At 1:10, we arrived at Animal Kingdom, our third park of the day!  Afternoon is when the crowds are the biggest at the parks - will we be able to get through our Animal Kingdom itinerary quickly, even with several waits posted at 30-40 minutes? Using a handful of relatively simple tricks, you'll see how I was successful:

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
Coming Soon:
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts

Fastpass return times for the Safaris were 1:55-2:55 - only 40 minutes out.  And the posted wait time was 45 minutes out.  I never understand why ANYONE would get in a 45 minute standby line in that situation - wouldn't you rather spend 40 minutes out of line than 45 minutes in line?  Go get a snack.  Sit down.  Or go visit another attraction!  Any of those is preferable to standing in line! The only reason I can think of is a lack of understanding of the Fastpass system.

Anyway, with Kilimanjaro Safaris fastpasses in hand, it was time to visit other attractions.

This was easier than anticipated.  The cold temperatures led to non-existant lines at this water ride (though it was still a pleasant 65 degrees and sunny - seemed warm to this Chicagoan!)

This attraction is always a crapshoot on how wet you get.  You can't tell very well from the photo, but I got SOAKED on the big drop!  Oh well - it may have been cool, but it was sunny, so I'd dry relatively quickly!

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 21 minutes

Navigating the park was our biggest challenge at this point - the crowds were big and there was all sorts of entertainment blocking pathways and slowing us down. Regardless, we made our way through the significant crowds, making our way to Expedition Everest.

Expedition Everest (a fantastic coaster with a great surprise in the middle) has a single-rider line - single riders are used to fill up empty seats on trains - as long as you don't mind being split up with your party, it can lead to much shorter waits. The "regular" posted wait was 40 minutes.  In the single-rider line, we waited... 3 minutes!

Total Wait for Attraction: 3 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 24 minutes

Since our Fastpass time had come up for Kilimanjaro Safaris, it was time to get our next Fastpass.  Dinosaur had the longest waits, so we got a Fastpass for it.

Next, we headed back to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  The wait was about 3 minutes to board using our Fastpasses.

We got to see the new zebra display (just opened a few days beforehand).  I'm pretty happy they've finally got rid of the "poacher" story to the attraction, and have made it all about the animals.  It's very well done - I've talked to people who have done a real African safari, and they say it is quite authentic.

Total Wait for Attraction: 3 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 27 minutes

My brother and partner-in-crime for this adventure had to leave, as he had to go to a conference in Orlando.  I walked back to the car with him (I had left my phone charger in the car, and it was on fumes). He would join up with me again in the late evening.

Primeval Whirl is a pretty substandard ride for Disney - a basic "spinning mouse" coaster that's not even really themed - you can find a ride like this at your local amusement park. It's fun and so I guess it's worth your time, but it's nothing "special."

But since I'm trying to visit all the significant rides, and since this ride usually has long waits, I had to add it to the list!

I knew the long waits of two hours ago would be a thing of the past by 3pm - especially with the early park opening, most people would be "done" with Animal Kingdom and heading out by now.  And those who were staying were going to head to the parade starting in 45 minutes.  The parade is in a completely different section of the park, so people wouldn't be here!  That meant my wait was about 3 minutes.

Total Wait for Attraction: 3 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 30 minutes

Final attraction of the day for Animal Kingdom was Dinosaur.  Using my Fastpass, I waited perhaps two minutes.

I was seated next to two young kids - their parents were in the row behind them.  I was worried they'd be freaked out (some kids do freak on Dinosaur) and warned their parents it's "intense", but their parents assured me they're "daredevils." And they took it completely in stride!

Total Wait for Attraction: 2 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 32 minutes

Animal Kingdom is now complete! At this point, it was 3:30pm, and only one park remained - the Magic Kingdom! 

However, before heading to the Magic Kingdom, I decided to take a short break.  There were three reasons a break was absolutely necessary:

• I had walked many miles, completely nonstop, and needed to rest for a little bit.
• I was extremely hungry.
• My phone was almost dead.

So instead of heading directly to the Magic Kingdom, I took a bus to the Contemporary Resort.  There, I ordered some food at Contempo Cafe, found a quiet place to sit, and recharged my phone's (and my) batteries for 30 minutes.

