Being able to conquer all four parks in one day has been on my Disney bucket list and I'm so happy I was able to do it while I was here on my program. Since I had so much fun park hopping with my roommate, I thought it'd be fun to put together a post for you all sharing how we accomplish this challenge and some tips to planning your trip!
Happy Tuesday friends!
Long time no talk! If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that my roommate, Christina and I completed the 4 parks in one day challenge last week. Even though it was pretty exhausting hopping from park to park, it was still fun spending the day with my roommate and some friends we picked up along the way.
Park hopping is a great option if you're only visiting the parks for a day or two and with the right planning, you really can fit a whole lot in (just be prepared to be completely worn out by the end of the day!). Even though I do recommend that each park has its own day to visit, this is a fun a little idea for annual pass holders, fellow DCP participants or pretty much anyone who wants to see all of the parks in one day.
We all know that I LOVE to plan so no surprise that I had an itinerary all written out for us on how we're going to go about our day. We knew we wanted to meet up with a few of our friends throughout the day so we kinda altered our plans according to when they were going to get off. There are some things to take in consideration when you plan out your day:
Rules / What do you want to accomplish - First things first, what do you exactly want to accomplish during your time in the parks? Do you want to ride all of the big rides? See shows? Meet characters? Eat all of the snacks? All of the above? Once you figure out what you want to do / your "rules" to completing this challenge, you can start planning out your day accordingly to accommodate everything you want to do.
For Christina and I's challenge our rules for this challenge were:
- Visit all four parks in one day
- Take a picture at each landmark
- Ride a "mountain" at each park
- Take a photo with one character at each park
Park hours - Now that you've decided what you want to do throughout the day, time to get planning! Knowing the park hours is important to make sure you get the most out of your day at each park. Typically the Magic Kingdom is the park that opens the latest and keeps in mind that parks are open later on the weekends. This will also help you plan the order you want to visit the parks. We knew that the Magic Kingdom would be opened the latest so we planned to visit it last and typically Disney's Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios opens an hour later than Epcot and Magic. I've included our itinerary below to give you a rough idea of how our day went:
Our Itinerary
9:00 am - Head out to Epcot
9:30 am - Arrived at Epcot
- Visited Baymax
- Ride Test Track
11:30 am - Head to Animal Kingdom
12:00 pm - Arrived at Animal Kingdom
- Ride Mount Everest
- Photo with Russel
- Lunch at Restaurantasurs
3:30 pm - Head to Hollywood Studios
4:00 pm - Arrive at Hollywood Studios
- Photo with Chewbacca
- Ride Rockin' Roller Coaster
6:45 pm - Head to the Magic Kingdom
7:10 pm - Arrive at the Magic Kingdom
- Photoshoot in front of the castle
- Dinner at Casey's Corner
- Meet Tinker Bell
8:55 pm - Watch Happily Ever After
- Ride Astrobelt (we had time to kill before our Fast Passes)
- Ride Space Mountain
Transportation - up next, how are you going to get around to each park? Monorail? Driving? Bus? Uber? Luckily you have multiple transportation options when it comes to park hopping at Disney. Christina and I are fortunate enough to not have to pay for parking since we do work for Disney so we did opt to drive to each park, but keep in mind that you have to pay for parking each time. A more cost-effective option would be parking at one park and taking the bus to each location. Also, keep in mind that there is a monorail that will take you from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom.
FastPass+ - now that you know what time the park opens and closes, how you're getting there time to utilize those FastPasses! If you're not familiar with FastPasses basically they're a way for you to get on your favorite rides in a shorter amount of time. I won't go too much into it, but if you want to know more about FastPasses check out the link here!
You can plan up to 3 FastPasses per day. I recommend to save them for attractions that are going to have the longest wait time (ex: Space Mountain, Flight of Passage, Seven Dwarfs, etc.) and for times that you know are going to have the longest wait time (ex: right after the fireworks).
Additional Tips
External Chargers - Bring one, bring them all! Let's face it, between taking photos of your adventure to scrolling through Instagram while you wait in line your phone is going to die pretty quickly. Personally, I bring 3 external chargers (Excessive? Maybe.) and one of them being a FuelRod. FuelRods are external chargers you can purchase at Disney for a one time $30 fee and you can exchange them at any of the FuelRod locations for a fueling charged rod! These are super convenient and have saved my phone's butt multiple times. To read more about how these work you can check out the link here.
Hydrate - It's no surprise that Florida is hot and sunny... I mean it is called the sunshine state. I've actually been terrible at keeping up staying hydrated during my time here, but I've been trying to get better at it! You're actually allowed to bring your own water bottles into the parks and I definitely recommend that you do! You can also get free cups of water at any quick service location and fill your water bottle up at the water fountains in the parks. Christina and I also packed her car up with water bottles so we can change out our empty ones when we went from park to park.
Comfort > Style - Odd that I'm saying this, huh? But let's be honest you're going to be on your feet for 12+ hours running around the parks and the last thing you want to be is uncomfortable. I opted for some denim shorts, a tee and my favorite converse for park hopping. Workout attire is great too!
And those are my tips on how to conquer all four Disney parks in one day! Even though we were completely worn out by the end of the day, it was so much fun crossing this off my Disney bucket list. Let me know if you all have attempted this challenge and what your rules were down below!
Also thank you so much for being patient with me and my inconsistent posting! I hope to eventually get back on track with everything soon, but in the meantime be sure to follow me on Instagram for more updated posts on my Disney adventure! I hope you all have a wonderful day and as always, thank you for reading!
xoxo,
Amy
Amy
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