Last-minute, 4 parks in one day plan

[Avery's mom]

Due to a last-minute flight schedule change, we are going to attempt a one-day visit to WDW on Friday, February 19th as part of an 8 night Florida trip to celebrate my daughter's 18th birthday.

We splurged on park hoppers for the day, as we just could NOT choose one park. So, seeing that MK is closing at 10 pm that day, we pushed "purchase" on our very expensive tickets and now I am trying to plan our day in this post-covid, off-site stay world. Our last stay was at the Poly in 2019 and we have not stayed off-site since my daughter was 3. So, needless to say, I was surprised to read that parking lots don't open as early as I would like to be first in line at the gates.
Our park pass is for HS for the 9 am opening. We have done RoR at Disneyland, so it is not a huge deal not to get to ride it here at WDW. Naturally, we will try at 7 am, but won't be crushed if it doesn't happen. This park is for my daughter, so her priorities are - ToT, RnRC & M&MRR. We will do as much as possible at HS, then we want to hop to AK at 2 pm - solely for EE & FoP. Then, we will head to EC (open until 8 pm) for SE and a few food booths at the Festival of the Arts, finally ending our night at MK (open until 10 pm) for anything we can do at that point. We have never attempted a 4 parks-in-one-day trip before, so it is a fun challenge for us

My questions are related to transportation - I am so used to all the Disney transportation and would have thought to use the buses to get around. However, I have heard that it would serve us better to drive from park to park - except for MK, where we could take a bus from EC to avoid the TTC. IF we drive though, I am afraid that we will behind many, many others at HS, as the parking lots don't open until one hour before. With people being let in about an hour before, I don't want this to slow us down. I did make a 7 am breakfast reservation at Ale & Compass so that we could walk from YC to HS to beat the crowds. However, if we do this, we will have to A) leave the car at YC until the end of the day, which I know is not ideal or B) walk back to YC after HS to drive to AK which will eat up time. I know we can walk from the Swan also if we pay the daily charge, but that still leaves the car there making it unusable

If this was your day, and you wanted to squeeze the absolute most from it, how would you:
1) Get to HS the absolute earliest we can in the morning
2) Then proceed with the rest of the day's transportation....

We are willing to pay for preferred parking if it's worth it - which would allow us to park at each park for one fee, but this only makes sense if it is close to the front making hopping faster.

PS - I do know that we can only hop at 2 pm and we are not guaranteed to get into any park if it reaches capacity

Thanks!

 

[JFox]

Jan 20 we did all 4 parks in 1 day. We do it at least once every trip. Took us 5 hrs 5 minutes from getting onto the elevator at the resort to passing through the entrance at the last park. This was the first day of our trip we had park to park bus transportation. Prior to this date we had to travel from a resort. Low crowds helped.

AK - arrived at 11 and rode FoP and EE. Left at 2pm. Started here first because it had the earliest closing time.
MGM - rode Smugglers Run and Toy Story Mania. Skyliner to EPCOT
EPCOT - Fish and Chips lunch break and rode Saceship Earth. Bus to MK
MK - rode Thunder Mountain

 

[GBRforWDW]

Due to a last-minute flight schedule change, we are going to attempt a one-day visit to WDW on Friday, February 19th as part of an 8 night Florida trip to celebrate my daughter's 18th birthday.

We splurged on park hoppers for the day, as we just could NOT choose one park. So, seeing that MK is closing at 10 pm that day, we pushed "purchase" on our very expensive tickets and now I am trying to plan our day in this post-covid, off-site stay world. Our last stay was at the Poly in 2019 and we have not stayed off-site since my daughter was 3. So, needless to say, I was surprised to read that parking lots don't open as early as I would like to be first in line at the gates.
Our park pass is for HS for the 9 am opening. We have done RoR at Disneyland, so it is not a huge deal not to get to ride it here at WDW. Naturally, we will try at 7 am, but won't be crushed if it doesn't happen. This park is for my daughter, so her priorities are - ToT, RnRC & M&MRR. We will do as much as possible at HS, then we want to hop to AK at 2 pm - solely for EE & FoP. Then, we will head to EC (open until 8 pm) for SE and a few food booths at the Festival of the Arts, finally ending our night at MK (open until 10 pm) for anything we can do at that point. We have never attempted a 4 parks-in-one-day trip before, so it is a fun challenge for us