In case you're keeping score, at this point, I had visited the 16 biggest attractions at Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, and waited a grand total of 32 minutes.  To put that in perspective:

• That's an average of 2 minute wait per attraction.
• My total of 32 minutes waiting is shorter than most people wait for a single attraction! (Less than half the wait at Toy Story Mania)

Next post is the big one - the Magic Kingdom.  Can I visit EVERY major attraction at the Magic Kingdom if I get there at 5:00pm on an extremely busy day?

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
Coming Soon:
Part 7 - Final concluding thoughts

We laughed as we were arriving at Epcot - it was 10:00am, and lots of people were just arriving to start their day.  But we had already experienced every major attraction at Disney Hollywood Studios, and this was our second park of the day! We knew the first thing that must be done - head to Soarin', but not to ride.

Getting Soarin' Fastpasses 
Anyone who has ever been to Epcot knows that Soarin' has the longest lines, and also the return times for Fastpass are the furthest out.  So we had to rush to Soarin' to get Fastpasses before the times were pushed too far out.

Happily, the return time was excellent - 12:05-1:05, or only two hours away.  So the goal was to visit the rest of Epcot in those two hours!

At 10:15, while everyone else is either in line for Soarin' or going like lemmings to Spaceship Earth, we were able to walk onto The Seas with Nemo.  While there was literally no wait at all, we were slowed down by people walking VERY slowly through the long queue for this attraction. - probably cost us two valuable minutes.  So I sort of want to count that long slow walk as a "wait" but technically there was no wait, so I won't.

Nemo is a very nicely done ride that sets the stage for the rest of the Living Seas pavilion.  And the technology that makes it look like Nemo and friends are swimming with real fish is very well done.  We did laugh at one point when a real shark started swimming towards Nemo and his friends!

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 5 minutes

Staying in the Future World West portion of Epcot, we headed to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. There was no wait, as expected.

As always, I felt this attraction is missing something.  You'd think Disney could do a killer attraction about imagination, but it just lacks something.  Kids are usually amused by it, but overall it just seems a little, uh, unimaginative.

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 5 minutes

Time to hit one of the "big guns" of Epcot.

Crowd levels were generally light at Epcot at this time (I suspect partially because the Food and Wine Festival was about to get people to  head to the World Showcase portion of Epcot).  So it was time for Mission: Space.  I was anticipating a 10-15 minute wait but ended up with about a 4 minute wait.

And in case you're curious, we chose the "Green" experience (non-spinning centrifuge) instead of "Orange" (spinning centrifuge).  Usually I'd pick Orange, but I couldn't take the chance of nausea this early in the day! Regardless, it's a pretty well done space launch simulation.

Total Wait for Attraction: 4 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 9 minutes

It was 11:00am.  We still had an hour until our Mission: Space Fastpass, so we decided to visit World Showcase and add in some more attractions.  First country visited was Mexico, and the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride.  It has been improved with the addition of the Three Caballeros, but I still pretty much consider it a clone of It's a Small World except the geography is limited to Mexico...

Regardless, there was no wait!

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 9 minutes

On to Norway! Maelstrom is a cute boat ride through Norway, with a nifty backwards section after a three-headed troll "curses" you.  Too short, but fun.

Once again, arriving only shortly after World Showcase was open, there was no wait for us.

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 9 minutes

I'm not counting this as an attraction (though I probably should), but we walked through the rest of World Showcase.  Epcot's Food and Wine Festival was going on at the time, and we tried several samples of food (no wine - too much to do for that to be a good idea).  The shredded pork lettuce wraps from a Korean booth were incredible.  Also a fan of the lamb meatball from a New Zealand booth.

Here are photos of me in each Epcot country - you'll notice I'm usually holding some sort of food! I also visited Club Cool to try sodas from around the world

Finally, the Soarin' Fastpass time has arrived!

As usual, there was a moderate wait for Soarin' even using the Fastpass - about 12 minutes.  This is to be expected with Soarin' even using Fastpass - it's one of the few attractions where you will still have a wait (albeit much shorter) using Fastpass.

It's fun to note that the 12 minutes of waiting for Soarin' is longer than the first nine attractions I've visited... combined!

Total Wait for Attraction:  12 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 21 minutes

Final attraction of Epcot was Spaceship Earth.  There was no wait (free tip of the day - save Spaceship Earth for last - many people visit it first since it's at the front of the park - we were calling these people the lemmings - the lines decrease dramatically later in the day once all the lemmings have ridden it.)

Spaceship Earth is very well done (other than the "descent" at the end, which is kind of lame) and after already having walked several miles, I enjoyed sitting for fifteen minutes or so!

