Disney Bucket List
We started a Disney Bucket List as a way to ensure that we embraced new experiences in Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and it’s expanded into motivation for traveling to new locations and trying new things. We think a Bucket List (Disney or otherwise) is a great thing to have as it helps you give you focus. Sometimes, the best way to accomplish your goals is to set them out on a tangible list, and to cross items off as you achieve them (or, in our case, to publish your list on a blog for all of the world to see!). The tangible list serves as a constant reminder of your goals and helps you avoid returning to the comfortable and familiar.
This last part, avoiding the comfortable and familiar, is especially important for us and became very clear in 2010 when we visited Disneyland for the first time, without a whole lot of excitement for the trip (which was a stop on the way to a wedding in SoCal). We had traveled to Walt Disney World before that twice a year because it was familiar, comfortable, and obviously we enjoyed it. There’s an old adage that is (something to this effect…I couldn’t find the adage via Google, so perhaps I made it up) that the man who eats dog food on a daily basis declines when offered filet mignon for the first time because he’s familiar with dog food, and enjoys it. He doesn’t know how good filet mignon is because he’s never tried it.
Before you send in hate mail, I’m not contending that Walt Disney World is dog food and Disneyland is filet mignon, I’m just trying to illustrate a point: we were reluctant to try something new because we liked our familiar Disney vacation. It turned out that we had an amazing time at Disneyland, and since then, we’ve made a point of experiencing new things whenever possible, even when in familiar locations like Walt Disney World.
This has led us adding every international Disney theme park to our Disney Bucket List to be experienced as part of longer international travels. Since we realize that these trips are pretty ambitious, we decided to add other experiences to our Disney Bucket List to keep us motivated to follow the list. Plus, after all, they say the best way to get over the bar is to lower the bar so much that you accidentally trip over it. (The lowest tier of our list isn’t quite that easy to accomplish!)
With keeping ourselves motivated and always focused on fresh experiences in mind, we made several different tiers for our list.
UPDATE: Since posting this list, we’ve already crossed a few items off of it! See strike-throughs below.
Easily Attainable
“Suit Up” Monorail Lounge Crawl – I haven’t settled on the particulars regarding which resort lounges this would include, but it would likely be more than just the three resorts on the monorail loop. It’s something we’ve wanted to do since before doing the “Suit Up” Disneyland Resort Lounge Crawl, but our plans have just never worked out for it yet. Why suits? Because suits can make anything more awesome.
Four Parks in a Day – We’ve done three parks in one day a number of times, but have never hit four parks in a single day. Transportation time makes it something that isn’t really pragmatic in most circumstances, but I could still see it being fun to do for the sake of saying you’ve done it. My ideal schedule would be Animal Kingdom Morning Extra Magic Hours > bus to Disney’s Hollywood Studios > Walk to Epcot > Monorail to Magic Kingdom for Evening Extra Magic Hours. It seems like that would be a reasonable way to tackle the challenge while maximizing park time and not wasting too much time in transit. Check.
Eat at Every Walt Disney World Restaurant – We are well on our way to accomplishing this, and although I don’t have an exact completion percentage, I think we’re at around 75% (we haven’t reviewed every restaurant at which we’ve eaten…not even close). Most of the remaining restaurants are in resorts or are places that don’t really appeal to us, but at some point we’ll likely give them a try because we’re completionists. We make it a goal to dine at one new restaurant per trip, at least. It is worth noting that any third party restaurants at Downtown Disney are not included on our list. This might seem a bit arbitrary since several in-park restaurants are also third party restaurants and we are including them on the list, but the difference (I think) is that the Downtown Disney restaurants are often “Orlando” locations of real world chains. If you don’t find that persuasive…it’s my list, so I can make arbitrary distinctions if I feel like it!
Finish a runDisney Event – Back early in 2012, I wrote this ambitious article about getting fit for a Disney trip. Shortly after that, we registered for the Tower of Terror 10-miler. Shortly after that, we stopped training completely. With just over a month to go until the race, we’re in terrible shape (unless eating ice cream and sitting on the couch are a solid training regimen) with no signs of improvement on the horizon. Perhaps I’m being a bit overly optimistic by placing this on the easily attainable list! If we do, somehow, manage to complete the race, this item is being replaced on my Disney Bucket List with the “Coast-to-Coast medal.” What’s a good Bucket List if it’s not a constantly moving target as you cross things off?! Check.
