Written by Tink's Planner, Jennifer C. Have you ever dreamed of visiting all 4 Walt Disney World theme parks in one day? You probably are thinking...is it even possible? The answer is YES! Let me share all of the details about how I conquered 16 major attractions, 2 shows, 1 fireworks display, 1 quick service meal, 1 sit-down dinner, numerous snacks, pictures with all of the iconic Disney landmarks and more!! I’ve been lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World countless times. I’ve been to every park more times than I can count on my fingers and toes. During my last trip to WDW in April 2019, I challenged myself to take my love of Disney to a new level! Instead of visiting one or two parks each day, I wanted to visit ALL four in one day! It’s something I’ve never done before, and I spent weeks preparing with my family how to master such a feat: strategic Fastpass planning, driving vs. Disney transportation, Extra Magic Hours, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks?! So many details to consider!! Our “4 Parks, 1 Day” adventure took place with my parents, 12 year old sister and my fiancé on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019. Since we were staying on site at Animal Kingdom Lodge, a Disney resort, we were able to book our fastpasses 60 days in advance. Josh (my wonderful fiancé) and I booked FP’s for thrill rides, while my family chose other, less intense attractions. Our plan for the day was: Animal Kingdom (rope drop) → Hollywood Studios → Epcot → Magic Kingdom (extra magic hours 10 pm-12 am). We booked three FP’s for Hollywood Studios, and after we used all three at HS, we continued booking one at a time at the remaining parks! Ready to see how we managed visiting all four parks? Here is a breakdown of our schedule for the day: Started at Animal Kingdom: 7:00 AM - Cooked breakfast in the room to fuel up for the day! 8:00 AM - Drove to AK before rope drop (9 AM park open) We had a rental car, which saved a lot of time getting to and from parks. 8:40 AM - Entered the park before it opened. We then followed a cast member to the Expedition Everest standby line where we waited until the official park open. **We knew there would be higher crowds for Flight of Passage, so we skipped it on this day, but made sure to visit on a different day of this vacation.** 9:00 AM - First in line for Expedition Everest! 9:07 AM - Entered the first ride vehicle of the day for Everest. Woohoo! 9:17 AM - Walked to Africa and entered the queue line for Kilimanjaro Safari. 9:26 AM - We then walked to Dinoland U.S.A. 10:04 AM - Entered queue line for Dinosaur and then quickly boarded! We barely escaped the Carnotaurus! 10:45 AM - Mobile Ordered lunch from Satu’li Canteen during the walk from Dinoland U.S.A. to Pandora- The World of Avatar. 10:55 AM - Entered Satu’li Canteen and quickly picked up and enjoyed lunch. 11:17 AM - Met up with my family, exited AK and drove to HS. We had a solid two and a half hours at Animal Kingdom! Since we’ve been there so many times, we knew exactly which attractions to ride, how to get around the park (park maps are life savers!) and mobile ordering lunch ahead really saved us time. Josh and I shared our meal since the servings are so big, and we also wanted to keep snacking at each park so we didn’t want to fill up too early. Hollywood Studios: 11:37 AM - Entered gates at Hollywood Studios! 11:43 AM - First fast pass for Tower of Terror where we entered... The Twilight Zone! The other half of the family headed to Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. 12:00 PM - First row for TOT! Woohoo! 12:05 PM - Waited for next FP at Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Headed to Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy, which was conveniently next to RRC. 12:30 PM - Watched the 13 minute Racing Academy show 12:35 PM - Entered FP line for RRC! Aerosmith gave us some backstage passes! Woo! 1:12 PM - Headed to Toy Story Land for our final FP at HS. 1:35 PM - Entered the FP line for Toy Story Mania! At this time, we all started looking for new Fastpasses to book at Epcot on the My Disney Experience app. 2:20 PM - Grabbed a coffee at Starbucks on Hollywood Boulevard and exited the park. We spent another amazing two and half hours at Hollywood Studios. We were able to ride our favorite rides and we saw the new Racing Academy show featuring Lightning McQueen! The other half of my family enjoyed Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and Beauty and the Beast Live on stage. In between rides we grabbed small snacks (popcorn, Mickey pretzel) to keep us energized and filled up on water. It was HOT that day, so we made sure to stay hydrated! Epcot: 2:38 PM - Entered Epcot! Of course we stopped to take pictures with the Epcot ball! 2:45 PM - Entered the Single Rider line for Test Track (walked right on!!) We could only book one Fastpass at a time now, so we had to maximize our time by splitting up for this ride. 2:56 PM - We walked around for a bit before our Soarin’ FP. 3:03 PM - Entered the queue for Living with the Land, which is a hidden gem inside the Land pavilion! 3:25 PM - Entered FP line for Soarin’! All 5 of us booked a FP. 3:33 PM - As we were in line for Soarin’, we booked another FP for Space Mountain in MK, our last park! 3:56 PM - We exited Soarin’ and made our way to the World Showcase to enjoy the Flower & Garden Festival. We spent about an hour exploring all of the countries. We enjoyed a variety of snacks as we traveled around the world. Some of our favorites were the potato pancakes with ham, onions and sour cream in Germany, a honey tandoori chicken flatbread from the Honey Bee-Stro, and vegetable spring rolls from the Lotus House. 