
We were off Toy Story Mania at 8:58 and it was time to rush to attraction 2
Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 0 minutes
We were off Toy Story Mania at 8:58 and it was time to rush to attraction 2
Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 0 minutes
Attraction 2 - Rock 'N Roller Coaster (9:04am)
Rock 'n Roller Preshow
It wasn't even 9:00 yet and we had the worst bottleneck attraction completed. So it was on to attraction 2 - Rock 'N Roller Coaster!
We arrived and entered the preshow at 9:04. After the preshow, we were the on first coaster to ride.
We arrived and entered the preshow at 9:04. After the preshow, we were the on first coaster to ride.
Finishing Rock "n Roller Coaster
We finished the ride at 9:09am! So yes, that means we completed the two biggest line attractions (which will have a combined two hours of wait time shortly), only nine minutes after the park was "officially" open!
Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 0 minutes
Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 0 minutes
Attraction 3 - Tower of Terror (9:14am)
Alas, our first wait of the day. We got through the preshow in the library section of Tower of Terror without waiting. But in the "boiler room" we had to wait... for one elevator. And we had a moment of panic - the ride appeared to go into "shutdown" for a moment, but it only lasted 30 seconds, so no big deal - if we were down for 15 minutes it would have screwed up the entire day due to the "snowball effect" (the more we wait here, the longer waits are the rest of the day). Total wait ended up being about two minutes.
As a side note - I love Tower of Terror - it's one of the best theme park attractions in the world.
Total Wait for Attraction: 2 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 2 minutes
As a side note - I love Tower of Terror - it's one of the best theme park attractions in the world.
Total Wait for Attraction: 2 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 2 minutes
Attraction 4 - Star Tours (9:30am)
At boarding gate for Star Tours
Final attraction for Hollywood Studios was Star Tours. We had maybe a 3 minute wait before boarding Star Tours.
We enjoyed our podrace and also had fun saying hello to Jar Jar Binks - why couldn't we crash into him - it would improve the ride to see Jar Jar get smashed...
Total Wait for Attraction: 3 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 5 minutes
We enjoyed our podrace and also had fun saying hello to Jar Jar Binks - why couldn't we crash into him - it would improve the ride to see Jar Jar get smashed...
Total Wait for Attraction: 3 minutes
Total Wait for day so far: 5 minutes
Disney Hollywood Studios - CHECK!
As of 9:47, we were walking (quickly) back to the car.
End result - we managed to visit the four biggest attractions at Hollywood Studios, which would have a combined TWO AND A HALF HOURS of waiting for someone who arrives at 10:30am, but we waited a grand total of FIVE MINUTES.
Oh, and what about our unused Toy Story Mania Fastpasses? We found a dad and child entering the park, and gave them to them. I'm sure they appreciated thatwe saved them a 60 minute wait! Always fun to help someone else out.
Stay tuned - the next blog entry will discuss park #2 of the four park adventure - Epcot! Can we get around the hour-plus wait of Soarin'?
Read the rest of this blog series
Part 1 - List of attractions visited
Part 2 - How to plan for such a challenge
Part 3 - Hollywood Studios recap
Part 4 - Epcot recap
Part 5 - Animal Kingdom recap
Part 6 - Magic Kingdom recap
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts
End result - we managed to visit the four biggest attractions at Hollywood Studios, which would have a combined TWO AND A HALF HOURS of waiting for someone who arrives at 10:30am, but we waited a grand total of FIVE MINUTES.
Oh, and what about our unused Toy Story Mania Fastpasses? We found a dad and child entering the park, and gave them to them. I'm sure they appreciated thatwe saved them a 60 minute wait! Always fun to help someone else out.
Stay tuned - the next blog entry will discuss park #2 of the four park adventure - Epcot! Can we get around the hour-plus wait of Soarin'?
Read the rest of this blog series
Part 1 - List of attractions visited
Part 2 - How to plan for such a challenge
Part 3 - Hollywood Studios recap
Part 4 - Epcot recap
Part 5 - Animal Kingdom recap
Part 6 - Magic Kingdom recap
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts
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