The View from Scopa Towers

When I had read about how the upcoming Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K is to commemorate the 13th year anniversary of the opening of this attraction, I could not help but think about my first encounter with the Tower 13 years ago.

I remember that July trip back in 1994 and wondering when I took off for Orlando if I'd get chance to experience this much heralded new attraction during my visit.

The following excerpt comes from my trip report that recollects that vacation and especially my first visit to the old Hollywood Hotel.

On that particular day while we were in MGM-Studios we noticed that the Tower was....

...wait a minute...let me share with you the exact written words from my trip report.

Come with me…back to July 1994 on a trip with my wife Carol, daughter Holly, and son Mike Jr.…back…back….

(Insert clouds and wavy dream sequence effects)

We were sitting on a bench along Hollywood Blvd. and I couldn't help but notice how empty the park was on this day. Little did I know how we would benefit from the lack of guests.

You can exit just before the elevators if you chicken....erh prefer to bypass the actual ride. We get up to the elevator and we are directed to stand on certain spots just outside the elevator. This is done for loading purposes. The elevator comes and we file in. The elevator contains benches. We sit in the front row and a lap bar is pulled down. Note that the middle seat in the rear row does not have a bar but a seat belt (lap...not shoulder).

Next time it's Part II: The Ultimate Elevator Ride.

It's always exciting to do a soft opening of a Walt Disney World attraction. such was the case back in 1994 when my family and I were among the first to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

When we left off in Part 1 we were sitting in the elevator. My son, daughter and I were about to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Let’s get back to my trip report and see what my observations were as we sat down, buckled up, and wondered what would happen next.

Back we go...back to 1994.....back...back...

(Cue the dream sequence fog)

I checked my watch. It took but 20 minutes to get to this point. I couldn't help but notice how many cast members were staffing this attraction. They were all over the place. Just before we got on a small boy (barely made the 42" requirement) asked about the drop. "What drop?" asked the CAST MEMBER, "We have good elevators here at the Hollywood Hotel." Good job.

Thank goodness the drop is in darkness. I would think that if we could see outside as we dropped we'd be in serious trouble at the bottom. I know there are coaster people out there who are saying, "C'mon Mike! It sounds like a coaster!" Nope. Coasters are always moving. This vehicle TOOK OFF FROM A STANDING POSITION. I wish I had looked up as we plummeted.

So what happened next? That's called Part III: The Ride Aftermath!

Thirteen years later it was all coming back to me, the anticipation, the excitement, and the thrill of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. As I read through my trip report of 13 years back what struck me as most interesting was my observations as my daughter, son, and I came to the bottom of that crazy elevator shaft and how the rest of that day went for all of us.

So allow me to wrap up this trip down memory lane with the final installment of The Day the Tower Opened with my own words from my trip report of July, 1994.

Carol was there waiting for us....along with a dozen cast members and several EMTs standing by to assist any visitors having problems. Needless to say, what other Disney attraction needs EMTs standing by? That says it right there that this attraction is major league.

It was a very satisfying day.

That was thirteen years ago. It was a very satisfying day and I’m looking forward to a very satisfying night…race night that is.

Travel days take a lot out of me. The proof was that I didn’t wake up until 6:45 Monday morning…at the time I’m usually just back from my morning run…not on this morning.

What was worse was that I closed my eyes and didn’t really wake up until 8:30.

We had breakfast at Chef Mickey’s with several of our friends.

We celebrated two birthdays.

Here are some exclusive pictures I took of the current DVC work going on where the old Contemporary North Garden wing used to be. The work has only just begun.

For those of you who used to visit the Belz outlet it’s now the Prime Outlet.

There are some unusual stores like…

..and like….

…I was in the market for some new running trunks so I visited this store...

The Disney Character Warehouse store was not open yet….arrrrrggggh!

We then went to the Premium Outlets to visit the Disney Character Premium store.

Hey…I know someone who would be interested in this merchandise they were selling….

…do you know of whom I speak?

From there we shot over to Publix to get a case of water for our room.

From there we went over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to catch the afternoon parade.

By the way….the ice tea sold at the quick-service restaurants comes in sugar and sugar-free but not is decaffeinated.

We had a dinner ADR at Boma and weren’t sure if it would be too late for us to return to DAK for EMH but we got our bands anyway.

As it turned out after Boma we thought it best to go to MGM.

MGM was very crowded.

Here’s some homework….next time you’re in MGM look for this billboard.

Make that two assignments….look for this Mickey Mouse rocking horse too.

