"Let's Ride Every Ride in WDW" - The Trip Where Everything Went Right (April 2018)

Greg Lembrich

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 26, 2018
This is my first Trip Report, so please let me know if you have any suggestions or other feedback. My daughter (7 years old) and I went to WDW from Sunday April 8 through Friday April 13, 2018 for her Spring Break. My wife (who is not that big a Disney World fan anyway) had to travel overseas for work that week, so it was just a daddy-daughter trip.

Our last trip was just 6 months ago (November 2017, the week after Thanksgiving) and we stayed at the BLT with 3 of the grandparents (my mom, dad, and mother-in-law). We had a great time and created cherished memories, but needed to move at a slower pace to accommodate everyone. My wife missed most of that trip due to work as well, so we still had 4 park hopper days left on her ticket. Combining my daughter's desire to see and do more, an unused 4 day ticket, my soon to expire AP, and a Spring Break week that fell after most of the WDW crowds thinned out seemed like the perfect recipe for a fun and (relatively) inexpensive daddy-daughter trip to Disney.

When we first planned the trip, I asked my daughter what rides she wanted to go on. She responded, "All of them." Rather than ask her to narrow it down, I went down the research and planning rabbit hole. As someone who enjoys planning vacations as much, if not more, than actually going on them, this was right up my alley.

With the help of lots of internet resources (including DISboards, Touring Plans, KennythePirate, and Parkeology), I learned that there are currently 46 rides operating in WDW [there had been 47 until the Riverboat went down for a lengthy refurb]. I also saw that, with proper planning and long park operating hours, a number of people have completed every ride in a single day. So surely it was possible for us to do so in 4 days or less. Our goal was set: ride all 46 rides, plus do a bunch of fun extras that we would enjoy.

While I really had fun obsessively planning for this trip, I have to say that I enjoyed the trip itself even more! Having quality time with my daughter was awesome, and we accomplished all of our goals for the trip (and more). As the title above says, this was truly a Disney trip where everything went right. I welcome you to come along for the ride(s) as I recount our journey, with some reviews, tips, and photos along the way.

First, the basics:

Who? Greg/Dad (recently turned 40) and Caroline/Daughter (7), from New Jersey



What? Riding all 46 rides in WDW (including multiple rides on our favorites), starting each day pre-RD with either a PPO ADR or EMM, enjoying fireworks and dessert parties at both MK and EP, character meals at H&V, Akershus, CRT, and Chef Mickey's, and the Ultimate Nights of Adventure Tour at AK.

When? We departed Newark early evening on Sunday April 8, 2018 and returned from Orlando in the afternoon of Friday April 13. We had 4 days in the parks (Monday through Thursday).

Where? We stayed at the Red Lion Motel on Irlo Bronson Highway/192. I chose this (a) to save money and make this a more budget friendly trip than our past stays at BLT and (b) for its great location within just a few minutes of the main gate. We were very satisfied with both the value and convenience.

How? We flew down to Orlando on United, rented a car from Alamo to get to and from airport and also drive between the parks and our motel, and flew back to Newark on Spirit.
 
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Sunday 4/8/18 (Arrival Day)

Chapter 1: The Quest for 46

Our flight to MCO was not scheduled to leave until 5:30 PM on Sunday and we live just a few minutes from Newark Airport, so we had plenty of time over the first weekend of my daughter's Spring Break to pack and make last minute preparations for our trip.

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Of course, prep had really begun months earlier when we decided to go back to WDW and set the goal of riding every ride on this trip. While we had been to WDW before, we had only focused on the major rides and shows that we thought would be of interest to us. I honestly didn't even know how many rides were in each park until my daughter said she wanted to ride "all of them". She definitely inherited my love for theme parks, water parks, and amusement parks, and we have been enjoying them together since she was 2 years old. If she is tall enough to ride something, she wants to do it; she has no fear. In fact, over the past few years we did make it our mission on a few occasions to experience every ride during our visits to more local parks in NJ and PA, so her request was not surprising. The only difference was that the scope and scale of WDW was on a whole other level from what we had done before.

