The time is 11:43 pm and after waiting nervously for 46 minutes, thinking the whole time “please don’t break down on us now” John, aka Little Dude, and I were next to load onto the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. A journey that had started at 7 am that morning was about to end in celebration. We sat down, strapped ourselves in, and took our 40th and final on-ride photo of the day. As the train left the station, I looked at John. His infectious smile that never wavered the entire day was bigger than ever. I put my arm around my son and screamed, “we did it John!” Without missing a beat, he looked up at me and said, “I knew we were going to complete it!” At that moment we threw our hands in the air and I let out the biggest Ric Flair “woooooooooooo” I could muster up. Upon entering the mine, we sang along to Dig-A-Dig Dig and Heigh Ho capping off our Singing Challenge (Thank you @CheshAndTigg & @DisneyBerg), which earned donations for our Give Kids The Rides page. As we exited the ride, I picked up John and we hugged and cheered some more all the way to the castle. We took the picture below as is tradition with most challengers who end their night at Magic Kingdom and headed toward the park exit. Walking up Main Street, I turned around and let the moment sink in at what we just accomplished. 40 rides, 4 parks, 1 day. The first team to ever attempt AND complete the #EveryRideKidsChallenge. We set out on a two missions that day…one was personal and the other (more important) was to raise money for Give Kids The World. We accomplished both!
Little did I know that by the end of this vacation I would go on to complete two more challenges. One with John (#EveryRideToddler) and one solo (#EveryRideWDW). Three celebratory pictures in front of Cinderella Castle on three separate nights. It was an incredible journey!
So how did we get there? What was the strategy behind each attempt? How was I able to convince my 5-year old son to go on this crazy adventure with his father? Who watched John while I was doing the solo challenge (yes that was a question I was asked multiple times)?
Well you’re about to find out!
But, before I go any further I just want to say Thank You to everyone who takes the time to read this. This is my first time writing an article of this length and I am not a master of the English language so please bear with me at times.
And also to everyone who followed, donated, supported, and cheered us on along the way. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. John and I could not have done it without you!
ONE LITTLE SPARK OF INSPIRATION…
I first learned about these theme park challenges back in 2015. I stumbled across the Parkeology Challenge and was immediately hooked. I thought it was a great idea, and a new way to experience Disney.
The Challenge Rules:
- An individual must ride every moving attraction in all four parks in one operating day using only the resources available to the “typical guest.”
- You can’t pay for special access, including all hard ticket events like Disney After Hours.
- Extra Magic Hours are allowed (available to any guest staying on property).
- All forms of transportation are fair game to move from park to park.
- The official ride list is taken from Disney’s website. If it moves, it’s a ride. So Carousel of Progress is in but Country Bear Jamboree is out.
- You must tweet a photo of yourself on every ride throughout the day using proper tags.
- You must post every FastPass (FP) you intend on using.
There are other smaller details but I think you get the idea. Basically you’re running, jogging, and fast walking back and forth across four parks while constantly on your phone monitoring wait times and trying to get as many FP’s as possible while also remembering to tweet out a picture of yourself on every single ride all in one action packed day *takes a breath*. This challenge is a physical and mental grind that puts everything you know about WDW to the ultimate test!
Now I know what a lot of you are thinking and trust me when I say I’ve heard it all before from family and friends… ”I would never spend my vacation doing that” “That’s impossible!” “You’re crazy!” “I prefer to move at a slower pace at Disney” “You’re 35 and still vacationing at Disney?!”
I understand that this type of thing isn’t for everyone and not the way most people would like to spend their vacation. Personally, I love slow paced Disney vacations, taking in all the sights and sounds that this magical place has to offer. I have countless memories growing up travelling with my mom and little sister. As an adult, I proposed to my wife in front of Cinderella Castle and our honeymoon was, you guessed it, at WDW. So for me, I was really intrigued to find out if I had what it took to complete a challenge such as this. The best comparison I could make was a person who loves climbing. What might their ultimate goal be? First thing that popped into my head was climbing Mount Everest. So this challenge became my Mount Everest!
