The Parkeology Challenge Official Rules

The Parkeology Challenge is the original and toughest Disney ride challenge: a theme park race against the clock!

The objective is to ride all the open rides in a single operating day.

  • At Walt Disney World, you must ride all the rides at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
  • At Disneyland Resort, you must ride all the rides at both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure.

Important Rules

  • Use Twitter to Tweet a photo of yourself on every ride throughout the day as you run the Parkeology Challenge. Missing an on-ride photo is the same as missing the actual ride.
  • You must use @Parkeology and #parkeologychallenge in every tweet.
  • Tweet from each ride in the order that you ride them. A sample tweet might be “@Parkeology Ride 1 Space Mountain #parkeologychallenge” and include a photo of the team members on the ride.
  • You must tweet a screenshot from the Disney app of any Virtual Queue boarding group or Lightning Lane pass that you intend to use. The screenshot must clearly show:
    • Ride name
    • Return window
    • Names of the team members holding the pass
    • You must tweet screenshots as soon as acquired and before you ride.
    • If you cancel or modify to a different ride or return window, this update must also be tweeted.
  • Snap a picture from onboard the ride vehicle. We need evidence that you are actually on the ride. Photos from outside the attraction, within the line, or by the sign are not valid.
  • We understand that sometimes a tweet may not go out due to technical problems. In those rare cases, resend the tweet as soon as possible with an explanation. Try your best to tweet as closely to the time you ride as possible.

The Operating Day

The day begins at the earliest posted opening time, including Early Theme Park entry for resort guests, for any of the parks.

It ends with the latest posted closing time, including Extended Evening Park Hours for resort guests.

Park hours will vary. If a park is open past midnight, those late hours are considered to be a continuation of the previous day’s operating day.

Because hard-ticket events severely limit park capacity, we do not allow this Disney challenge during special events, hard-ticket events or marketing events such as:

  • Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
  • Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
  • Disney After Hours
  • Disney Early Morning Magic
  • The 24-hour ‘Round the Clock Event
  • Special Annual Passholder Events
  • Special access provided to Golden Oaks residents
  • Special AP or DVC restricted events.
  • Any additional hours provided outside of normal park hours and the regular extra hours provided to guests staying at resort hotels.

Official Ride List

We take our list of rides from the official attractions listing on Disney’s website. If it moves, it’s a ride.

You can experience rides in any order, but you must ride them all in 1 day. See below for rules involving ride closures.

Official Walt Disney World Rides

Magic Kingdom

  1. Main Street Vehicles
  2. Walt Disney World Railroad
  3. Jungle Cruise
  4. Pirates of the Caribbean
  5. Magic Carpets of Aladdin
  6. Big Thunder Mountain
  7. Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island
  8. Liberty Belle Riverboat
  9. Haunted Mansion
  10. It’s a Small World
  11. Peter Pan’s Flight
  12. Prince Charming Regal Carousel
  13. Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  14. Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid
  15. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  16. Mad Tea Party
  17. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
  18. Barnstormer
  19. Tomorrowland Speedway
  20. Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
  21. Space Mountain
  22. Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
  23. AstroOrbiter
  24. Carousel of Progress
  25. TRON Lightcycle Run

Epcot

  1. Spaceship Earth
  2. Mission: SPACE
  3. Test Track
  4. Gran Fiesta Tour
  5. Journey Into Imagination
  6. Soarin’
  7. Living with the Land
  8. The Seas with Nemo and Friends
  9. Frozen Ever After
  10. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
  11. Guardians of the Galaxy – Cosmic Rewind

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

  1. Toy Story Midway Mania
  2. Star Tours
  3. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
  4. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
  5. Slinky Dog Dash
  6. Alien Swirling Saucers
  7. Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
  8. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
  9. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

  1. Kilimanjaro Safari
  2. Wildlife Express
  3. Kali River Rapids
  4. Expedition Everest
  5. Dinosaur
  6. TriceraTop Spin
  7. Flight of Passage
  8. Na’vi River Journey