So, obsessive planner that I am, I plunged down the internet research rabbit hole. I discovered the Parkeology website (http://www.parkeology.com/wdw49-all-disney-world-rides-in-one-day) and learned that back in December 2017, just a few days after our last trip to WDW, there had been several teams trying to complete the "WDW47 Challenge" of riding all 47 rides in WDW on the same operating day. Among those who completed the challenge successfully was KennythePirate and his daughter, who chronicled their experience on his website (http://www.kennythepirate.com/2017/...a-single-day-with-parkeology-wdw47-challenge/). With this inspiration, I now understood the challenge we were facing and knew that it could, in fact, be accomplished.

I was very excited to try this, but wanted to make sure that my daughter was still on board for actually doing it on our trip. I laid it out for her, including that we would start each day before RD, and she was just as excited as I was. We started watching YouTube videos of some of the rides she was curious about, planning which park(s) to do on each day, and building our touring strategy (I did most of the heavy lifting, but she asked me questions every day and became very invested in our planning). I learned that the Riverboat at MK would be down for a major refurb during our visit (not scheduled to run again until the summer), so our initial goal of 47 rides was revised down to 46. I built multiple custom touring plans on both TP and KtP's Character Locator to find what would both optimize our time and be realistic to achieve. It was a great way to build our anticipation and enthusiasm for the trip.

Once our dates were set, flights were booked, and motel and rental car reserved, I started scheduling our ADRs and special events. It was fun to figure out how these reservations could not only fit within our plans, but also assist us along the way. I started by booking EMM for our second park day, when we planned to be at MK all day anyway. Not only would it give us a chance to ride 7DMT (my daughter's favorite ride at WDW) several times, but we could do it along with PP and Pooh before the park even opened, allowing us to hit other high-priority rides at RD before having breakfast and starting our FP+ rides.

Next I booked PPO ADRs for each of our other 3 park days based on where we planned to start the morning. I booked H&V for 8:00 AM on our first park day (Monday 4/9/18) because my daughter loves Sophia and Doc M, I thought she would want to sign up for JTA, and that day was announced as the beginning of TSM having no FPs available and being down to one track. So the plan was to get in early, sign up for JTA, eat breakfast, meet Sofia and Doc, and then be out on Hollywood Blvd to RD TSM.

I booked Akershus for 8:00 AM on our third park day (Wednesday 4/11/18) because my daughter loves meeting the princesses without having to stand on line, we had eaten there before and enjoyed the food, and it would put us in a great position to ride FEA as soon as it opened. I then booked BOG for PPO on our fourth and final park day (Thursday 4/12/18) so we could get a jump on the RD crowds to either ride 7DMT and PP again or head to any major rides we could not complete on Tuesday.

I also booked several special events and extras that I knew we would enjoy to really make the trip memorable. Based on great reviews here on the DIS I booked both the HEA Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing and the FEA Dessert Party at EP. We were unable to get a reservation for CRT during our November trip, but I was able to snag one for a late lunch on our last park day this time around. And on prior trips we had really liked going to Chef Mickey's on our departure day (gave us something to look forward to, even as we were packing to leave), so I booked us for breakfast before we would need to head to the airport to fly home on Friday.

Finally, I had always wanted to do a VIP tour and knew my daughter would love it, so I booked us on the Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour at AK for the evening of our first park day. An individual VIP tour was beyond our budget, but I liked the idea of VIP access at AK, especially since we had not experienced Pandora yet (and likely would not get FPs for it). The Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour sounded really fun, plus it would make it easy for us to complete all the rides at AK by the end of our first day. Even with my AP discount, it was a bit of a splurge, but less than we were saving by staying off-site for the week, or at least that's how I justified it in my head :)

By the time our 30 day "offsite" window opened, I had our FP+ strategy ready to execute. The plan was to use our 3 FP+s on high priority attractions before noon and then start grabbing and modifying more FPs from there. I booked RnRC, ToT, and ST at HS, Space, Splash, and BTMRR at MK, and TT, MS, and SE at EP. I tinkered with my touring plans a bit in the weeks before the trip, and felt good that we would be able to both have a great time and accomplish our goals even if some things did not go as planned.

