The Longest Day: Drinking in 7 Parks

Discussions at Dawa #2

I'm full of great ideas. Ok fine. I'm full of ideas.   I moved to Central Florida in 2001, and I immediately purchased a Disney pass and have had one (or been a WDW Cast Member with park access) ever since.  Off and on, I have also had a Sea World pass or teacher pass (oh yeah. I was a middle school teacher for a year and got a free pass...but I digress).  This June, However, I bit the bullet and in all the Potter hubbub, I purchased a Universal Annual Pass for the first time.  That's right. I now had access to ALL SEVEN Central Florida theme parks....and I got an idea.

The boy wizard sucked me in

My significant other, who is referred to on twitter as Ms. drunk@disney, was flying out on Sunday for a trip to Europe and I was going to have a day to myself, so why not pull the ULTIMATE BAR CRAWL and drink at all 7 parks?!   Great idea, right?  (Ok. Horrible idea... But it would be kinda memorable, right?)  so I planned for about a week to make this ultimate bar crawl happen smoothly.

Me getting advice from everyone.. ok whatever just drinking at last Jammin Jungle

Well, when I planned this, I had no idea what the rest of my weekend was going to look like....  Meaning... I had no idea that I was gonna bid Bon Voyage to Ms. Drunk@disney with a blowout night of drinking and partying at Citywalk on Saturday night?!   But that's what happened.  We hit Citywalk pretty hard, and had a great time,

This guy can rock Billy Joel but knows nothing after 1988

but not exactly the smartest way to prepare for a whole day of drinking the next day.  And just when I thought the night was over,  on the way home,  Ms Drunk@Disney

mentions the brand new Aloft hotel downtown Orlando and how she wanted to check it out. 

Now don't get me wrong,  I was thrilled to stay at Aloft.  This hotel is awesome.

They renovated the old Orlando Utilities building, and made a super chic, retro hotel!  So we checked in and headed straight to the bar to continue the adventure. Several cocktails and fun conversations later,  it was time to close the bar and grab some zzzzzzzs.  Again. This is not the best way to end the night before a full day of drinking in 7 parks, but well worth it for an epic send off for my girlfriend before a 10 day trip.

So we wake up, get ready..

. (no need to pack since I had nothing with me due to this being a spur of the moment idea), we grabbed breakfast and I dropped her off at her house.  At this point, it's 10 am, I'm already wiped and I haven't even started the day at any park.  It's decision time. Go home and bum around all day hungover or begin the epic 7 park bar crawl....

As I pulled up to Universal Orlando, I headed directly to what I was most excited for. Springfield, the world of the Simpsons and specifically Duff Gardens bar to drink Duff Beer for the first time ever. (Duff lite was pretty bad... duff better and duff dry best!)  Was cool to check out Springfield.  So very fun. Drinking beer in Moes Tavern is just the kind of thing that dreams are made of... but not much time when there are 7 parks to hit, so gotta leave for IOA pronto.  No hogwarts express yet so time to hoof it

They even have the Love Tester machine!!

So I made it over to IOA, and it's really starting to hit me that at 11:45 it's still early but really not a lot of time for dilly dallying. . So i pulled into the backwater bar and the bartender and I didn't really hit it off. My first sin apparently was carrying a Tervis cup.  She told me several times that I was not to pour the beer into the Tervis because the liquor laws between IOA and Citywalk are different.  Meanwhile I have no idea why she thought I was going to grab the beer and head for the exit at 1145...but whatever. Then I paid with my Disney Visa.  Oh shit.  Now I get to hear all about how terrible Disney is and she can't stand going there etc.. and now the other people at the bar set in.  I don't know why anyone would go there, blah blah, you know the drill.  At this point I just want to go see hogsmesde and GTFO of Universal.

Hogsmesde really is a cool place to bum around and drink beer. 

At this point I got contact from Zane who expressed interest in joining me for the adventure.  We figured I was already done with Universal so why not just meet at park 3... Sea World. 

