4 Parks in One Day-Can it Be Done? Post-hurricane therapy 9/8/04 About This Page:

[mrsj]

I’m tired of Hurricanes…I’m going to Disney World!!!



Who: Me (Lora) 33



Where: 4 Parks in 1 day (I live 30 miles from Disney)



When: Wednesday, September 9, 2004



Why: After living in Florida less than 2 months, we’ve already been through two hurricanes, we’ve been off school for three more days (I’m a teacher), and my husband has to work and can’t go with me…so why not?



I thought it was about time to get out of the boarded up apartment after Charley and Frances, and I had a feeling that Disney would not be very busy. It had been a harsh introduction to Florida, so I thought why not spend a day taking advantage of one of the great benefits of living here before we go back to school again (I now feel like we have started the school year THREE times!) As I write this, Ivan is threatening to hit Florida, so the windows are still boarded and time will tell.



I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about doing a day at Disney solo, but after reading reports of several folks on these boards, I thought it would still be a lot of fun—solo or not. I had a general plan to do my favorite things in as many parks as I could but never thought I would actually get to all four parks in one day. I kept notes of how long it took me to get here or there or to get on this or that. It sort of became a mission for me to see how much I could actually do in one day. I was amazed!



I left my house at about 10:40, and by 11:15 I was parked at the Swan and on a bus by 11:30. While waiting for the bus, I called my husband to check-in and asked him where should I go first—Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom. He said MK, so MK it was! It was just me, a family of three, and two folks in wheelchairs on the bus. We arrived at 11:50, and I was SHOCKED at how EMPTY the park was. I have been at Disney in October when it’s not really crowded, but I had NEVER seen it this empty! This was going to work out great for me! I broke into a huge smile as I walked into the park and down Main Street. There’s just something about being here…Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration was going on in front of the castle, and it looked like all those performers were performing for someone’s small, private party there were so few people standing around. I headed straight to Tomorrowland and was on Space Mountain (I mean in the actual car!) by 12:00 p.m. It was a great time, as I had not ridden this since our family Christmas trip in 2002. I headed out of there looking for Hidden Mickey’s the whole way (I only found one the whole day—I’ll tell you where later), and this was a pattern on all other rides. Since I was alone, I could really take in everything but still found only one Mickey.



From there it was on to Carousel of Progress at 12:15. I really enjoyed this, especially all the detail that was put into each scene. It’s been at least ten years since I have seen this, so the “updated” final scene really intrigued me. With that kind of technology, wouldn’t these people be about 120 years old by now since it was the turn of the century at the beginning of the story? At 12:40 I entered the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and I was surprised as I always remembered it mostly moving at a slow crawl. It moved more quickly than I remembered. At that time, the longest wait I saw was for Buzz at 10 minutes…too long! To this point, I just walked onto everything. So after TTA, Buzz had emptied and I walked right on. At 12:50, I was taking a Space Ranger Spin, and I started out trying to shoot both guns in my car. I realized quickly that was not going to work, and settled on trying to shoot one. I came out with 32,000 points-not bad.



I then headed over toward Frontierland, and I passed many characters around the castle just standing around…no one waiting for them! I decided it would be better to do BTMR first and get wet on Splash after. At 1:10, I entered the line for BTMR, had a great ride, and was out by 1:20. I headed right over to Splash, and got in line there at 1:25. We were stopped inside the ride for about 5 minutes. I sat next to a very nice lady from Great Britain who was also touring by herself. I really enjoyed the trip through the Briar Patch, and headed out of there at 1:45. By that time, it was pouring down rain. I had wanted to hit Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Philharmagic, but with the rain and that fact that I hadn’t eaten yet today, I decided to head to Animal Kingdom for lunch and maybe FOTLK.



I was out of the MK by 2:00, went through the TTC, boarded a bus, and was at Animal Kingdom by 2:45. I checked the show times and saw that in order to eat lunch at Tusker House; I would not have time to make the latest FOTLK show. I just headed to Tusker House. I had a meal voucher left over from when I brought 100 of my drama students and their families down in March, and it was good for a combo meal, beverage, and dessert. I had the fried chicken sandwich with fries, a diet coke, and chocolate cake. The total was $14.85, but for me…free with the voucher! I headed outside to the bar area to eat and put my feet up. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my sandals were giving me HUGE blisters on the bottom of my feet! This was a GREAT, relaxing place for lunch. I felt so lucky to be here, and for it to be so empty! It made the whole experience so wonderful not to have to wait anywhere. As I was eating, the drummers in Africa began to perform. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Wednesday off from school! The bartender outside was commenting to another CM that he could not believe how empty the park was and he hoped some more people showed up. The other CM said he had been called over for parade detail, but that he didn’t think there would be much of anyone to supervise along the parade route!



