*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*
Hey there, pals!
Things got eventful at fairy school this week with a Fairy Godmother in Training graduating fairy school and the Marketplace half of Disney Springs losing completely power due to a massive thunderstorm! It meant that the Fairy Godmothers in Training had a few difficulties with their studying. Talk about getting ready for the spooky season…
This week, I went on two fairy school field trips. One was to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at the Magic Kingdom and the other was to Mousegear at Epcot! Both of my field trips were incredibly fun and I learnt a lot, especially at Mousegear, which I can now show and tell to my fairy classmates.
Originally on my Disney Academic Exchange Program bucket list, I wanted to do the four parks in one day challenge. But, I decided to make things more difficult and down to the wire by extending my challenge to completing all six Walt Disney World Resort parks in one day – four theme parks and two water parks! So, 6 rides, 6 snacks, 6 character meet and greets and 6 photos all within park operation hours...
It was during this fortnight that I attempted the 6 PARKS 1 DAY challenge... Originally on my bucket list I had the 4 parks 1 day challenge, but seeming as I hadn't been to the water parks yet this trip, and with Blizzard Beach soon closing for refurbishment and the blockout dates for Hollywood Studios around the corner, in preparation for the grand opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, I decided to extend my challenge to include all 6 parks on Disney property. So, 6 rides, 6 snacks, 6 character meet n greets and 6 photos...
The night before my challenge, I thought of tactics to give me the best possible chance of completing my challenge. Ideally, I would plan my trips around each park’s operation hours.
And so, first up was Hollywood Studios! This was because Hollywood Studios had the earliest closing time on the day that I attempted the challenge. I arrived at the park nice and early to make sure that I made the most of the short wait times. Once opened, I rushed over to the Twilight Zone’s Tower of Terror for my first ride. I decided to wait in line a good ride, as I would most likely be waiting in line for rides with a short wait time.
However, as soon as I arrived to the attraction entrance, there were a bunch of Cast Members hanging around that area saying that Tower of Terror was down due to technical difficulties. The Cast Members advised everyone to come back within the next hour. But, this was time that I could not afford to lose! The thought process I had was the wait time would shoot up if I had walked away when the attraction re-opened. So, I took a risk and waited patiently for the attraction to re-open. Luckily, the delays only lasted for about 5 minutes and I was able to drop in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Although I lost a vital 40 minutes, I had a really good ride!
Already behind schedule, I went to Starbucks in Hollywood Studios to grab an on-the-go breakfast. Then, I was heading over to the Celebrity Spotlight area to meet Olaf, as our favourite Disney snowman was on a less than 5 minute wait - a perfect way to try and speed up time!
Park 1, DONE!
Next stop was Blizzard Beach – the first of the two water parks. During my transition from Hollywood Studios to Blizzard Beach, I had to stop off at a resort before changing onto another bus to the water parks. I did not realise that this was going to slow me down massively with getting to and from the parks! In the midst of all this, I managed to grab an ‘I'm Celebrating’ badge showcasing the challenge that I'm undertaking. Plus, I utilised the travelling time to work out how long I should be spending at each park, which I calculated to be just under two hours at each park.
Once I arrived at Blizzard Beach and had locked all my stuff away in a locker, I found that the slalom slide was on a ridiculously short queue and I had never actually done this one before! It was actually really really exhilarating, meandering through the different twists and turns! Also, I managed to ride the lazy river, which was a Brucie bonus too!
I quickly at some lunch at Blizzard Beach, in which I bought myself a really delicious flatbread. As I was heading back to the entrance of the park to get changed, Goofy was doing a meet and greet, so I speedily (and safely!) hopped in line for that – literally the perfect timing! Now, unfortunately, my Photopass from the meet and greet never loaded onto my ‘My Disney Experience’ account. Therefore, you’re just going to have to trust me that I did meet Goofy and not try to cheat the rules of my challenge haha
Park 2, DONE!
With the majority of the day already gone, I was very relieved that it did not take me long to get to Typhoon Lagoon – the second of the two water parks. As I approached the entrance, in my head, I knew that my visit had to be quick. But, the Cast Members at the entrance were willing me on to complete my challenge! I did have a spanner thrown in the works while I was in line for one of the slides. It turns out that I was in line for a family raft ride that required a minimum of two rafters. I, on the other hand, was completely solo in doing this challenge. As a result, I had to awkwardly join another family in order to ride. In my defence, the signage around the slide’s entrance was not clear. However, I made it work and that’s all that matters!
