4 Parks In One Day--Best Route?

[lotus14]

Traveling in late August with DH, DD8, DD5, and DMiL. We have hoppers for the first time so we're considering going to all the parks on one day just for fun. The goal would be maybe to get a snack in each park or ride one ride. Not trying to hit the headliners or anything. We'd also like to take as many transportation options as possible. The kids are early birds so we'd likely hit rope drop wherever we started.

What order makes the most sense? We have a rental car for the first time this trip. Ideally, we'd park the car at the first location and take only Disney transportation until it's time to go home. We'd considered starting at AK but we were concerned that if it turned out to be a long day, we might have trouble getting back to AK if it was much after they closed.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I don't know the best route - you'd probably need to look at a map. That said, I can't see how hitting 4 parks in one day could in any way be considered fun. Maybe if it were just two adults doing this for the novelty factor, but not with 2 young children. Seems like a huge hassle to me. Just driving to parks or waiting for a bus/boat, looking for parking, waiting in lines, would waste a lot of time, especially when visiting at a very busy time.

 

[goofy4tink]

If it were me. I would park at the TTC...head to MK. Then, walk over to the CR, and take the bus to the AK. From there, bus to DHS....after that, boat or walk to Epcot. Monorail back to TTC at the end of the day.
It would probably be faster to just drive from park to park though. And once you pay to park once, just hold onto your parking receipt, show it at the other lots and you won't have to pay again.

 

[lotus14]

If it were me. I would park at the TTC...head to MK. Then, walk over to the CR, and take the bus to the AK. From there, bus to DHS....after that, boat or walk to Epcot. Monorail back to TTC at the end of the day.
It would probably be faster to just drive from park to park though. And once you pay to park once, just hold onto your parking receipt, show it at the other lots and you won't have to pay again.

Good point about the time being taken up by taking Disney buses. Maybe we'd be better off to take the boat from HS to Epcot (for novelty's sake) but abandon the others.

I think the girls might find this to be a fun adventure for a day. We have a long trip scheduled and 2 completely open days so we thought we'd offer this as an option on the fly. We just wanted to be prepared so we knew what we'd be getting in to as far as travel goes.

 

[ranthony]

It's so funny that this topic came up because we're thinking about doing this in a few weeks.

We're staying at the Beach Club Villas and we're starting out at AK on an EMH morning. We usually try to avoid parks with EMH but this is going to be a novelty type of day for us and we're all early risers so we'll be taking advantage of the extra hours on this day. When we're ready to leave AK (probably right after an early lunch) we'll take a bus to one of the MK resorts and get transportation to the MK from there. We'll do a few things in MK that we never do (like Swiss Family Treehouse or HoP) and have an afternoon snack. Then we'll take the bus back to BCV. We'll refresh in the room and then boat or walk over to Epcot using the International Gateway entrance. While there I'd like to catch a performance of Voices of Liberty in the American pavillion or Serveur Amusant in France if we can make it before their last shows. We'll then grab a counter service dinner and perhaps ride something if there aren't lines. Then, it's back through the IG to take the boat over to EMH at HS to finish off the night . If we need to stop off at the resort we can as the boat stops there along the way. HS is open until 1am but I'm sure we won't be there at that time.

This whole plan depends on if the kids are up for it. They may be too enticed by SAB to stay away from the pool for the entire day. If so, it'll just be an AK morning and a HS evening with swimming in the afternoon. I think they'll be up for the challenge though and they enjoy the buses and boats almost as much as any other attraction at WDW. I plan on taking plenty of photos of the day and making a photobook to document our one day in four different Disney parks.

 

[lotus14]

When we're ready to leave AK (probably right after an early lunch) we'll take a bus to one of the MK resorts and get transportation to the MK from there.

Can't you take a bus from Animal Kingdom directly to TTC without going to an MK resort first? I thought there were buses from one park to another but not to DTD.

Love the sound of your plan! We are off site so we can't use the EMH but we're early risers too so we figured it just might work. I don't know if we'd take the whole day or not. Depends on what the kids are like, but we have the extra time so it might be neat to do.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Can't you take a bus from Animal Kingdom directly to TTC without going to an MK resort first? I thought there were buses from one park to another but not to DTD.

Love the sound of your plan! We are off site so we can't use the EMH but we're early risers too so we figured it just might work. I don't know if we'd take the whole day or not. Depends on what the kids are like, but we have the extra time so it might be neat to do.

As far as I know, you can take a bus from park to park. Like you, DW and I stay offsite. Since you stay offsite, I agree with goofy4tink; I would pay to park and drive from park to park since you only pay for parking once and it's transferrable to each park. We did this once (like someone mentioned we were 3 adults at the time) and this is how we did it.

