Day 8 - Four Parks, One World, One Day
Originally I had planned to also do the open water swim at Daytona Beach on Sunday, so my flight back to Raleigh wasn't until Monday morning again. But after breaking a toe in June and having to take some time off from the water, I decided not to do the swim since it was a 5k. So the new plan was to try and go to each park and hit the major rides. I've done this one other time when I've been in Orlando for the Rowdy Gains meet, but that was smaller since I had to swim from 2pm to 8pm. That time I rope dropped MK, did the major rides (7 Dwarfs, Pan, Thunder, Pirates, Space, Buzz, Splash) then hopped to AK for Everest, went to swim, then did Test Track and Soarin' at Epcot and Star Tours, Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios during extra magic hours.
This plan was much bigger. I had Hollywood Studios opening on Extra Magic hours at 7am and I had gotten into the V.I. Passholder event at MK that night. So 7 am to midnight in the Disney Parks. Since it was extra magic hours at HS, I did fast passes at Animal Kingdom for Flight of Passage, Safari, and Everest. I was not going for every ride in every park, but I wanted to do as much as I could. I broke the day into segments, 7-10am at HS, 10-2 at AK, 2-6 at Epcot, 6-12 at MK.
So up at 6 am and off to Hollywood Studios. I went straight for Slinky Dog, got the s'mores french toast in Toy Story Land (Highly recommend, but it's a big portion and very sweet, very shareable), mid-way mania, Tower of Terror, Rockin' Roller coaster was down so I went to Star Tours, then muppets to see if RnR would open and then even though the app said it was still closed, walked over to the coaster and it had just opened up. 9:50 a picture in front of the Theater and I was off to Animal Kingdom.
I moved my Safari fast pass up so it was straight there for some animals. I then moved Everest up to 10:10 and I headed there right after the Safari. It was getting hot at the hottest park. Everest was a blast and I decided my challenge would be to ride all the roller coasters. This meant a trip to primeval whirl after Everest. I then tried for Dinosaur but it was broken, so I went to see Tough to be a bug since the last time I did that my boys were 4 & 5 and we had to leave during the Hopper part. Then I went to Pandora for lunch at the Satu'li Canteena to get those Bao Buns that I missed the week before (very good) and then on to Flight of Passage. While waiting in Flight of Passage I was able to secure a Soarn' fast pass for Epcot. I picture in front of the Tree and off to Epcot.
So into Epcot I went, now determined to use Fast Passes as much as possible. This park seemed empty the whole time I was there. I think due to the time of day and the heat, everyone was somewhere else. After Soarin', I went on the land, Imagination, Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Test Track (signal rider), and Frozen. I decided that I needed to walk around World Showcase as well. A quick picture on the way out and now it was time for the last park on the list.
I had a dinner reservation at Diamond Horseshoe at 7:15, and knowing that this is the most difficult hop, I planned extra time. I got a quick picture in front of the castle and noticed that main street was really empty. I hit the Muppet show near hall of presidents and then headed for Dinner. The food here is outstanding. The brisket in my opinion was better than some of the local BBQ joints in the Raleigh Durham Area. Dinner was great, and I now needed to get my band for Passholder night and my fast pass for Splash.
The Passholder night checkin was at Tortuga, across from Pirates, so I headed there after dinner. The line to check in was all the way back to carpets, so I decided to stop back later, I had a fast pass, so why wait in a line. After Splash there was no line to check in, so I got my band and went on Pirates. While in line for Pirates I got a fast pass for Pooh Bear and formulated a plan to work my way there during the fireworks and then go from there. After Pirates I then headed towards Fantasy Land, but I noticed that Country Bears was just about to start and it had been awhile since I'd seen it. So off to country bears. During the show I could hear the fireworks, and I was thinking that I missed a chance at Pan. So after the country bears I headed for Thunder instead to take advantage of the short line. Then off to Pooh for the fast pass as the park closed and switched to the Passholder event.
When I came off Pooh, my first thought was 7 dwarfs since it was right there, but so was everyone else. It was a mob scene as the queue still had about 40 minutes of people and the passholders were using the fast pass queue. So off to Haunted Mansion. I walked right into the stretching room even though it said the wait was 20 minutes. (I know the wait time now since I was caught on one of the blogger's videos from the passholder night. He was complaining about the wait time and I get in line.) From there I did some things that were not well thought out, but I was getting tired. Since I had done most of the one side of the park, and 7 dwarfs was long, I decided to head for Space Mtn. Only issue was, it was down, so when I got to tomorrow land I decided to do Buzz instead. Then the thought of the people mover when Space is down, but that was not included in the passholder night. But no worries, Space had just opened back up. Coming off of space, I thought of my original challenge of all the roller coasters. I was still doing well and had about an hour to get Goofy's and 7 dwarfs so down the TRON smoking path to Goofy I went. After Goofy I thought of Dumbo, but with a 20 minute wait, I wasn't interested. I then went to Little Mermaid and then got in line for 7 dwarfs with about 30 minutes left in the night. Coaster challenge complete. I was able to run to Pan after 7 dwarfs and got one last ride in before the night was done.
Some statistics from my adventure. 17 hours, 30 rides, 41,835 steps, 20.07 miles (which doesn't include walking from Pan out of the park to the parking lot and out to my car)
I got back to the hotel after 1 pm and got up at 3:30 to fly back Raleigh. Overall a great swim meet, a really fun time. Next trip in October for the Rowdy Gains Classic.