Afterwards, I dried myself off and got changed just in time to meet Stitch. He was meeting in the same area of the park that I was in. My character meet and greets so far have been timed to absolute perfection. To save time even more at Typhoon Lagoon, I took my sweet treat with me on my journey to the next park.
Park 3, DONE – halfway there!
Thankfully, I only have park to park journeys after this next transition. Park number four was Disney’s Animal Kingdom. While I was on the bus to Animal Kingdom, I decided to have a look at the attraction wait times and plan out which element of my challenge I was going to complete, according to location in the park and wait times. To my despair, all of the ride wait times were longer than I had anticipated. So, my gut instincts told me to go for the single rider queue at Expedition Everest. Once I arrived at the single rider line entrance,I was shocked to see that this line was longer than I had expected too! I had no option but to go for it. I reckon I waited about 15 to 20mins, which honestly could have been a lot worse!
Then, I did a pit stop over at my bosses’ adventure outpost to let them know how I was getting on with my challenge. Mickey and Minnie both were super excited and they even told me they were going to dig a mouse tunnel all the way to the Magic Kingdom to celebrate with me. The question is, will I make it? Like Typhoon Lagoon, I grabbed another refreshing sweet treat to have on my way out of Animal Kingdom after posing in front of the Tree of Life.
Park 4, DONE!
Up until now, I had been very lucky with buses, with the exception getting to Blizzard Beach. However, my luck ran out because a bus with Epcot as its destination had just left the bus station as I was walking towards it! As a result, I ended up waiting about 20 minutes for another bus. This was not ideal as I was only just starting to make up time from my misjudgements earlier in the day. By the time I made it to Epcot, it was becoming very concerning that I might not complete my challenge. I was becoming desperate that I didn’t care what ride I went on, as long as it had the shortest wait time. It turns out that Spaceship Earth had the smallest wait time!
The character meet and greets for Epcot were a little tricky. At the time, I only had two options and both had long queues! As I had already seen most of the classic characters, I had opted to wait 35mins for Anna and Elsa because this was the shortest character wait time. Plus, I had met Olaf first thing in the morning, so it would be rude not to complete the entire Frozen package!
To finish off Epcot, I was really craving some nachos. Fortunately, I was near the Mexico pavilion and I went and got myself some nachos. Like the previous two parks, I had adopted the same technique of eating on the go.
And so, that was park 5 DONE – one more to go!
By the time I got to the Epcot monorail station, we were coming up for 9pm and Magic Kingdom closed at 10pm. This meant that I had ONE HOUR to ride a ride, meet a character, eat a snack and take a photo before leaving the park. At this point, I could see the finishing line in sight. So long as I completed the ride and character meet and greet before park close, I was guaranteed to complete my challenge.
While I was anticipating another monorail to be arriving at the Epcot station soon, a Cast Member saw my ‘I’m Celebrating’ badge and was intrigued in the challenge I was undertaking. So, I told them everything that I had done so far and all that was left to go were the plans for Magic Kingdom. The Cast Member decided to test me on some Epcot trivia, which I did surprisingly well and I got some special monorail cards!
I arrived at Magic Kingdom at the same time as the beginning of the Happily Ever After fireworks show. So, I got the character meet and greet over and done with. As promised, Mickey and Minnie both had their celebratory confetti outfits on to congratulate me on making it this far in my challenge!
My sixth and final ride was slightly more complicated than I had intended it to be. Now, you’d think I would know my way around all of the parks having lived here for over a month, right? Wrong. I clearly do not know my way around Magic Kingdom, as I got very lost trying to find Pirates of the Caribbean. I ended up walking through a splash zone by Aladdin’s Magic Carpets and somehow found myself in Frontierland and Splash Mountain was staring at me with a 5min wait time. Seeming as I was wet already, I might as well get completely soaked. I had no regrets! As I paced myself back towards Cinderella’s Castle, I finished my day exactly how I started with a Starbucks to give me that little boost of energy when I had absolutely none left! I watched the Magic Kingdom’s park closing projection show on Cinderella’s Castle, called Once Upon a Time, from one of the astro grass areas just off of the main path and I couldn’t quite comprehend what I had just done…
I don’t know how, but I did it!! Park 6, DONE!
In recent days, the local news forecasts had been informing the people of Florida that a potential Category 4 hurricane was supposed to be hitting central Florida within the next couple of days. Coming from the UK, I have never dealt with weather phenomenons on this level before. Thus, I was slightly nervous that I was going to experience my very first hurricane. Of course, I am celebrating the Disney way!
As this was fresh news at the time, no-one had any certainty of where the hurricane would make landfall and what impacts would there be. I have no idea what I am going to do…
Thank you so much for reading and have a magical day!
-Hannah
DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊
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