Official Disneyland Resort Rides

Disneyland Park

  1. Alice in Wonderland
  2. Astro Orbitor
  3. Autopia
  4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  5. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
  6. Casey Jr. Circus Train
  7. Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
  8. Disneyland Monorail
  9. Disneyland Railroad
  10. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
  11. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
  12. Chip ‘n’ Dale’s GADGETcoaster
  13. Haunted Mansion
  14. Indiana Jones Adventure
  15. “it’s a small world”
  16. Jungle Cruise
  17. King Arthur Carrousel
  18. Mad Tea Party
  19. Main Street Vehicles
  20. Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  21. Mark Twain Riverboat
  22. Matterhorn Bobsleds
  23. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
  24. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
  25. Peter Pan’s Flight
  26. Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
  27. Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
  28. Pirates of the Caribbean
  29. Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
  30. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
  31. Sailing Ship Columbia
  32. Snow White’s Enchanted Wish
  33. Space Mountain
  34. Star Tours — The Adventures Continue
  35. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
  36. Storybook Land Canal Boats

Disney California Adventure

  1. Golden Zephyr
  2. Goofy’s Sky School
  3. Grizzly River Run
  4. Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT!
  5. The Incredicoaster
  6. Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
  7. Jessie’s Critter Carousel
  8. Jumpin’ Jellyfish
  9. The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
  10. Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters
  11. Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
  12. Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
  13. Pixar Pal-A-Round
  14. Radiator Springs Racers
  15. Red Car Trolley
  16. Silly Symphony Swings
  17. Soarin’ Around the World
  18. Toy Story Midway Mania!
  19. WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

Excluded Attractions

If it’s not on Disney’s website, it’s not on our list. This challenge is for rides only. You are not required to experience any of the following:

  • Shows such as Enchanted Tiki Room or Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln
  • Exhibits such as the Bakery Tour or World Showcase galleries
  • Walk-Through Attractions like the Swiss Family Treehouse
  • Parades, Fireworks, or spectacles like Fantasmic
  • Walt Disney World Transportation such as the Monorail, Ferryboat, Skyliner, etc.
    • Note: At Disneyland, the Monorail is considered an attraction, and therefore must be ridden to complete the Disneyland Resort version of the challenge.
  • Epcot FriendShips – These are technically inside the park, but Disney considers them as transportation. They do not appear in the official Disney list of attractions.

What Constitutes “Riding” a Ride?

You must ride the entire ride, unless noted below or in certain on-ride breakdown situations.

The following special rules apply:

  • Rides with Multiple Stops or Stations (Walt Disney World Railroad, Disneyland Railroad, Disneyland Monorail, Red Car Trolley): These rides let you get on or off at several different stations. For the purposes of the Parkeology Challenge, riding any one leg of the journey is sufficient.
  • Main Street Vehicles: These come in several varieties — horse cars, omnibus, fire engine, etc. Riding any one vehicle is acceptable. You must ride until they stop and let you off.
  • Rides with multiple tracks, such as Space Mountain, Toy Story Mania, Matterhorn: Any one track is fine
  • Mission: SPACE: You can choose Orange or Green team.
  • Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island, Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island: Ride the raft to the island and back. There is no need to explore the non-ride portion of the attraction.
  • The Carousel, Main Street Vehicles or any other attraction that you could conceivably jump on, snap a photo, and jump off. You MUST ride the attraction. Jumping on and off only for a photo is cheating.
  • Pixar Pal-A-Round: You can ride either the swinging or the stationary gondolas.
  • Holiday Overlays: We do not distinguish Holiday overlays to Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, “it’s a small world,” etc. as separate attractions, even though the website lists them as such. Ride whichever version (normal or holiday) happens to be open.
  • Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Observation Deck and Other Video Room Alternatives: Some rides offer a room playing a video of the experience for those who can’t handle the conditions of the ride. Since this is a ride challenge, you must ride the actual ride.
  • Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance: This experience has multiple components that could be considered a ride. You must experience the main ride portion on the Star Destroyer for it to count.