Do Every World Showcase Attraction in a Day – The biggest obstacle to this one is Sarah, who isn’t a fan of the many films in the World Showcase. I love most of them, and would really like to do every World Showcase attraction in one day. By every attraction, I’m using my own definition of attraction, not Disney’s, so things like the paining areas for kids would not be included in this quest. Although those might be something interesting to add to a Drinking Around the World attempt! 😉
Modestly Ambitious
Take 5 Disney Tours – By Disney tours, I mean in-park tours, not Adventures by Disney tours. I think the latter is an over-priced way for Disney to cash in on its name, and I can’t see us ever doing one of those trips (you never know, though). I don’t know how many in-park Disney tours I actually want to take, but five seems like a good starting point. Even though our number is relatively low, this will likely take a while to complete because I cringe at the tour prices. I don’t necessary think they’re overpriced, but they seem really expensive. We’ve already done the Behind the Seeds at Epcot Tour and the Holiday Time at Disneyland Tour, so we only have 3 to go!
Cruise on the Disney Cruise Line – This is one that Sarah really wants to do, and because of that, I suspect we’ll do it in the near future. Disney Cruises look fun, but there are a lot of places in the world that I’d like to see, so I’m not sure we’ll make it a regular thing. It would be nice to see Castaway Cay! Crossing this one off opened up a new can of worms.
Disneyland and Walt Disney World on the Same Day – This would be very easy for anyone who lives in Florida. Just enter one of the parks before flying to Disneyland. Thanks to time zones, that makes it relatively easy. However, we don’t live in Florida, and I can’t think of many reasons why we’d take a single trip that involved stops in both Florida and California. This is far from the top of my list as it’s something that I think would mostly be cool to say you did (and not actually all that cool to do), but I’m throwing it on here anyway.
Eat at Every Chef’s Table in US Disney Restaurants – Several restaurants at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World have Chef’s Tables, and we think it would be a lot of fun to experience all of these. As our palates become more refined, we find ourselves wanting to experience more restaurants that offer an interactive component with the chefs so that we can learn about what we’re eating. I am still pretty inept when it comes to cooking just about anything, but I enjoy learning new things, and these meals are great for that!
Visit the Walt Disney Family Museum – I often preach that any Disney fan owes it to themselves to visit Disneyland because of the history and significance of the original park. Likewise, I suspect the Walt Disney Family Museum is a must-visit because it offers insight into Walt Disney, the person, and likely will lead to a greater appreciation of the parks. After touring the Walt Disney Studios (and crossing that off our list!), we want to tour the WDFM even more.
Very Ambitious
Stay in Every US Disney Resort-Hotel – This one pretty much speaks for itself. We’re already really close to accomplishing this, nightly rates at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian will likely prevent us from crossing it off the list in the immediate future. It’s tough to justify those rates!
Tour Walt Disney’s Apartment Above the Disneyland Firehouse – Walt Disney’s Apartment is closed to the general public, but it’s my understanding that a few tours go up there, and you can get up there if you know the right people. “Right people” if you’re out there reading this, let me know! 😉
Visit Tokyo Disney Resort – We came really close to crossing this off our Bucket List this year–so close that we even had a hotel room booked at the Hilton Tokyo Bay–but ultimately cancelled because a Spring 2013 trip works better for our friends with whom we’d travel. We didn’t mind too much, as fall airfare to Tokyo is ridiculous. Thanks to Tokyo DisneySea and a clean design-aesthetic in Tomorrowland, Tokyo Disney Resort is my #1 international Disney destination. Check.
Visit Disneyland Resort Paris – Taking Tokyo’s spot for this fall is Disneyland Paris. We’re excited to see London, Paris, and the beauty of Disneyland Paris all decked out for the holidays. Disney Dreams, the 20th Anniversary Celebration, and dinner at Walt’s are all anticipated highlights of the Disney leg of the trip! Check.
Visit Hong Kong Disneyland – Once the third phase of expansion, Mystic Point, is complete at Hong Kong Disneyland, it should be one of the better Magic Kingdom-style parks. We think it would be awesome to visit Hong Kong Disneyland in Spring 2013 for the opening of Mystic Point, but that might be a little ambitious and difficult to time. We may try to tack it on to our Tokyo trip, as that presents the most immediate opportunity for us to visit Hong Kong Disneyland. Done–that’s every Disney resort worldwide that’s presently open!
Relatively Unattainable
Opening Day, Shanghai Disneyland – Who among us doesn’t wish that we could say we were there for Disneyland’s opening day? While I realize there’s a bit of a difference between Walt Disney’s Original Magic Kingdom and the sixth Magic Kingdom park, I really think Shanghai Disneyland is going to be something special as it’s breaking the mold on Magic Kingdom style parks, and I want to be there for opening day. I don’t think it will be the last Disney theme park to open in my lifetime, but it could be the biggest. While money is an obstacle here, so too is planning a difficult international trip with an opening date that may either be somewhat fluid or not set sufficiently far in advance to plan the trip. We are going to do everything in our power to cross this one off our list, though!