Total Wait for Attraction: 0 minutes
Total Wait for entire day so far: 21 minutes

Before 1pm (when, amazingly, some people are still just arriving for the day), we had completed the seven biggest attractions at Epcot, (along with the four biggest attractions at Hollywood Studios). In addition, we visited each country pavilion in World Showcase and got several food samples from the Food and Wine Festival.

And if you're curious about Test Track - unfortunately it was closed for renovations, so we couldn't include it in the quest.  Perhaps next time!

So after completing every major attraction at Epcot, it was time to head to our third Disney park of the day - Animal Kingdom! It was early afternoon - when the infamous Disney crowds hit their peak.  Check in to the next blog entry to see if we will be able to successfully tour Animal Kingdom while still leaving enough time for the Magic Kingdom at night!

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

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.

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.)

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!

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.

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.

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

In today's entry, I'm going to discuss the planning that I did for the "Four Disney Parks in One Day" challenge. There were several steps I took - I'll walk you through them all here:

Step 1 - Figure out the "must visit" attractions
This was extremely important - to make this an impressive achievement, I needed not only to visit a lot of attractions, but I needed to visit the best attractions.  Anyone could get 25 rides done in a day - just get on the Peoplemover when the park opens and stay on for 25 straight runs.  Big deal.  What I wanted to do was visit the biggest rides - the ones everyone talks about when they get home, the ones with the huge lines, the ones that make Disney Disney.  So I went through the list of attractions and made the "must do" list.  My initial list was the following attractions:
Magic Kingdom - Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean
Epcot - Soarin', Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth (I would have also included Test Track but it is currently under refurbishment)
Hollywood Studios - Star Tours, Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock N Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror
Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur

That's 17 attractions.  I added the next layer of "appealing, well known attractions" to get up to a list of 25, which became my goal.  And then I noted other potential attractions that I would try to fit in if possible. Generally I avoided the long show-type attractions as fillers (as they take more time), though you'll see I ended up visiting many of the biggest "show" attractions anyway!

Step 2 - Figure out the best day to visit

I needed to pick a day that fits two criteria:

1. The parks needed to have long operating hours
2. Crowd levels need to be moderate (there is no such thing as "light" crowds at Disney World any more, but there are definitely less crowded times and more crowded times.)

When I advise Optimal Magic clients about best times to visit, I actually don't worry about sending them to the parks on crowded days.  With the exception of the week after Christmas and a couple of other days of the year, you can easily avoid all the crowds and long lines, and have a great time at Disney World, regardless of the overall crowd level.

However for this challenge, crowds were going to be more of an issue. It's physically impossible to be at all four parks at opening (the least crowded time of day).  So I needed to pick a day where I could successfully tour a park in the afternoon (the busiest time of day).

When looking at calendars over the month of October, October 29th stood out as a perfect day.  Three factors made it ideal:

1. October has more moderate crowds than other times of year.
2. Animal Kingdom had morning "Extra Magic Hours" opening at 8am.
3. Magic Kingdom had evening "Extra Magic Hours" and was open until 1am.

Step 3 - Figure out best times to visit each attraction, and create a plan for each park:


I know when rides are busier and when they're less busy - it's the underlying data that drives all my recommendations.  I also know that there are certain attractions that will have extremely long lines, and I was going to have to slot them first.  There are several attractions that have lines that build to over 60 minutes, and at least a dozen more that would have expected waits of 30 minutes.  I simply could not wait in any of these long lines.  Unfortunately, the "arrive at the park first thing in the morning" strategy wouldn't work for all of them, because these long-line attractions are spread among four parks! So I had to determine a strategy to avoid these lines even with these major constraints:

When looking at all the variables, it became crystal clear that the first park to visit simply had to be Disney Hollywood Studios.  Toy Story Mania builds to 60 minute waits in the first 30 minutes the park is open.  In addition, the Fastpasses for this attraction disappear extremely quickly. So unless I wanted to wait an hour or more for Toy Story Mania, it had to be first.  In addition, the other major attractions at Hollywood Studios build big lines (30-60 minutes) relatively quickly.

The other easy park to figure out was the Magic Kingdom - with Extra Hours until 1am (four hours after the other parks close), it was a no-brainer to head there last.

