4 Parks - 1 Day - We're doing it!!!!

[Dmcuth]

Some advance info - We go to Disney more than once a year. I am a self-proclaimed WDW expert. We have a house in Kissimmee and are AP holders. We were looking for a new challenge for our trip in January so my 14 year old daughter and I (my wife will stay at our home and do some work she was planning on) decided to do what have never done before: All 4 parks in 1 day!

In July of 2002 we did three (MGM,EP,MK) from morning till midnight. We have selected either Friday Jan 6 (Mk open till 10), or Monday Jan 9 (MK closes at 8 but smaller crowds). Weather will be a factor on what we decide.

Here's our schedule. While we certainly will not attempt every ride and we will skip any long lines, here's what we hope will be our minimal attractions to do:

(9 am) DHS: TSMM, TOT, ARRC, ST, Animation Station
Bus to AK : Safari, EE, Dinosaur
Bus to Epcot: TT (SR line if necessary), British Revolution, SE. Soarin (only if 30 min or less wait)
Monorail to MK: Buzz, Pirates, and whatever has short lines , WISHES!

We are up for the challenge! We are going to dominate these parks! No food stops, just turkey legs on the run! (jk)

We may even join Twitter and tweet the day. Will definitely video it and put on youtube.

Any thoughts/suggestions (other than sneakers and energy drinks)?

 

[Karbase8]

I think this is very doable, I did 3 parks in one day (AK, Epcot and MK) during Spring Break with max crowds and they even closed MK for awhile! However the park was open until 1am. We only did the Safari, in AK, EPcot had 2 hour waits but we did do, the Seas, the Land, Spaceship Earth, Ellen, Mexico and a few other things, then in MK we did, Pirates, HM, People Mover, Splash Mountain, a dance party in Tommorrow land, the race cars, and remember it was Max Max crowds and had prime spot for Wishes, i would think that time in January is very low crowds. Good Luck!!!!

 

[mlittig]

Cool, good luck and enjoy your day

 

[GBBTomorrow]

Let me throw an added challenge at you: we did "around the world" in one day, beginning AND ending at the Magic Kingdom. We were there for rope drop, and back there for Wishes and Dole Whips.

We did it all with Disney transportation too.

Your plan is totally doable. Have a blast! It's a fun and very memorable thing to do.

 

[disneyfanlincoln]

Wow I'm impressed - we did 3 parks in one day due to time issues - AK,HS and Epcot. However when I said day we only had until 5 pm when our transport was due. So I guess based on this it's very doable. Get the blister plasters ready !!! Good Luck.

 

[bouncycat]

We did this on Oct 1st, for a friend's birthday. She wanted a challenge for it, and picked a few of her favs in each park, and we ended at MK, where they were having the birthday celebration. Ak we saw Lion King, rode Dinosaur and EE, Headed to DHS, Saw Indiana Jones, rode TSM, RRC then went to epcot, rode Soarin and hit up club cool, stopped at the Poly for drinks, then headed to MK, Ate dinner, and rode HM, SM, saw the special wishes and the castle show. It was a VERY long day. I am in a wheelchair, so it helped a little with some rides. I have pictures in my annual pass quest, link is in my siggie. I hope you have fun!! We did not use Disney transportation, but with a HC parking thing, it helped quite a bit.

 

[Dmcuth]

With a wheelchair? That's a challenge! Nice.

Around the world? Nice idea. I want to hit TSM though and that's only doable first thing. I do need to step it up though. Maybe making sure we hit all lands even if just walking through, or do at least one thing per land would work. I also thought of stopping at Downtown Disney to get my free chocolate at Ghiradelli's
for an added accomplishment

 

[Art 1]

My daughter has done it, I have never bothered but may someday.

 

[LindaBabe]

I did it, in the days before I needed an ecv. Started in the early entry park, used Disney transportation, and did NOT carry a bag thus avoiding bag check. You, staying off property, will want to AVOID the early entry park.

 

[The Hendies]

On November 9th! We were at AK from 9 - 1ish, then to MK until 4, on to DHS for 3 hours or so, and a bus to the front entrance of EPCOT. We were on a photopass, so we were sure to get a picture from each park. We rode at least one ride at each park. It was so much fun! Good luck, and may the force be with you!

 

[fflmaster]

My twin 14 year old boys and I did this in 2010.

My wife thought we were crazy, so she and my mother stayed back and had fun at the food and wine festival for the day.

We hit AK and did Safari, EE, Dinosaur and Tough to be a Bug.

Then hit DHS for Star Tours 2, TSM, Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster.

Then shot over to EPCOT for TT, MS and Sorin. After those three rides we picked up my wife and mother for a quick pizza at Via Napoli and then left for MK

At MK we hit Big Thunder, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion and our last but my favorite Mickey's Philharmagic.

A couple of suggestions:

Try to set this up on the day with one park having EMH mourning and MK EMH evening.

For all the rides that have the special pictures, make some great poses for memories. (My sons and I got a great picture of us all during Rockin Roller Coaster) Wife is still jealous about all the pictures that we did without her.