Stay in the Disneyland Dream Suite or Cinderella Castle Suite – We’ve toured the Cinderella Castle Suite twice, but we think it would be pretty awesome to stay there (or in the Disneyland Dream Suite) for a night. Disney wisely doesn’t rent this out to the general public, so it seems like our options at this point are winning a contest, becoming high-level Disney executives, or infiltrating the Church of Scientology and using connections there to make me a famous Hollywood actor who will be offered a stay in the Suites. Hmmm…sounds like the last one there is the easiest route! 😉
Photograph the Sunrise in Epcot – I have this listed under “Relatively Unattainable” because right now, park hours are such that it’s impossible to ever be in Epcot for sunrise. Even around New Year’s Eve when the days are shorter and park hours are longer, the earliest Epcot has opened in recent history is 8 am and sunrise is around 7:18 am. Despite this obstacle and my classification, I am convinced that someday I will have the opportunity to photograph the sunrise in Epcot. I don’t know how or why, but I think the opportunity will be there, and when it is, I plan on jumping on it! Check.
Ride Ear Force One, Zip-A-Dee-Doo Duck, or Spaceship Earth Balloon – I don’t know if any of these “vintage” balloons are even still in use, but I would love to fly above the Magic Kingdom in one of them. If that’s not possible, I’d love to fly above anything in one. If that’s not possible, I’d settle for just photographing the things (ideally photographing them above the parks, since I’ve made a big compromise by not getting to fly in it myself ;)).
Your Thoughts…
That’s our Disney Bucket List! What does your Disney Bucket List include? Give us some ideas of things to add to ours, or let us know what’s on yours in the comments!
Great list! And I definitely recommend the Walt Disney Family Museum 😀
We visited California in August. Started with 4 days at DL and DCA. Picked up a car at Alamo in DTD on our last day and drove up the CA coast for a week, ending in SF. The Walt Disney Family Museum is amazing. The location at The Presidio is breathtaking. The museum is sparkling and fascinating. We arrived at opening, caught Bambi in the gorgeous theatre, and spent the entire day engrossed in the museum exhibits. Highly recommend visiting. If I lived in CA, I would become a member!
Disneyland now includes Walt’s apartment in Town Square as a part of the “Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps” tour!!
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/events-tours/disneyland/walk-in-walts-disneyland-footsteps/
I noticed that, but I’m pretty sure that the photography allowed up there (based on reports I’ve heard) is very limited. I’d like a chance to go up there, take my time, and photograph the apartment. I’m still hopeful it’ll happen at some point!
During our latest trip to WDW last April/May, the night before our last day I recommended we tried to get to all 4 parks the next day. We still had a few things at each of the parks that we wanted to see/do and it would make for some pretty awesome memories and photo ops. Needless to say, we made it to the last park, MK, around 8pm when it was dark and pouring – but it was such an awesome day and we did in fact come out of it with some kick ass pictures! I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Great post!! I was also hesitant to do DCL but we took our first cruise on the Dream in March of 2012 and we were hooked. Castaway Cay is perfection and everything from the food to the boat to the rooms is first class! I would move that one up to your number 1 and get it done! You will love it!! Start out with a shorter cruise (we did the 5 day, 4 night Dream) to see if you will like it. You won’t be disappointed!!
Definitely take an Alaskan cruise. Just got back a couple of weeks ago and had the most wonderful time on the Disney Wonder. This was our second cruise, our first being a 4 night Bahamas cruise on the Disney Dream. We are from the panhandle of Florida and have some of the most beautiful beaches on our doorstep so wanted to try something different. Wow! Just wow! The pictures you could take! Just sayin! 🙂
“Because suits can make anything more awesome.”
Are you trying to be Barney Stinson?
Not trying to “be” anyone. It’s just a passing reference.
What about Club 33? I can’t help but be a bit obsessed with it.
How’s it going with your goal to stay at every U.S Disney resort? If you haven’t stayed at the Grand Floridian yet I must say- I’ve visited the place many times but had never stayed until last week. We stayed two nights and had a view of the contemporary, poly, and magic kingdom in a room located on the back of the boca chica building. The experience staying there is absolutely out of this world amazing- they treat you like royalty, it’s endlessly photogenic, and the rooms are huge by Disney standards. I was very skeptical of the grand floridian but I am total convert now- by far the best hotel on Disney property and we have stayed at wilderness lodge, boardwalk inn with a boardwalk view room, contemporary, poly, port orleans, swan, and all star music.