Here’s a clue…

We did a few things in MGM and finished the night watching Fantasmic…always entertaining.

By the way, speaking of Fantasmic, I no longer do the Fantasmic dinner package because I think that the prices are a bit much. So I eat at my favorite MGM restaurant about 2 hours before the Fantasmic show time and then head over to the Hollywood Hills about an hour before the show.

We had left center seats, about 15 rows up.

Tips that come to mind from today…

• Don’t go by the printed schedules you pick up at the parks. If there is a greeter board, like the one at the beginning of Sunset Blvd. check that for late changes in the park. For instance, today the printed schedule said MGM was holding only one showing of Fantasmic…the board said otherwise….so check the boards.

• Also, have you ever made an ADR (Advanced dining Reservation) yet was hungry an hour before the time of your ADR? Well, if it’s just the two of you then you have a very good chance of having your ADR moved up…just show up at the restaurant and ask if your time can be moved up.

As I write this entry the weathermen down here are starting to mention the possibility of a hurricane hitting Florida sometime late this weekend. If so I’ll be here to report it.

It’s time for me to head over to Deb’s blog to see how her Southwest Adventures are going.

That’s all for now.

Arrgghhh....slept until 6:36 and since we had an early ADR at Donald's Breakfastosaurus another morning went by the boards without me running. Not good.

Anyway, we headed out to Disney's Animal Kingdom and made our way to Donald's.

Here's me...awake for only an hour, with Mr. Goofy.

We left breakfast and went to see Festival of the Lion King. It's always a joy to see this show and a great first attraction of the day.

We then went to see "Nemo - The Musical."

I've heard that people who have seen this show either love it or hate it. Those who dislike the show complain that they don't like to see the puppeteers. However, I think that's the charm of the show.

The larger puppets were amazing to see, especially Crush.

When you see this attraction my advice would be to sit in the rear portion of the theater, behind that main aisle. Otherwise you will miss some very entertaining parts of the show.

Again, the main charm is seeing the performers do their thing.

We then decided to leave DAK and head over to the Studios to catch a few attractions there.

The first order of the day in MGM was Beauty & The Beast. I know. I know. You're thinking, "Okay Mike, where's the gazillion pictures of Belle in her blue dress?" Well, I don't know. I just watched the show.

I've noticed over the last two years that the performing Belle for this attraction is always short, perhaps to emphasize the size difference between her and the Beast!.

From there we went over to the ABC theater steps to watch the "Stars and MotorCars" parade.

The middle sections of those steps are reserved for those who are hearing challenged and there are two people who "sign" the sounds of Stone Granite, Gabriel Huffington (I think that's her name) and other parade sounds to these special guests.

We saw Remy in the parade.

Oh yeah, these guys too.

We then saw the High School Musical Pep Rally, that is before the rain cut it short.

A word about this show, if you are a High School Musical purist you may not particularly enjoy the show as the performers put their own personalities into the songs which I noticed bothered some of the guests.

However there are those who loved the show and these guests, mostly the pre-teens, seem to be quite fanatical towards this show.

Before I forget, here is a homework assignment. Now where can you find this in MGM?

Also, this...

We then had dinner at H&V. Somehow they had us down for two ADRS with one of them being part of the Fantasmic Dinner Package, who knows.

After dinner we got our Extra Magic Hour wristbands.

We then took in the Backlot Tour.

I discovered something. If you sit in the back half of car #5 you will get soaked at Catastrophe Canyon...trust me.

At the AFI Villains portion of the tour...

...I checked on a special Hidden Mickey that Steve Barrett pointed out to me last year.

Consider this another homework assignment and look for this Hidden Mickey on your next trip.

We next did Muppetvision 3-D.

Here's another homework assignment. The next time you visit Muppetvision 3D watch the film very closely ans see if you can find the 3D glasses on the bust of Mozart.

We finished the night taking in Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

We thought about doing The Great Movie Ride and Indy but we were beginning to run out of gas.

Plus I had to write this blog entry.

Boy I hope Deb is using her sunscreen out West.

I knew it was going to be next to impossible to get up early and run after getting in after 1 A.M.

I was right.

I woke up at 8:30. Please don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold.

I knew we’d be leaving the room late so I looked for the “Privacy Please” thing to put in the slot…we didn’t have one in the room so I made one.

We got a late start and headed to MGM. Goofy called Carol in MGM to wish her a Happy Birthday weekend.

We watched a little of the High School Musical Pep Rally...

...and then grabbed a FastPass for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular.

Next time you're in MGM look for this wheelbarrow...

...and this companion hand truck...

