As I described in this post TP for WDW roller coaster challenge - I had a solo day in the parks and thought it would add some fun to set myself a challenge - so I decided to ride all 7 of the currently operating roller coasters and I Disney Bounded as The Barnstormer/Great Goofini. I had an AMAZING day - so here are the ins and outs & highs and lows of how it all went 
This may be way more detailed than anyone has bargained for (I am pretty sure I have read Trip Reports for a 7 day vacation that were shorter than this) - but it was fun to relive it
The challenge
Ride all 7 currently operating roller coasters (this is also my planned order):
HS: SDD
EP: Guardians
AK: EE
MK: SM, BS, TRON, 7DMT
In addition - but not part of the challenge I wanted to do the following things:
- Tower of Terror (because my kids dislike it - so I wanted to take advantage of them not being with me)
- Voices of Liberty (because I love them and NEVER miss them when I go)
- Zootopia
- Starlight Parade
- Happily Ever After because I love it
- And of course meet the Great Goofini as discussed in this post: Great Goofini while Storybook Circus is Closed?
- I did also want to see the new Villians show but agreed with the family I’d save that for us to all to see together on our next trip - plus it would have messed with the schedule so in hindsight that was a good decision
One thing I would do differently
I would have re-ordered things so that I got to Animal Kingdom Earlier in the day, the rush hour traffic messed with my plans leaving AK - more on that later.
Pre-booked LLs
I decided to do parks in this order: HS, EP, AK, MK
- 9:00 AM Star Tours
- 10:25 AM MMRR
- 11:30 AM ToT
- 1:15 PM GoG
- 8:00 PM TRON
- I was not able to get a morning LL for SDD, so planned to rope drop there. The Ideal plan would have been a 9am SDD, rope drop at AK instead - but alas this was not possible.
- I know folks here have their opinions, but I did decide to try out Thrill Data’s Wait Magic for the trip so I had set up in there to book Space Mountain for 5pm or later and Everest between 3-5pm in that order of priorty (this did work well, and I loved not having to be on top of it in the moment, but still did my own zhuzhing where needed)
- I also need to shout out @Jeff_AZ for his advice on how to strategize my LLs and rope drops plans
How it went
First Stop Hollywood Studios
So I had been at the Epcot After Hours the night before, Epcot After Hours - Solo trip report and got to sleep around 2am. . . soooooo - my best laid plans of getting to resort breakfast at 6:30 and on the bus by 7 did NOT go as planned. I hit the snooze A LOT - and after roughly 3.5 hours of sleep - ended up grabbing to go breakfast and getting an Uber and managed to arrive right on schedule at 7:30AM. I was about the 4th party back to get in.
P.S. I asked my friends if my earrings were ridiculous - they assured me they were not and that I should lean into the whole thing. . .
At rope drop I high tailed it to SDD, I ended up being on probably the 3rd or 4th ride vehicle of the day. Coaster #1 COMPLETE
I then did TMM, and realized there were still 10 minutes of early open left, so I went over and walked onto ToT and cancelled my later LL. This was a big help to my overall schedule.
I then used my Star Tours LL around 9:20am, and Wait Magic booked me Space Mountain around 6pm and Everest around 3pm (I modified this to around 2pm when I realized I could get there earlier)
I had some time to kill before MMRR, and it SAID MFSR was a 10 min wait - but it jumped to 40 min by the time I got there - so I got a blue milk, got some photo pass pics taken, enjoyed the silly jugglers, etc.
I tapped into MMRR 5 min early and then headed to the Skyliner a little before 11.
Second Stop: Epcot
I had a decent amount of open time before my GoG LL at 1:15 which I decided to spend in World Showcase since I had done all the rides the night before. I happened upon Anastasia and Drizilla so I stopped for a quick meet with them which was fun. They loved that I was just telling everyone I was a star with the big star on my shirt.
I had hoped to get lunch at Regal Eagle (I have gluten and dairy allergies and this is a safe place for me to eat) and catch Sergio and Voices of Liberty. I was slightly thwarted because Regal Eagle didn’t open until 11:45 - so by the time I got my food I had missed the 11:50 Sergio. . . but I sat at a table in Italy with my American food anyway and was able to catch the first 8 minutes of his 12:35 show before heading to Voices of Liberty at 12:45. Kelly from VoL was one of the few people who at least knew who Goofini was after she asked about my ears.
I got to GoG around 1:20ish (I waited through one ride to get row 1 - song I Ran - which is the song I have gotten with the most frequency) - my crazy earrings were a bit of a liability here - they were whipping around like crazy during the ride - I thought they might rip right out of my ears - but all was well! I was off before 2 and on my way to Animal Kingdom, I ran to catch the bus just as it was leaving and the driver opened the doors for me - thank goodness! Coaster #2 COMPLETE
Third stop Animal Kingdom
From here my times are approximate because I wasn’t writing stuff down - but I think it was 2:30 that I tapped into EE, I quickly realized single rider would have actually been faster than LL - so I probably should have booked another MK ride instead.