Started bright and early at AK. We had an early ADR for TH. Stayed a few hours there and drove on over to MK. Parked the car at MK and took the monorail to Epcot. Walked through Epcot and straight on thru to DHS through the International Gateway. Stayed at DHS about 3 hours or so. Walked back to Epcot. Stayed at Epcot a few hours and took the monorail back to MK. Finished the night off at MK.

As I mentioned, we were 3 adults though. No kids. I don't know how it would work with your 8yr old and 5yr old. Some where down the line, I'm sure they would get tired. We picked a day that MK closed at 1 am. This is the only way we knew we could get it done. We hit at least one major attraction in each park. That was our goal at the time we decided to try it. Luckily we had already seen Fantasmic and Illuminations earlier in the week. We made it just in time to catch Wishes. You can bet we were dead tired the next day. Our day started at 6 in the morning (on a Friday if I remember correctly) and didn't end until 3 am the next morning by the time we got back to our timeshare.

If you do attempt it, best of luck to you.

 

[goofy4tink]

Can't you take a bus from Animal Kingdom directly to TTC without going to an MK resort first? I thought there were buses from one park to another but not to DTD.

Love the sound of your plan! We are off site so we can't use the EMH but we're early risers too so we figured it just might work. I don't know if we'd take the whole day or not. Depends on what the kids are like, but we have the extra time so it might be neat to do.

Yes, there are buses to both AK and DHS from TTC. This is the main lot for MK, so that's where the buses from these two parks go, as of now. There is talk that this will change, but not yet.

As far as I know, you can take a bus from park to park. Like you, DW and I stay offsite. Since you stay offsite, I agree with goofy4tink; I would pay to park and drive from park to park since you only pay for parking once and it's transferrable to each park. We did this once (like someone mentioned we were 3 adults at the time) and this is how we did it.

Started bright and early at AK. We had an early ADR for TH. Stayed a few hours there and drove on over to MK. Parked the car at MK and took the monorail to Epcot. Walked through Epcot and straight on thru to DHS through the International Gateway. Stayed at DHS about 3 hours or so. Walked back to Epcot. Stayed at Epcot a few hours and took the monorail back to MK. Finished the night off at MK.

As I mentioned, we were 3 adults though. No kids. I don't know how it would work with your 8yr old and 5yr old. Some where down the line, I'm sure they would get tired. We picked a day that MK closed at 1 am. This is the only way we knew we could get it done. We hit at least one major attraction in each park. That was our goal at the time we decided to try it. Luckily we had already seen Fantasmic and Illuminations earlier in the week. We made it just in time to catch Wishes. You can bet we were dead tired the next day. Our day started at 6 in the morning (on a Friday if I remember correctly) and didn't end until 3 am the next morning by the time we got back to our timeshare.

If you do attempt it, best of luck to you.

Now, if that had been me??? I would have parked at TTC, then taken the bus to DHS, stayed there, then walked or boated to Epcot, and monorailed back to TTC. Would have meant less walking and more park time...but, that's just me.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Now, if that had been me??? I would have parked at TTC, then taken the bus to DHS, stayed there, then walked or boated to Epcot, and monorailed back to TTC. Would have meant less walking and more park time...but, that's just me.

Food and Wine Festival was going on. We were needing/wanting an adult beverage for the walk. I'll keep this in mind for next time though.

 

[ranthony]

Can't you take a bus from Animal Kingdom directly to TTC without going to an MK resort first? I thought there were buses from one park to another but not to DTD.

I know there used to be buses from park to park. If there still are, and one happens to be pulling up when we are leaving AK, we'll hop on board. We don't want to be sitting and waiting on a specific bus so we'll hop on any MK resort area bus that comes along and then deal with getting to the MK from there. I actually love the boat ride from WL to MK.

One thing to point out for those of you going soon. The monorail is closing for the afternoons (11:30 - 6:00, I believe) so plan accordingly if you'll be attempting a day like this in the near future.

 

[Donna M]

I know there used to be buses from park to park. If there still are, and one happens to be pulling up when we are leaving AK, we'll hop on board.

Yes, there are busses from one park to another. A bus would go right up to the MK entrance, not TTC, I believe.

I hit all 4 parks with 2 teenage girls at Christmas one year. It was fun to say we did it. We went to rope drop at MK bussed over to AK, bussed over to DHS, went back to OKW for a break, then drove to Epcot. MK was fine because we got there early and left at 10:00 when the crowds were entering. DHS was packed and we couldn't do anything, we could barely walk! Epcot was enjoyable because we only planned to look around the countries and shop. It was a long day, but fun. I never would have taken young children who wanted to go on the rides since it would have been too disappointing with the crowds being as large as they were.