Orlando 2019 - 4 Parks in 1 Day!

We have heard of people making up a 4 park challenge and after years of visiting Disney, we thought we would give this a shot.

Since there is no formal "challenge" we decided to set some basic parameters for ourselves.
We expect more than simply walking into all the parks to call it a challenge.

So we decided that all parks needed to be visited during regular ticket hours, or resort guest hours. Not during later or earlier hours purchased by a special event ticket.

In each park, the whole group needs to ride on at least two rides.

A food or beverage item must be purchased in each park.

the group should use a different method of transportation for each leg.

We had to get an official photo pass picture in each park.

We look like we are ready!
If you notice we each have a T-Shirt from a different park... just another part of our silliness ;) 

That's it. Not too many rules. Seems doable
So we jumped to it today. Leaving the room around 7:45 to start the walk to Disney Studios.

First park of the Day! 

Once inside we went straight for Slinky Dog Dash, the line was pretty short, it was Early Entry for resort guests.

Hubby and our young lady wanted to take advantage of the light crowds and ride Smugglers Run again, so the young man and I went and got some food and a coffee (coffee for me, not him).
We also had time to ride Alien Saucers before meeting back up as a group to ride Midway Mania.
At this point we declared ourselves done with one park!

The first transition we used Disney's Minnie Van service - it's like Lyft, but Disney specific.
We had a short wait for the van, but our driver arrived and we had a really pleasant ride to the Animal Kingdom.

Minnie Van! 

By the way... did I mention it is HOT today? in the 90s well before noon... oh bother.

Park number two! 

With our Photopass done, we went directly to the safari.
We had a fun guide and the animals were out to see. After we worked our way across the park. Again the adventurous ones took a quick detour to ride Everest. But we all met after and did our second ride as a family - triceratops spin.

We decided to have lunch in the Animal Kingdom - our young lady had noticed the new counter service restaurant in Pandora had some create your own bowl options that sounded good, so we headed that direction.
The options were a nice departure from theme park food and as we finished up our order a cast member approached us. She told us we have been selected to be the Family of the day! She asked us to follow her to a surprise and that she would personally deliver our food... OKAY!

We were surprised to see a large round table in an empty part of the restaurant, all set up for us. With a "family of the day" certificate and cupcakes! We had that whole section of the restaurant to ourselves for lunch. It was really nice. We finished our lunch and cupcakes, thanked the cast member (Taylor, if you happen to know her), and departed. They opened the section after we left. Again, it was lovely to have a quiet meal in the park - a rare treat! (Additional information from daughter: the cast member liked our shirts and they caught her attention. That is why she picked us for Family of the day!)

Ok... next park!

The plan was to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Our young lady and I needed to make a detour back to the room, but we met the boys at the Magic Kingdom (and yes we all took the bus) in time for fast passes on 7 dwarfs mine train.

Park three! Who is tired? 

Followed right after by the Jungle Cruise. We had one set of Fast Passes left, so after a cool treat, we finished up with Big Thunder Mountain before departing our 3rd park of the day.
I am tired just typing this out.

Next up the Monorail to Epcot!
Our last park of the day!!!! Who needs a nap? I do!

Fourth and Final park!

We walked onto Spaceship Earth for our first right and then rode Test Track, which we had been able to get Fast Passes for. From here we decided to take a lap around World Showcase, and see what we might want to pick up to eat. With Food and Wine Festival in full swing, they had LOTS of options.

The last stop was the France pavilion for the movie and treats! Hubby picked up a treat in Germany when we were walking, so we all sat in France and enjoyed a little something sweet.

We did it!!!

Ok, so we are tired! But what a day! 

Wait.. we still need to get back to the room. We exited International Gateway and hopped on a boat back to the resort. This makes the 4th mode of transportation too! [Editor's Note: 5th, actually, since we walked from the room to the studios in the morning. So that give us: Walk, Minnie Van, Bus, Monorail, Boat]

We got back to the room about 7:30 - almost 12 hours after we left the room.
My Fitbit said 23,779 steps for the day - that explains a lot about how I feel.

Nice sunset for our amazing day! 

We talked about going to the pool this evening, But in the end, we decided not to exert any more energy than absolutely necessary. Baths and bed for everyone.

Orlando 2019 - What should we ride next?

Woke up to nothing dramatic outside. Some overcast skies, but no wind damage or flooding.... yay!

Our plan was to hit the studios when the park opened at 9.
Sometime around 7:30 it was announced the Studios would now be open at 8..... WHAT?
I need to get dressed and have breakfast!!!

We are ready for whatever weather we get! 

