Ultimate Epcot Touring Plan - Part 3-ish

Todd has posted the second half of our Ultimate Epcot day.  I'll try to post a summary of my version of the day within the next few days.

You can check out his report here.

Ultimate Animal Kingdom Touring Plan - The Main Event

So I know I started writing about this in November, but life gets in the way sometimes.  I didn't want to leave it out there though, especially now that Touring Plans has an official Ultimate Animal Kingdom Touring Plan.

I did the Ultimate plan with my friend Tim.  We arrived at Animal Kingdom (AK) about 30 minutes before the gates opened and were the first in line to get into the park.  We took advantage of the times guide to do a little bit of extra planning. I had the email I had received from Henry with the plan that he had followed during the first attempt.

A few minutes before the park was scheduled to open, we were let in.  We waited impatiently for the opening ceremony and talked to the cast member about our plans.  After the opening show we made our way at a brisk pace back to Kilamangaro Safari.  Can those cast members walk fast!  There was a point in time where I needed to jog a little bit to keep up with them.  We were the first people on the safari and after a quick two week tour (does everyone else have problems with the tour being cut short), we made our way out and quickly went over to Expedition Everest to get our fast passes before heading to Dinosaur. 

After Dinosaur we hit up all the rides in Dinoland... something I have never done before (and probably not again unless I was trying for another Ultimate plan).  And we each played a Dinoland game (a basketball game that was just one shot) before heading over to Finding Nemo the Musical.  That was a nice break for us since it was cool and air conditioned in there.

Following Nemo we listened to the calypso band, and stopped by the bone yard and dig site before heading to It's Tough to Be a Bug.  We got lucky and caught the last few minutes of the Village Beatniks before heading to Camp Minnie Mickey to snap this picture and run into Festival of the Lion King.

Tim and I have both done half marathons before and with all this running around, we thought it would be awesome if there were tables set up for us to just grab cups of water and snacks while we were running through the parks.  I say this now because after Lion King, we had to make our way all the way back to Everest to use our fastpasses.  Phew!  We grabbed fastpasses for Kali River Rapids then caught the next showing of Flights of Wonder and rushed our way through the Maharaja Jungle Trek before seeing Tam Tam Congo, the Village Beatnicks again and the Dinoland Jesters.

Are you out of breath yet?  I am just from typing this.

We got soaked on Kali before taking the train out to the Conservations Station.  That can be a relaxing place to visit, but not when you are trying to beat the clock!  After returning to Africa we visited the Pangani Forest Trail and then made one final stop at the Tree of Life Garden before we had to wait for the Jammin' Jungle Parade. 

It was then that I realized that we had missed Devine.  I knew where I needed to be looking for her, but I didn't know that her schedule was actually posted.  Apparently during my one bathroom break of the day, she was out in her usual place.  Oh well!

We did stay to watch the whole parade before making our way out with the last stop being the Oasis for one last picture.

I was thoroughly exhausted from the day but proud of what I accomplished.  You won't find me on the Touring Plans site for this though.  The plan wasn't officially released until last fall and there were some modifications to it after my attempt.  My attempt combined with the attempt that my friends made contributed to the final plan that is now published on the site.  I will definitely try to complete this again the the future though!

This will be my first in a Touring Thursdays series.  I can't wait to share with you my next installment!

Ultimate Animal Kingdom Touring Plan - A Preview

When I was in WDW for the Princess Half Marathon in March I had the opportunity to attend the Tent Fest event held by the guys over at the WDW Today podcast.  I also the opportunity to meet Len Testa (of Unofficial Guide fame) and Henry Work (the web developer for touringplans.com).  I had already been following Len and Henry on Twitter and I had the opportunity to meet many of the other listeners of the show.

At the first night of Tent Fest I think I just about doubled the people I was following on Twitter.  I ran into the group throughout the weekend, including seeing everyone at the Odyssey Event.  I could go through the whole list of people I met, but I'm sure many of them will be appearing in future posts (I have become good friends with all of them and don't want to sound like I'm dropping names in the Disney online community).

After finishing the Princess Half, I hopped on twitter to check in with everyone and see what was happening before I headed over to Len's Cava de Tequilla meet.  It was then that I saw that a group of people from Tent Fest, including Henry were in the midst of attempting the first ever Ultimate Animal Kingdom Touring Plan.  You can read about it in Kidanikatie's blog post on the Touring Plans website!

Post-tequilla meet!

I saw them all at Len's meet and after hearing a bit about their day (which was complete minus the Jammin' Jungle Parade), I came up with a plan!

I was going to attempt the Ultimate Animal Kingdom Touring Plan. 

And I was going to finish it!