I decided not to stay at AK, as I would be back in a month with my Mom, so I headed out of the park and hopped a bus to MGM. I arrived there at 3:30 and was able to catch the tail end of the Stars and Motorcars Parade. I really enjoyed it and had never seen it before. My main mission here was to see Beauty and the Beast and Four for a Dollar. My mom talked about this great show in March, but I never got a chance to see it. I went right over for the 4:15 show, and the theater did fill up pretty well. I LOVED Four for a Dollar! What an awesome group! I also really enjoyed the show and thought it was stage very well considering the limitations of abbreviating the Broadway version of the show for the parks.

It was out of there and on to Rockin Roller Coaster. Another walk right on ride!!! I would have ridden it twice, but I decided to try and catch a few more things at the studios. I headed over to the 5:15 show of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. This was also pretty empty, and I did not get to see anyone (me included) win a cruise. I thought about going into the Backlot Tour right next door, but I still wanted to get to Epcot for Test Track, and I didn’t want to be here after dark. I grabbed a Diet Coke on my way out of MGM and hopped the bus to Epcot. Test Track is a major bone of contention with me. When we took a family trip in 2002, every time we tried to get on this, it broke down. We even went over the morning we were to leave at about 7:30 a.m. (This was Christmas…long hours), and we were all the way to the loading area and it broke down, not to reopen anytime soon. My husband and I tried to ride it in October and again in March and both times we were in line and…you guessed it…it broke down!!! So…could this be it finally??? I made it to Epcot by 6 and headed to Test Track. I walked right in, and it did stop while I was standing there waiting to board the car. It took about 10 minutes, but it did start running again, so I was finally able to ride. The verdict? I enjoyed it and think my Dad and brothers would really like it, but I definitely don’t think it would be worth 90 minutes in line!



I then ended up getting the wrong directions from a CM about how to get back to the International Gateway, so I walked ALL the way around the countries before finding the boat to the Swan. My aching feet barely made it! I was in the car and on the road by 7:30, and was very happy I had gone. I think in hindsight…if I did this again I would spend most of my day at Epcot. I’d love to just soak in the culture and sample the food in many of the different countries and see all the performers that I’ve just “happened to catch” before. I think I’d also try to take more time to just enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of everything in the Magic Kingdom. I was able to see how much a person could really do there in a short amount of time walking on everything, but I think I’d stop and smell the roses next time. I guess in the way of something to take away from this report, I would give one suggestion…go in September!!!!! What a great way to see it all…with no crowds!!!!! Until October……

[DrDolphin]

Great one day trip - I hope it helped relieve some post-charley/frances stress.

[buckysmom]

Lora, I love your Walt Disney quote, and I think you pretty much did "the impossible". How ! Thanks for writing about it!

[luvnwdwgal]

Glad you could "escape" for a little! How lucky for you to be able to spend time in WDW like that! We love to go in September!

[DopeyGirl]

Sounds like you had a great day . . . there's not a better way (in my opinion) to relieve stress than to go see my favorite mouse!!!

Thanks for sharing your day with all of us!!!

[sarah_belle]

WOW! And I was just wondering if a long weekend would be enough time! Great report....it sounds like you had a good time!

[Diz]

What a way to chase away the hurricane blues! That would be so cool to do! Having a bad day...I'm going to Disney!

Loved your TR. It's so funny to hear "10 minutes" is too long of a wait! LOL! Off season sure can spoil us!

Glad you finally got to ride TT! And that you enjoyed your first solo trip to WDW. Going solo sure is fun!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great trip Lora Wow, no one was in the parks We've got the same assessment of you of Test Track, okay if there's no wait, but not worth waiting any length of time for!

Thanks for sharing your mini report with us, and I hope you can take down those boards from your windows soon

[Two4Disney]

We're somewhat new to Florida, too (almost a year now) and in the Tampa area and it looks like we had the same idea. We are so sick of these hurricane scares that we decided to go to Epcot on Saturday. It was a ghost town. Great contrast from the summer crowds. We ran into many Floridians. Looks like we all had the same idea.



But 4 parks in one day -- way to go!!



Thanks for posting.

[arielrocks]

Thanks for a great report. Looks like the parks will be pretty much deserted for everyone who goes down there this week and next week. We will be there next week and it sounds like the park is going to be not very crowded. Wow. Sounds like you had a great time.
We plan on spending the day at Epcot as well. DD has a social studies project this week, as well as geography. So this will fit right in when we get back home. Make for some great video too.

[HiddenMickey]

Thank you for sharing your day trip with us. How I wish I could do that!

One comment: "wouldn’t these people be about 120 years old by now since it was the turn of the century at the beginning of the story?" ---Its not the same family in each of the scenes.....it's decendants of the first guy's family in the succeeding scenes. You'll notice (if you ride again), that the names are different.

[mrsj]

That is the great thing about living here...if life hands you lemons...go to Disney!!!!!

[mrsj]

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you for sharing your day trip with us. How I wish I could do that!

One comment: "wouldn’t these people be about 120 years old by now since it was the turn of the century at the beginning of the story?" ---Its not the same family in each of the scenes.....it's decendants of the first guy's family in the succeeding scenes. You'll notice (if you ride again), that the names are different.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the clarification...I will figure it out the next time through...you can really tell how LONG it's been since I've ridden this!