So we hustled a little and made it to the studios around 8:30. our hope was that most other guests had the same reaction and we would not be so late that lines were long.
And as luck would have it, we got on the new star wars line with about a 5 mins wait.

Galaxy's Edge is just as cool in the rain. 

Cast members' ponchos are perfect! 

The Falcon... waiting for us! 

Family picture with a Porg, not native to Galaxy's Edge ;) 

From there the young man and I went to the slinky dog ride and practically walked on!
Hubby and our young lady did star wars a second time they joined us for another round on Slinky Dog.
The line this time was more than twice as long... but still not 15 mins.
Yay!
Oh, and the temperature was finally tolerable.
It was easily the nicest morning in the parks as far as temperature goes.
Yes, it sprinkled on us, but only for a few minutes.
We rode everything we wanted in the studios and had lunch before heading back to the room around 1:30.

Dessert... not fancy or anything ;) 

The crowds were wonderfully light.
We picked up fastpasses for the young lady and me to go ride Flight of Passage in AK this afternoon, while the boys walked into Epcot and saw the American Adventure.
We all met back in the room and had a short break before our evening plans.
Bowling!
We have signed up for the DVC member's night at Splitsville in Disney Springs.
This event includes a ton of food and two hours of bowling.

LET'S BOWL!

We made good use of both the food and the two hours. We have bowled at both the California and Florida locations. They are nice - easily my favorite bowling chain.

We came away with leftovers, DVC socks (just something you get at this event), and two free t-shirts. And we had fun.

On the way home, we stopped and pick up another flat of water. Somehow we have gone through 4 flats of water since leaving Universal. It's very warm, and we are walking a lot, but 4?

Orlando 2019 - Dorian, Is that you?

I mentioned the quip that says... waiting for a hurricane is like being stalked by a turtle. This last week, it that really rung true to us.

But we have been told today is the day!
It was announced that all Disney parks would be closing early (2 or 3 pm, depending on the park) and we were encouraged by the resort to eat at the parks before returning to the hotel.

All forecasts still indicated Dorian wasn't coming to Orlando directly. But his entourage of wind and rain would stop by to mix things up.

Epcot! 

So we hit Epcot, which was our plan for the day. We used all our fast passes even though the crowds were pretty light. The sky was blue with big fluffy clouds but it was still HOT. Midday brought a bit more wind.
We enjoyed a handful of attractions and wandered to the Italy pavilion for lunch at Via Napoli. A table service option we have never done before. They are known to have some amusing ovens and we knew we could get pizza/flatbread as an option.

Ovens at Via Napoli

Lunch was great. Our waiter, who insisted it was only his second week, was great.
The food was tasty too.

While at lunch Disney updated park hours for the day. All other parks were still closing early, but Epcot would now be open until 7 pm.
Hmmmm. We had planned to cut out between 2 and 3 and spend a relaxed afternoon/evening at the hotel.
After some discussion, we choose to stick to our original plan.
We weren't worried about the storm, but why not relax? We have had some really productive days already and a lazy afternoon/evening would be nice.

After one last Fastpass, we left the park and headed to the room.

Assorted things wrapped up in plastic wrap in preparations for the storm.

We spent the afternoon watching the Weather Channel and resting.
Our young lady and I wandered around inside the resort to see what people were up to. We stopped into the store and Bakery and picked up a couple of things to round out the food we already had for dinner.

art gallery with sandbags

Additional resort offerings for the storm

Added fun around the Boardwalk.

After dinner in the room, we watched some shows and played a few rounds of the Clue card game we keep in the suitcase.
The afternoon brought some rain and wind, but nothing too much beyond what we had already seen over the course of our trip.

I took the picture the same place several times over the course of the evening.

Refreshing on the ins and outs of our Travel Clue game... not sure if we look tired or bored ;)

Disney had announced regular park hours tomorrow. No early entry, but everything would be opening on time.

Orlando 2019 - Parks and a Party

Today started earlier for Hubby than the rest of us. He got up and walked over to the Studios to hit early entry and try out the new ride and Star Wars land. He got there by 8 and rode it 5 times before coming back a bit after 9 am and meeting up with us.

We all took the bus to the Magic Kingdom

We focused on rides with Fastpasses to start. Rode a couple of things and then decided on lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Mobile Ordering is amazing if we haven't said it. Soo much less stress and bother than the wait in-line method.
After lunch we split up for a few rides/shows then met up again for three rides, ending with a fastpass on Seven Dwarfs mine train. At this time we decided to take a break from the park.


About halfway to the buses, the rain came.... we found the closest shelter and broke out our rain gear. Even with the gear on, we got pretty wet getting to the bus shelter.