That leaves two other parks - Epcot and Animal Kingdom.  Of the two, Epcot has the ride with the longest waits and latest Fastpass return times - Soarin'.  So I planned to head to Epcot next and check out the Fastpass situation for Soarin'.  I estimated that I could complete the four major attractions at Hollywood Studios in a little over an hour and be at Epcot by 10:30.  My plan was to get Soarin' Fastpasses, and if the return time was early enough, visit the rest of Epcot at that time.  If not, I planned to head to Animal Kingdom, and return to Epcot later in the afternoon.

So the overall order was set:

• Hollywood Studios
• Epcot (get Fastpass for Soarin' and then make a call on whether to stay or come back later)
• Animal Kingdom
• Return to Epcot if necessary for Soarin'
• Magic Kingdom

Once this order was set, I used my custom-built Optimal Magic planning tools to put together a rough plan for each park, so I could visit attractions at their least busy times, and also use Fastpass as best as possible. Because I needed to optimize my trip on the fly (every second counted), I also created ridiculously complex sheets with wait estimates and contingency plans for various possibilities (don't worry - the plans I make for my clients don't have the complexities and are MUCH easier to understand, but work just as well as long as you're not visiting four parks in one day!)

In addition, I downloaded Disney's excellent "My Disney Experience" app, which has real-time wait and Fastpass return time info (not always 100% accurate, but a good guide for on-the-fly decision-making).

Step 4 - Test run
No - I didn't fly down to Disney for a test run.  However, I noticed that October 22nd was a very similar day to my planned visit day of October 29th (same season, same day of the week, and same operating hours).  So I used this day to run through my plans while looking at Disney's wait estimates through the day.  I know the walking time between attractions and the length of each attraction (all important data for any planning I do).  So I would continue through the plan, while checking Disney's estimated wait times throughout the day.

This test run was incredibly helpful.  I made many tweaks to my plan after this test.

Step 5 - head to Disney!
I flew down the day before, visited two parks (and walked 5 miles, which was probably stupid the day before a "marathon"), and then tried to get a good night's sleep!

Starting with the next post, I'll start walking through the entire day, attraction-by-attraction.  And I'll feature lots of photos of me at all four parks - you won't believe how much I got done!

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

On October 29, I completed the "Four Disney Parks in One Day" Challenge - I think it's safe to say I accomplished more in a single day at Walt Disney World than anyone else ever has.

In the upcoming days on this blog and my website, I'll run through the challenge in detail, including the planning that went into it, the good (and bad) luck I had along the way, and exactly how I managed to visit all four Disney World parks and 37 attractions (some that had waits of over an hour for most of the day) in a single day!  But for today, I want to give you a general sense of the size of this accomplishment with a few stats:

• Total Disney Parks visited: 4
• Arrival time at first park: 7:45am (75 minutes before opening
• Departure time at last park: 12:15am
• Total miles walked: 25
• Longest wait of the day: 12 minutes
• Attractions visited - 37

Thirty seven attractions?!? Yes, it's true - 37 attractions.  And not the "short line" attractions, but every single huge attraction in a single day. Some of these attractions had waits of 30, 45, 60 - even 70 minutes over the course of the day.  Here's the full list park-by-park (attractions are alphabetical - I'll give you the actual order in future posts.)

At Hollywood Studios:

• Rock N Roller Coaster
  
• Star Tours
  
• Tower of Terror
• Toy Story Midway Mania

At Epcot

•  Gran Fiesta Tour
• Journey into Your Imagination with Figment
• Living Seas with Nemo
• Maelstrom
• Mission: Space
• Soarin 
• Spaceship Earth
• I also visited every country of Epcot, got three items of food from the Food and Wine Festival, and visited Club Cool to try sodas from around the world (I don't count these as "attractions" but I probably should!)

At Animal Kingdom

• Dinosaur
• Expedition Everest
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimajaro Safaris
• Primeval Whirl

At the Magic Kingdom

• Aladdin's Magic Carpets
• Barnstormer
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear
• Carousel of Progress
• Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Dumbo
• Haunted Mansion
• It's a Small World
• Jungle Cruise
• Mad Tea Party
• Peoplemover
• Peter Pan
• Philharmagic
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain
• Stitch's Great Escape
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Winnie the Pooh
• I also watched the Wishes Fireworks show as well as the Main Street Electrical Parade (though I didn't count these on my list of 37 attractions - once again, I probably should).

Simply enough - it took a lot of planning and preparation. In my next post in this series, I will discuss the strategies I used before the day of the trip to plan out this endeavor. Then in future posts, I'll go through each day of the trip.

