Has anyone done all four parks in one day?

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

We've done it and it's a blast, not to mention we have younger kids (11, 10 and 8). We usually do it on a day when Animal Kingdom opens the earliest (EMH day) and we get there an hour before rope drop. This allows us to hit the big rides and move. Bus travel from this park to the others takes the longest, that's why we hit this first. We have eaten breakfast at the resort and have some snacks on hand (granola bars)

Next we take the bus into the TTC at MK as all the park busses go to the TTC. If we started anywhere else, we would have to make our way to the TTC to get a bus to AK. Heading into MK, we ride everything we want and grab lunch to go. We like to eat on the monorail over to Epcot and it's usually something small, because we like to eat in the WS at Epcot. Once we are at Epcot we hit up the big rides up front and off to the WS (We travel during F&W festival and like to sample as we work our way around. We stop at the back of the WS and take the boat to MGM (HS) and we can easily get out of here in a couple hours IF THAT. While doing all we want to do, we take a look at our time and 9 times out of 10 we have plenty of time and head back to Epcot via boat to finish the other half of the WS, because this park usually closes the latest. If for some reason we don't have the time, we take the bus to the boardwalk and hang out for a relaxing evening of fun!

 

[dkrauss]

Not really a direct answer to the OP's question , it is an example. My wife and I are doing 4 parks/1 day during our November 2016 trip. Our plan is:

1. AK - because we're staying at AKV
2. HS - we're busing over here.......
3. EP - taking the boat here. F&W festival....yea!
4. MK - taking the monorail here. Only day during our week to see Wishes

From a transportation perspective (which is part of our overall plan) we're doing bus, boat, and monorail...........the BIG 3. We'll probably Uber home to complete the Big Sombrero of Transport

We're also looking at a photo in front of each park icon.
We've decided to do "at least" 2 attractions per/park. This is where it gets tricky......where do we make our FP selections? We have 15 days to figure that out.
We're not making any ADR for this day. ADR's take too long.........so we'll wing it from a meal perspective. My only worry is Epcot because of F&W festival

Given the ages of the OP's children, the actual task doesn't seem to be at issue. Its what you do in each park...........how do you create the memory of 4 parks/1 day!

What ever you decide have a great time doing it.

Doug

 

[ckb_nc]

My wife and did it in October - EMH at HS, boat ride to Epcot (scored a FP to Soarin) - bus to AK with Everest and Kali. Actually got a little downtime at the hotel before MK that night. Goal was major attraction in each park. Very doable and a great deal of fun. We walked over 14 miles

 

[DopeyDad68]

Have never attempted but a cousin twice removed has done it and survived. We may have to attempt 3 parks on our last day in a couple of weeks if it's true that there will be no nighttime parade at MK several nights. But I hope not. We usually drive to all parks except MK. Would have to go back to resort to take a bus to MK. Hope we'll just do EPCOT in the morning and HS in the evening on last day.

 

[Darcy03231]

I did it with older teens (17 & 19). We started at DHS for rope drop and did RNR, ToT and got a fast pass for Toy Story Mania. We also did Star Tours. Hopped over to AK and did Dinosaur & EE. Hopped back to DHS and did Toy Story Mania, saw the Beauty & the Beast show and Lights, Motors, Action. Then hopped over to Epcot and did Test Track. Ended with MK and did Small World, Haunted Mansion & Wishes. The kids may have done Space Mountain, but I don't remember.

I will say that we did this during our spring break which is the last week of April. Crowds were light to moderate. We also had lunch and dinner at counter service places so we weren't using time up doing a sit down meal.

 

[SureAsLiz]

When I do multiple parks, I like to create a goal for each of them - meet Mickey at every park, ride every coaster, do anything princess related (ride/show/meet and greet) - things like that

Generally start at DAK since it's so far out of the way, and end at MK since it's generally open the latest. Also, I use my own car if possible. It gives me more control than the busses, plus it's nice having your car at the last park when all you want to do is go home/not be around people.

