We’ve all done something slightly nutty for the theme parks we love. Maybe you’ve gotten up at sunrise to get ready for a rope drop, or tried to fit all four Walt Disney World parks into a single day, or rubbed elbows with the at-capacity crowds of the now-defunct 24-Hour Days.
Chances are, however, that your dedication to the ultimate theme park experience doesn’t extend quite as far as that of the guests mentioned in these stories. They’ve done everything imaginable to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences at their favorite theme parks, including whirlwind cross-country trips, countless Guinness World Records, and even… a secret wedding?
Read on for some crazy stories—and maybe some inspiration for your next trip to the parks, too!
Lindsay Nemeth visited all 12 Disney Parks in just 75 hours.
Image: Christian Lambert, Flickr (license)
Sure, most of us have attempted to park-hop at some point during our Disney vacations — flitting from Disneyland to Disney California Adventure, Tokyo Disneyland to Tokyo DisneySea, or circling the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom from sunup to sundown — but taking on all 12 international parks in one go is a challenge reserved for only the most daring parkgoers.
In 2018, travel blogger and self-identified Disney fan Lindsay Nemeth set out to do just that. She worked her way around the globe from Disneyland to Tokyo DisneySea, making stops at Disney California Adventure, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney Studios, Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland along the way. And, according to Guinness World Record stipulations, she couldn’t just step through the turnstiles, snap a quick photo of the entrance, and head right back out to her next destination: she needed to ride at least one attraction, record video of each visit, get a GPS reading, and have the visit authorized by signed witness statements from two different people in order to count a park toward her official record. The entire endeavor took 75 hours and six minutes, a little under five hours shy of her estimated 80-hour total.
Nemeth wasn’t the first to try to set the record, however. That distinction goes to fellow Disney die-hard Christopher Wing, who visited every current Disney park in just about 75 hours back in 2016 (his record, while impressive, was also unofficial as he didn’t complete the requirements at each stop). As Shanghai Disneyland hadn’t yet opened to the public, Wing’s accomplishment set the all-time bar for Disney jet-setters until Nemeth managed to touch down in Shanghai two years later.
Clinton Shepherd rode a Ferris wheel for 48 hours straight.
Image: Marco Verch, Flickr (license)
Don’t try this at your local theme park, kids. At least, not without parental supervision.
In the spring of 2013, Chicago’s Navy Pier Park Operations Manager Clinton Shepherd threw his hat in the ring for the longest marathon on a fairground or theme park attraction. Of the pier’s various attractions, including the Pepsi Wave Swinger, Carousel, and Light Tower, Shepherd opted for the Centennial Wheel, a Ferris wheel that tops out at 200 feet above the pier. He needed to stay on the ride to break the existing record of 30 hours 45 seconds, but set a personal goal for himself of reaching a 48-hour total to make the next competitor’s job that much harder.
Shepherd pulled it off, hanging out in the HGTV-outfitted pod for over two days before the official time was set down in the Guinness Book of World Records. And, if you’re wondering just how feasible it would be to remain in a Ferris wheel gondola for days at a time, Shepherd’s ride was surprisingly comfortable: the gondola itself was furnished with a table, curtains, cushions, and a flatscreen TV. He even had meals brought to him while the clock inched toward the final mark of 48 hours, eight minutes, and 25 seconds.
Acrophobics might recognize Shepherd’s accomplishment as truly inspirational, but it only lasted one year before 28-year-old Sam Clauw broke it in 2014. Clauw, a promoter for Belgium’s Bellewaerde Park, stayed on the swinging Pirate Boat for 50 hours to set a new all-time record in the name of animal conservation.
A Walt Disney World guest took a record 3,500 spins on Snow White’s Scary Adventures.
Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)
This story isn’t crazy at all — it’s very, very sweet. In 2002, Sara and Ron Miles took their eight-year-old son, Benjamin, to Walt Disney World for the first time and saw how much the atmosphere, attractions, and characters helped him open up. Ben had been diagnosed with autism as a young child and was suddenly talking and interacting on a level that he had previously appeared unable to reach. He soon became fixated on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and returned to ride it again and again… and again, and again for the next ten years.