Since we are big Muppets fans we headed over to see MuppetVision 3-D.

Oh do I have a homework assignment for you. The next time you watch this attraction I want you to search high and low during the film and let me know where in the film you can see, oh I don’t know, maybe about 100 pairs of the 3-D glasses.

Also...where can you find this billboard?

As we came out of the Muppets we could smell whatever was cooking at Mama Melrose’s and not having breakfast that morning, we could not help but have lunch at Mama’s. What was unusual was that we walked right in and made an ADR…I guess it wasn’t an ADR because there was nothing “advanced” about it.

Lunch was very good. Mama Melrose has decidedly settled on it’s specialty…flatbreads and does a nice job.

BTW, the Osborne lights are beginning to show up along the Big City Streets.

We made our way towards the Great Movie Ride and while we were riding this attraction I couldn’t help but think that sometime we may see “The Great Disney Movie Ride’ made up of just Disney films and have the first half made up of live action films and then Mary Poppins as a transition between live action and animated films and then finish off with the animated films.

After TGMR we walked down Hollywood Blvd. and had some fun with Streetmosphere until the parade came through.

We then went to see Much, Sweat, and Shears at the Big City Streets area of the park. The bass guitarist was very familiar….I remember seeing him play at Tarzan Rocks!.

We walked around the park after that checking the shops. We did a lot of people watching that afternoon, especially during the character meet in front of the Sorcerer’s hat.

Time was flying and soon it was dinner time. We ate at Prime Time. During dinner we tried to figure out what to do afterwards.

It was warm that day and since the night before was a late night we decided to make this night an early night and we headed back to Port Orleans. It didn’t take long for me to get excited thinking about running the next morning.

Oh those housekeeping people..

I was getting to sleep early and getting my stuff out to run. Would I finally get back to training?

Stay tuned.

We’ve been tring to see the Indiana Jones stunt spectacular at the Studios for a ong time.
Thus today we started out in Disney MGM/Studios.

We got off to a late start but it was not an Extra Magic Hour morning for the park and things don’t start “cooking” until mid-morning in that park anyway.

Well, well…look what new addition we found when we walked into the park.

That wasn’t there a day or two ago. Of course I asked around and I was told, “Oh we’re just fixing stuff.” Hmmm, wonder if the High School Musical gig has something to do with this barrier being up.

We checked out a couple of shops, always looking for that interesting souvenir, and then headed to see my favorite Disney princess.

We then grabbed a Fast Pass for Indy and had lunch at the Backlot Express.

As we left I decided to take this photo of the activity going on next to Star Tours.

Next May is going to be a big month for Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando.

I’m always interested is seeing Indy because it always is just a little bit different each time.

Well tonight we are going to the Pirate & Princess Party which is running from 7:30 P.M. to 12:30 A.M.

We decided that it would be wise to get out of the heat and humidity and go back to our room and rest up for tonight’s party.

Of course Carol heeded her own advice and did rest while I spent the afternoon reading and answering email...obviously i did not heed my own advice.

We changed into out party wear…basically I had a shirt with Captain Hook on it and Carol had a shirt with a sparkling skull and cross-bones.

We had an ADR at Trail’s End so we were trying to figure out how best to do this. Should we drive to Fort Wilderness and then take the boat to the party? Hmmmm, that would make for a long time getting back to the car at the end of the night. We’d be taking the boat to Fort Wilderness and then would have to take a bus back to the the parking lot to get to the car.

So we decided to drive to the Magic Kingdom and take a bus from the Ticket and Transportation Center or Magic Kingdom or take a boat from the Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness.

It seems like the WDW transportation system is always tweaking with their busses so we were not sure of exactly how our evening would go.

On this particular night we ended up taking the boat from the Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness.

We had a pleasant meal at Trail’s End. We always make it a point to visit that restaurant on every trip and for myself on one solo trip I had lunch there three times. It is off the beaten path and that makes for a nice quiet meal. The price makes it one of the best if not the best deal on all of WDW property.

The signs were up for the Pirate and Princess Party.

We received a “Booty Bag” to use to collect the goodies to be given out during the party. The goodies turned out to be either beads or candy.

I found this party to be so much different than the other parties I’ve attended at the Magic Kingdom, namely Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. There did not seem to be as many party events to dissuade us from attempting to do some attraction touring.

In fact our first attraction of the night was Pirates of the Caribbean and before the night was out we would ride this attraction no less than six times with five of those times seeing us have our own boat to ourselves and each visit to the attraction having no wait time at all.