Use fastpass if avail and don't stay too long at any park. Just pick the 3 or four rides you really want to do. You have to be flexible for each ride and just hit one by one.

You have to get a photo pass picture at all four parks with the main theme: AK-tree of life, MK-castle, EP-spaceship earth and DHS-the hat

Pack food for lunch, but stop for dinner and most importantly HAVE FUN.

It was an amazing day and my kids love to talk about the adventure to their friends and everyone that loves disney.

My boys want to do this every trip now. Although my wife said she was jealous, she still wants no part of it. It is a very fast pace day.

The day started at AK around 8am and ended at MK around 12 midnight.

I want to attempt the ultimate tour of MK from touring plans. I think it would be really cool to be on their hall of fame wall.

 

[General Panic]

Good luck with this , it's great fun hitting the 4 parks and doing a fav ride in each one.

It's our last day at Disney tradition and we usually start at which ever park has the EH in it.

There was a thread not long ago where someone did both universal parks and all disney parks on the same day! He posted pics and comments live on the boards as he was doing it , made for a great read.

 

[mesaboy2]

Good luck with this , it's great fun hitting the 4 parks and doing a fav ride in each one.

It's our last day at Disney tradition and we usually start at which ever park has the EH in it.

There was a thread not long ago where someone did both universal parks and all disney parks on the same day! He posted pics and comments live on the boards as he was doing it , made for a great read.

Who, me? Link in my sig below.

I'm never doing that again, by the way. I was wiped at the end.

 

[General Panic]

Who, me? Link in my sig below.

I'm never doing that again, by the way. I was wiped at the end.

TIS YOU! , huge kudos man. as i said i really enjoyed your day and felt like i was there at times with you

 

[mesaboy2]

TIS YOU! , huge kudos man. as i said i really enjoyed your day and felt like i was there at times with you

Happy to hear! It was a lot of fun doing it, and in retrospect I'm sure I could've fit in a few more--Forbidden Journey at IoA I regret not including now, but at the time I didn't have a feel yet for how the rest of the day was going to go.

Oh well, I can still stay I did what I set out to do and then some. The original idea was to hit a single headliner in each park, but I realized after banging out HRRR so quick that more was possible. And someone early in the thread goaded me on by saying my original plan was pretty easy, so I upped it.

 

[melmlantz]

I'm never doing that again, by the way.

Kudos to you indeed, and to the OP and PPs who have done this... We did 3 parks and some random stuff but no rides, so the day didn't seem so bad. We arrived shortly after January 1st '08, and I wanted desperately to find leftover MVMCP pins... so we hightailed it at ropedrop to Frontierland (stopping to enjoy the opening show!), bought pins, took the boat to the Grand Floridian, did a the Photopass Photoshoot thing, headed over to EPCOT, wandered aimlessly, ate lunch at Nine Dragons, went back to Wilderness Lodge to put our stuff in our room (as it had just been assigned), and went to DHS for the Osborne Spectacle of Lights, where we stayed and watched Fantasmic.

It felt a little chaotic, but certainly not compared to the rest of your itineraries!

 

[smores]

did it once with a 6yr old and a 12 yr old....mk was open til 3 am....kids still talk about it....im much slower now (had chemo last year....and have returned to 98% but not able to do 4 parks in 1 day anymore....we stop and smell the roses now!)

 

[CarrieR]

This has become a tradition of ours every trip. The last full day is spent doing "clean up" at all of the parks, lol. It happened the first time by accident -- we had a few things we'd missed throughout the week, so we decided to pop through and hit all of them on our last day. We didn't think it was too big of a deal. But our friends -- normally calm and straight-laced -- thought this was soooo awesome, and begged to do it when we went with them this past summer.

What has worked the best for us is to pick a day that has AM EMH at DHS, and PM EMH at the MK. We start with TSM (no FPs,) and sometimes have enough time to hit ToT (or RnRC) before we bail. Actually, one time, I think we ran in at RD, grabbed TSM FPs, and then hopped to another park and made it in time for RD there... lol!

Next we've done AK -- for whatever reason our "ride of choice" tends to be Dinosaur; depending on lines, we sometimes FP Dino, ride EE with single rider line, and then ride Dinosaur. From there, it's on to EPCOT and whatever we've planned to do there (usually NOT a headliner. In July it actually may have been lunch... so we probably did SE or JII or Nemo to have an "attraction" as well.)

I can't recall the first time, but I know at this point in July we were EXHAUSTED. We had planned to go to DHS to do TSMM and watch a couple of shows, but we ended up *just* doing TSM and then going back to the hotel for a rest.

In any event, we end up at the MK for PM EMH, and have a good chunk of time (4-5 hours) there. We're able to grab a few FPs on arrival, ride a few of our favorite short-line rides (we have a strange adoration for the TTA ) and then pop on anything we want for the last part of EMH.

It's an awesomely fun day!

 

[amlynn5]

I just did it last week started in AK, then MK, onto Epcot, then DS, and back to Epcot for Illuminations and Soarin...it was a full day but I enjoyed the challenge as well.

Celebrated with bath and wine!