One thing that always amazes me is just how long the day really is. A few weeks ago I did 3 parks in 8ish hours from 1 to 9pm, and we got a lot done in each park and still had plenty of down time when we needed it.

 

[Nevaland]

Kind of done something like this....we did a pressed coin day at the 4 parks. We hit every pressed coin machine, got all 3 or 4 pennies pressed at each machine in all 4 parks all in one day. With 4 kids in tow aged 10,9,7,3. It was a blast. We started at AK at 7am I believe, hit the HS, afternoon at Epcot, and finished off the day at MK. When it came time to head into the MK for the evening I said to the kids "We could quit now and get some sleep?" But all were enthusiastic about finishing our mission, finally at 1030pm!!!! It was so much fun going to the different parks all in one day. And we got over 300 pressed pennies to prove it!!! I say you go for it and make a game of it!!! Why not!!!

 

[mjmgsssp]

I did it several years ago with a friend. We planned it like the Amazing Race. Our objective was to hit all 4 parks and ride 1 of each of our fave rides in each park. We also had to use all forms of Disney transport.

We left CB via bus to AK where we rode the safari and saw FOTLK. Next, we took a bus to HS where we rode ToT and RNR. We then took the boat to Epcot where we rode Soarin and Test Track. The monorail took us to MK for rides on Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. After catching a bus back to our resort, we jumped on ME to head to the airport and home. It was a crazy day that were still laughing about 10+ years later. Have fun!

 

[maux]

I've done it several times. The last time I did a picture with Donald Duck in each park. I usually travel alone, makes it easier but fun nonetheless.

 

[Dustykins]

I did it my first trip to Disney, (it was one day of many in the parks, not my only day, thankfully). We called it the Death March. It was *slightly* complicated by the fact that we did it after my sister's wedding reception (10 a.m. wedding, reception over around 2:30ish, had to change out of wedding gear) with the whole wedding party (8 bridesmaids, 8 groomsmen, several ushers and a reader along with the bride and groom) and a rather large entourage of spouses and other family following along. We left Beach Club on a bus (pretty much filled the whole thing up, too), ran in to AK did pictures in front of the Tree of Life and left. Buses again to MK where we did pictures in front of the castle and then we all rode Jungle Cruise (my sister and her husband met when they were both Skippers on the Jungle Cruise), made slightly easier for the weight by the other skippers pulling us in through the exit to the front of the line. We filled up two boats! Then we moved on to HS for pictures in front of the Mickey Magician hat and then we all rode ToT because that was the only ride with that did pictures the whole wedding party would fit on. Then we moved on to Epcot where we just barely made it in time to get pictures with Spaceship Earth before it got too dark.

I don't think I'd do that again, really, but that was just too fast and too many people to get through the transportation system between parks. We did three out of the four later that trip to let the kids ride all of their favorites "one more time" before we left, though and that was totally doable. (note: the kids did not go on the Death March, they went with Grandma and Grandpa to explore some of the resorts and watch fireworks from the Poly).

 

[gap2368]

We have one day and instead of picking a park our kids (DD 22, DS 18) want to park hop and hit all four parks. Has anyone attempted this? If so, what was your game plan?

Thanks in advance!

I did this and this is how I did it

RD AK rode EE and dianasor and the spinning ride

HS

FP TSMM TT Star tours
and did RR

EPCOT
FP ( got it on my phone on the way over) SSE
and did soaring and TT

then quickly walked around world show case and took a picture in each land


MK
FP ( again got it on my phone) SM
buzz lightyear

watched the night time things parade fire works ( was not in the front row for the parade and had a tree blocking me form the fire works

 

[shyjade]

We do it every trip. We've started taking short trips (fits best with our schedules) and "hit it hard" for a few days. DD18 and I generally start at the morning EMH park and ride some of the headliners, then hop. We always have FP+ for the afternoon, and spend the evening relaxing in a park (usually walking around the World Showcase in Epcot).

A typical 4-park day for us is morning EMH at MK, late morning head to AK, then HS in the afternoon for our FP+, and Epcot in the evening.