Ladies and Gentlemen again let me say that his is "The Year of a Million Refurbishments"…

We also rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, watched a few performances by some CMs doing little shows for the guests, and also collected our "Booty."

We continued to squeeze in some attractions that we had not been able to do previously on the trip. We did Snow White’s Adventure, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Peter Pan’s Flight, and just about whenever we wanted to and as many times as we wanted to.

All in all we made 18 visits to attractions between 7:30 and 12:30 and we did not miss the special fireworks or the parade.

We watched the fireworks at the top of Main Street USA. The official park lights for the party seemed to be red.

I enjoyed the fireworks more than anything else during the party.

I took this picture of a Hidden Mickey in Mickey’s Star Traders

All through the park there were pirate images.

The parade was somewhat of a disappointment as the term “Pirate and Princess” seemed out of balance during the parade.

I think there was too much princess and not enough pirate references in the parade.

Before I forget, here’s a homework assignment. Can you find this Hidden Mickey in Fantasyland?

Well after the parade, we watched the late parade, we actually rode another six attractions before calling it a night.

Our hosts bid us a good evening with a wave...

...and a sign.

And once again to point out that the primary color for the evening was red or pink....exhibit 'B."

We got back to our room around 1:15 A.M.

Regarding the party, I found it to be not as enjoyable as MNSSHP or MVMCP. The fireworks was good, the parade seemed to need a bit more, and the other lesser events need work. I am not trying to discourage anyone from going to this party. Carol says it is her favorite of the three parties.

So give it a try.

MouseFest Friday, December 7th.

It seemed that no sooner did my head hit the pillow the night that the alarm went off proclaiming “Day 2 Mike! Time to get up!”

First stop was Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the annual Kilimanjaro Safari Meet.

It was quite a challenge gathering everyone for this annual event. Deb welcomed everyone as the Mousefesters gathered to the left of the attraction. This meet was huge as in a total of 257 people for this meet.

Nothing beats riding Kilimanjaro Safaris with Fred Block, founder of MagicMeets.

Nothing.

I had a tough time trying to take photos as Fred had me laughing so much I almost dropped my camera.

Out of about 20 shots only this one of some Rhinos came out decent. All the other photos can be used in a course called, “How not to take photos!”

From there it was on to Dinosaur to witness Matt Hochberg meeting the challenge made on the previous day. Matt gutted it out and has lived to tell the tale. However next time he needs to keep his eyes open.

The next stop on this day was the AllEarsNet team luncheon at Pizzafari. This was one of two times on this day where I treasured the opportunity to just relax between the time blocks of meets.

It reinforced the notion that during Mousefest everyone needs to make time to stop, relax, eat, and hydrate. Even if you follow this rule you will most likely be exhausted come Mousefest end so it is best to do whatever you can to keep this eventual exhaustiveness to a minimum.

After lunch it was on to Disney MGM/Studios for two specific meets.

The first of these was the second annual Studios Central Star Tours meet which is growing in popularity every year. There was a good showing for this meet as my estimate was in the range of 80 people.

Next came the second annual Podfest hosted by Lou Mongello. This meet is the annual gathering of all those who do Disney related podcasts. I don’t know how many podcasts were represented but there were a LOT. It took almost 30 minutes to introduce each podcast and hear from the principles.

It was after Podfest that I wish I could have cloned myself to be in two places at once. Although I wanted very much to attend the MuppetVision3D meet I had to leave to host a dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort.

Again I was glad this dinner was on my schedule. Once more I was offered time to just sit back and relax in between the running around I was doing. Funny though, I did not find myself eating as much as I normally would during a Walt Disney World trip. On the contrary, that morning I had to cinch my belt one more notch because my usual notch was just a bit too loose.

Oh wait; this is Mousefest…the ultimate diet program…how silly of me to forget.

I have to mention that the “entertainment” at Ohana left a lot to be desired. I would go so far as to say that the entertainment would not have been even good enough to make those early American Idol shows…if you catch my drift.

After dinner I realized I had the luxury of having nothing on my schedule for that evening so I wandered back to EPCOT with some friends in search of my cousin Patty who that evening was attending the Candlelight Processional.

We took in the Lights of Winter, and then walked around World Showcase before stopping to watch Illuminations (my second time this trip).

I never found Patty at EPCOT but did talk to her later that evening. She enjoyed CP.

I enjoyed Illuminations

I began to notice a little fatigue settling in so it was off to Pop Century for a long winter’s nap for tomorrow would be Saturday, the big day…MegaMouse Meet Day.

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Thomas Tryon who serves as a Show Producer for Special Events and Projects at Walt Disney World.

