Planning a 4 park day for my birthday. Need some tips/suggestions!

[MaC410]

My wife and I will be taking our next trip for my 30th birthday. It's just the two of us and we aren't the sit around and relax or go out to a nice dinner type people. We are the do as much as we possibly can while our eyes are still open people. So on the day of my birthday we wanted to do something we've been wanting to do, visit the 4 parks in one day and do our favorite rides at each one. Our goal is to do the parks in an order that let's us travel around in the most "disney world" experience as possible in one day. We aren't really shooting for the most efficient or quick ways to get around, but the most fun!

Here's our plan so far starting at the Beach Club since that is where we will be staying:
1. Take a bus to Animal Kingdom in the morning (we like taking the bus!)
2. From Animal Kingdom we will most likely take a bus to Hollywood Studios
3. From Hollywood Studios we will take the boat to Epcot
4. From Epcot we will take the monorail to Magic Kingdom to end the day there.

Based on this order, does anyone have any tips/suggestions? The only part I'm really unsure about is the bus from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios. These park to park buses probably don't show up very frequently do they? Maybe an Uber/Minnie Van would be best for this step?

 

[dc1525]

How fun! Not sure when the last time you were there, or if you have been there, but there are designated buses now that visit each resort. When I was there they ran pretty regularly so you should be ok. The Minnie van is a great option too, they seemed to be everywhere on our last trip which was May. If the boat from Hollywood Studios to Epcot is too hard or you don't want to wait, you could walk from Hollywood Studios to Epcot. From Beach Club to Hollywood it's about a mile. Look for the park that has early magic hours that day as it might change your park order. I would suggest taking advantage of that and fast passes at your first park as well.

 

[MaC410]

How fun! Not sure when the last time you were there, or if you have been there, but there are designated buses now that visit each resort. When I was there they ran pretty regularly so you should be ok. The Minnie van is a great option too, they seemed to be everywhere on our last trip which was May. If the boat from Hollywood Studios to Epcot is too hard or you don't want to wait, you could walk from Hollywood Studios to Epcot. From Beach Club to Hollywood it's about a mile. Look for the park that has early magic hours that day as it might change your park order. I would suggest taking advantage of that and fast passes at your first park as well.

Thanks for the tips! I have thought about walking between HS and Epcot but I think taking the boat would be best for our legs/feet. Going to be a crazy day and I want to make sure our legs/feet are killing us too early in our trip! Usually by like the 7th day of our trips our feet start to hurt and this planned day is for day 3.

We do plan to do fast passes at our first park. We want to get those out of the way so we can make new ones at each of the next parks we go to. Not too sure how likely early magic hours will be. This may end up hindering our overall plan but we don't plan to start our day THAT early just so we aren't completely wiped by the night time (our favorite time in the parks). We also plan to do a breakfast at Cape May before we start our day since breakfast is my favorite meal haha.

 

[No.1000]

I would recommend checking your park schedules. I would also start the day at the park with EMH, but I would fast pass my second park and as soon as I finished my last one I would start looking at the next park. Also, I would see who is open latest (or if there are night EMH)and finish there, unless you are planning to end the night with HEA like I would want to. We have done this several times and always use Disney transportation. I have never had much of a problem, but we did wait quite a bit at AK to get to HS this summer. Luck of the draw, I think.

Have fun!

 

[MaC410]

I would recommend checking your park schedules. I would also start the day at the park with EMH, but I would fast pass my second park and as soon as I finished my last one I would start looking at the next park. Also, I would see who is open latest (or if there are night EMH)and finish there, unless you are planning to end the night with HEA like I would want to. We have done this several times and always use Disney transportation. I have never had much of a problem, but we did wait quite a bit at AK to get to HS this summer. Luck of the draw, I think.

Have fun!

When you've done this, typically how early do you get to your first park? And what time have you ended your day? We are night owls so we do mind staying at the park late. However, I don't want to think I can start my day too late and have it ruin our plans. I don't really have much to go off in terms of how long a day like this would actually take to complete.

 

[MrsPete]

What's your motivation in hitting four parks in one day? You're going to use a lot of time for travel between parks.

Definitely base your FIRST park choice on Early Morning Hours. The earlier you start, the more time you'll have.