When the Magic Kingdom attraction finally shuttered in 2012 to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, part of the park’s newly-expanded Fantasyland, Ben was the last one to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures. In fact, he cycled through the ride 49 times on the last night it was open to the public, and was permitted to stay after-hours to bring his total ride count to an even 3,500 times. It’s a record that’s unlikely to be beaten by even the most die-hard fans in the years to come, and one that holds a special significance that simply couldn’t be outdone by any routine record-breaking endeavor.
Guests of all kinds helped set numerous Guinness World Records.
Image: Frank Phillips, Flickr (license)
Many Guinness World Record attempts necessitate large numbers of people in the same place at the same time, and where better to draw large crowds than a theme park?
In September 2012, members of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit set out to form the world’s longest handshake chain, which they successfully pulled off with a record 2,380 participants. The record was subsequently bested the following autumn, when the Hong Kong Blind Sports Federation arranged a chain of 3,434 handshakers at a local stadium in Hong Kong.
More recently, seven Six Flags locations — Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags, St. Louis, and Six Flags Over Georgia – devised a mistletoe-kissing event to commemorate their annual Holiday in the Park event in 2016. Couples were instructed to assume the traditional mistletoe position (that is, holding hands and kissing under sprigs of real mistletoe) for ten seconds in order to earn their place in the record book. While 839 total couples achieved the feat, Six Flags Over Georgia came away with the record for a single-location kissing event with 402 people and 201 couples, which was easily broken in 2017 after the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando hosted 448 holiday smoochers.
Other notable Guinness World Records have included the most onesie-wearers in the world, with 3,152 pajama-clad guests gathering at Staffordshire’s Drayton Manor Theme Park in 2014; the longest scream by a group of people (clocking in at eight minutes 45 seconds), also at Drayton Manor Theme Park; the oldest person to ride a roller coaster (105-year-old Jack Reynolds, who braved the Twistosaurus at Flamingo Land in Yorkshire in 2017); and the most attendees for a simultaneous swim lesson, which took place in the summer of 2011 as over 30,000 swimmers flocked to various bodies of water around the world — including Walt Disney World’s own Typhoon Lagoon. As far as we know, none of these feats have been beat so far.
Of course, sometimes setting a world record has nothing to do with attendance numbers at all. Take EPCOT, for example: Between 2006 and 2011, Disney employees at Living with the Land earned recognition after growing the largest tomato plant in the world (610.63 feet), harvesting the most tomatoes from a single plant in a year (32,194), growing the largest cucumber plant (610.31 feet), harvesting the most cucumbers from a single plant in a year (2,563), and landing the heaviest lemon in the world (15.05 pounds).
Emily Rose and Lex Emmanuel sealed the deal with a clandestine wedding ceremony at the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
This is one location you won’t find listed among the approved Disney Parks wedding destinations. Rather than shelling out thousands of dollars for a Disney-sanctioned ceremony on-property, one couple decided to tie the knot in the darkened chamber of the Enchanted Tiki Room — for free.
How did they pull it off? According to the best man, the couple arranged for 25 of their closest family and friends to join them at Disneyland on a weekend in 2015. They quickly settled in at the Enchanted Tiki Room and orchestrated a brief ceremony during the customary four-minute window prior to the start of the show. That gave them just enough time to say “I do,” exchange a necklace (rather than wedding rings; per the best man’s report, those hadn’t been finished in time), and share true love’s kiss before anyone was alerted to the nature of the gathering.
Emily and Lex weren’t the only couple to attempt something as wild as a secret wedding in a theme park, either. Later that year, their idea was co-opted by Disneyland guests Andrea and Gabriel Estrada, who arranged their own secret ceremony under the shadow of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
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What’s the strangest thing you’ve done to commemorate your love for theme parks? Would you cross the globe, pull off a guerrilla-style wedding, or take part in the next Guinness World Record attempt to prove it?