Are You Allowed to Bypass Lines?

You can use any touring technique or tool available to the average guest. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Genie / Genie+
  • Virtual Queue
  • Lightning Lane (including a individual purchase options)
  • Single Rider
  • Extra or Extended operating hours for resort guests
  • My Disney Experience app

You must follow the stated policy for these programs.

The following techniques are not allowed because they are not available to the average guest:

  • Insider access because of your relationship with Cast Members or the Walt Disney Company that allow you to be backdoored onto rides
  • Going anywhere backstage.
  • Utilizing special “Use Anywhere” paper or digital Lightning Lane passes that are sometimes issued by Cast Members as a “Magical Moment” or Guest Recovery.
  • Utilizing “Come Back Later” paper or digital Lightning Lane passes that are sometimes issued to guests in line when a ride breaks down. We consider unlucky breakdowns to be part of the game and you must adapt to it (see below)
  • Line jumping or cutting
  • Buying multiple park tickets, such as to bypass rules around park hopping or increase the number of allowed Lightning Lane purchases
  • Borrowing or accepting someone else’s Lightning Lane passes
  • Leveraging the special nature of the challenge for the purposes of gaining an advantage, such as appealing to other guests to let you go ahead of them because “I’m in a race.”
  • Violating park rules or general park etiquette, such as disregarding safety, deceiving Cast Members or other guests, or behaving in a disruptive manner.

The following policy applies in the special case involving ride breakdowns:

If you are holding an unused Lightning Lane pass for an attraction and the attraction breaks down during your window, Disney may automatically convert your pass to a “Multiple Experiences” pass. Disney allows you to use it on a variety of alternate rides, or use the pass for the broken ride at any time after the ride returns to operation.

However, for the Parkeology Challenge:

  • We do allow you to keep your pass to use on the broken ride for which you originally scheduled the pass. Since this entitlement is automatically granted to all affected guests, this falls within the boundary of our challenge. We want to minimize an unfortunate incident that disrupted your plans through no fault of your own.
  • We do not allow you to use the pass for an alternate ride. This is to prevent an unfair advantage in riding a more valuable ride that you were unable to secure a pass for during the regular course of operations.

For example: If you are holding a pass for Big Thunder Mountain and it breaks down, you may keep the pass and ride Big Thunder Mountain with it at a later time in the day. However, you may not use the pass for Space Mountain, even though Disney’s system will entitle you to do so.

Outside Assistance

Because of the nature of this Disney challenge, we do not allow any outside assistance from friends or family. This includes:

  • No personal chauffeur between parks. You must utilize public transportation, your own vehicle, or something similarly available to the average guest.
  • Nobody can book Genie+/Lightning Lane passes, monitor wait times, or offer informational assistance on your behalf.
  • Teams are welcome to bring or purchase their own food, but no one else can fetch food or provisions for the team.

Teams must also stick together and cannot split up for competitive advantage. This includes:

  • No splitting up to fetch food
  • No saving spots in line
  • No “sitting out” a ride. We’re sympathetic that not everyone can handle every ride, but only by riding everything do you get credit.
  • Teams may split up out of necessity for Single Rider lines or common sense things like going to the bathroom.

Even though the following items are technically available to everyone, we consider them outside the spirit of the Parkeology challenge due to their limited capacity or rare circumstances. These are NOT allowed:

  • Utilizing hard-ticket events like the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or the Christmas Party, or 24-hour operating days that happen as part of marketing events. These events limit capacity, which shortens wait times.
  • Paid access for extra resort hours at the theme parks, beyond what is normally available to all resort guests.
  • Utilizing additional Genie+/Lightning Lane entitlements as a perk of staying on a “Club Level” at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel, Club 33, or Golden Oaks. This is available to only a select few guests at a high additional charge.
  • AP or DVC events restricted to only those categories of guests
  • Utilizing advanced dining reservations for breakfast in order to enter a park early. This is available to a limited number of guests and would unfairly be a way to gain early access to attractions.

