The checklists included tasks such as "Walking every street in New York City" and "Visiting every Northern Rail station in the UK." For Theme Park Insiders, of course, theme park-related checklists should spring to mind. What theme park checklists would you like to accomplish in your life?
Here are a few we've completed:
Riding all the rides at Disneyland in one day: It took the latest One More Disney Day promotion to pull off this task, which required nearly 15 hours with the park only lightly attended for most of the day. Disneyland has nearly four dozen attractions, though some might be closed for refurbishment on any given day. On days when crowds are light, limited hours often prevent visitors from getting to every ride and show. And on days with extended hours, large crowds manage to prevent the task.
Riding every version of Pirates of the Caribbean on Earth: This required visits to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, and Disneyland Paris in France. As of now, there's no Pirates yet at Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland's still under construction. For what it's worth, the Tokyo version is the same as Disneyland's except for a Magic Kingdom-style exit, taking you off the ride after the collapsing room scene, which allows you to skip the ride up the chain lift back to the loading station. Disneyland Paris offers the Inception of Pirates rides, with a scrambled narrative relative to the classic Disneyland and abridged Magic Kingdom versions.
Here are three more "Riding every _____ on Earth" checklists, from your editor's personal travels:
One doesn't need to be a global traveler to get in on the fun. How about these other candidates for theme park checklists?
Roller coaster fans long have pursued their own checklists. The most popular model of roller coaster among Theme Park Insider readers is the Bolliger & Mabillard hyper. How about a checklist to ride all 12 B&M hypers around the world? (Your editor has a mere three, so far.)
The ultimate checklist might appear to be to visit all 11 Disney theme park around the world, a list that will grow to 12 with the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in a few years. But more than a few people have accomplished that lofty goal. Let's make it tougher, then: What about a checklist to go on every Disney attraction around the world?
Of course, finishing that checklist would require riding every ride and watching every show at the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, a task that might be too cruel to ask of even the most annoying troll on the site. So let's leave this to you: What theme park checklists would you most want to attempt? Which ones have you finished, or come close to completing? And which theme park checklists would most impress you?
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Days 1-6: Flight from El Paso,TX to Disneyland Paris Resort
Days 7-15: Fly from Paris to Orlando,do all 7 Orlando parks
Days 16-17: Orlando to San Antonio,TX for Sea World
Days 18-23: San Antonio to SoCal for Disneyland Resort, Universal Studios Hollywood, Sea World San Diego
Days 24-29: LA to Tokyo/Osaka for Disney and Universal
Days 30-33: Japan to Hong Kong for Disneyland
Days 34-36: Hong Kong to Singapore for Universal Studios
I got to make this happen!
I've had season passes to every park in Florida at the same time. (other than legoland, I still do). And I live in South Carolina.
Do the Florida and SoCal similar attractions in one day.
The hardest challenge is only eating and drinking theme park food. Lemon-aide slushy, turkey legs and churros etc will really slow you down.
1. Visit every major amusement park in the world (if it appears on TPI or in the Golden Ticket awards, it qualifies along with a few other select parks)
2. Ride every significant coaster in the United States (basically every non-kiddie, non-family, non-clone coaster)
3. Do every non-kiddie ride at the multi-park resorts (currently, all the Disney resorts except Hong Kong plus Universal Orlando) in a single day (one day for each resort, and this includes rides only)
As far as my current progress on these, I've been to most of the non-Florida major parks in the US, but few internationally. I've been on over 250 coasters, but probably a third (or more) at not major. Finally, I've gotten close to completing every ride at the Disneyland Resort in one day (I've gotten into the upper 30s out of 50 or so), but never quite made it.
I also have a list of riding a roller coaster - a real top level coaster, "family" and kiddie coasters - and anything with "mouse" in the title, wouldn't count - in different countries around the world...to modify, in the 50 states (if there are any in say Alaska...).
And finally...taking insperation from a blogger a couple of years ago...to take a three month driving tour across the country to visit (every?) major theme park I can map out...it only counts if I go on at least nine attractions at the park. Similiar to a golfing trip that visits more than one course during a tour.
My wife is a superfan of all things Hello Kitty. In Asia, EVA Airlines has a Hello Kitty airplane and some dedicated wait areas and playgrounds at the airport terminals. In south Japan, a Hello Kitty theme park exists. Make a point of visiting Hello Kitty and the various stores and landmarks.
Visit Legoland theme parks around the world. Unfortunately, some places require a kid for gaining entrance. Do this with a open eye that you might not gain entrance at some places without a kid. Nonetheless, Legolands are expanding at a rapid rate and are gaining in popularity. Legoland has a Merlin pass that allows you to visit other Merlin attractions. This is an excellent deal.
No Disney trip is incomplete with character photos. Try to take as many character photos as possible. Line up at every meet and greet on the street or dedicated venues or character meals. Get the Photo Pass. Try to get as many photos as possible and then create this huge photo book. When I went on the Disney cruise a few months ago, my family decided to take photos with every single character. We did the Princess line-up twice. It was terrific.
A trip on the Lilly Belle at Disneyland
Take the "Walk In Walt's Footsteps" Tour
Late lunch at Club 33
VIP seats for California adventure's 'World of Color.'
Evening Drinks at Trader Sam's
Repose to the Adventureland Suite at the Disneyland Hotel
1. Take a picture with at least 1 cast member from the home country of the 11 Epcot counrtry pavillions.
2. Ride all the major (e ticket) disney rides in one vacation -- presmable over 4-6 days.
3. Ride every ride and see every show in one day at one disney park.
Ok, I do have one far-fetched goal: I would like to design an ultimate disney ride that would be the best disney ride ever; it would have to include the following:
1. Be a very long ride like 30+ minutes
2. It would have to be a family ride -- no roller coasters
3. It would have to have 100's of audio-animontonic characters
4. It would have multiple faceted ride elements to it -- say a tram, boat, glider effect, car type vechicle
5. So basically it would be a catch all ride to be the best disney ride ever.
1. I've always wanted to try to visit more than one Disney Resort in the same day. Ideally, I'd start the morning in Tokyo, go on a few rides then fly from Narita to LAX. Crossing the international dateline would allow me to arrive in Anaheim around the same time of day as when I left Tokyo. I'd love to get a Fastpass in Tokyo and visit the Anaheim version at the proper time and see if they'll honor the fastpass.
2. Take a trip (or multiple trips) around the world and visit the real-world sites that inspired the World Showcase pavilions. I.E. Tori gate in Japan, Mayan pyramid in Mexico, etc
I don't think I posted enough photos of myself that anyone noticed, but if you saw my entire photo folder from my Asia trip in 2011, you might notice that I'm wearing the same clothes at Universal Studios Singapore and Tokyo Disneyland. That's because I spent the day at USS, took a cab from Sentosa to Changi, flew a red-eye from Singapore to Tokyo, then took a bus directly from Narita to TDL. That's the closest I've come to an Amazing Race-like moment visiting theme parks. But a TDS/TDL/DL/DCA day would top that by far. The four best Disney parks in the world on one day? Thankyouverymuch!
Back to the topic though - my current checklist is to visit all the Disney parks in the world - currently at 10/11 parks!
Checklists I have completed: all Big Thunder Mountains, all It's A Small Worlds...
An excuse to get drunk at EPCOT? Why, exactly??
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