Anita and Flo Take Mike's 4 Parks In 1 Day Challenge: The Results

NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED As you'll recall from an earlier blog, my best friend and partner in crime Flo Tographer and I read about Mike Scopa's 4 parks/1 day Challenge and decided to accept that challenge. What follows is a true and accurate account of our Challenge adventures. No columnists were harmed during the course of the Challenge -- well, Flo had a cold and got a small blister and I caught said cold at the end of the day, but we soldiered on anyway. The Date: Saturday, May 10, 2008. Weather Conditions: Unseasonably warm (mid-90's,) sunny and humid, but luckily also very windy. The humidity dissipated by noon, thank goodness. Clothing of Choice: Very light, sleeveless cotton blouses; cotton shorts, sunglasses. I wore an Animal Kingdom Villas freebee hat, sacrificing beauty for comfort. Hat Hair! Footwear of Choice: Flo chose Naot sandals, I chose Disney Crocs with low profile moisture-wicking runner's socks. Minnie Answer would have died of shame at the sight of this, but she wasn't there now, was she? Transportation of Choice: Rental car: Dodge Avenger. We thought it should have come with a cape and its own theme song. Stuff We Schlepped: A small notebook, two pens, small digital camera, car keys, cell phones, an extra pair of glasses for me. Flo had a small wallet, and I had a lanyard for my pass, money, hotel key, etc. If it didn't fit in a pocket, it didn't go. The plan was to be able to use the Guests Without Bags entrance at each park and skip the long, time-munching security bag check. Predicted Crowd Levels: On the high side of Moderate. Actual Crowd Levels: With the exception of two attractions to be named later, the crowd levels were actually on the high side of Low; a pleasant surprise. Things We Researched and took into account before deciding what to ride and in what order: Location of the ride; popularity; availability of Fastpass or Single Rider lines, duration of pre-show; duration of ride or show; slow or fast loading/unloading; likelihood of it going 101 and how long it takes to reset afterwards, and a million other variables we know from experience. RISE AND SHINE...OR NOT Pre-Challenge Early Morning -- The Plan: Get up at 6 am (there's a 6 in the morning?? Who knew?) Eat breakfast in our villa, dress, leave for park #1 (Animal Kingdom) to arrive at 7:30 am. Pre-Challenge Early Morning--What Actually Happened: I set the alarm for 6 am the night before... and unfortunately, I forgot to turn it on. Luckily I awoke at 6:15, so we were already a little bit behind schedule, but not much. Best laid plans, yada yada, etc. So anyway, I fixed and ate breakfast while Flo got ready, and vice versa. We left Old Key West at approximately 7:30 am. LET'S DO THIS THING!!