4 parks in one day...any tips from people who have done this?

[FortForever]

We have done this quite a few times, by accident. We never set out to do anything in particular. It's more common for us to visit 2 or 3 parks in a day, but have found ourselves at all 4 more than once. We use Disney transportation exclusively. Once we park, our van doesn't move until we check out. I hate driving.

Since we have ridden everything, and nothing is important to get done, we always just wing it. I never make 60 day FP's (with the exception of FoP) and just grab what is available when we are there. Sometimes we will go to a certain park with a specific ride in mind, but not usually. We are wanderers. I have made 60 day out fps, in the past, but we have yet to ever use them. Just not schedule people like that.

Multi-park days always feel more fulfilling, even if we ride less rides. It's just more fun than spending all day in one park, in my opinion. Also, we are NOT morning people and have never been to rope drop. We usually get to our first park around 11:00ish. We do always go to evening EMH, and those are likely the days we have been to all four parks in a day. But you definitely don't have to start early and stay late, one or the other will do.

Edit: Almost forgot to add my tip! Don't cancel FPs. If you are not going to use them, just let them expire. I know it seems rude, it did to me too. However, more than once, it has glitched us out from making additional FPs that day when we canceled.

 

[Cheerupson]

I'm planning a four park day in my October trip for my last day. I want to close out with AK to get the see it in at night. Typically the day I chose for AK changed its hours to an early 5.30pm finish!?!
Not too sure of the order but I would like to try to do all modes of transport to get around the parks (bus/monorail/boat) so that should narrow it down.
I also want to mix it up a bit by doing a ride, a show, a character meet and eat a snack in each park. Limiting myself to just one of each should hopefully speed things up.
HS would be Star Tours and Frozen Sing Along with Star Wars character meet.
MK can't decide with the ride, or show - too many options!!! Tinkerbell character meet.
Epcot for me would be Spaceship Earth and a choice of the World Showcase performances. Beymax character meet.
AK for me would be Dinosaur and Finding Nemo. I don't really know about the character meets there.
As for snacks.... they're all amazing, I would try to make them fairly iconic snacks (Dole Whip/Giant Cinnamon Bun etc)
I would probably schedule fast pass for the 2nd park for the ride and character meet as shows have high capacities anyway. I'll schedule the first one for before I even get to the park and use the other two. That way I can start scheduling fast passes for the 3rd park as soon as possible.
The only drawback would be getting the rides I really want. The more popular the harder to obtain those fast passes I assume. Time will tell. I still manage to find the joy in even the more hated of attractions.
I can't believe the crowd calendars for October though!?! I'm arriving on the Saturday of Columbus day weekend (blargh), I expected that to be fairly tough but with low crowds from Tuesday onwards. MK is a 10 on the non Halloween party days. Wow! I'm definitely going back to the resort for a midday nap on that day. Only chance to see Happily Ever After though so its a must.
Sorry for going off tangent.

 

[Tulles]

Pace yourself. We did 3 parks our first day back in 2015 (were going to do 4 but exhaustion set in). Problem was we did too much in each park. 2-3 rides sounds reasonable. We ended up doing 6 or 7 the first park and about 5 the second and then 4 or 5 the third and we just died. Kind of killed us for the next few days too. Not the best vacation we've ever had.

 

[DisLiss]

Sounds fun! We enjoy the transportation between parks, so I see that as part of the fun and not a waste in the least. Have a great time.

(We like to try to time a ferry ride to coincide with sunset, but I don't know if that's possible the time of year you're going or with your other plans.)

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

I have done it several times, on arrival day actually so do it all in late afternoon and evening, in summer with longer hours. DME to hotel, check-in. Bus to AK, and ride whatever I am in the mood for. Bus to Epcot. Eat at Tangierine Cafe while waiting for Illuminations. Watch Illuminations. Walk out International Gate and walk to DHS. See Fantasmic!. Bus to MK, and see late showing of nighttime parade before they discontinued it. Did Tiki Room or Pirates or whatever I could get to in time after they discontinued nighttime parade. The first time I wasn't trying to do all 4, it just worked out with late EMH at MK. I was closing down each park as I left, so went to another open park. After that, I had to plan to arrive on a late MK EMH night. I enjoyed getting all nighttime shows done on arrival day, so not having to worry about planning around them after. I like to go with the flow, do what I feel like. I do not like planning and booking fastpasses, and scheduling my vacation.

 

[mhowens]

This is my plans for our July trip. DH will be at a convention part of the day on Friday so my plan is to hit all 4 parks with him meeting me at Epcot late afternoon/early evening. I am starting at DHS, then to AK where I have made my FP+, MK next then on to EP to meet DH. I am really excited for this as it is something I have wanted to do for a while. I hope you enjoy your trip!