My questions are related to transportation - I am so used to all the Disney transportation and would have thought to use the buses to get around. However, I have heard that it would serve us better to drive from park to park - except for MK, where we could take a bus from EC to avoid the TTC. IF we drive though, I am afraid that we will behind many, many others at HS, as the parking lots don't open until one hour before. With people being let in about an hour before, I don't want this to slow us down. I did make a 7 am breakfast reservation at Ale & Compass so that we could walk from YC to HS to beat the crowds. However, if we do this, we will have to A) leave the car at YC until the end of the day, which I know is not ideal or B) walk back to YC after HS to drive to AK which will eat up time. I know we can walk from the Swan also if we pay the daily charge, but that still leaves the car there making it unusable

If this was your day, and you wanted to squeeze the absolute most from it, how would you:
1) Get to HS the absolute earliest we can in the morning
2) Then proceed with the rest of the day's transportation....

We are willing to pay for preferred parking if it's worth it - which would allow us to park at each park for one fee, but this only makes sense if it is close to the front making hopping faster.

PS - I do know that we can only hop at 2 pm and we are not guaranteed to get into any park if it reaches capacity

Thanks!

I would definitely drive your own car. Arrive at Hollywood Studios entrance by 750 and you’ll be in good shape, they don’t let cars stack up all morning, just about 15-20 minutes before they start opening. Premium parking might be well worth it for the challenge though.

after going in, start at mmrr, it’ll be the shortest wait of the day for that ride. I’d plan to leave HS by 130 to get to AK, parked and to the tapstiles at 2pm. From there, just go at your pace. Should be a fun adventure. Have fun!

 

[Gehrig1B]

I would drop everyone at Swan/Dolphin as they can walk over and be the first into DHS. We did this and were the very first in line at Slinky Dog. Odd man out drives over and misses the first ride of the morning. Otherwise use Uber all day and forget the car.

 

[Avery's mom]

Duplicate

 

[Avery's mom]

I would drop everyone at Swan/Dolphin as they can walk over and be the first into DHS. We did this and were the very first in line at Slinky Dog. Odd man out drives over and misses the first ride of the morning. Otherwise use Uber all day and forget the car.

THIS is an idea I had not thought of - and I love it!

 

[Avery's mom]

I would definitely drive your own car. Arrive at Hollywood Studios entrance by 750 and you’ll be in good shape, they don’t let cars stack up all morning, just about 15-20 minutes before they start opening. Premium parking might be well worth it for the challenge though.

after going in, start at mmrr, it’ll be the shortest wait of the day for that ride. I’d plan to leave HS by 130 to get to AK, parked and to the tapstiles at 2pm. From there, just go at your pace. Should be a fun adventure. Have fun!

Good to hear that premium parking may be worth it - I think we will drop the family off to walk & I will drive the car & catch up with them. I will take your advice about the timeline - we'll start with MMRR & head to AK by 1:30. Thank you!

 

[gharter]

Good luck. with much shorter hours for the parks, 4 parks in 1 day stills doable, but much more challenging.

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

Seems silly to not do DHS and Epcot consecutive due to their close proximity, but i guess park hours mean more at this time so i think your plan makes sense.

 

[Avery's mom]

Seems silly to not do DHS and Epcot consecutive due to their close proximity, but i guess park hours mean more at this time so i think your plan makes sense.

I totally agree about this! Naturally, going to Epcot next seems the most logical choice, but with AK closing at 5 and Epcot at 8, I think this is the only way it makes sense for us.

 

[gatorlisa]

Driving will be quicker than Disney transportation for hopping. We were there last weekend and drove ourselves from an offsite hotel to HS as our first park 3 mornings of our trip arriving at about 8:15. Parked in the first or second row of regular parking. We were able to ride MMRR two of the 3 mornings, more than once and with waits under 20 minutes and then go ride SDD with less than 30 minute waits. The third morning we could have repeated that, but opted to go enjoy Tower of Terror with shorter waits instead. Tower wait times do get a little long and are fairly accurate with what is posted in our experience. Everything else at HS that we rode seemed to be about 30% lower than posted wait time (we didn't ride RnR, Star Tours, or Smugglers Run). If you drive yourself to HS and get there about an hour before opening you really won't need premium parking. At that time, you are usually on the first couple of rows of parking. Premium parking might help you out at the other parks though, if you feel it has value. If you drive to MK, I would recommend taking either the bus if you are comfortable with that or the ferry. The monorail capacity is pretty limited right now so it will take longer, but they run buses and say that's the quickest way over. We don't do buses right now, so we stuck with the ferry since it's open air and easier to distance.