I had Wait Magic configured to grab me a Barnstormer, and I also set it up to grab Jungle Cruise and Tiana - I ended up getting all of those but wasn’t able to use anything but Barnstormer (more on that later).
After getting off, I had some extra time so I rode it a second time in Single Rider with no wait. Coaster #3 Complete
I then walked toward Africa, met a super fun photo pass photographer at the back side of the Tree of Life who TOTALLY knew I was the Barnstormer and was incensed no one had been noticing all day. I continued on to get a Dole Whip - then headed to Zootoopia and then this is when things started to go south.
Firstly - I generally rely on my husband to navigate the signage to the buses - and well - I was alone - and I somehow ended up in the parking lot wondering - where the heck ARE these buses??? SO, I turned around and found my way and saw the MK bus leaving just as I got there. AARGH! It was 4:07pm and the clock was ticking on getting to MK before Goofini’s meet ended. I contemplated at that moment getting an Uber or even splurging on a Minnie Van - but the wait for a Minnie Van was 30 minutes and the Uber stand was where I had just come from on my parking lot journey and I did not want to walk back there and the whole TTC thing. I was like 20 minutes, I can wait. The bus showed up at 4:53!!! I was a basket case the entire wait - like how many buses to Blizzard Beach can there possibly BE??? And then I remembered this happening to me another time when park hopping - so I guess - if you are going to AK - get OUTTA THERE by 3 or be prepared for it to take way longer than expected as the traffic messes everything up.
So anyway - FINALLY I was on my way. . .
Fourth and final stop - Magic Kingdom
Miraculously I was in line for Goofini at 5:10PM, I waited about 15 minutes to see him and it was worth the wait! He went nuts over my outfit - especially when I told him my daughter and I had made the bag and ears - he spent 10 minutes with me - so many hugs and pictures, we talked all about my Challenge and he was very pleased that my next stop was the Barnstormer. Best character interaction ever.
About 5:45 I headed over the Barnstormer - of course THEY knew what I was and gave me a sticker and the guy made a tiny origami swan from the sticker paper - I was impressed! Coaster #4 Complete
6pm I rode Space Mountain using my LL - this traditionally has not been a favorite of mine as I feel like I get all bounced around, however, I was in the very front and I think it made a huge difference. I really enjoyed the ride a lot this time. Coaster #5 Complete
It was at this moment that I realized there was little chance I was riding any other rides than my final two coasters if I wanted to eat dinner and do Starlight and the Fireworks - I held onto the LLs I had gotten just in case (including a Multi-experience pass because Tiana had gone down - it KILLED me to not use that!!) - but I did eventually cancel them all so someone else could grab them.
Dinner - Cosmic Rays - again a safe place for me to eat with my allergies - it was serviceable. I had wanted to do Pizza at Pinocchio Village Haus - but it takes a good 20 min to get a GF, DF pizza and I knew that would stress me out.
It was about 30 min to parade time - so I went and found a spot - my Starlight advice - if you are doing the 7:45 parade and care about seeing and want to be by the castle you need to get there like an hour early. Since I was 1 person and an adult - I was able to find a spot - but if I had been with my fam of 4 this would not have worked out. I would have otherwise planned on the 10pm parade - but I knew I’d need to take advantage of the end of night for 7DMT. I was never in Frontier land the whole night - so no idea what it is like over there - but probably less crowded.
OH and at 7:45 the parade STARTS in Main street - so it goes the opposite direction of the normal parade.
After starlight I got a photo pass photo of TRON and then tapped in at about 8:30pm-ish for my LL. Coaster #6 complete
It was like 8:55 when I got off, so I panic speed walked over for the fireworks and managed to get some popcorn finagle my way into a decent viewing spot.
After the fireworks I headed to 7DMT - the posted wait was 50 min, Lines said expected was around 35, I timed my wait at 25 minutes. I also wowed the crowd with the spinning barrels as no one I was in line with knew about the snow white thing. When I got off it was 9:58 and I realized - hey I can ride it again! So I did. . . Coaster #7 and overall Challenge complete I also felt silly because it did NOT occur to me until I was getting in line the alignment of my 7th coaster being 7DMT. I could not find anyone to take my pic so - I took as good a selfie as I could. . .
After that I got some front of castle pics taken by the same lovely woman who had photographed me at TRON so that was fun. Did some shopping in the Emporium and headed back to my resort.
I had a 9am flight - so still running on fumes over here - and my whole body feels 20 years older than it is - but I had a thoroughly joyful time (except for that small bit waiting for that darned bus).
If anyone else chooses to do this or another challenge I can’t wait to hear all about it!
That has been me many times (well, not that exact route). I hate it when buses don’t come every 20 minutes. So glad you made it to Goofini in time!
