4 Parks/1 Day Touring Plan

Our family plans to spend one single day in the parks over our Spring Break (late March/early April) this year. For many reasons that I will spare you at this time, we all agreed that the day would be best spent Park Hopping between all 4 parks. Yep.

Family details: our family consists of my wife, 3 kids (17, 13 and 11) and me. We have toured Disney parks many times over the years, so we have been to all of the parks and are pretty familiar with everything that is offered. We are staying offsite at a vacation home, so no EMH.

With all that being said, have any of you on this forum tried this before? I would be curious if we are the only ones out there? There is no TP published for 4 Parks/1 Day, so I know it is not popular, perhaps even crazy. :crazy_face:

Here is our rough plan:

AK (RD-11:00am) – Uber to DHS

DHS (11:30am-1:45pm) – boat to EP IG

EP (2:15pm-5:00pm) - 3 FPs scheduled here – monorail to MK

MK (5:30pm-CLOSE) – Find car somewhere

This will allow us to see some of the lands and attractions that we have not been able to see in the last few years (Pandora, Toy Story Land, 7DMT) as well as ride some of our favorites in each park (determined by family meeting and ranking MUST DOs).

I’m really looking for any advice from people that have done this (or something close) before. If nothing else, we view this as a great challenge, and a different way to focus on the parks by touring the lands rather than just riding the rides.

Have you considered walking from DHS to EP IG? It’s often faster than a friend-ship, depending on the crowds.

Thanks @ApolloAndy for the input. We have considered that, and will probably need to keep a closer eye on it that day, specifically the status of the line. This seems like a nice chance to get off of our feet for a little break, if the timing works out.

Also curious why you went for Epcot FP’s? It’s later in the day and Soarin’ is usually pretty available for same day FP’s and TT has a single ride line. I would think the DHS rides, SDD in particular, would be better FP targets.

1 Like

I am doing the same thing this April. Just wondering what your goals are for each park? I am hoping to do at least 3 rides (1 headliner in each) and get a photo in each park. I to would suggest the walk between DHS and Epcot, the boat is at least 30 minutes and if you can walk at a good pace you can beat it.

Hey, good to know others are attempting this madness. Here is the general plan, not including everything:

AK: Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, Navi River Journey

DHS: Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror

EP: The Seas (FP), Soarin’ (FP), Frozen After After, Spaceship Earth (FP)

MK: Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, Enchanted Tiki Room, POTC, 7DMT, Splash Mountain, Happily Ever After, others if FPs are available that evening.

Are you planning to just wait in line for SDD? How long do you estimate that will be at 11:30 A.M.?

Thanks all - great advice.

Epcot FPs were more available, DHS FPs were not, and we’ll save a big chunk of time in EP at peak hours, so we’re OK with a line at SDD and TOT at DHS. Plus, we like Epcot more, so we’ll do a little bit more there if time allows, including grabbing an early dinner.

Sounds like a good plan. Hope you have FP for SDD. I dont have my plan with me, i will share it when i get home tomorrow.

Sounds like a good plan. I agree with getting off your feet - touring all four parks in one day means a ton of walking. And between the second park and the third park you may really want the break!

When we did four parks in one day we rope dropped HS. Then we had a FPP at AK - and picked up a Soarin FPP for the next park.

This summer will be our third 4 parks in one day. My kids (now 17 and 16) really enjoy doing this. Each time it has been a part of a bigger trip though, so we were about to just pick up FPP and ride whatever was available.

I hope everything works out. Enjoy!

1 Like

Here is my plan
HS- RD Toy Story Mania, Tower, Star tours

EPCOT- Soarin, Living with the Land, Nemo, Test Track single rider

MK- Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Big Thunder, Buzz, People Mover

AK- FOP, Safari, Dino, Everest single rider (have FP for these)

I am staying at AKL so I will bus over to HS then walk to Epcot. Have lunch then Monorail over to MK, then bus to AK. This is something I have been meaning to try but could never get my wife to get on board with. She will be with me for only part of this trip so I will do it solo. Good luck with your attempt, I am sure your kids will love it.

1 Like

Let us know how it goes. I would love to see a trip report

I’m curious to see how it plays out. My concern mostly is just having time to get it all in considering you are going during a very busy time. Crowds will be pretty high. I’d definitely do a Touring Plan for the time you have planned for each park. You ultimately lose time throughout the day by doing the actual park-hopping. Still, if you are up for the challenge, it could be a lot of fun.

As would I!

1 Like

Thanks @ryan1 - I think our biggest hurdle on this day will be our expectations, and we are being careful to keep that in check. We know we are not going to be able to do a lot at each park, so we’re ready to go with the flow. Also, about the level of crowds at the parks, Spring Break is pretty spread out this year, so there is not one major week of Spring Break like there might be in other years. There are about 5 or 6 weeks with crowd levels of 6s through 8s, instead of a lot of 8s, 9s and 10s. We are hoping that helps a little bit.

Touring Plans are a must for me, so we’ve got those laid out, with a good amount of time for transportation planned between each park.

We do plan on using Uber or a taxi for our first transportation between AK and DHS, because I do not want to spend one of our first hours waiting for a bus. :frowning:

Thanks for sharing @galuchies_463555, it looks like a good plan, oddly similar to ours in the general flow. Somehow I convinced my wife that this was a good choice. We’ll see how this works. 14 days 'til launch.

We do not have FP for SDD, but we’re ok with waiting in one or two long lines in order to experience a few new things.

Not far behind you, my 4 park day is for 4/10

Well, this will be interesting to compare notes after our trips!

1 Like

I also noticed that MK has EMH the night we are planning to end our day there. If we plan on making a dash over to 7DMT to finish the night after Happily Ever After, as long as we get there before park close, we should be ok to wait in the standby line, correct? This is our backup plan for the night, as we definitely want to ride, but also are willing to wait in that line at the end of our day, but not at 6 or 7 without FPs.

1 Like

I have one more follow-up question that I am hoping someone can answer for me. I have three FPs scheduled for Epcot in the early afternoon, and if we choose not to use one of them and cancel it, will we be able to get additional FPs at MK later that day even though we’ve only used 2 at Epcot? I have gotten mixed answers on this one so far, and could really use some advice here. Thanks in advance.

I believe the answer is yes. My understanding was that as soon as you use any in one park, you are eligible for same-day at any other park for any tier.

Edit: This post will almost certainly help.

1 Like