So why did it take me until November 2018 to make my first challenge attempt? Well, up until July of that year the only way to complete the challenge was that every ride needed to be in operation. If a ride was under refurbishment a run would automatically be an #autofail. Due to work and family responsibilities, planning a trip around Disney’s refurbishment schedule was difficult for me to do. But that all was about to change…
…..IT ALL STARTED WITH A BOAT… THE LIBERTY BELLE RIVERBOAT
Late July/Early August 2018 was supposed to be a time of major excitement in the challenge community. The Liberty Belle Riverboat refurbishment was scheduled to come to an end and Toy Story Land had just opened at the end of June, adding two more rides to the challenge! But then disaster struck. Disney announced that the Riverboat refurbishment would be extended, thus making all challenge attempts an #autofail. This was awful news to the dozens of challengers who planned trips around that time. There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel… until three men came together and changed the theme park challenge landscape forever.
THE EVERY RIDE CHALLENGE IS BORN
In late July 2018, Kenny “The Pirate” White, Jeff Stamp, and Marty King created a challenge designed to benefit Give Kids The World (GKTW). It was called “Give Kids the Rides.” Marty pledged $100 to GKTW for everyone who completed all operating rides while the Riverboat was under refurbishment. Other benefactors stepped up pledging per-ride donations along with fun bonus challenges (ex. singing on rides, drinking a full cup of Beverly at Epcot’s Club Cool, and petting a banshee in Pandora). In only a few months, Give Kids The Rides raised almost $60,000! It was a fantastic idea for a very worthy cause. I knew at this moment that I needed to be a part of it. What started out as a personal goal now had a greater meaning.
Shortly after, the group decided to create an ongoing challenge called the “Every Ride Challenge,” which would provide additional challenge options for individuals and families that were less intense. No longer would the term #autofail exist in the challenge community. The goal of each attempt was to ride all rides that were operating on the day of your challenge while promoting GKTW.
There are four different types of challenges in which you can participate at WDW:
#EveryRideWDW Challenge – All operating rides on the day you attempt challenge
#EveryRideToddler Challenge – Rides with no height limit
#EveryRideKids Challenge – Rides with height limit of 40” or less
#EveryRideTeens Challenge – No kiddie rides
PREPARATION AND GAME PLANNING
As you can imagine, just like any Disney vacation, there is a lot of planning that goes into it. When I first decided to make an attempt at the #EveryRideWDW Challenge in November 2018, I spent months researching the lengths of every ride, parade/fireworks schedules, average wait times, and crowd levels throughout the course of the day. I studied maps to plot out the best routes to take from one ride to the next. I also followed dozens of runs by other challengers on Twitter trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. My first two attempts at the #EveryRideWDW Challenge resulted in back to back failed runs (11/11 & 11/12). Of the 46 rides needed for completion on each of those days I finished with 34 and 36 rides respectively. Solid efforts I felt for my first two runs.
When I came back home the first thing my youngest son John (5) said was, “Daddy, I want to do a challenge with you on our next trip!” I immediately hopped on to EveryRideChallenge.com to see if anyone had attempted/completed the #EveryRideKids Challenge. No one had, and better yet, no one had signed up to attempt it yet. I looked at my son and told him, “you could be the first kid in the WORLD to finish the kids version of the challenge!” He and I were super excited and signed up that very day.
I know what some of you are thinking…”how could any five year old physically and mentally survive a day like the one I described?” Well there were times I thought the same thing. Now, on previous trips, even as young as 3, John has gone open to close at every park numerous times without so much as a single complaint. He always fell asleep on the bus ride back to the resort (parents, we’ve all been there LOL), but while in the parks, he was always fantastic. My biggest fear in the planning was park hopping in a car and him possibly falling asleep and refusing to wake up! Absolutely a possibility, but one I would just have to wait and face if it happened.
Next on the docket was choosing the right day to give this a shot. We chose April 26, 2019, a 16-hour park day with Magic Kingdom opening at 8 am for Extra Magic Hours (EMH) and closing at midnight. The other three parks all opened at 9 am and closed at half hour intervals (8:30, 9:00, and 9:30).
In addition to this challenge, I got the crazy idea to give the #EveryRideWDW Challenge another shot at the end of our trip. I chose May 1st, the last day of our trip and a 15-hour park day. My lovely mother, who helped cultivate my obsession with Disney, would be accompanying us and she would get to spend that day at Magic Kingdom with her grandson. We were all set with our challenge dates!
Be sure to check in every Friday for the next 4 weeks to read the rest of their #EveryRideKids challenge! You won't want to miss it!
If you’re looking to start planning your WDW Ride Challenge, contact your On The Road Travel agent to help make it a reality! You can also connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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