Tryon was given the task of bringing the Block Party Bash Parade from Disneyland’s California Adventure Theme Park to Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park.

The parade debuted in California on April 5th, 2005 and just three years later it is ready to take the East Coast by storm.

Of course moving a parade of this magnitude from California to Florida involved looking into the logistics of such a move.

The first order of business was to decide where the parade should land.

Right from the start there was no question that the Block Party Bash Parade’s new address would be the Hollywood Studios. After all it is a Pixar-based parade and don’t we find most Disney/Pixar characters in the studios theme park? I don’t expect that Disney’s Animal Kingdom or EPCOT or The Magic Kingdom had a shot at hosting this parade.

From a parade organizer’s viewpoint however, there’s much more to consider.

Once the Studios was deemed the appropriate new home for the parade, the next order of business involved the parade route itself.

Actually a complete assessment of the theme park’s parade readiness for the parade was necessary.

When you think of a Disney themed parade you think of the floats, the characters, the music, the dancing, the fanfare, and everything else that you see and hear during the course of the parade.

Keep in mind that when the Disney creative forces designed this parade they did so with Disney’s California Adventure theme park in mind, Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park was not on their radar.

We’re talking two completely different animals here.

Everyone involved realized that they just couldn’t say, “Okay let’s just pack up everything and move to Orlando.”

There were so many things to consider.

The primary concern was the parade route.

The parade route for the Block Party Bash Parade had to have two important features. The first is that the parade route had to be able to accommodate the parade floats. Size and width was a consideration and with that comes the importance of maneuverability. The Hollywood Studios was far from being ready for this particular parade’s floats.

Some adjustments in the area of concrete had to be made along the parade route.

For those of you who have been visiting Hollywood Studios over the last year and a half you may have noticed some changes along Hollywood Blvd. and other portions of the Studios parade route. Changes have been somewhat subtle but importantly they have been parade-friendly.

It was important to alter the route so that the sides of the route would allow the floats to move through the route with ease with special considerations for turning corners.

The next time you are in the Studios stroll along the parade route and see if you notice where these changes were made, especially in front of Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat.

Now this is just for the parade route. There were other issues that had to be resolved.

Are there adequate spots along such a route in which the floats could stop and entertain guests?

Because of the nature and personality of this parade, specifically the highly specialized floats and their interactivity with the guests, the parade route had to offer some very convenient parade stops in which both the parade performers and the guests would be able to safely enjoy the “party” portion of the parade.

Stop points had to be focused on for safety concerns as well and adjustments in the concrete topography had to be made along the route where these stops would best take place.

So are you with me so far?

There are two more major concerns that had to be addressed.

The first concern was in regards to the garaging of the parade floats. Was there ample space to house these huge floats?

In a word, no!

Tryon noted that expansion of the current parade building was needed so that there was a proper storage facility for the parade vehicles. So that piece of business was added into the overall project for moving the parade east.

There was yet another consideration that I had not thought of.

Think of this, a parade is made up of floats and performers.

A storage facility for the floats was needed and how many of us would ever think that along with the floats there is the matter of parade costumes?

Parade performers wear parade costumes specifically designed for that parade and it appeared that the Studios did not have an adequate or as Tryon put it “proper” costuming facility to handle the additional costumes that came with this parade.

A decision was made to build a new costuming facility that would be able to handle all the anticipated costuming needs once the parade arrived.

Now think about all this stuff….changes in the parade route…expansion of the parade building…construction of a new costuming facility…all these issues had to be addressed just because a parade was moving from one theme park to another.

Because of these issues the actual original planned move was delayed one year.

So the obvious question that came to mind was “Why?”

I asked Thomas if there was ever any consideration to just altering the parade instead of going through all the trouble and expense of altering the route, expanding current buildings, and putting up a new building.

It was his answer that reminded me as to why Disney is Disney.

In so many words Thomas said that we all have to remember that what sets a Disney theme park aside from all the rest is that Disney has cornered the market on storytelling.

Be it attractions, fireworks, or parades, the important thing is the storytelling and most noteworthy, the creative process.

He mentioned how Disney values the creative process and once the creative process has generated something worthy of Disney quality it’s basically “hands off.”

When he mentioned this to me I was reminded as to why the name Disney always seems to be synonymous with quality.

Why change something that has already been proven as being something loved by the guests?

Why tamper with success?

It says quite a lot when a company is more concerned with the quality of its products than the bottom line. And when you think of it, aren’t the returns greater when you put a premium on quality?