In the meantime, please consider making a donation to Make-A-Wish - thanks!

Just a quick note to say I completed the "Four Disney Parks in One Day" challenge yesterday, October 29.  I'll give a full blow-by-blow recap in the near future (I'm recovering from 25 miles of walking right now and need to recuperate...).  It's something you're not going to want to miss - you won't believe how much I accomplished in one day!  It was more than I expected myself!

Stay tuned.  In the meantime, I am still raising money for Make-A-Wish - please consider donating to Make-A-Wish by clicking here.

Just six days to go until my "Four Parks and 25 Rides in One Day" challenge, to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  If you haven't yet read about it, you can learn about my quest to visit every major attraction at Disney World in one day here.

I'll be conducting the challenge next Monday, October 29.  I have been spending countless hours optimizing my route to avoid as many lines as possible, and so this challenge can be successfully completed.

I used yesterday as a dress rehearsal of sorts - I looked at wait times throughout the day (using Disney's "My Disney Experience - Walt Disney World" app, which has real-time updates of wait times throughout the day).  Why yesterday?  Simply enough, October 22nd was a good proxy for October 29 crowd-wise:

• It's a Monday - same day of the week
• The park hours were the same for all four parks
• Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party was scheduled for the day before and after, same as next week
• It's the same time of year

It's reasonable to assume that crowd patterns on October 29 will be at least somewhat similar to October 22.  While I already have a good idea of the crowd levels and how the crowds usually flow, I need an even greater level of precision for this challenge to make it possible.

So here's what I have learned from my dress rehearsal:

1) No surprise, but visiting Hollywood Studios first is a very good idea.  Much as I expected, the only way to get on Toy Story Mania without a long wait is to head there first.  Fastpass won't work, because Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania disappear so quickly. So the first part of the plan is unchanged.

2) The original plan was to head to Epcot second and finish off that park.  However, somewhat surprisingly, I saw that crowd levels were extremely high in the mid morning (and I anticipate arriving mid-morning - around 10:45).  And yet, the crowd levels faded in the later afternoon. I suspect this is due to the Food and Wine festival at Epcot - people get to the park early and ride the rides, then head to Food and Wine when it begins.

Therefore, I'm making a change in my strategy - I'm still heading to Epcot and getting a Soarin' Fastpass (aiming for a return time around 3:00-4:00 - if it's earlier than that I'll experience one attraction and then get the Fastpass).  After I get the Fastpass,  I'm heading to Animal Kingdom, with a plan to return to Epcot later in the day.

3) Animal Kingdom appeared to have very light crowds.  I anticipate I can finish this part of the tour in a few hours and then head back to Epcot.

4) Epcot in the mid/late afternoon is the next stop.  I don't anticipate major waits (and have a Fastpass for Soarin')

5) Final stop is Magic Kingdom, hopefully arriving by 6pm.  Disney has added an hour to operating times - the park is now open until 1am (including the three extra magic hours).  Crowd levels really died down by 11pm - I anticipate I should be able to complete all of the Magic Kingdom, though I may be running around at midnight to get it done!

Conclusion - it will pay to be flexible!

One thing that's notable about this exercise - flexibility will be key.  Crowd levels do change dramatically in the afternoon, and there is high variance.  I usually have my customers avoid afternoons in the parks - the mornings and evenings have lighter crowds (and are more predictable).  However, when trying to visit all four parks in a day, this simply isn't possible - I need to spend every moment I can in a park. So I'm going to have to check wait times and adjust on the fly much more so than normal.

The one other thing I noticed - even though I wasn't actually walking/running around - I was just checking wait times throughout the day - I still got mentally exhausted by the end of the day!  Adding in 12-15 miles of walking is going to make this a difficult endurance challenge!  And I haven't built in meal times.  Hmm... may need to go back to the drawing board on that one!

Be sure so follow along on Twitter on next Monday - I'll be posting photos and updates throughout the day!

