On The Road Travel

This is the fifth and final part of a series. Be sure to check out parts one , two , three , and four before reading on! PARK #4 – MAGIC KINGDOM, PART 2 As we hooked a right past Cinderella Castle and headed towards Tomorrowland, I only had one thought in my mind, ”I hope he doesn’t fall asleep in Carousel of Progress.” My son loves this attraction and was showing no signs of slowing down, but parents, we all know that in a moments notice that can change! I got the thumbs up that he was ready to go as we sat down in the last two seats at the end of one of the last rows for ride #30 Carousel Of Progress. After 20 minutes of non-stop entertainment, we hopped right next door to ride #31 The Peoplemover. Next, we ran up to Fantasyland to knock out ride #32 Peter Pan’s Flight (FP15) & #33 It’s A Small World. Then we grabbed a FastPass for ride #34 Haunted Mansion (FP16). While on Haunted Mansion, John said to me, “Daddy, I think we are going to do this!” I still didn’t want to jinx...

This article is the fourth part in a series. Be sure to check out parts one , two , and three before reading on! Then come back next week for the fifth and final part of the series! PARK HOP #3 – HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS TO EPCOT We departed Hollywood Studios at 3:53 pm and made the short drive over to Epcot entering at 4:21 pm. Another solid hop of 28 minutes. PARK #3 - EPCOT We had 9 rides to get done with a target goal of 3 hours. As we made the long walk from the entrance to the World Showcase, John looks up and says, “I love seeing that golf ball every time we come here!” I on the other hand was a bit nervous looking at Spaceship Earth. It has ended a lot of challengers hopes and dreams in the past with its tendency to break down or just stop for no apparent reason whatsoever. I’m a big Game of Thrones fan, so I have dubbed it “The Breaker Of Runs.” But, for the time being, we had other rides to check off the list first. First on the list was our fastpass for ride #21, F...

This is the third part in a series. Be sure to check out part one and part two first and check back next week for part four! PARK #2 – ANIMAL KINGDOM Since this is the kids version of the challenge we only needed to get 5 rides at Animal Kingdom (AK). We were holding FastPasses (FP) for 3 of them, so I felt we could get through AK in just a few hours. We ran on over to Pandora for ride #11 Na’vi River Journey (FP1) and then on to Africa for #12 Kilimanjaro Safaris (FP2). While on the Safaris, I knew we needed to start looking ahead and grab a FP at Hollywood Studios (HS). So I modified our Kali River Rapids FP so I would have more time to search while we did standby for the Dinoland rides. While on line for #13 Kali River Rapids (FP3) I scored our first HUGE fastpass of the day….SLINKY DOG DASH! If you’re familiar with Disney World, you know that this is one of the toughest FastPasses to book after the 30-60 day window. After Kali River Rapids, we finished up Animal Kingdom wit...

This post is the second part in a series. If you haven't already, be sure to check out part one then check back next week for part three! MISSION #1 – EVERYRIDEKIDS CHALLENGE At 5:30 am the alarm went off. It was go time! John was super excited and couldn’t wait to get the day started. After eating breakfast, I checked all my portable chargers (six in total) and packed the rental with a change of clothes and the cooler. We left Pop Century around 6:40 am and made our way to Magic Kingdom. We parked at the Contemporary Resort a little before 7 am and walked over to the security booth rocking our Finding Nemo inspired “Big Dude, Little Dude” shirts! After a short wait, we walked down to the main entrance. While waiting, we struck up conversations with a few families and explained to them what we were doing. Most were really intrigued and supportive. A few just shook their heads and stated they could never do something like that. We had 40 attractions to ride in this version of ...

MISSION COMPLETE! 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 exite...