It seemed like a real Mickey Mouse idea, but two men were actually able to go on every ride at Disney World in one day.
Shane Lindsay and Ted Tamburo rode all 46 rides at all four parks at Disney World on Nov. 7 in a dizzying 17-hour span that required the two men in their 40s to run a total of 22 miles.
“People find it really hard to believe I guess,” Lindsay, 41, told the Daily News. “It’s not like we’re solving world hunger. But it’s fun to have a little challenge that no one has ever done before and people think is impossible.”
The two men both grew up in the Midwest and would visit the park every year or so as kids, which is where they developed their love of Disney World, Tamburo told The News. The two met about 20 years ago on an AOL chat room about theme parks.
Lindsay has lived in Orlando for the past nine years and said he has now visited Disney World hundreds of times. But he told his friend that when he was a kid he only had one day to go to the park and it became a game to find out how many rides he could take.
That developed into the idea of the two trying to ride all 46 attractions in one day.
The two actually hadn’t met in person until last year when they made their first attempt. They came close but Tomorrowland, Speedway and Astro Orbiter were closed due to weather at the end of the day.
The two then started planning the second attempt this year which they documented in a very thorough essay on their website. Lindsay said they plan to release a video about their experience as well.
The trek requires a lot of planning including checking the schedules for all of the rides, timing how long it takes to get to different parts of the park and deciding when the most popular rides would be the least crowded.
With FastPass tickets in hand, which allowed them to use a shorter line, they began their fantasy voyage at 8 a.m. at the Hollywood Studios. The day ended triumphantly 15 minutes before the park closed at 1 a.m. at the Magic Kingdom.
With the remaining time they went on four duplicate rides to make it an even 50.
Tamburo said it is very difficult for people to truly understand the magnitude of the park and the planning involved as the four different parts are a considerable distance from one another and require transportation.
The other big challenge is that some rides are open at only the early or late parts of the day, which meant the two have to travel back and forth around the park.
The Chicago resident, who actually worked at the park in college, said the biggest difference this time was that they had a better idea of the physical demands of the stunt. Last year Tamburo said he broke his toe during the day and the two became very worn down by the end.
This time they trained a little, and each packed six protein bars and carried a water bottle that they filled about half a dozen times.
“If you had asked me ahead of time if I could have (run 22 miles), I would have said ‘no way,'” the 46-year-old said. “But over the day it’s only a mile and a half an hour so it’s not that bad.”
The group has built a following of other theme park enthusiasts and live tweeted throughout the day where they were headed.
Though many people at the park gave some strange glances to the two out of breath middle-aged men running from one place to another there were many people who would wait for them to complete the ride and cheer them on as they headed to the next one, Tamburo said.
“We had fans,” he said.
Though triumphant in their accomplishment Tamburo warns anyone who tries to duplicate their day to really prepare for the whole ordeal. While he was running around with Lindsay, he said his wife and daughter settled for taking all 22 rides at the Magic Kingdom.
“There’s a big difference between taking all of the rides and taking many rides,” he said. “You really have to get into the nitty gritty of the strategy.”
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