It also makes sense to make the venue fit the product rather than the product fit the venue.
Thus the original creative content for the parade was meticulously maintained.

Oh, and about the actual physical move from the west coast to the east coast….

…it took 15 semi-tractor trailers to haul the parade from California to Florida.

So the next time you are in Hollywood Studios and you get a chance to enjoy this parade with the other guests you can relish in the fact that now you know…

…the rest of the story.

For more Block Party Bash Photos, check out our Photo Gallery!

Alright! You’ve been given some time to think it over. Just how would you be able to navigate through the four Walt Disney World theme parks under the parameters set by yours truly?

It takes some thought; some planning; and probably a little luck.

I’ve put some thought into this and I’m ready to share my thoughts with you.

Here is what I came up with:

• First, if possible, I would try and pull this stunt off on a day that offers both an Extra Magic Hour Evening Hour Morning in one park and an Extra Magic Hour Evening in another park. If both occur on the same day then potentially I am looking at an extra four hours of touring time to complete my park touring requirements. Every minute counts so the strategy here is to look for a way to get more time.
• If there are no days with this combination of both an EMH Morning and EMH Evening then I would look for a day in which either EPCOT or Magic Kingdom has an Extra Magic Hour Evening and focus on that day. The preference here would be the Magic Kingdom because Spectromagic and Wishes would play a big part of my plan but either park will work.
• My thoughts are that it would be wise to use a combination of both a rental car and Disney Transportation to go from one park to another…you’ll understand how when you read my plan later on.
• The more in your travel party the slower you move so my plan says try this with no more than three other friends. If I go beyond four in my travel party then there is a greater chance that there may be times when the party will need to wait to get on certain attractions…not to mention getting around in a car. So to maximize my potential for success, I’m doing this solo or with just one other person.
• I plan to stretch out my eating plans. I’m thinking that I will eat at my resort before going to my first park. This breakfast has to hold me for a long time. I want a lot behind me before I stop to eat lunch. Preferably I want to eat lunch towards the end of my time in park number two but realize that due to attraction queues lunch may happen in park number three and dinner in park number four.

My Attraction Strategy

Before I go into my detailed plan let me discuss my thoughts on how to attack the attraction touring portion of this plan:

• For the attractions I will focus on will be those which I feel move guests in and out of the attraction as quickly as possible. So, I will be looking to ride any attraction that is a constant loading attraction, that is, one with continuous moving ride vehicles thatnever stop.
• The proximity of certain attractions to each other will also play a key role in making the most of my time in the parks. Travel time between parks is important but so is travel time between attractions.
• Now here’s an interesting thought. FastPass may be more of an enemy in this challenge than an ally. Sure early in the morning it may help but come afternoon the FP distribution times usually run from four to as many as six hours out. So it may be better to wait 40 minutes in stand-by as opposed to waiting four hours to make use of a FastPass.
• Diversions. I will make good use of diversions. By diversions I mean parades or fireworks, or anything that draws crowds away from attractions. You’d be surprised as to how much you can do in a theme park during a diversion.

The Plan

I'm not sure if there is any type of barometer that can be used to determine what is the best way to do this little challenge. We all have our favorite parks and favorite attractions so we all have different takes on what would work well for an approach to accomplish this feat.

For me, my thought is to try not to necessarily do this as fast as I can and do so in some commando mode but to try and do it without running from park to park and attraction to attraction.

So after much thought, here is what I came up with for doing four parks in one day:

• The day I've chosen to do this challenge is Thursday, July 3, 2008 because on that day Disney's Animal Kingdom, my first park of the day, will be offerring Extra Magic Morning Hours and that evening The Magic Kingdom will be hosting Extra Magic Evening Hours. So this means that the turnstiles at Disney's Animal Kingdom will be open for me at 8:00 A.M. and later that night Magic Kingdom will be open to me until 1:00 A.M. Sure it may be hot and may be crowded but this 17 hour window offers me the best chance to do this challenge.
• I will get up as early as possible so I can be at the Animal Kingdom turnstiles around 7:30 or so. This means either eating an early and quick meal at one of my resort's eateries or having something in my room. My preference is to have a little breakfast snack in the room...either way I'm pulling into the DAK parking lot no later than 7:00 A.M.

