My daughter and I will be visiting for her 11th birthday. We only have 1 day in the parks and she has decided she wants to attempt all four parks in one day. It will be on a Saturday where crowds are predicted between a 4 and 5 (April 18th). Here’s what I’m thinking, but please offer any advice.
Early Entry at AK - do Zootopia, Kilimanjaro Safari, and Kali.
Hop over to MK. Try to get a LL for Pirate’s(10am), Tiana’s(11am), and Haunted Mansion (noon) and a single LL for around 1pm for 7 Dwarfs. We may also attempt Jungle Cruise (depending on the line) and Its a Small World.
Monorail over to Epcot maybe around 2. Maybe do Remy’s, Soarin’ and Test Track (depending on lines and LL availability at this point)
Skyliner over to HS probably 5-6?. Attempt to get LL for Slinky Dog, TS Mania, and/or Runaway Railway. If we have time to see a show, great. Otherwise, not a big deal.
A little about us: We are big Disney fans, but this is her first park trip since her 6th birthday - we only did MK and AK that time. We had a break for a few years and the last couple of years, we’ve become big cruise fans. Her favorite movie is Moana. She is not a very adventurous rider - she doesn’t want to do the bigger rides like Avatar, Expedition Everest, Tron, etc. I purposefully have not planned any night shows in. We’ll likely be a HS and I’m not a big fan of Fantasmic. However, if it works out where we’re at one of the parks for a night show, we might decide to stay.
When I did a 4 parks challenge, I used the park hour variances to my advantage. Like you, we started at AK since it was open the earliest. We then hopped to HS (where we prebooked our LL). After that, we headed to Epcot and lastly, took advantage of some short standby times at MK to end the night. We also did the fireworks dessert party to celebrate our 4 parks in 1 day!
In your plan, the wait times for the Epcot rides will be fairly challenging and as of right now, TT is the only one that will have any drops. If you don’t mind splitting up, you could do single rider at Rataouille and there’s a chance you would be in the same car.
This sounds like a fun way to celebrate a birthday!
Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely you’ll get lightning lanes for that many headliners in one day. You may get the ones in the first park you book for and may be able to grab another after you start, but landing them for headliners in every park isn’t realistic.
I would do some reading on the LL thread and see what might be a realistic plan around those. And then you can fit the rest of your plans around that.
No matter what, I bet you’ll have a blast and make great core memories!
How fun! I did 4P1D last July with my 11 and 9 year old DDs and we had a blast! Here my planning thread and relevant part of my trip report in case it helps.
We also started in AK and think that’s a great way to go - it’s nice and cool in the mornings and just feels beautiful and relaxing. And if you’re not planning on rope dropping FoP then you can just stroll in calmly a few minutes into early entry once the crowds have headed over there.
We also decided to make LLMPs for our second park (HS) rather than for AK, which worked well. I think your order of parks should depend a bit on your must dos - and your confidence in grabbing LLs at drops. Finishing with HS (and Fantasmic, which we love!) sounds lovely. We finished with MK because it was open until 11pm.
Agree with @Sunshiney_Disney_Momma that you might struggle to get LLMPs for Remy and TT later in the day, though they do both have single rider lanes which work well (and since it’s a 3+3 seating arrangement you sometimes ride in the same vehicle behind each other). You’ll also need to get lucky with drops or cancellations at HS. We had no problem picking up hard-to-get LLs later in the day because I used Genie. Highly recommended!
We have done four parks one day several times including for my 40th birthday. Fun way to spend the day!
We usually start at HS, then Epcot, AK, and end at MK. If you are staying on property and plan to take advantage of early entry, we find that you can knock out a few headliners without having to use LL.
MK is usually open later than the other parks so you get more bang for your buck by ending there.
If you are starting at AK, keep in mind that KS and Kali aren’t open during early entry. Often Kali doesn’t open until a little later in the morning once the weather warms up. For example, it didn’t open until 10:00 today.
Whatever you choose to do, four parks is one of my favorite ways to do Disney! Have fun!
What a fun way to celebrating your daughter’s birthday!! That will be such a special memory.
My kids and I did 4P1D last January and they had so much fun.
We also started in AK, then we hopped to HS where we had our LLs booked, then to EP and ended in MK with a few rides and the dessert party! It was a great day.
When planning our day I targeted 1 opening day attraction, 1 additional ride, 1 non-ride, one snack, and a picture in each park. In AK, for example, we rode KS, Dinosaur, played carnival games in dinoland, ate a tiger tail and snapped a pic in front of the Tree before we hopped to HS.
I do think your ride selection is a bit ambitious in EP. I do think you could secure a LL for Soarin’ and ride TT and Remy’s as single riders but don’t know how comfortable or excited your daughter would be about that suggestion.
I think for HS you could maybe get a LL for TSM and close down the park by hopping in line for SDD just before closing time. Depending on the time you could also maybe squeeze in a ride on MMRR in standby. I don’t think that line is too bad toward the end of the day.
before we hopped to HS.