The only remaining hotels on our “list” at the Polynesian and French Quarter.
Stayed at the Grand Floridian last fall. It was okay, but overpriced.
1. My parents did Keys to the Kingdom and LOVED it. I’d really recommend it, especially for all the little details.
2. Disney cruises are the best. If you’ve never been on a cruise before you might not notice, but they do everything about 10 times better (bigger rooms, better detail, great food…). It does come with a bigger price tag, but really, the cruises are excellent. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Plus, they’re going to some really cool places these days, so maybe you could do an Alaskan cruise? They’re really awesome. (We went in August and it was extra warm — I’m talking 80 degrees walking around and you could still see glaciers in the distance. It was bizarre to say the least.)
3. A recommendation: Maybe you could put the links to your accomplished items once you’ve crossed them off? I’ve read quite a bit of your blog, but it’d be nice to click through to a report (if you’ve written it) of you guys completing it so we can read along.
Yay bucket lists! 🙂 I’ll definitely have to add some of these to mine…
My friend won a competition to spend the night in cinderellas castle all I can say is wow. 6 girls having a dream slumber party. It was the best experience of my life and feel so honoured to have that opportunity and tick it off my bucket list.
I just re-found this site after a considerable absence, so I’m really late to this thread. My family took me to Victoria and Alberts for my 40th birthday, and all of us dressed well that evening. Because it was my birthday, dammit, we did a suited-up monorail crawl before and after. Tambu Lounge and Mizner’s before hand, dinner with wine pairings, the 11:00 Main Street Electrical Parade, then a quick jaunt to make it just under the wire for last call at Top of the World (we all stayed at Bay Lake Tower that trip).
It was a wonderfully boozy evening and we all had a tremendous time. The best side benefit was the way five well-dressed people, with everyone but my too-cool-for-school brother wearing mouse ears, fried the circuits of absolutely every guest on the monorail and in the Magic Kingdom that night. It was during the week of Independence Day (albeit an unusually cool and overcast day), so even long pants were an exception.
The cast members, on the other hand, were totally awesome about it.
Considerable absence?!?! How dare you! 😉
As for your crawl–that sounds awesome!
Great article – I really like how it’s organized by how attainable the list item is…
Since moving to within an hour of Disney World, we made a bucket list of our own to enhance the fun factor. Take a look here: http://thefloridafamily.com/2012/08/29/my-disney-bucket-list/
We are headed to Disneyland Paris for my 40th birthday in a couple of year years so look forward to your trip reports! BTW – they just celebrated their 20th Anniversary this year, not their 30th as stated above.
The Seg-Way tour of Epcot is in the morning before the park opens; this maybe a way to cross off 2 things at the same time.
My wife & I did this; & it was immense fun.
I LOVED my Segway tour! My wife and kids sent me for Father’s day. I wrote an article about it here: http://thefloridafamily.com/2012/08/16/around-the-world-at-epcot-segway-tour/
Thank you for sharing your bucket list. Some of your items have just made my own list. I really want to take my children to the opening day celebrations in Shanghai. My mom went to Disneyland’s opening day and remembers seeing Mr. Disney. It sure would be a special treat to continue the magic with her grandkids.
The husband and I did all 4 parks in a day and got engaged somewhere in between. He planned the entire trip by studying flow charts and graphs (I promise we have a life..he’s just a little OCD.). We finished the vacation with a 4 day Disney Cruise to the Bahamas on The Wonder.
A year and a half later, we did our Honeymoon on the Fantasy this year and finished the trip with four parks in four days (nicer pace…). Please consider blogging about the cruise! Nobody does it like Disney! From Palos’s to the Pirates in the Caribean fireworks – you will not be disappointed!
PS- first time reader- been up an extra hour I’m hooked!
We’ll definitely blog about the DCL once we do it! Glad you’re enjoying the website!
Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but they usually have the Spaceship Earth ballon out during the Marathon.
For photographing Epcot sunrise, wouldn’t doing the Disney half marathon get you in Epcot around sunrise?
Hi Tom,
I’ve just noticed on the DIS forum that the “walk in walt’s footsteps tour will offer the chance to go to Walt’s apartment.
Will be available from Sept.
Hope this helps!
Great blog as usual! Gonna start our own disney bucket list. One of the challenges is move to the USA so we’re much closer to the Magic. We live in the UK so usually only get to visit once a year 🙁
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/plan/tours.htm#walk
Thanks
Amy
Sorry, have just noticed other people have told you this too!
🙂