Park #1 - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Here's how I will attack my first park of the day:

1. It's 7:30 and I am already at the turnstiles. When I get into the park I walk over to Expedition Everest and grab a FastPass. I then go to Kali River Rapids. Why? Well everyone else is doing the Safari or Everest so I can get my first attraction (KRR) out of the way real fast. My guess is that I can be out of Kali River Rapids by 8:30. One attraction down.
2. Time to use my Expedition Everest FastPass. Most likely my FastPass distribution time is probably for sometime between 9:00 and 10:00. No problem. If I go on Everest somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 I will be off the attraction no later than 9:45. Two attractions down.
3. At this point my guess is that my best choice would be Dinosaur. It is one of those attractions which some people do not like because it's loud, rough, and downright scary. That translates into a short queue. It's also not that long of a walk from Everest to Dinosaur.If I can get into Dinosaur somewhere in the vicinity of 10:00 to 10:15 then I could very well find myself leaving Disney's Animal Kingdom around 11:00, if not sooner. One park down.
4. Since I got to the park early I may not need to wait for the traim to take me to the parking lot and my rental car. I may be parked close enough to the park entrance to walk to the car...another reason why I arrived to the park so early.

My next park in this challenge is Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Park #2 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

I chose as my second park of the day because this park is really suited only for being park number two. It cannot serve as my first park because the attractions aren't open until mid morning. It cannot be my third park because that would mean I would be in the smallest of the four theme parks in mid to late afternoon, and of course it cannot replace Magic Kingdom on this day because Magic Kingdom offers Extra Magic Hours in the evening and two diversions which will lower the queues for my targeted attractions.

Here we go:

1. Let's assume that worse case scenario, I am going through the Studios turnstiles at 11 A.M. My first stop is the SuperGreeter Board at the the corner of Hollywood Bvd. and Sunset Blvd. to check out the waiting times. The first bit of information is to determine which of the two attractions, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror or Rock 'N' Roller Coaster, have less than an hour wait. The second important piece of information is to find out what the FastPass distribution times are for both of them.
2. I will grab a FastPass for the attraction with the longest queue and get in line for the other attraction. My guess is that the Fast Pass Distribution time will be somwhere between two and three hours out. So that tells me that in that time I should focus on doing two other attractions and try to eat lunch. The one flaw in this plan is that I really cannot risk eating lunch too soon before doing either the Tower or RnRC.
3. Let's assume RnRC has the longer line. I will then grab a FastPass for that attraction and get in line for the Tower. Now I'm guessing that if it's around 11:30 or so that my FastPass will have a distribution time of somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30. Let's say it's a 45 minute wait for the Tower. I emerge from that attraction somewhere around 12:30-12:45. I should be able to squeeze in attraction #2 before my RnRC FastPass time arrives.
4. I check the board again...what has shorter lines...Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, or The Great Movie Ride? My guess is that it's Star Tours...Toy Story Mania is new and will be crowded...TGMR is always packed in the afternoon during the summer...and compared to TGMR and TSM, Star Tours will almost always have the shorter queue line.
5. The assumption is that I arrive at Star Tours around 1:00 and get on the attraction no less than 45 minutes later. I thus emerge from the attraction around 2:00 and head over to use my RnRC FP. To be fair I must assume that it will still be at least a 15-20 minute wait even with my FP. I thus assume I'm walking out of the attraction sometime around 3 P.M.
6. I need to eat lunch so I stop off at Cantina Eddie's for some pizza and a drink to fulfill the lunch requirement before heading out the turnstiles sometime around 3:45 or so.

Park #2 is complete. I drive to EPCOT.

Park #3 - EPCOT

With luck I'm walking through the EPCOT turnstiles no later than 4:30.

I'm glad I stopped for a quick linch at the Studios. It's all attractions for this park.

For EPCOT there are some options I have to consider. To save time I will do eithe the tandem of Test Track and the Gran Fiesta Tour or Oh Canada and Soarin' as ther first two and the last two are relatively close in distance. The other attraction I will focus on is Spaceship Earth because it is a constnat loading attraction.

1. Once again, first stop is the Supergreeter Board to get information on wait times.. Now here is where it gets tricky. It's late afternoon and probably not a good idea to look at FastPasses as they may have distribution times that go into early evening. I will still check but remember it's summer time with lots of crowds. The question that I know I must answer is whether I do Soarin' or Test Track. That decision will determine my World Showcase attraction.
2. I will assume Test Track will have the shorter wait...plus there's always the possibility of getting on quickly via the single passenger line. before getting in line I check the FP distribution times. If it's less than two hours I may go for it, head to Mexico, and possibly try to squeeze in Spaceship Earth too, although I prefer not to backtrack.
3. Let's assume I get into the Test Track standby queue and am out of there by 6 P.M.
4. I head over to Mexico and party with the three Caballeros and step off that attraction by 6:45.
5. With luck I'm entering my Spaceship Earth ride vehicle sometime around 7 P.M.,
6. I should be walking out of the EPCOT turnstiles around 7:30.
7. I need to save time so I head to the monorail and go to the Ticket and Transportation Center and switch to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail.