I would do fast passes for your SECOND park ... and choose that park based upon the rides you believe will be most difficult to access. My reasoning: If you rope-drop the first park, you're going to be able to ride that park's few rides before the crowds arrive, but by the time you reach the second park, it'll be prime-time, and you'll need the fast passes.

I would not try to walk between two parks. Your boat from Hollywood to Epcot ... and monorail from Epcot to Magic Kingdom are sensible choices.

If I were doing this (well, I don't think I would), I agree that I'd want to end at Magic Kingdom because fireworks! Alternately, another park with fireworks.

Last thought: You're going to use a lot of time entering the gates in four parks. Set yourself up for success by going bag-less.

 

[ironz]

When you've done this, typically how early do you get to your first park? And what time have you ended your day? We are night owls so we do mind staying at the park late. However, I don't want to think I can start my day too late and have it ruin our plans. I don't really have much to go off in terms of how long a day like this would actually take to complete.

I agree with No. 1000; if you want to maximize the time available, start with EMH (if offered on that day) and do your highlight rides at opening for that park, and have your FPs made for the 2nd park. You won't really need them for the first park if you make use of RD and then you have them set for park #2. Then, when you use those (doesn't have to be 3), start looking for FP for park #3, etc.

If you minimize park hopping (the order in your original post looks pretty good to me), then you basically need to budget time for 3 hops (parks 1 to 2, parks 2 to 3, and parks 3 to 4)-- depending on transport, figure 40-60 minutes. (rough estimate-- can be more, but usually no less than 30 minutes)

If you're efficient and just want to ride a few things at each park, you can easily do this in a 12 hour operating day. We recently did 38 rides at 4 parks in a 16 hour operating day. It was exhausting, but very fun. (did not take time for shows or fireworks)

 

[No.1000]

When you've done this, typically how early do you get to your first park? And what time have you ended your day? We are night owls so we do mind staying at the park late. However, I don't want to think I can start my day too late and have it ruin our plans. I don't really have much to go off in terms of how long a day like this would actually take to complete.

We commando park open to park close. If you start later, plan fastpasses for your first park and snag what you can as you move to the next park. Stay flexible and just go with it.

 

[yulilin3]

Just to add to the suggestions of starting with the emh park and bus/boat/monorail. (Buses run approximately every 20 min)
If you are at epcot and around world showcase it might be best to leave through international gateway and bus from Boardwalk that way you don't walk all the way to the front of the park.
Minnie vans are super easy to get, on the app you can actually see where they are in proximity to your location, they are pricey though, I would leave the minnie van option for going back to your resort at the end of your day, a cool way to celebrate your 4 park success, If it's mk they pick you up right from the bus loop and that run until midnight

 

[MikeNamez]

You could probably get this done before lunch if you plan it right and hit EMH.

 

[NavyDad]

My wife and I will be taking our next trip for my 30th birthday. It's just the two of us and we aren't the sit around and relax or go out to a nice dinner type people. We are the do as much as we possibly can while our eyes are still open people. So on the day of my birthday we wanted to do something we've been wanting to do, visit the 4 parks in one day and do our favorite rides at each one. Our goal is to do the parks in an order that let's us travel around in the most "disney world" experience as possible in one day. We aren't really shooting for the most efficient or quick ways to get around, but the most fun!

Here's our plan so far starting at the Beach Club since that is where we will be staying:
1. Take a bus to Animal Kingdom in the morning (we like taking the bus!)
2. From Animal Kingdom we will most likely take a bus to Hollywood Studios
3. From Hollywood Studios we will take the boat to Epcot
4. From Epcot we will take the monorail to Magic Kingdom to end the day there.

Based on this order, does anyone have any tips/suggestions? The only part I'm really unsure about is the bus from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios. These park to park buses probably don't show up very frequently do they? Maybe an Uber/Minnie Van would be best for this step?

We did this exact thing last January for our anniversary. It went much smoother than we thought. We did the exact park order and transportation you list for many of the same reasons. We didn't use EMH and we saved our FP for MK at the end of the day. One thing for us that may be different is that we did it on our 5th park day after visiting each park at least once that trip so it wasn't the end of the world for us if we missed a certain ride. It was more about just experiencing each park.