I will say that we've been enough times that we only do certain things in each park. For example, we go to AK for the safari and trails. At HS, we normally only ride Toy Story, Star Tours and Great Movie Ride. Not that we never do more at those parks, but when time is limited we are content to just do our favorites.

Although we've been doing this since DD18 was younger, I would not attempt it if we had a larger family or small kids. For us, it works great. We'll be flying down in October for a 2-park day trip and we will get to do everything that's a priority to us, so long as none of the rides go down. If that happens, it won't ruin our trip. We'll see all 4 parks and enjoy F&W.

 

[Tinkbum]

We have one day and instead of picking a park our kids (DD 22, DS 18) want to park hop and hit all four parks. Has anyone attempted this? If so, what was your game plan?

Thanks in advance!

We've done it, but it wasn't planned. We don't have kids so it was easy enough to just hop on a boat or monorail to go somewhere else. Be prepared though, it's tiring!!!

 

[BelleBway]

We did it on my older niece's 16th birthday with the additional aim of riding every ride that had on-ride photos

• Rope drop at Epcot and then Soarin and TT
• AK- Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, and lunch
• DHS- ToT and RnRC... multiple times for both. And a snack.
• MK- we spent the most time here, including dinner and the Fireworks Dessert party. We arrived at 5:30 and stayed until midnight.

 

[DIS_MERI]

We didn't really plan to initially, but DD9 and I did in January. We (me, DS16, DD13 and DD9) got to AK around 11am (yay teens, or something) and did Dinosaur (FP) Primeval Hurl, EE (FP) and Safari (FP). Kids wanted to shop in Epcot, and we hit Living with the Land on the way to WS. Had a 5pm reservation for CM and while we were eating, DD9 decided she wanted to go to HS for RNR and TOT and I wanted to see the Star Wars fireworks, so we headed there after dinner (DS16 and DD13 went back to our room at AKV) and got a Star Tours FP on our way in (only thing left we wanted, it was 7ish when we got there). I mentioned that MK was open til 11pm while we were in line for RNR, so after that, 3 rides on TOT, Star Tours and watching the fireworks, we got in line for the bus to MK...where we waited for an hour. We'd gotten there in time to get a seat on the first bus, but were still "treated" to a giant group of middle schoolers standing all around us signing at the top of their lungs (choir group). At MK we rode Space Mountain, 7DMT, did Philharmagic for the first time and rode BTMRR to the fireworks before the long ride back to AKV. We were super tired, but mostly glad we did it (it was super cold on BTMRR because it was in the 40s that week).

 

[lucas]

Over the years, we've done all 4 in one day many times.

 

[jrt1176]

Since you only have one day, I could see doing this as long as you decided far in advance on what attractions you all wanted to ride in each park.

I'm not big on planning; I go with a rough idea, etc. But, because of all of the travel time between the parks you will be doing I would have your list of attractions you want to hit at each park and then start planning.

Normally, I wouldn't say it was a good idea... But, with one day, why not?

 

[cobright]

We did it with a VIP tour as a group of three adults and it was super cool.

Tried to do 2 parks in one day as a group of 2 adults and two kids and I would rather step in front of the Mickey Express bus than try it again.

 

[Laura's Dad]

I'm trying it it two weeks. I'm going to try to do at least 3 attractions in every park. Here is my plan:

AK (Early Entry): Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest, It's Tough to be a Bug

Bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios: Star Tours, Rock and Roller Coaster (FP), Tower of Terror (FP) Get FP for Test Track or Soarin'

Boat or walk to Epcot's International Gateway: Around World Showcase to get lunch, ride Grand Fiesta Tour, Soarin' of Test Track with Fast Pass, get FP for Space or Splash at MK ride Figment, Seas with Nemo, or Spaceship Earth

Monorail to Magic Kingdom: Check wait times for two rides before last Fast Pass

 

[suzimar57]

Have done 4 parks a few times - always MK first, monorail to EP, walk to HS, then walk back to BW for bus to AK at the end (only 2 or 3 rides in each park, plus QS when hungry) - more of a "we can do this!" mindset....