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After we had finished with our packing and last minute errands, my wife drove my daughter and me to EWR for our flight. I traveled a lot for work last year, so I have Silver Elite status on United, which made booking good seats on the plane and checking in pretty easy. Our flight ended up being slightly delayed, but we took off around 6 PM and landed in Orlando around 8:30. My daughter watched Coco for most of the flight, and the time passed quickly. Soon we were grabbing our bags and off to Alamo to pick up our car.

One of the things I like about MCO is that most of the major car rental companies have pick-up and drop-off at the airport. Having to wait for a shuttle and then go off-site is a real drag at some other major airports. When we got to the pick-up area for Alamo we were told that they were out of both compact and midsize cars at the moment, so we could either wait or just grab a minivan for the same price. We didn't want to wait, especially after my daughter saw the red Dodge Grand Caravan (of all things) parked nearby and fell in love. So we hopped in our Dodge, headed down 528, and were on our way.

We did not eat dinner before leaving, so we stopped for a quick bite at McDonalds on 192 before checking in to the Red Lion. As requested, we were given a first floor room around the back of the building. There was ample parking, and I was impressed by the quality of the room. In my experience, it is rare that a non-luxury hotel (much less a motel) matches up to the photos on its website. But the Red Lion definitely did. Our room was basic, but was very clean and had two comfortable queen beds, flat screen tv, recliner, desk/work space, and a large vanity area next to the sink. There was not much closet space and the bathroom itself was a bit cramped, but the bath products (Cascadia Soapery) were really good and the wifi was pretty fast. Overall, I thought it was an excellent value for the money, especially considering the prime location just minutes from the main gate and all the parks.

We were planning on an early start the next morning (and the next several mornings after), so we only unpacked the essentials and quickly went to sleep. Monday's goal: Ride every ride at HS and AK!

Sorry that this was mostly a logistics post. I wanted to memorialize my planning process, but I promise the rest of the TR will be filled with lots of fun photos, rides, fireworks, etc. Please come along.
 
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Monday 4/9/18

Chapter 2: Starting the Journey at Hollywood Studios

We woke up bright and early on Monday in order to get to HS and be near the front of the PPO ADR line for our H&V breakfast. We left the Red Lion around 7:15 AM and I was pleased to see just how close our motel was to the parks. Just 5 minutes after getting in the car, we were pulling in to the HS parking lot. There was no CM at the parking entrance yet, and very few other cars in the lot. I had misplaced my AP before the trip, but thanks to some great advice from fellow DIS posters I knew I could get a replacement at any park ticket window. There was only one open ticket window at that hour, but also no one in line, and the CM was very helpful. In less than a minute I had my replacement AP card and we continued on to the taps.



The line to the far left was for PPO ADRs, and we got in line behind the only 2 other people there. Around 7:30 a CM came out with a tablet to confirm that everyone in our line did, in fact, have an early breakfast reservation. Those that didn't were sent to line up at the other taps and told they would not be let in until at least 8:30. It was cool to look at the completely empty park in front of us and know that we would be among the first guests to go in.



Our original goal for the morning was to ride TSM immediately after breakfast, then RnRC (2x), ToT (2x), and Star Tours and also for my daughter to do JTA. On the eve of the trip, my daughter decided she was no longer interested in JTA, but I didn't know if that would stick come game time. As I mentioned in my earlier post, this Monday was also supposed to be the first day that TSM would be down to one track and have no FPs, so we definitely wanted to ride it at RD to avoid a potentially multi-hour wait later in the day. [As it turned out, TSL construction was running a little behind schedule and there were 2 tracks running and SD FPs available all week, but none of us knew that at the time.]

At about 7:50 they began letting our line through the taps. We had been chatting with the folks ahead of us for several minutes at this point, so we walked to H&V together and were the first two parties to arrive and check-in. I confirmed with my daughter that she did not want to do JTA and she stuck to her guns.