We took the bus from POR to AK with no issues. AK is usually way less busy on morning without EMH which we found to be true on that visit. We had already done Pandora on our previous visit a couple of days before. If we were doing Pandora again we probably would arrived 30 minutes earlier. We went in at RD and walked right on to Safari and had a great morning ride with LOTS of animal activity. We strolled through the animal exhibits in Africa and Asia and walked on to Everest 2 times in a row. We walked out of the park about 90 minutes after park open and got a bus to HS. We had no issue getting a bus and there were tons of park to park busses ready to go. At HS we rode ToT with a posted 30 minute wait but was way shorter and then did single rider for RnR. IIRC we walked in to the Beauty and the Beast show a little after it started and then rode Star Tours with about a 20 minute wait. Left the park and headed to the boat right around lunch time. It had started to rain very lightly but we enjoyed the nice slow boat ride over to IG at Epcot. We started in France. Just grabbed some pastries and kept walking. Art Fest was going on at the time so lots of tents and carts to stop and browse. We really enjoy taking our time in World Showcase when we don't have the kids with us so we did just that. I think we went through every pavilion and had different snacks and drinks throughout the lunch hour and early afternoon. Watched most of the country shows and rode the Mexico ride. We could have easily waited for Frozen if we didn't spend so much time with the shows and all the Art Fest stands. We went to the land and rode the green house ride. Some time in the afternoon we stepped of the land ride and the wait time posted for Soarin was really low, maybe 20-30 minutes so we decided to hop on. Rode Spaceship Earth and then headed to the monorail and arrived at MK right around dinner time. We did Buzz, Monsters Inc and CoP. Might have done People Mover. It was starting to get dark and fireworks were early so we grabbed something to eat and staked out a spot in the hub for the new fireworks show. After fireworks the park was still open for a couple of hours IIRC. We headed for Adventure Land and rode Pirates. I think we stopped and got Dole Whips and then rode BTMRR. We may have also ridden Splash but not sure. We rode Haunted Mansion and hopped into line for Mine Train right before park close. We may have also ridden Small World and a couple of other things in Fantasy Land on the way. MK didn't have evening EMH so the park was not very crowded and honestly we walked on pretty much everything after the fireworks. I'm not even sure if we ended up using our Fast passes or if we did we probably didn't need to use them.

I think your plan is very doable assuming you don't have "must-do" things that could hold you up. We were very flexible and just enjoyed the experience. I'm a military guy and usually a mega planner at WDW but for this day we had a planned order but decided not to plan anything else and it worked out perfectly. I think with four parks and all the transportation if you have too many planned things there are so many variables that you could set yourself up for frustration. My advice would be to avoid EMH at your first and last parks (especially MK evening EMH) because the time you are gaining by opening early or staying late will probably be a wash due to the higher crowds. Other opinions may vary.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[PSUGuy]

If this is on your Bucket List, have at it. We did it once and found it to be a huge waste of ride time. This was before FP+ so maybe that would make a difference but with only 4 park days to work with I'd be inclined to spend as little time on the roads or waterways and max out time in the parks. When we did it, it was on our last day of 8 so we'd had our fill already. Anyway, premature Happy Birthday.

Bill From PA

 

[elgerber]

We did this in September, without planning it. We had originally planned Friday as a 3rd or 4th MK day, and had FP there. After riding FOP, we decided we wanted to try it again. So, we went to AK an hour before opening and did FOP at Rope Drop, then rode EE. Then we took the bus to MK to use our FP and grabbed a couple others. We already had plans for Fantasmic that night, so we decided to take the monorail to Epcot from MK and grab a ride there, so that we could say we did all 4 parks in one day. We went back to the room at BWV and took a nap after that, before walking over to HS for the rest of the night.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We did all 4 parks in 1 day in June. Our goal was to do at least 3 things in each park. We started at MK, then to HS. Walked from HS towards Epcot, stopping at BW on the way to rent a 4-person surrey bike, which we rode two laps around and then returned it and walked on to Epcot. We made great time until this point. Just as we were entering Epcot, my son realized he had lost his wallet somewhere between HS and Epcot. DH and DS went to look for it while other DS and I waited, looked around, etc. When they returned, it started storming and TT went down, leaving me to switch FPs as we went. We stopped at BC on the way back to HS to pick up DS' wallet, which had been turned in there. Then we went to AK. I wasn't able to get FP for FoP that day, so we did it as the last thing of the day.