Ride Refurbishments, Seasonal Operation, and Other Scheduled Closures

Disney publishes the refurbishment and operation schedules well in advance. In order to allow challengers to attempt the Parkeology Challenge any day of the year, we have 2 categories of completion:

  • Riding Every Open Ride – Challengers are exempt from riding any ride that is under refurbishment or otherwise not scheduled to operate.
    • Note: This does not apply to unexpected closures (see below)
  • Riding Every Existing Ride – All rides are operating and none are under refurbishment. This category is considered the highest difficulty and is honored as such on our tracking board.

Unexpected Ride Closures

Ride closures can happen and are part of the game. Reasons for ride closures include:

  • Ride break down
  • Inclement Weather
  • Unscheduled Maintenance

Note: On rare case-by-case basis we may review unscheduled ride closures if the ride fails to operate at all during the day. Under some circumstances those rides may be excluded from the list.

If a ride closes unexpectedly, you will have to adapt and hope that you will be able to ride it later. There is also a special case involving breakdowns of Lightning Lane rides (see above).

Unexpected Ride Openings

Yes, this can happen.  A ride may be previously scheduled not to operate due to maintenance or any other reason and then open unexpectedly or unannounced. There may also be a new ride that opens unexpectedly as part of a soft opening or for some other reason.  For the purpose of the Parkeology Challenge these rides may be ignored. Only the rides scheduled to operate at the start of the day are required to be ridden within the day in order to successfully complete the Parkeology Challenge.

Are Substitution Rides Allowed?

No. You must ride every ride on the list. There is no credit for duplicates.

What if a Ride Breaks Down While I am on It?

We generally count the ride if you are physically in the ride vehicle when it breaks down.

If you’re in line and it breaks down, we do not count it. You will have to come back and ride later.

Park Hopping

Park hopping takes time but is necessary in order to ride all the rides. At Walt Disney World, we allow any transportation available to the average guest:

  • Monorail
  • Disney bus
  • Disney watercraft
  • Disney Skyliner
  • Personal vehicle
  • Taxi
  • Ride Sharing Services like Uber and Lyft
  • Minnie Vans
  • Walking

At Disneyland, the only park hopping available is on foot or via the Monorail.

Difficulty Levels

The Parkeology Challenge is similar to a marathon. The longer you have to complete it, the less challenging it becomes.

The difficulty levels are based on the operating hours for the date of the attempt.

17

17 or fewer hours = Expert Difficulty.

18

18 hours = Advanced Difficulty.

20

19 or more hours = Moderate Difficulty.

Note: The official park hours are what dictate the difficulty, not how long it takes to actually complete all the rides.  If the park is open 20 hours and a team completes the Parkeology Challenge in 18 hours, we will still record it as a 20-hour attempt.

This is because days with longer hours have different crowd flows and individual ride operating hours, which affects the final strategy. Completing all the rides in 18 hours during a 20-hour operating day is not the same as completing them on an 18-hour operating day.

Disability Assistance Pass

In order to keep things fair for everyone we have a separate category for challengers who use disability assistance passes. If you have a physical condition that requires the use of the pass, you may use it during the challenge but we will note it as a point of fact.

Special Cases

One thing we have learned over the years is that our rules cannot account for every possible situation. Therefore, we always reserve the right to make a judgement call based on the facts at hand.

I Want to Try This!

Of course you do!  But we will warn you that you may not eat, you will be on your feet all day, it may be hot and insanely crowded. It’s the toughest Disney challenge out there.

And it’s a blast!

If you do decide to attempt the Parkeology Challenge, we want to hear about your run — even if you don’t complete! Please submit your results and we will get you added to our listing of Past Results. And if you are one of the rare few who is able to ride every ride in one day, we will add you to our Hall of Fame!