A couple of pros 

This was my first time meeting Zane in real life.. but we immediately jumped right into interesting conversation for guys like us..you know..  beers, theme parks, and more theme parks.  Sharks is just simply a great bar.  If you've never had the pleasure, the bar itself is a fish tank with all kinds of exotic fish and crustaceans playing around under your drinks (and elbows if you're savages like us).  So we each enjoyed a couple drinks while planning the best way to plan the bulk of our bar crawl.  At this point, Zanes phone rang and it was none other than "Theme Park Beer Drinker" @ThemeParkBeer... and guess where he was heading.  My favorite park and second home, Disney's Animal Kingdom!  Check Please!!!

Such a cool view.. Sharks is one of the best theme park bars/restaurants period.

Weather sets in on the Ultimate 7 Park Orlando Bar Crawl

So three parks down, four to go as I passed the Where Dreams Come True arch on my way to DAK.  Now I had met @ThemeParkBeer once before randomly when at DAK, so I was looking forward to hanging out with him again... clearly by the name you can imagine we have some things in common. 

Somehow Zane got way ahead of me and said that they were already at the meeting place, Dawa bar...which was ok because I knew the way.  ;)   Bellying up to the bar, we all ordered the only beer true DAK fans are allowed to get at Dawa, Safari Amber.  This was a great time at DAK also, because they had JUST taken down the construction walls for New Harambe, so we got to walk around and check out all the new details they put into the area.  Then we continued doing what a group of theme park fans do... wandering around the park.

Not before a little Buridika in their rain location!!  (first time ive ever seen this)

We put our Beers in the rain to make Michelob Ultra

 I even convinced these guys to walk over to Dinoland, USA!!   But I still had 3 parks to go, so unfortunately we had to leave DAK and head to park 5...   

We arrived at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and went straight for our first stop... the World Famous Tune In Lounge!!  Then, with it being Star Wars Weekends, why not cruise around the rest of the park for a while.  We even squeezed in a tour of G-Force Records and ride "TO THE FORUM!!"

@ThemeParkBeer had other commitments, so we had to bid adieu to his company and continue on our way together.  We had already switched to WDW resort transportaion for safety purposes, so we had a long walk ahead of us.  We only had approx an hour to get from DHS into EPCOT before they closed the gates at 9, but we were REALLY starting to drag.

Along the way, we made the mistake of having a seat by the Boardwalk Villas recreation area.  We sat and enjoyed a couple Heinekens from the gift shop.  Before we knew it, we had lost almost ALL desire, gumption, and energy to continue and thought napping was a much better choice.  But no.  As they sing in Illuminations (which we were about to miss).... WE GO ON!!!!

We made it into EPCOT at about 8:45, just in time to make last call at Rose and Crown (Whew!!)  we needed the pick me up. Our real prize, however, was only having to wait about a minute before the start of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, which gave us the theme music we needed to power out towards the front of the park towards the monoral!!!

could really use an awesome @hintofspy photo here... lol

We hurried our way onto the monorail and towards the Magic Kingdom resorts so we could pick up our final drinks for the entrance of the Magic Kingdom.  (Im not a rule breaker..Spoiler alert:. final drink is going to be in front before security)  So we cruised around to THE FINAL PARK!!!!  We were almost done!!

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED   7 PARKS-ONE DAY

So we finished our final drinks in the entrance plaza and walked into the park. We each had our own agendas for how to spend our final hours in the park, so Zane and I shook hands, celebrated our victory, and went our separate ways.  We looked like we had been through a war.  If youve never done it before, this is a LOT of walking.   My feet hurt, my legs hurt, and my legs had been rubbing together so I was forced to walk the Magic Kingdom bow legged like an old, broken down cowboy. But man, it was worth it.  The accomplishment made my time in the Magic Kingdom so relaxing as  I finally had NO plan and got to enjoy my favorite attractions in the park.

I told myself I would NEVER, EVER do anything like this again....but here I am a few months removed and my mind is already racing with new ideas.  It was an amazing way to break in my new Universal pass and experience the parks in a whole new way.