It was a great day, even with the mishaps. We did no FP at MK or HS, pre-scheduled Test Track and maybe something else at Epcot and did the rest as we went. We left our condo at Windsor Palms around 7:15 a.m. and returned around 11:00 or so. AK was only open until 10 but one of the chambers of FoP was down when we got in line, so we waited in that line for a little over 2 hours--not something I would normally do, but it was DS17's one request for the day.

 

[gatorlisa]

We have done this twice, with that exact park order. We thoroughly enjoyed both of our 4 parks days and I expect we will do it again. I like that park order because I feel like AK is off by itself, so get it out of the way first, then we get to do boat from HS to Epcot (which we enjoy) and monorail from Epcot to MK, which also eliminates a trip through security (Epcot monorail entrance is within security, so no need to go through security upon arrival at MK). We normally rope drop two or three things at AK, pre selected FPs at HS (something in Toy Story land, ToT, and usually one that expires before we even arrive at the park), then 4+ FP one at a time in the other two parks. Pics with park icon at each park. Taking a bus from AK to HS is no big deal. The wait for a bus shouldn't be any more than about 20 minutes, and that's if you just miss one. Whatever you do, you'll have a great time.

 

[gap2368]

My wife and I will be taking our next trip for my 30th birthday. It's just the two of us and we aren't the sit around and relax or go out to a nice dinner type people. We are the do as much as we possibly can while our eyes are still open people. So on the day of my birthday we wanted to do something we've been wanting to do, visit the 4 parks in one day and do our favorite rides at each one. Our goal is to do the parks in an order that let's us travel around in the most "disney world" experience as possible in one day. We aren't really shooting for the most efficient or quick ways to get around, but the most fun!

Here's our plan so far starting at the Beach Club since that is where we will be staying:
1. Take a bus to Animal Kingdom in the morning (we like taking the bus!)
2. From Animal Kingdom we will most likely take a bus to Hollywood Studios
3. From Hollywood Studios we will take the boat to Epcot
4. From Epcot we will take the monorail to Magic Kingdom to end the day there.

Based on this order, does anyone have any tips/suggestions? The only part I'm really unsure about is the bus from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios. These park to park buses probably don't show up very frequently do they? Maybe an Uber/Minnie Van would be best for this step?

I do this all the time ( about 10 in the last 3 years) and I love it

I do the same thing as you are with AK first, HS, EPCOT and MK ( I do this wednesday with MK has evening EMH)

a few things do your FP at the second park the first one you can RD and get on fOP and maybe river one, I had done EE after too.

at HS there really are not many rides and finding same day FP can be hard ( unless you want to seea show) I do my FP starting at 10:30-11 then I go to EPCOT ( around 3 to 4) and try for any FP I can find getting one for spash ship earth is not that hard some times you can find soring or TT I will leave EPCOT around 6-7 and spend the evening at MK witch is not hard to find some FP for rides.

 

[Oneanne]

You didn't mention when your trip is, so just a call-out that the Friendship Boats aren't making the entire trip between DHS and EPCOT during December, just DHS to the resorts. This is due to gondola construction and there's a thread somewhere with the actual dates... you could still boat from DHS to BW of YC and walk to EPCOT from there.

I did this same routing a couple years ago, before you could do additional FP+, so I just winged it and did what was available when I got to each park. My criteria was to use each type of transportation (bus, boat, monorail), do three rides/attractions in each park, eat something in each park and get my picture taken with each park icon. It was a blast and as others have mentioned, much easier than I had thought it would be.

Hope you have a great time doing it, and that it makes a fabulous birthday celebration!

 

[elgerber]

We did this in September, without planning it. We had originally planned Friday as a 3rd or 4th MK day, and had FP there. After riding FOP, we decided we wanted to try it again. So, we went to AK an hour before opening and did FOP at Rope Drop, then rode EE. Then we took the bus to MK to use our FP and grabbed a couple others. We already had plans for Fantasmic that night, so we decided to take the monorail to Epcot from MK and grab a ride there, so that we could say we did all 4 parks in one day. We went back to the room at BWV and took a nap after that, before walking over to HS for the rest of the night.

I lied, I just remembered, we took an Uber to our second park.