Shandy's Corner, A Disney Blog | Magical Mountain

“Impossible.” The greeter at Splash Mountain told us when we let him know that we were doing all four parks in one day. But he was too late in his judgment because Magic Kingdom was our fourth and final park.

At 7:35pm, donned in his First Time Visitor button, my friend Mark from Minneapolis explained to the greeter our dilemma: We wanted to ride Splash Mountain, but we also wanted to make the 8 o’clock fireworks. Mark is originally from Los Angeles, so he’d already been on most of the Magic Kingdom’s rides at Disneyland—except Splash Mountain. The greeter said he’d see what he could do.

Splash Mountain

After plunging the 52.5 feet into the briar patch, we raced in damp clothes to Cinderella’s castle. Though Mark assured me that the whole day was magical and more than he could have ever hoped for, his true magical moment came during the song “Once Upon a Dream” in Wishes. He explained to me later that he used to sing that song to his daughters as a lullaby.

How does one show a first timer all four parks in one day? Easy.

Born and raised in Orlando, I have the luxury of being a very seasoned theme park goer. I remember the cable cars, riding in metal strollers, when Innoventions was mostly video games, and visiting Wilderness Lodge when it was first built. And of course, I worked there for a few summers as a lifeguard at Typhoon Lagoon.

With my vat of Disney knowledge, I was able to ask Mark key questions to help me shape a personalized itinerary that highlighted the Walt Disney World attractions that would most resonate with him. I basically created the ultimate whistle stop tour.

What did I ask? Here’s some examples:

• What are your favorite Disney movies? (Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo)
• Do like roller coasters and the feeling of your stomach dropping? (Yes)
• Do you like animals? (Yes)
• What is your favorite adult beverage? (No real preference)
• What rides did you do at Disneyland? (Basically all of them, except Splash Mountain, which wasn’t yet built when he went)

I threw together our schedule, told him I’d pick him up at 7:15am and to bring $200 for the day, a lot of energy, good walking shoes, no bag, and his imagination.

First stop: Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Arusha savanna. Early to rise in the cool morning, the giraffes, Ankole cattle, and zebras grazed in close range to the overlook. We ate at Mara then jetted to the park for the 9am opening. Once inside he said, “Let’s get a map.” I just laughed and dragged him to Asia for a five minute wait time on Everest. I left him in line for Finding Nemo the Musical and high-tailed it to Africa to pick up fast passes for Kilimanjaro Safari. That would be our last attraction at Animal Kingdom, we had to make the 12:15 Beauty and the Beast show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios after all.

We parked at Hollywood Studios, where we’d leave the car for the rest of the day. After Beauty and the Beast, at which we both teared up a little, I had to make a decision: Rock ‘n Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror. The standby wait times for both exceeded an hour, and Rock ‘n Roller Coaster’s fast pass return was when I’d planned to be at Epcot. I asked what he thought, but he ceded the decision to me, the “expert.” Tower of Terror it was; it’s my favorite ride because of the superb theming. It quickly became his too. We ate lunch at the Prime Time Cafe’s bar (no wait time), and the bartender happened to be from Minneapolis, so they had a plenty to talk about. After destroying the Death Star on Star Tours and showing him NYC and San Francisco, it was time to head to Epcot.

But first I had to take him for ice cream at Beaches ‘n Cream. We took the boat to and from there, so we started in the World Showcase. I wanted to try the new Kimpossible attraction, so we got our Kimmunicator in Norway and grabbed the obligatory margarita from San Angel’s Cantina. While the Kimpossible thing was fun, I have to admit that the margarita was a big help. Soarin’ was, as usual, a massively long wait. Mark worked his first-timer charm and got us 6:20pm return time fast passes from the greeter. I took him on Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, and Living Seas, where he saw a manatee for the first time. Mark, having lived in California for decades, loved Soarin’. As we whooshed over the Golden Gate bridge he exclaimed, “If we turned just a little to the right we could see my parents’ house!” He knew every single place we flew over and most of them had a nostalgic anecdote.

We ran to the monorail. No Disney trip is complete without a ride on the monorail. On our transfer at the Ticket and Transportation Center, we met a couple who was doing all four parks in one day as well. We exchanged our days’ events, and Mark and I privately agreed that ours had been better—we had opened our day with a giraffe after all.

After the rush of Magic Kingdom, I led Mark to the resort boat shuttle lines. We went over our second water bridge of the day on our way to Wilderness Lodge where we got martinis and a ration of food at Territory Lounge. We then took the bus back to my car at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. By a stroke of luck, the driver was a Disney veteran, and, seeing as we were the only passengers onboard, he was excited to join in on my personal trivia and tales of Disney. It was exactly the right way to round out such a day.

Throughout the day Mark kept commenting on how he never would have dreamed that Disney had this much to offer. I told him we were only hitting the tip of the iceberg. He was amazed at the sheer size of the property, the intricate transportation options, and the amount of diverse and detailed theming.

The main thing that I felt coming out of it all was a sense of contented pride. All my years of Disney had finally paid off. I was able to give someone a once in a lifetime experience, something he couldn’t find in any guidebook—and isn’t that what Disney’s all about?

– Lorena Gay