Thankful for a dryer back in the room!

Had a great couple of hours of mellow rest in the room before we headed back out to the Magic Kingdom for the Halloween Party, Mickey's Not So Scary Party to be specific.
We haven't done this event before. Entering the park all the cast had changed into different outfits. Cute, very colorful outfits for the party.
We all got treat bags and a starter handful of candy... oh, you get candy at this event. They hand out candy at set locations and a few surprise locations too.
We jumped on the people movers to start, hoping to get a feel for what was going on in Tomorrowland, etc.
Having our bearings, we set out to ride more rides and enjoy the lighter crowds.
Earlier in the week, we were not sure if this event was going to happen. But Dorian doesn't seem like it will be the threat to our location that it once seemed like.
The other side of that is that the crowds seem to be thinning out. I think people who drove in are leaving early.

Our time at the party was fun. We hit a lot of rides with very short wait or no wait at all. On Big Thunder, it said it was a 10-minute wait, but it was really just however long it took you to walk through the line - so we rode that twice. In fact, we got to ride several things twice.
I also got to do a photo pass I have been wanting to try and we got to see the beginning of the Halloween parade.

Personally, I am not a big fan of Halloween, but I like animals and I have been impressed by the horse that starts this parade, so getting to see the headless horseman ride the parade route was neat. So the horse navigates the route with his rider who can't see and has one hand holding a pumpkin.... very cool horse.

The young man and I gave up on the fun around 10 and headed back to the bus to the resort. Hubby and our young lady stayed another hour-ish before coming back as well.
Overall it was great to have such small crowds. Not sure we would do it again, as the price is a bit high for what you get but glad we tried it.

Orlando 2019 - Move to the Boardwalk

Today marks the halfway point of the trip!

My feet might be the only part of me willing to believe that ;)

Today we move on property to Disney's Boardwalk.
We have a 1 bedroom DVC unit with a kitchen, washer, etc.
It will be smaller than the unit we had at Orange Lake, but way closer to the action!

Check out is at 10, but Check-in isn't until 4. Even so, we decided to check in early. Our logic was partially storm based. Dorian has been on the minds of locals, at least, for the better part of the week. People might be checking out early to get home, or checking-in last minute because they had to evacuate. We wanted to have our stuff at the resort and the check-in process complete as early as possible.
Granted we can check in on our phones, but again, I wanted to talk to someone and get a read on the level of storm prep, etc.
Well, despite a line at check-in, our room was already available! The staff said the resort would take care of us if the storm came and not to worry.
So by 11, we were in our room settling in and prepping to go to the parks!

Our 1-bedroom Villa.... before we lived in it. 

The Animal Kingdom was the plan. We moved our fast passes around a bit to give ourselves time at the resort, and took the bus from the resort.
We went on Navi River first and then did a mobile order for lunch at Pizzafari. Still loving mobile ordering.

Floating Islands of Pandora

After lunch, half the group ran over to Everest and we all met up after for snacks - Mickey bar and Corn... odd combo, but it was an either/or situation... no one had both. Then we rode the train up to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Roasted corn and the first Mickey bar of the trip! 

This area has changed a bit since last time I was here. they are now using the bulk of the space for an animation experience. It was full, so I assume it's well-received. it was a bit of a let down for us since we weren't going to do that - they don't have much other space before a few small displays. But we go to ride the train and that is important.
After we hit the safari.

We enjoyed seeing Kevin walking around the park

At this point, our young man and I decided to take a break and head back to the hotel. Now that we are on property we can do that. So hubby and the young lady stayed back to ride the big rides... Flight of Passage, Everest (again), and Kali River Rapids.

Kali River Rapids! 

We all met back in the room for dinner, which we grabbed from the boardwalk pizza place and booths.

Not sure what the weather is going to do... we have our ponchos! 

After dinner we walked to Epcot (staying on property is great!), stopping for Ice Cream along the way.
Once in the park, we were able to weave in and out of the crowds to get over to the Mexico pavilion. We had time for one ride before fireworks, so we headed straight to it.

Then we checked-in for our Illuminations fast passes. With 15 minutes to spare we had time to find a good spot and rest.

while we were waiting a small rain shower blew thru. We are getting used to the afternoon showers each day. We saw a couple of showers today actually. I find that as soon as I commit to putting my poncho on, it pretty much stops. True story.
The rain passed and Illuminations went off without a hitch. It was fun to see it one last time. They are ending its 20-year run this summer. We also look forward to seeing what they do next.

Walking back to the hotel isn't as fun as walking to the park, probably because now we are tired and our feet all hurt, but it's time for bed, so Goodnight.