Next and final stop is The Magic Kingdom.

Park #4 - The Magic Kingdom

If I can get to the Magic Kingdom before 8 P.M. I'll be estatic but realistically I will probably go through the turnstiles around 8:30.

1. The first thing I do is get my wristband for Extra Magic hours.
2. Time to eat. Where. Columbia Harbor House because it's centrally located in the park.
3. My guess is that everyone is lining up for Spectromagic, one of the diversions I had mentioned earlier. So after I emerge from a quick supper I head over to Haunted Mansion. Hopefully I'm out of the Haunted Mansion no later than 10 P.M.
4. Wishes may be just about to start so while everyone heads to the front of the park to watch Wishes I make my way over to Splash Mountain.
5. I should be able to gauge which of the two, Splash Mountain, or Big Thunder Mountain has the shorter queue. Whoever does have the shorter line will have me as a guest that night.
6. My guess is that it's now about 10:30 to 10:45 and I have one more attraction to do...and it's Prirates of the Caribbean.

And I'm done.

Reader's Comments

The response to this challenge has been overwhleming and I thank everyone for sending me their comments and their experiences. I am trying to read and respond to all the email I have received. Please be patient as I will get to your email. I plan to post a "Mike's Mailbag" edition with my favorite emails.

Do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Just keep it between you and me okay?

Promise?

Okay…(Mike looks over both shoulders.)

I’m in Walt Disney World.

Yep.

I flew in on Thursday afternoon.

I decided to surprise my partners in crime on the WDWTODAY podcast. They decided to come down for the Annual Passholder’s Preview for Toy Story Mania.
For a long time I really wasn’t sure if I could come down…for many reasons.

Then for many more reasons I decided ON MONDAY to fly down.

So on Thursday afternoon I found myself lining up ate gate 15 to fly to Orlando

On Friday I surprised everyone and we all went over to Toy Story Mania for the Annual Passholder’s Preview.

When you first enter this renovated area of Mickey Avenue you immediately see the huge Pixar sign.

There was also the sign announcing the sneak preview.

The FastPass machines looked like something right out of the film.

The Green Soldiers were working hard across the street.

The queue for many people will be a stroll down Memory Lane with images of Candy Land…

…Viewmaster…

…Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling…

…Barrelfull of monkeys…

…and Tinkertoys.

There are some other old time favorites but I'll let you discover them for yourself.

The star of the show was Mr. Potato Head. This audioanimatron was amazing and via the use of soundboard technology, interacted with the guests.

He can produce many expressions.

However, this is what is truly amazing...I asked him to remove his ear...AND HE DID!

Mr. Potato Head was illuminated by the Pixar Lamp.

I found a Hidden Mickey

I also found the 3-D glasses needed for the attraction.

Here’s a glimpse of the ride vehicles.

That’s about as far as I could go with the photos. Once in the ride vehicle guests must put on their 3-D glasses and secure the lap bar.

The vehicles begin to spin and from time to time stop in front of a video wall and guests will try their luck at some arcade games.

I won’t spoil it for you but suffice to say this attraction goes by faster than any attraction I have ever seen at Walt Disney World.

Each guest has this cannon and on the back of the cannon is a cord with a knob on the end of it. For each arcade game guests must pull on the cord to go after some targets presented to them.

It is very fast paced and the music and action is non-stop.

You will find yourself a bit tired after riding this attraction.

The Annual Passholder’s Preview saw many people go through this attraction and I noticed that as each day came and gone the scores improved.

On Saturday the highest score was around 160,000…then on Sunday 300,000 was reached and on Monday the highest score I saw was around 560,000 so everyone is learning how to play this game.

There is a single rider line but I really do not recommend using this line as I know of people who waited almost an hour in that line. Besides if you use that line you'll miss all the neat stuff in the queue.

Toy Story Mania is a lot of fun and I would say pretty contagious. Some may argue this point but I think it’s the first real video game like attraction ever to show up in Walt Disney World

I feel badly for Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom…he just won’t feel the same after riding this.

Next Time

Remember the four parks in one day challenge? Oh yes, I know all about Kali River Rapids…no big deal…you can adjust that to attraction number three for that park.

Anyway, a dozen of my friends attempted four parks in one day this past Sunday.

How did we go about attempting g this challenge?

Were we successful?

I’ll tell you next time.