How one man went to all 12 Disney parks around the globe in 12 days
It looks as if an unimaginable trip: Go on each journey at each Disney park in 12 days.
That is 216 rides, 12 parks, 4 international locations and three continents.
However an Atlanta man named Nathan Firesheets seems to have conquered the feat this month, gaining a modest international following as he documented the journey in a collection of exuberant selfies, at all times giving a thumbs-up.
The 34-year-old audio-visual programs engineer had no sponsors, not even Disney (he stated they by no means referred to as him again). Firesheets is just a person who loves amusement parks and needed to spend two weeks of his trip time doing one thing exceptional.
Here is what you have to find out about his epic journey, together with how a lot it value:
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‘The craziest Disney problem ever conceived’
Firesheets started the journey March 8 at Disneyland Paris, the place he pinned an indication asserting his quest on his backpack.
“I am using each journey in any respect 12 Disney parks in 12 days,” it learn, together with the hashtag, #DisneyGlobalRideChallenge.
Somebody snapped a photograph of it and shortly it was posted to Twitter.
It did not precisely go viral with almost 70,000 views. However Firesheets stated his followers fairly rapidly jumped from a pair hundred to some thousand, a quantity that continued to develop as he documented his quest on Twitter and YouTube, the place he referred to as his aim “the craziest Disney problem ever conceived.”
“Sounds chaotic. I’m intrigued,” wrote one person.
“That may’t be consecutive days proper?” wrote one incredulous man. One other merely stated: “This makes me really feel drained.”
Firesheets’ journey acquired sufficient consideration on social media that he stated a pair forged members and vacationers even acknowledged him throughout the journey.
“They had been like, ‘Preserve going. That is superior!'” he stated. “Whenever you’re exhausted and you have got simply this throng of individuals simply cheering you on, how are you going to not preserve going?”
How he did it
Firesheets began planning the journey final summer season. He had already completed a lot shorter Disney challenges and mastered a variety of professional methods to knocking out each journey in a day at varied Disney parks, equivalent to getting early entry, prioritizing busier points of interest and utilizing FastPass to keep away from lengthy traces.
The largest problem turned out to be simply reserving the flights. When Firesheets started planning the journey, vacationer journey was severely restricted to Japan and China due to the pandemic.
“At that time it was a ready recreation and simply sitting and watching journey restrictions,” Firesheets stated.
Japan was first to open up in October. When China opened in January, it was all programs go.
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Firesheets then needed to think about different restrictions. Air France was solely working three flights every week between Atlanta and Paris, as an illustration. And Hong Kong Disneyland was nonetheless closed Tuesdays and Thursdays. He additionally must get a COVID take a look at earlier than flying to China, whereas his quest already was underway.
He did not thoughts all of the hoops he needed to soar by to lastly get the flights booked.
“I am an engineer, so I like the logistics and problem-solving features of it,” he stated.
Hiccups
Firesheets stated he was fortunate to not encounter any main journey points however a pair issues did crop up.
His unique flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo acquired canceled a pair weeks earlier than the journey so he needed to rebook on an earlier flight at better value
After which when Firesheets was in Paris, a transit strike started. He wanted to get to the airport and again to take a COVID take a look at. So what would have been a $20 practice journey 10 minutes away grew to become an $80 taxi that took an hour.
After which there was the bodily problem of the journey.
Firesheets anticipated put on and tear on his physique so made positive by no means to put on the identical pair of sneakers two days in a row and he’d at all times have a spare pair of socks.
Sleep-wise, Firesheets stated he managed to get between 4 and 6 hours an evening. However by journey’s finish, he was so drained he slept by 4 alarms in Anaheim, California.
That botched his plan to knock out all of the rides at California Journey in underneath 4 hours and catch a 2 p.m. flight to Orlando. It ended up taking Firesheets about 9 hours, and he needed to rebook his flight for a pink eye.
Fortunately, Firesheets was nonetheless capable of finish the 12-day problem on the Magic Kingdom on March 19.
The invoice
In all, Firesheets stated the journey value about $12,000, almost $100,000 cheaper than a Disney-run trip to all 12 parks.
That trip, which begins at $110,000 and subsequent leaves on July 9, additionally consists of stops to the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids of Giza and the Eiffel Tower.
Regardless of the generally frantic tempo, Firesheets stated he had the time of his life.
“There’s so many nice rides at these parks,” he stated, including that his favourite new discovery is Tokyo Disney’s Magnificence and the Beast due to astoundingly reasonable animatronics.
So, what is the subsequent problem?
“I do not know that there’s a subsequent,” Firesheets stated. “Like, what is larger than each Disney journey at each Disney park in 12 days? I do not know nevertheless it feels very surreal to have gotten right here.”
