6 Hacks for (Successfully) Drinking Around the World

On our recent trip to Disney World, we spent a day at my favorite park; Epcot. On previous trips, I loved walking through each of the countries and seeing all of the detail that was put into each section of the world. This time, being 21 meant I could take on a new challenge... Drinking around the world! Overall, it was really fun, but we learned a thing or two about how to successfully drink around the world without making yourself miserable:

Drinking Buddy

For the sake of your body and the sake of your wallet, don't try to drink around the world alone. I may be slightly biased because I am the lightest of light-weights, but it's also going to be hot for most of the day... If you're drinking non-stop all day, it's going to hit hard, no matter how high your tolerance may be. This will also keep you from breaking the bank paying for a $10 drink in every country. (Some are less and others are more, but most were about $10.)

Start Early

The World Showcase opens at 11, so you have less than 12 hours to drink 11 or 12 drinks (depending on whether or not you decide to include the African Outpost). We started right at 11 and knocked out a few before lunch. If you wait until later in the day you'll have to drink faster, and the lines to get drinks will be much longer. Starting early allows you to keep a calmer pace of about 1 drink an hour, keeping you from getting miserably hammered in a crowd at Disney when its 90 degrees outside. If you wait until the evening, you'll have to down drinks so quickly that they'll hit you much harder.

Start in the Middle

This is especially effective if you wait until the park is busier, but we chose to start ahead of the crowd even at 11am when it opened, and it made our first several stops much quicker. Instead of starting in Canada or Mexico (the first countries on either side of the entrance to the World Showcase), skip the first two or three and start at Germany or France. This keeps you ahead of the crowd for the first several countries, and means that if you decide to leave the showcase area later in the day, the farthest countries are already completed.

Stay Hydrated

Especially if you have other parks to go to the next day, this one is KEY. We each drank a full CamelBak of water throughout the day and woke up the next morning ready to go! Again, because it's hot and you are outside walking around all day, the alcohol will most likely hit harder than it usually does because you'll be dehydrated and tired. The only think that can help combat that is giving your body the water that it's craving. Keeping yourself hydrated is important for any day at Disney, but even more so for a day of drinking! (Naturally, that means you'll be needing to visit the bathrooms pretty often, but they can be found between just every country so you'll never have to walk too far.)

Snack Breaks

Again, the combination of heat, walking, and alcohol gets progressively harder to deal with, so taking a break to find somewhere with air conditioning and good food makes the middle of the afternoon a lot easier to deal with. Bread and other carb-y foods seems to be good choices to "soak up the alcohol" (although I don't really know if there's anything scientific behind that)? Germany has some pretty amazing giant pretzels, and France and Norway have great pastries. There are lots of options for snacks throughout the Showcase; some places even recommend a snack/alcohol pairing that you can take advantage of if you're at a loss.

Less is More

Especially at the beginning of the day, it can be very tempting to get big, fancy drinks. America has a flight of three beers for double the price of one; a great deal! But keep in mind that bigger is not always better. By the end of the day, you may be wishing that you'd chosen the smaller options at some of the countries. Especially if you aren't a big beer drinker, opt for the smaller glass of beer for half the price instead of getting a bigger glass of something you don't love anyway. Ordering smaller drinks also means it's less to suffer through if you end up not liking it (we found this out with our hot sake in Japan)! It's important to keep in mind the collective amount you'll be consuming throughout the day instead of looking at it one country at a time.

Even the best of drinkers can find drinking around the world to be a difficult task, but if you follow these tips and prepare yourself for a long day, you can drink around the world without destroying your body or your wallet! Happy Travels!!