Our new friends from line were called in first right at 8AM, and then we were called right after them and shown to our table. We placed our drink orders and then proceeded to the buffet. The spread had a nice variety of hot and cold foods. If you have done a breakfast buffet at Disney before, it is pretty much what you would expect. There was nothing that surprised me, good or bad. Service was nice, with our server stopping by a few times to refill drinks, check on us, and accommodate my request to settle the check early so we would not be delayed after we finished eating. Our table was right next to the start of the buffet and we each made multiple trips through and fueled up.

The characters started coming around to the tables right away. Sofia and Doc came first within a few minutes of each other, and both took time to interact with my daughter and pose for photos. Jake came by a few minutes later and did the same.







My daughter was genuinely indifferent towards Handy Manny (she declared "I've barely heard of that guy", which I thought was a funny thing for a 7 year old to say about a cartoon character), so we didn't bother waiting for him. I'm sure it would have just been a few more minutes, but we had finished eating and getting in front of the RD crowd was a priority for us.

We exited H&V at 8:35 and were the first non-CMs out on Hollywood Blvd. The CMs showed us to the RD "starting line" and told us that TSM was experiencing some technical difficulties and would be opening late (hopefully by 9:15 or 9:30). We were able to see the crowds behind us coming through the taps, and soon a mass of humanity emerged through the entrance and descended upon us.



A few minutes before 9 the CMs lined up and showed the crowd which CMs to follow for each ride. We were at the front of the crowd and followed the CMs headed to TSM. They walked briskly enough that there was lots of fast walking and jockeying for position around us. We allowed the most aggressive to pass us, but were still among the first 25 guests or so by the time we got in line. They held us outside until the technical issues were resolved. At 9:15 they announced the ride was ready to open and within a minute or two we had our 3D glasses and were firing away.



This was my daughter's first time doing TSM and she LOVED it. She had never wanted to do TSM or ST before because she does not like wearing 3D glasses, but she got over it and really enjoyed the games. And ride #1 of 46 was in the books.

By the time we exited, the standby line was huge and waits were posted at 60 minutes. When I checked the app a few minutes later, the wait was listed at 90 minutes (I heard it quieted down later in the day, and was certainly better for most of the rest of the week).

Chapter 2 continues in next post
 
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Chapter 2: Starting the Journey at Hollywood Studios (continued)

After TSM, we exited the craziness of Pixar Place and headed for the relative calm of Sunset Boulevard. We wanted to ride both RnRC and ToT standby before using our FPs for second rides on each, so we started by doing the SR line at RnRC. Almost as quickly as we could walk up the ramp and into the building, we were directed into the studio with Aerosmith. My daughter tried RnRC for the first time during our trip last November and insisted on riding it 4 times then, so I knew that she would love it (and also that she was comfortable going single rider). It was still quite early in the day, so there was no backup at the SR line and we were able to board the same limo (just a few rows apart) almost immediately.





RnRC is a great ride! Easily in the top 5 for both my daughter and me. The rocket start into the loop is an amazing beginning, and the ride photos are always classic. I am consistently amused by the faces of the other riders as much as our own. Funny to see how different people react in the moment.

Next we proceeded to ToT, another ride that my daughter tried for the first time on our last trip and became obsessed with. The standby wait was only 20 minutes, so we had plenty of time to ride before our FP+ window at RnRC would close.



After returning from the Twilight Zone, we made the short walk back to RnRC. This time we used the FP line, so we knew that we could both ride together and request the front row! Before we knew it we were back in the studio and hearing about our backstage passes. The line moved quickly, and we only needed to wait one extra limo once we reached the front in order to get the front seats. I was soon reminded why I love riding roller coasters with my daughter so much. She is so adventurous and fearless! Her excitement is contagious.





Next we headed back to ToT to use our FP there.



I had originally thought that my daughter would want to do JTA, and had planned to sign her up for the 11:40 slot. Since she opted out of it, we had time to leisurely stroll from ToT over to Star Tours, looking around some stores and FaceTime with the grandparents on the way. We rode Star Tours near the beginning of our FP window and afterward ended up watching the 11:40 JTA that I originally planned to sign her up for. She enjoyed watching other kids do it, but was not jealous to not be doing it herself, so I guess she made the right call.