In my last post I detailed my plans for visiting all four Disney World parks and the 25 biggest attractions - a week's worth of attractions - in one day! I'm over 30% of my way to my goal of raising $1000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation - if you haven't done so yet, please consider donating today! As I've been further analyzing the optimal plans for touring, I've made a few changes. I thought I'd mention them now:

Change #1 - Early Morning at Animal Kingdom is OUT
This may seem strange - Animal Kingdom opens an hour earlier than the other parks, so it only seems to make sense to visit it first, even if for just a few attractions. In fact, my initial plan was to experience two attractions at Animal Kingdom (Expedition Everest and Primeval Whirl) 

However, under further review, I have decided this is simply a bad idea.  Here's why:

Even if I'm the first person in the park, and on the first ride of Expedition Everest, I probably won't be done with that attraction by 8:10.  Add in Primeval Whirl, and it's 8:20.  Run back to the car and drive to Hollywood Studios, and I get there at 8:45-8:50.

Here's the problem - Hollywood Studios often opens 10-15 minutes early, as early as 8:45.  If I arrive right at opening, and several people are in line at the turnstiles ahead of me, I will not be on the first Toy Story Mania ride - it's going to cost me an extra 10 minutes or more.  That ten minute delay will mean delays for the other attractions at Hollywood Studios.  Ultimately, it could cost me 30 minutes or more at Hollywood Studios.  And that means arriving at Epcot 30 minutes later, leading to longer waits at Epcot as well.  This could lead to an hour delay or longer!

Instead, I will plan to visit Expedition Everest in the late afternoon with the rest of Animal Kingdom. Expedition Everest has a "single rider line" so I can get through it with minimal delay around 3:00.

Change #2 - Ariel's Undersea Adventure is (likely) out
As has been reported many places, the Fantasyland Expansion has been open off-and-on for the last week. so I added Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  But since that point I've learned that it is unlikely that the Fantasyland Expansion will be open when I'm there (unfortunately).  So I'm going to add a new attraction to the list to get back up to 25.  I'm debating the Jungle Cruise, Peoplemover, or Barnstormer.

Revised High-level Summary

If you haven't read my previous two posts yet (or visited my page describing my quest), I am going to try to visit all four Disney World parks in one day on October 29.  And here's the tough part - I'm going to try to visit 25 attractions at the parks, including all the "biggest" attractions.  Yes, in one day! As far as I know, this has never before been done successfully. And as I'm planning, I'm not sure I'll be able to do it either!

You may be wondering how I plan to accomplish this task.  So I'm going to give you a high-level sense of my planning so far.  I use similar planning techniques for my Optimal Magic customers.  However, this is far more complex than the plans for my customers, because in essence, I'm trying to experience a week's worth of attractions in one day!  And unfortunately, unlike my customers, I'm going to have to wait in some lines.

Constraints
First, here the constraints:
Park Hours
Animal Kingdom is open 8am-5pm (including morning Extra Magic Hours)
Magic Kingdom is open 9am-12am (including evening Extra Magic Hours)
Epcot is open 9am-9pm
Hollywood Studios is open 9am-8pm

Traveling - I will have access to a car from 7am-2pm, but not after (my brother will accompany me the first half of the day before he has to head to a trade show in the afternoon, and he's taking the car).

Attraction List - The 25 attractions I'm planning to visit are listed here - there are at least four attractions at each park (and the four "biggest" at each park, as well).

The biggest problem - Soarin' and Toy Story Midway Mania
Here's the deal - the two toughest attractions to complete without waiting in lines are Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios and Soarin' at Epcot.  Both have long lines 10 minutes after their respective parks open, and their Fastpass times go through the roof early (so it's not an option).  That means I need to be at one of those two rides right at opening (and suck it up and deal with a wait for the other).  I think Hollywood Studios is a better place to go to first, because the other rides I'm experiencing at Hollywood Studios (Rock N Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours) all can have long lines, so I should pick them off early before the lines build.

However, you may notice that Animal Kingdom opens an hour earlier.  While I'm less concerned about hitting all the Animal Kingdom attractions, every moment counts.  So my thought is to quickly take in one or two Animal Kingdom attractions, then get to Hollywood Studios for its opening.

So here's the step-by-step strategy:
Start at Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hour
7:00am - be at Animal Kingdom parking lot (need as close a parking spot as possible)
8:00am - get to Expedition Everest - be on the first train
Next, there's likely only time for one more ride - gonna go with Primeval Whirl (sort of on the way back to the front of the park, and short)
By 8:15 I need to run back to the car, and drive to Hollywood Studios.  I hope to make it to the front by park opening.

Next to Hollywood Studios
8:45 - Start Hollywood Studios plan.  This is pretty easy - I simply MUST get to Toy Story Mania as fast as possible, followed by Tower of Terror, Rock 'N Roller Coaster (singles line), and Star Tours.  Still haven't decided proper order of Tower of Terror and Rock 'N Roller Coaster

By 10:30 I'm hoping I'm done with Hollywood Studios, and can get to Epcot by 11:00am.

