Is this the happiest long distance walk in the world?
By R.E.Aconley.
If you visit the
Walt Disney World theme parks in Florida, you will use a lot of shoe leather! You may be surprised at the daily mileage involved to visit the happiest place on earth.
I have visited the parks a number of times and I wondered how far you actually walk in a full day. I posed the distance question on a number of Disney forums and the average answer seems to be 5-7 miles. Armed with my pedometer, I tested out what distance I would do in a full day visit and also how far I walked in a weeks visit to Walt Disney World.
My first visit to Disney involved a four-hour visit to EPCOT on the first night. I walked 3.32 miles and 8,378 steps. I counted walking from my hotel room back to my hotel room in all the distances. The next day was a full 9 am till 9 pm visit to the Magic Kingdom. 7.76 miles were covered and 19,365 steps were taken.
The third day I went to the MGM theme park. It was the shortest day, 9 am till 8 pm and it was the smallest distance of the whole week, 5.89 miles and 14.480 steps. The MGM theme park is fairly compact so this may account for the smaller mileage. The fourth day was very tiring. A day visit to EPCOT was followed by an evening at the Magic Kingdom. It was the long day with a 9am start and a midnight finish. 10.53 miles were walked that day. 25,890 steps were taken.
Animal Kingdom was the next park on the holiday agenda. 9 am till 5 pm was spent there followed by an evening at EPCOT, 8.58 miles and 21,085 steps. The next day was also spent at Animal Kingdom, until 4.30 pm, followed by an evening at the Magic Kingdom, 8.52 miles and 20,957 steps.
The last day of the holiday saw the most mileage of the whole vacation. The morning included two hours at the Magic Kingdom followed by a park hop to EPCOT. At 4pm a return was made to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It finished at Midnight, 12.68 miles and 31,174 steps.
A total of 57.28 miles were walked and 141,329 steps were taken on my six and a half day visit to the four main Disney World parks. I enjoyed every second of every day and I thought that it must be the happiest long distance walk in the world.
My conclusion is that you need to be fairly fit to get the most out of the seven-day
Disney World passes. Park hopping definitely adds walking mileage to a day at the parks because walking back to the Monorail/Transit Bus, or back to your car, is often quite a long way. If you stay at one park your distance covered will be reduced.