| (My son is MUCH taller now!) If you have followed my twitter account @kennypirate or this blog for long, you know that one of my hobbies (or all-consuming passions as my wife calls it) is Ultimate Touring. Some may wonder what Ultimate Touring is. In 2003 Len Testa, the guru behind www.touringplans.com, first proposed an “Ultimate” tour of the Magic Kingdom in which a physically-fit person or team could visit every operating attraction in one operating day. The first official completed tour was by Yvette Bendeck and Edward Waller who completed 37 attractions in 11 hours. This team actually held the record 3 different times over a 4 year period. Many of the completed Ultimate tours have been accomplished by distance runners. Only just over 40 people have completed an Ultimate Magic Kingdom tour under Touringplans guidelines. (One is a family with no individual names given.) The “record” has only been held by 15 groups and has often been taken back by a previous record holder.I’ve had the joy of leading three complete Ultimate tours with my children, nephew and brother, but our first attempt was incomplete because Philharmagic was broken when we were attempting to experience it. On our previous complete tours, we’ve experienced the following: 71, 72, 75 attractions – my daughter and I actually experienced every operating ride, show, parade, fireworks and met every available character according to the guidelines. To my knowledge, we were the first group to make that claim. We averaged an attraction every 13.94 minutes on a busy June day with late extra magic hours. We did all this despite a 3 plus hour downpour that rained out the first evening parade. Later we learned later that the Kiss Goodnight wouldn’t count because the rules at the time required it to be viewed after park closing or it would have been 76 attractions. A small, but important, detail that we somehow overlooked. We’ve learned not to overlook any details! I’ve been a part of holding Ultimate Touring record with various family members since June of 2010.
All that one receives for the accomplishment is a wonderful listing in the Touringplans Ultimate Hall of Fame. It’s a prestigious club of people who have gone without eating sustainable food for 12 or more hours, carried more water on their backs than the average camel, worn blisters on their feet and inner thighs and resisted sleep in the Carousel of Progress. So, what will I be doing on Leap Day this year? I’ll be attempting, with my son and daughter, to raise our personal best by more than 14 attractions! The schedule is favorable with every regular attraction already scheduled to operate on a Wednesday, which is rarely an extra magic hour day, and touringplans just added Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom missions to the available list. I’ll use an Android Motorola Atrix and carry two backup batteries. I’ll also bring along my two backup chargers to drop off by City Hall for additional battery power. I also use my Canon Powershot camera for low light photos and bring a backup batter for it as well. I’ll post all my data live to twitter as I’m accomplishing each attraction using an Android app that my brother created to store the data as well as post it to twitter. You can find that free app in the Android Market listed as “DISNEY Touring.” The data required for each attraction includes: Attraction number, attraction name, current posted wait time, current Fastpass distribution time, time in queue, time on ride, time out of line and whether or not I used a Fastpass for the attraction. It looks like this: 1,Buzz Lightyear’s Spin,10,07:55 PM,19:22,19:23,19:29,FP Used. I even answer twitter questions and give shout outs when time allows, but I don’t answer email during an Ultimate Tour – only after. How many UNIQUE attractions do you think we can do in 24 hours? Whomever guesses the nearest to our actual total without going over will win my One More Disney Day Ears that I’ll receive free as a an Annual Passholder! |