Onward to Epcot
Epcot is going to present a problem - at 11:00am I anticipate an hour wait for Soarin, and Fastpass return times too late to use.  I'm probably going to just have to deal with the Soarin' line.  My thought is to get a Mission: Space Fastpass, then hit Soarin, The Seas, Journey into Imagination and then Mission: Space, saving Spaceship Earth for last (as the lines get shorter as the day goes on at Spaceship Earth).  I hope to be out of Epcot by 1:15pm.

Back to Animal Kingdom!
At this point, I need to get back to Animal Kingdom and finish off the park.  Unfortunately, my brother and partner in crime has to leave me at this point for a conference (what kind of priorities does he have?!?).  So he'll drop me off at Animal Kingdom, and I'm going solo.  If I arrive by 1:50, I still have to experience Kali River Rapids, It's Tough to be a Bug, Dinosaur, and Kilamajaro Safari's.  I'll probably get a Fastpass for one of Kali and the Safari's, hit the other attractions, then return to use my Fastpass.  I think I can get out of the park by 4:15 (I'm counting on crowds to fade starting at parade time if I get in trouble).

To the Magic Kingdom (finally!)
I hope to arrive at the Magic Kingdom by 5:00 at the latest.  Unfortunately, the Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom bus stops at the TTC and adds a monorail trip (more time!).  So if I see a Contemporary Resort bus, I'm taking that instead.  Then I can run from the Contemporary Resort to the Magic Kingdom entrance.  (Though I'm pretty much taking the first bus to a Magic Kingdom area resort I can find).

As far as the Magic Kingdom plan, it's going to take some creativity. I have 11 attractions to hit in 7 hours.  Sounds pretty doable - I'm still working on the optimal plan, but I'm sure I can come up with something.  The key (beyond usual Fastpass strategies) is to hold off until later for the longest line attractions where Fastpass isn't a viable strategy (like Peter Pan).

Conclusion - will this even be possible?
To tell the truth, I have no idea if this will work or not. 25 attractions at four parks in one day is insane.  And I have several "points of concern":

• Making rope drop at Hollywood Studios.  I miss rope drop by 15 minutes could cost me over three hours over the course of the day (because of the snowball effect - each wait makes the next wait longer). Part of me wants to forget about morning hours at Animal Kingdom to ens
• The Soarin' wait.  Can't avoid it.  Hope it's not that bad!
• Walking/running over 15 miles - I run 5K races with my daughter every so often, so I'm not totally out of shape, but I haven't run more than four miles in a day in over a decade!
• When will I eat?
• What if a ride breaks down when I'm in line?  Or (even worse) when I'm on it?  If I lose an hour of time sitting on a broken-down attraction, I'm toast.

What are my odds of succeeding?  I'm going to say maybe 25%.  I'm fairly confident I can get to 20 attractions (heck, I KNOW I could get to 20 it if I just cut out Toy Story, Soarin', and three attractions at Animal Kingdom, but that's cheating). So we'll see! Don't forget to follow my Twitter page for updates (live as long as my phone survives on the day of the challenge)

And finally, a reminder - I am trying to use this crazy stunt to raise money for Make-A-Wish foundation.  Please consider making a donation - you can do so at this link.  

If you read my previous post, you know that on Monday, October 29, I'm going to attempt to visit all four Disney World parks in one day, and experience the 25 biggest (and longest-line) attractions at the parks.  I'll write more about how I plan to accomplish it in later posts.

For today, however, I wanted to let you know that I'm using this crazy stunt to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation's mission is as follows - "We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy." As you probably know, Make-A-Wish helps many sick children visit Disney World - in fact, more than 40% of all wishes granted involve the Disney Company. So as I'm going on this Disney World adventure, I thought it would be a good thing to also help children with life-threatening medical conditions can also go on their own Disney adventure.

Please consider making a donation - I have created a donation webpage using the donation service Razoo - 97.1% of donation dollars go to Make-A-Wish (which is the highest percentage I could find and quite good when you consider usual credit card fees).  To donate, you can visit this link - in addition, I am going to make a donation page on my website very soon.

Thanks, and I'll be writing more as I prepare for the Four Disney Parks and 25 Attractions in One Day Challenge, so stay tuned!