4:50 PM - Josh and I exited Epcot & made our way to the Ticket and Transportation Center to catch a monorail to MK. The other half of our group took the car back to the resort for some rest...it’s a lot of work to park hop all day! At Epcot we spent a little over two hours walking around, rode all of our favorite attractions and enjoyed the Flower & Garden Festival. We were able to fuel up on some snacks and drinks to give us a boost for the rest of our magical adventure. Next up is Magic Kingdom! Magic Kingdom: 5:22 PM - We made it to Magic Kingdom! Josh and I spent some time taking photos by the railroad station and on Main Street U.S.A to document our last park of the day. 5:39 PM - We had snagged a FP for Space Mountain so we went there first! After we scanned our magic bands for Space Mountain, we grabbed another FP for Buzz Lightyear right after. 6:00 PM - Boarded Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin to defeat the evil Emperor Zurg! 6:31 PM - Entered the queue line for Splash Mountain. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah! After Splash Mountain, we made our way to the exit of Magic Kingdom, and hopped on the monorail. We had a 7:30 PM dinner reservation with the rest of the family at ‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Resort -- which was a perfect way to relax before we continued our quest for 4 parks in 1 day! 8:55 PM - We took the monorail back to Magic Kingdom with the whole crew! Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours from 10 PM - 12 AM this evening. 9:15 PM - We walked down Main Street U.S.A. and found a perfect spot in front of Cinderella’s castle to watch the Happily Ever After fireworks show. 10:15 PM - After the fireworks, we walked to Big Thunder Mountain railroad! No fast passes are given out during extra magic hours, so we just enjoyed going from ride-to-ride for the remainder of the night 11:45 PM - We gathered for a family picture in front of the castle. I could not believe we made it to all 4 parks in 1 day! 12 AM - That’s it folks! We made our way back down Main Street U.S.A. for our final walk out of Magic Kingdom. We were exhausted!! My Fitbit captured our mileage and steps for the whole day. In total: 14.2 miles walked and 34,753 steps counted. Wow! What a magical day! Would we do it again? YES!
By Tink's Planner, Kristen. Through monsoons of rain, a group of my friends and I decided that we were going to attempt the four parks in one day challenge at Walt Disney World.® I want to thank my hardcore birthday crew who lasted fifteen straight hours to check this challenge off my bucket list! We also managed to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Epcot® at the end of our evening. We had tons of fun rising to the challenge, even in the drippy weather. By Tink's Vacation Planner, Pollyanna. I have many Walt Disney World® "Bucket List" items that I still have yet to accomplish; staying at every on property resort, attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and riding every Disney water ride in one day. I am proud to say that I have been able to cross several items off of my Bucket List such as ordering the "kitchen sink" at Beaches and Cream, and visiting the underground utilidoors. A huge item on my Bucket List was experiencing all four Disney World Parks in one day - and guess what, I did it! You are not crazy to wonder if four Walt Disney World Parks in one day is even possible. I am able to tell you that it can be done! My son and I carefully planned out how to make visiting four parks in one day happen. Being that it was summer we had extended park hours to use to our advantage, but we also had the heat and crowds to work around as well. We got up early, ate breakfast at our resort, and went to the bus stop to get our day started. We chose to begin at Epcot since it had extra morning hours for resort guests. We were there for rope drop and went straight to Soarin’ and then Spaceship Earth. The crowds were still light so we could have stayed to enjoy more time at the park, but we knew we had a full day ahead of us. Our next stop took us to Hollywood Studios where we rode Star Tours and The Great Movie Ride (oh, how I miss that ride). We grabbed a quick lunch at Pizza Planet and began our bus ride to Animal Kingdom. By then it was mid-day and we were feeling the Floridian heat in full force. The heat and humidity were not going to slow us down! My son and I entered Animal Kingdom and he rode Expedition Everest as a single rider. (I was not brave enough to ride it!). We were hoping to see a show (like Festival of the Lion King), but our timing did not work out. So instead we both hopped on the ride, Triceratop Spin, before grabbing an ice cream on our way out of the park. Our last park of the day to experience was Magic Kingdom. We had planned our FastPass+ selections here knowing we would be enjoying a popular park at a busy time of the day. Although it was busy, we had a great time in our last park, and went back to our room knowing that we had survived the day and accomplished our goal - and it was fun! Visiting four parks in one day at Walt Disney World is not for the faint of heart; especially in July. This experience is not for vacationers that have limited time or who want to get the most out of every park. I am a frequent visitor so checking this off my Disney Bucket List is a memory I will not soon forget, especially because I accomplished it with my son. Tink's Tip: As Pollyanna suggests, if you want to attempt four parks in one day, definitely have a plan! Grab four park maps (available at your Disney resort, and also at the entrance to each park) and sketch out what rides you hope to hop on. You will need a park hopper ticket to access all four parks. Remember to stay hydrated, especially if you are going in the summer months. You will need to go through security at the entrance to each park. Have fun! |
Our vacation planners their children and yes, even some of our Tink’s clients, have written about their experiences in the Neverland Blog. The magic of Disney comes alive in an immediate way when our children visit the Land of Mickey and Minnie.
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