 

[Remy is Up]

Ive done it on many occasions. Not because its the best way to do the parks, but, because it is fun to try now and then. Limit the number of attractions to 2 or 3 and pace yourself. It can be a lot of fun. I did a weekend getting in friday late afternoon and between Friday night and Sunday at about noon had managed to do every major ride in all 4 parks plus some smaller stuff, had 2 great dinners, a great lunch the day we left, and saw both HEA and Illuminations. It can be done and is a blast of a ride oriented trip. But I dont do that more than once every couple of years because I like things a bit slower and have time for off the beaten path things. I applaud you for taking the one day challenge and trying it once. Have a great time.

 

[AngiTN]

We did all 4 parks in 1 day last week. It wasn't something we went in to the trip with a plan to do. It was just something we ended up with a thought to do spur of the moment.
We did it because it was a rainy day and we couldn't really get in any pool time, so what better to do than go to all the parks.
We didn't have any particular plan other than all 4 parks.
We started at AK, came back to BWI and hung out for a while, walked to Epcot, walked back to BWI. Walked to HS and then to MK
Funniest thing, when we got back to our room sometime the next day, we found this

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We did all 4 parks in 1 day last week. It wasn't something we went in to the trip with a plan to do. It was just something we ended up with a thought to do spur of the moment.
We did it because it was a rainy day and we couldn't really get in any pool time, so what better to do than go to all the parks.
We didn't have any particular plan other than all 4 parks.
We started at AK, came back to BWI and hung out for a while, walked to Epcot, walked back to BWI. Walked to HS and then to MK
Funniest thing, when we got back to our room sometime the next day, we found this

That is so cool! I wonder when they started this? Of course, with magicbands, they can track that, but I have never heard of that before. Now that the word is out, DISers will all be trying to get one.

 

[AngiTN]

That is so cool! I wonder when they started this? Of course, with magicbands, they can track that, but I have never heard of that before. Now that the word is out, DISers will all be trying to get one.

I have no idea. Not even sure if it something just BWI does, BWI CL does, or WDW wide.

We've done 4 parks in 1 day before, trying to recall the last time. I believe it was last summer, but not certain. I know it was when the Express Transportation was around, since that made it so much easier. If it's when I think it was, we were staying at CBR.

I did think about the fact that I wasn't sure if it was cool or creepy to realize that meant they'd tracked what we did. I mean, I knew they tracked us but this meant someone really went back and looked. I'm sure there was just some sort of alert that went out when we entered the 4th park but still, it meant something was looking.

 

[AndreaDM]

My daughter and I did that in Nov. 2016 during Food & Wine, hitting Epcot twice and a break to freshen up back at our room. This was all AFTER I had completed the 10K that morning, I think I logged over 20 miles that day, I was beat!

ETA: We did at least 2 rides/attractions in each park except AK, but we rode EE 4 times a row in the dark, so cool! I also had at least one adult beverage in each park too

 

[bizeemom4]

It’s really simple, actually. I don’t really care what I accomplish because I know I’ve done it already and will do it again.

Make sure to use photopass to document your day!

 

[cedricandsophie]

My husband likes doing this because during a two week stay we go to parks one day. We always pick a day where AK opens early for resort guests. And try the time it so Epcot or MK is open late.

Get there as early as possible. And don’t waste fast passes on AK. Do pandora then go to safari. If time after that do Everest.

Get fast passes at Hollywood for late morning for toy story and tower of terror. See how long wait is for RR coaster. Have quick lunch.

Once you’ve used up FPs for Hollywood get new ones for either Epcot or MK depending which is not open late. Head to that park. If it’s epcot Soarin is a must. Otherwise it’s one of the train rides at MK and Peter Pan.

If we end up at MK late we do the dwarf train ride as late as possible. If it’s epcot that is open late we do frozen just before closing

I will say this is my least fav day ever but my husband loves it. But then we never have to go again that stay so it’s a win win.

 

[WVMomof3]

I would like to try this. I am thinking starting the day at AK for 8 am EMH then we have a 10:20 Crystal Palace Reservation. What time would we need to be out of AK to make it to MK on time? How often do park to park busses run? Would it be easier to jump on a Contemporary bus? From MK we would monorail to Epcot then walk or boat to DHS.

 

[Helene_C]

We did a spur-of-the-moment four park day this April! Our FOP FP+ on Wednesday had been canceled and replaced by a use-anytime FOP FP+ for Thursday, so we decided to try for four parks, two major rides and one snack at each. Here's how it played out:
- Rope drop HS/Toy Story Madness (this was during the period with no FP+ for TSM - we were allll the way at the head of the line), then Jedi signup, then Tower of Terror, an ice cream, then Star Tours, then Jedi Training. Out by 11am or so.
- Animal Kingdom for FOP using our anytime FP, Expedition Everest twice with single rider, lunch I forget where.
- Epcot with a FP for Test Track and Mission Space, a walk around the World Showcase, and a snack from a Flower & Garden booth.
- Magic Kingdom for BTM (can't remember if we grabbed a FP, probably), then a fireworks dessert party, then BTM again after fireworks.

We traveled by Disney bus for all of it, except EP->MK which was by monorail.

Edit: And we also posed for a picture with each park icon.