Holiday Tour: All Resorts + All Parks in One Day

Walt Disney World
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So yeah, this is what happens when I don’t get any sleep. I tell my husband “Hey, now that you’ve got a job with no on-call, let’s take one day and do the most crazy thing you can think of”. All MK attractions in one day? Nah, that’s been done. Four parks in one day? Yawn. No, I want something so insane that even the pros start recommending therapists.

Not that long ago, I heard someone ask how to best see the resort decorations for the holidays, and mention was made about the Monorail Loop and the Crescent Lake resorts, but no love was given to any of the other resorts. I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be neat to see the decorations at all of the resorts – and wouldn’t it be cool to do it all in one day.

We’ve been planning things out, and we’re looking to do Magic Kingdom, Epcot, the Studios, and Animal Kingdom, plus the Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Bay Lake Tower, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge: Kidani, Animal Kingdom Lodge: Jambo, Swan, Dolphin, Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club, Pop, Art of Animation, all three All Stars, Downtown Disney, Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, Port Orleans (both French Quarter and Riverside), Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs. We decided to not add Shades of Green, Four Seasons, or any of the Bonnet Creek resorts to the list because they aren’t really what people immediately think of by “Disney resort”, and we did not add Fort Wilderness on there, because there’s so much decor from different people staying at the campsites that it really justifies its own trip.

I’m planning to live tweet about the whole experience, and if I survive it, may write up a recap of it all.

The big question I have – for people who might consider trying to do this in the future, would you be likely to do it only if you had your own car or is this something you’d want to see attempted with Disney transportation? It’s a challenge using Disney transportation exclusively because there is no resort–>resort transportation. We managed to get an awesome plan worked out for everything but Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs without major backtracking. Working the timing of it all, with Disney transportation, if we started at 6:30 AM, we would be able to finish before 9 PM. If we used our own car for some of the trip, we’d be able to shave off some time to really get to see the decorations instead of running by with cameras snapping.

We’re (theoretically) game to try either method…but which would be more useful to someone attempting to do this in the future: Disney transportation exclusively or going on the assumption that you’ll have your own car for some of the one-off resorts?

And a part B question – is this something that anyone but us would be interested to follow along, if nothing more than for the train wreck potential?

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Wow! That will be massively impressive if you can pull it off! I’d love to read about it!!!

You’ll likely get votes for both car vs. Disney transportation. I know we may not be in the majority, but we like to park our vehicle and not touch it till we leave - makes us feel more ‘in the bubble’. I’m not sure if there are enough hours in the day to tour by Disney transportation, but it would be all that more amazing if that was feasible!

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I would do as much by car as possible for the resorts and parks. I did a mini tour last year. I had 1/2 day. Did WL, AKL, BC, YC and Epcot. Granted, I also did a couple of ADRs in there too. So you’ll fare better than I did probably. But a car would be much quicker and easier to get around the resorts.

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Like @LoveBug53, I am typically a park the car and leave it person, but with no resort-to-resort busses, I don’t think I would even attempt it without driving. I could see parking at the TTC and doing the whole monorail loop and WL by mono/boat, and I could see parking at one of the hotels and doing the whole Crescent Lake/ Boardwalk area by foot (or even taking the mono to EP from the TTC and walking through EP to the IG and hit the BW area resorts that way - and perhaps continue on to DHS). You could probably take a bus to AKL from one of the other parks and then use a combination of bus/shuttle to see the two AKL locations. But to depand on busses for all of the outlying Value and Moderate resorts, and still getting it all done in one day, I think is a bit unrealistic. COULD it be done? If either you were VERY lucky with waits for busses and/or you don’t mind extending your “day” until close to midnight, then yes.

Another note. Having been there last week, I can tell you first hand that the DTD area is a MESS; traffic is horrible whether by car or by bus, so you will have to plan on adding a bit of extra time to any DTD bus transfers planned…

But yes - I’d love to follow along on your great adventure :smile:

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Either way, I will absolutely want to follow along!

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In short, here’s what the plan was using Disney transportation:

Park at TTC, do the monorail loop. Boat from Contemporary to WL. Bus from WL to AK. Bus from AK to AKL (and walk/shuttle between the two). Bus to Studios. Boat to Swolfin. Walk around Crescent Lake. Walk through Epcot to the front to catch a bus to Pop or AoA (and then walk to the other one). Bus back to the MK bus lot. Bus to whatever All-Star shows up first and walk to the other two. Bus to DTD. Boat to Saratoga. Walk to OKW. Walk back to DTD. Boat to Port Orleans. Bus to Studios. Bus to Caribbean Beach. Bus back to Studios and hit the Osborne Lights before they shut down for the night. Bus to Coronado Springs. And the bus to MK to finish up the night before going to get the car.

The big change using car would be that we’d grab the car after Art of Animation/Pop and then do all the car-related things in one swoop (so the All-Stars, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs), then ditch the car at the new parking structure at DTD to do the boat tour or we’d do the boat tour and then do the car-related ones – or maybe ditch the car somewhere else. The Studios is appealing because it is an easy walk from parking to the bus areas as needed.

This weekend is Reunion, so we’re tied up with that and possibly doing another Progressive Dinner around Crescent Lake, but I’m thinking Saturday the 13th might be a good day for this, weather permitting.

Oh, and to add an extra level of difficulty to this, did I mention that we’re bringing along a four-year-old with us? :wink:

If anyone is on Twitter and wants to follow along, I’ll be live Tweeting it on my @JulFromFL Twitter account, and will certainly let everyone know on here when I’m getting ready to do this bit of insanity. I also think costumes are going to be required. Or at least ugly sweater-inspired t-shirts.

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You are totally insane.
And I love it!

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OMG!!! Good luck, I believe it can be done, but I for one would mostly use my own car, not Disney transport. My last trip just going from All Stars to a park to Grand Flordian or Fort Wilderness was a lot. I can not even think of a full day of resort hopping, during the holidays without my own car. Now granted there is some use for Disney transport and walking, but my own car would have to figure in too.

I would like to follow along, and as I said good luck, may the force be with you, may the odds be ever in your favor, whatever wish works for you!!

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Wow I hope you can pull this offi! Would love to follow along! I think probably having a car would be beneficial to get to places like the All Stars and AK area. I would think parking at TTC for the monorail loop and MK would work. That can also get you to EP easily. You can walk to BW, YC, BC, and Swan/dolphin from EP. So you could theoretically park at BW and walk to those resorts and EP. I would drive to HS, pop/AOA, All Stars, and AK.

I hope this works for you!!! Good luck!!!

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