We then started making our way out of the park when we saw the Storm Troopers passing by.





A cool way to finish our morning in HS before hopping over to AK for the afternoon and evening. 4 rides down, 42 to go!
 
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Chapter 3: An Animal Kingdom Afternoon

After a fun and successful morning at HS, we were very excited for AK. A quick drive between parks and we were soon at the entrance. It was a very hot and humid day (especially compared to the wintry weather we had still been enduring at home), so the few minutes of air conditioning in the rental car were a welcome break. We stopped to pose for a photo by the Tree on our way in. You can tell that we planned on attacking every ride in the park ;)



After we tapped our MBs at Star Tours back at HS, I had grabbed us an early afternoon FP for Kali River Rapids. First order of business at AK though was getting my daughter some lunch. I was still stuffed from breakfast, but she was hungry. She really likes the mac and cheese at 8 Spoon, so we grabbed that and then went down to the covered tables at Flame Tree BBQ to relax in the shade while she ate.

After lunch we made our way back to Asia and had already gotten hot and sweaty again by the time we reached KRR. Looking forward to a refreshing ride, we made our way through the FP line and were soon boarding our raft.



The ride did its job, as everyone on our raft ended up getting pretty wet. My daughter, in particular, got drenched! She enjoyed boasting that she had "won" by getting the most soaked of anyone on the boat :)



I grabbed a FP for Primeval Whirl for later, but our next stop was Africa for the Wildlife Express Train. A train pulled in soon after we arrived and we were off to Rafiki's Planet Watch/Conservation Station.



We had never really taken the time to explore this area of AK before, and enjoyed doing so. My daughter was especially delighted by the Affection Section, where she got to pet the pigs and groom the goats.









After having a great time with the animals, we took the train back to Africa. Our next destination was DinoLand, but we couldn't pass up the chance to make a stop along the way.

Chapter 3 continues in next post.
 
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Chapter 3: An Animal Kingdom Afternoon (continued)

Our goal for the afternoon in AK was to ride all of the rides in the park that would not be included on our Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour that evening. That meant we only needed to cover KRR (check), Wildlife Express Train (check), Primeval Whirl, and Triceratop Spin before our tour to ensure that we would complete both HS and AK on Day 1.

But as we headed to DinoLand through Asia, we couldn't help but notice that the line for Expedition Everest was almost empty. We knew we would probably FP it later, and also that it would be included as one of the the rides on our tour. But both my daughter and I are big fans of EE, so we decided to jump on anyway. Just a few minutes later and we were in the front row of the first car of a train heading up to meet the Yeti.



After our quick trip on EE, we continued on to DinoLand and our next FP destination: Primeval Whirl. PW is one of my least favorite rides at WDW. Between the rough, jerky motions and the spinning, I find it both uncomfortable and nausea-inducing ("Primeval Hurl", as many accurately rename it). But my daughter thinks it's great, and we did intend on riding EVERY RIDE. So off we went.





One thing I do like about PW is that the climbs and drops are mild enough that I am able to get some great action shots of my daughter without worrying about losing my phone.





Next up was a short flight on Triceratop Spin (aka "Dinosaur Dumbo"). My daughter likes being able to control going up and down, and spending most of our time in the "up" position.



Our mission for the afternoon now accomplished, I snagged us a FP for EE to ride right before checking-in for our tour. We had some extra time beforehand, and the day was still hot and humid, so we decided to head back to the car for a shade and AC break. Of course, I couldn't say no when my daughter noticed we were passing a milkshake stand on our way out.



After resting and cooling off in the car for a bit, we re-entered the park and walked back to Asia to use our EE FP. This is another roller coaster where we love riding in the front seats, even if we have to wait for it a little longer.





Thinking ahead, I knew that my daughter would probably want to ride KRR again at night after our tour (the view of Everest from that ride is spectacular after dark), so I grabbed a FP for the last hour before closing just to make sure we would have a minimal wait. By now it was time for us to head over to Dino Sue and check in for our Ultimate Nights of Adventure tour. Pandora, here we come!
 
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