By Robert Niles: The Guardian last week offered a feature on "checklist travel" — profiling 10 people who've come up with to-do lists of goals they're trying to accomplish in their travels or spare time.
The checklists included tasks such as "Walking every street in New York City" and "Visiting every Northern Rail station in the UK." For Theme Park Insiders, of course, theme park-related checklists should spring to mind. What theme park checklists would you like to accomplish in your life?
Here are a few we've completed:
Riding all the rides at Disneyland in one day: It took the latest One More Disney Day promotion to pull off this task, which required nearly 15 hours with the park only lightly attended for most of the day. Disneyland has nearly four dozen attractions, though some might be closed for refurbishment on any given day. On days when crowds are light, limited hours often prevent visitors from getting to every ride and show. And on days with extended hours, large crowds manage to prevent the task.
Riding every version of Pirates of the Caribbean on Earth: This required visits to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, and Disneyland Paris in France. As of now, there's no Pirates yet at Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland's still under construction. For what it's worth, the Tokyo version is the same as Disneyland's except for a Magic Kingdom-style exit, taking you off the ride after the collapsing room scene, which allows you to skip the ride up the chain lift back to the loading station. Disneyland Paris offers the Inception of Pirates rides, with a scrambled narrative relative to the classic Disneyland and abridged Magic Kingdom versions.
Here are three more "Riding every _____ on Earth" checklists, from your editor's personal travels:
Riding every Haunted Mansion on Earth: Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris for Phantom Manor. Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor doesn't count, as it shares no name, characters, scenes or ride systems with the other Haunted Mansion rides.
Visiting every Tom Sawyer Island on Earth: Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland
Riding every Revenge of the Mummy on Earth: Universal Studios Florida, Hollywood, and Singapore. (Let's not restrict this to Disney!)
One doesn't need to be a global traveler to get in on the fun. How about these other candidates for theme park checklists?
Drinking around the world: Consume one alcoholic beverage at each Epcot World Showcase pavilion that serves alcohol, in one visit to the park.
Visiting all the Orlando theme parks in one day: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Studios Florida, and Universal's Islands of Adventure
Getting every character's autograph: This is easy to do in parks with fewer characters, but how about in a Disney theme park? And how about trying to do every meet and greet in a single day?
Roller coaster fans long have pursued their own checklists. The most popular model of roller coaster among Theme Park Insider readers is the Bolliger & Mabillard hyper. How about a checklist to ride all 12 B & M hypers around the world? (Your editor has a mere three, so far.)
The ultimate checklist might appear to be to visit all 11 Disney theme park around the world, a list that will grow to 12 with the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in a few years. But more than a few people have accomplished that lofty goal. Let's make it tougher, then: What about a checklist to go on every Disney attraction around the world?
Of course, finishing that checklist would require riding every ride and watching every show at the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, a task that might be too cruel to ask of even the most annoying troll on the site. So let's leave this to you: What theme park checklists would you most want to attempt? Which ones have you finished, or come close to completing? And which theme park checklists would most impress you?
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