 

[Avery's mom]

Good luck. with much shorter hours for the parks, 4 parks in 1 day stills doable, but much more challenging.

Part of the reason we were not doing Disney was the shorter park hours, but then we found ourselves with an extra day & MK stays open until 10pm, which was unusual. So, with at least 2 hours in each park, I think we can pull this off. There's no way I think I would attempt all 4 parks with shorter hours.

 

[Donna M]

We did 4 parks in one day at Christmas time years ago. We went in with the same mindset as you; we´ll do what we can, not expecting to ride much. It was a great trip. I hope you enjoy yours too.

 

[Avery's mom]

We did 4 parks in one day at Christmas time years ago. We went in with the same mindset as you; we´ll do what we can, not expecting to ride much. It was a great trip. I hope you enjoy yours too.

Wow - you're brave to attempt 4 parks in one day during the holiday season. But, in a pre-covid environment, I think that would have gone much smoother? Having to wait until 2 pm makes it more challenging right now. But, if you had a good time during such a busy time, I'm sure we can too! Thanks

 

[DenLo]

You can only park hop after 2:00 PM after you enter your Theme park reservation park. So between 2:00 PM and 8:00 you have 3 other parks you can do. That will be tight.

 

[Avery's mom]

You can only park hop after 2:00 PM after you enter your Theme park reservation park. So between 2:00 PM and 8:00 you have 3 other parks you can do. That will be tight.

Actually, MK is open until 10pm on our day, which is what inspired us to try!

 

[Donna M]

Wow - you're brave to attempt 4 parks in one day during the holiday season. But, in a pre-covid environment, I think that would have gone much smoother? Having to wait until 2 pm makes it more challenging right now. But, if you had a good time during such a busy time, I'm sure we can too! Thanks

We had teenagers that had a lot of energy, and we thought of it as a challenge; who does 4 parks in one day, crazy! I remember saying this would have been a horrible experience if this was your first trip to HS since it was wall to wall people. We didn´t stay long at epcot either due to the crowds. But still, it was fun people watching and enjoying the vibe.
You can make it fun by having realistic expectations. Enjoy

 

[Heather07438]

repeat sorry

 

[Avery's mom]

Driving will be quicker than Disney transportation for hopping. We were there last weekend and drove ourselves from an offsite hotel to HS as our first park 3 mornings of our trip arriving at about 8:15. Parked in the first or second row of regular parking. We were able to ride MMRR two of the 3 mornings, more than once and with waits under 20 minutes and then go ride SDD with less than 30 minute waits. The third morning we could have repeated that, but opted to go enjoy Tower of Terror with shorter waits instead. Tower wait times do get a little long and are fairly accurate with what is posted in our experience. Everything else at HS that we rode seemed to be about 30% lower than posted wait time (we didn't ride RnR, Star Tours, or Smugglers Run). If you drive yourself to HS and get there about an hour before opening you really won't need premium parking. At that time, you are usually on the first couple of rows of parking. Premium parking might help you out at the other parks though, if you feel it has value. If you drive to MK, I would recommend taking either the bus if you are comfortable with that or the ferry. The monorail capacity is pretty limited right now so it will take longer, but they run buses and say that's the quickest way over. We don't do buses right now, so we stuck with the ferry since it's open air and easier to distance.

This is so helpful - thank you! You mentioned getting to HS parking at 8:15am. Was that for a 10am opening?

 

[gatorlisa]

This is so helpful - thank you! You mentioned getting to HS parking at 8:15am. Was that for a 10am opening?

No, it was for a 9 AM. They don't start letting people through the the toll booths and into parking until somewhere around 8 to 8:15 for a 9:00 opening, so there's no point getting there over an hour ahead of time if driving yourself. Our October trip they made people turn around and didn't allow lines to form until about 8 for a 9 opening. So this trip, we timed our arrival to show up around 8:10-8:15 and worked just fine. Were we the first people in the park? No. But we still got to ride Mickey & Minnie with a < 20 minute wait and the Slinky again with about a 20 minute wait, so worked out fine for us.