Do This, Not That // Visiting All 4 Disney Parks in 1 Day

Updated: March 31^st, 2019

Huge thanks to Walt Disney World for letting me *be their guest* by providing me with a pair of Park Hopper passes! Some of the below are affiliate links and I’ll earn a percentage of the sale if you purchase through them, at no extra cost to you. As always, all opinions are my own & I’ll never promote something I don’t use or believe in.

If you were a Disney character, who would you be? Me—hmm, maybe Cinderella? I’m really clumsy on staircases (with the hospital bills to prove it). Or perhaps Princess Aurora because no one loves a good nap more than I do. I’m absolutely the chicken from Moana before I have my morning coffee. But if I had to choose just one I’d say, without question, I’m Lightning McQueen—the main car from the movie… Cars. Actually, “Lightning McQueen” is a pretty sick nickname so from now on I’ll answer to nothing else. The fact that I actually do drive a red sports car is a complete coincidence.

When I’m not napping, I’m go-go-going. I have only two levels: “asleep” and “fast AF”. This blog is literally about doing as much as humanly possible in any given short amount of time. That’s why when I came up with the plan to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day, I thought it was going to be THE FUNNEST and my husband was like, “Uhh, I think I’m coming down with something.” People kept telling me I was nuts but I kept saying, “Well they sell 1-day Park Hopper passes for a reason, right?” That obviously means they want me to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day and nothing less. Lightning McQueen doesn’t half-ass her Disney vacations.

Before we get started, I’d like to point out that, in a perfect world where vacation time and six-figure paychecks are a-plenty, I’d absolutely recommend dedicating at least one day for each Disney park. (While we’re at it, that perfect world would also include members of the Hemsworth family portraying in-park Disney princes and actual flying carpets instead of shuttle buses.) Walt Disney World is just that—its own WORLD. To say there’s a lot to see and experience here is the understatement of the century. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit if you only have a day or two—you deserve magic in your life too, dammit! It only means you need to be more prepared and smarter with your time. Don’t worry darling, Lightning McQueen is here to help. And you’ve never had a friend like me.

WHAT VISITING ALL 4 DISNEY PARKS IN 1 DAY LOOKED LIKE FOR ME

Our whole day plan revolved around our 7:40 pm dinner reservations at the Biergarten restaurant in Epcot’s Germany Pavilion. And if you say it seems like our whole lives revolve around German beer and food, you wouldn’t be mistaken. (What is with us? Geez.) Since we wanted to end visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day at Epcot, we started with the farthest away park, Magic Kingdom, and worked our way down. However, Magic Kingdom also had the earliest opening time of all the parks which should really be the deciding factor on where to start.

Here’s the schedule of our day:

7:30 am – 7:46 am: Shuttle bus from All Star Movies Resort ⇢ Magic Kingdom
7:46 am – 8:00 am: Walking to park, getting tickets*
8:00 am – 11:15 am: Magic Kingdom
11:15 am – 11:33 am: Waiting for the shuttle, we just missed it
11: 33 am – 11:50 am: Shuttle from Magic Kingdom ⇢ Animal Kingdom
11:50 am – 2:36 pm: Animal Kingdom (lunch in there somewhere)
2:36 pm – 2:55 pm: Shuttle from Animal Kingdom ⇢ Hollywood Studios
2:55 pm – 5:30 pm: Hollywood Studios
5:30 pm – 5:45 pm: Waited for water taxi, husband napped on a bench
5:45 pm – 6:10 pm: Water taxi from Hollywood Studios ⇢ Epcot Center
6:10 pm – 9:30 pm: Epcot Center (dinner from 7:30 – 9 pm)

*I had to pick up media passes from Guest Relations at the park itself, but I highly recommend saving time by pre-purchasing your park tickets at your resort. More on that in a minute ⇣⇣⇣

AS ALWAYS, DON’T LISTEN TO THE NAYSAYERS.

People will tell you you’re crazy for trying to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day. They’ll tell you it’s exhausting or that it just plain can’t be done. But with visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day as in life, don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. You can do anything you put your mind and your magic band to. You’re not alone in this journey—you’ve got a fleet of Disney shuttle buses and water taxis and monorails at your disposal ready and willing to take you where you need to go, to infinity and beyond.

Hakuna Matata — it means pet all the animals

Doc McStuffins loves my purple ears.

They’ll tell you you’re going to miss so much. But who cares!? No big deal! You don’t need to see everything. I’ve seen everything at Disney World already and take my word that you can go ahead and skip like 1/2 of it. You’re an adult (*term used loosely*). You don’t need to ride the teacups or see every single parade (so. many. parades.). You don’t need to meet every single Disney character you cross paths with—there were a couple there I couldn’t even name. Like, WTF is this? (The one character I did meet I’m not even familiar with—I just know my best friend’s daughter is and I really wanted to look cool among all the five-year-olds in my life.)

They’ll say you need at least a week to experience Walt Disney World, preferably more. Okay, Ritchie Rich. Open your wallet or shut your mouth. My name is not Ashley Moneybags and I bet yours isn’t either. Your name may very well be Ashley Smith though—I think the odds are pretty good on that one.

DO STAY AT A DISNEY RESORT.

There are so many time-saving benefits to staying at a Disney resort you’d think you were a member of a really exclusive club like the Screen Actors Guild or the AARP (What? Not everyone can get in.) Note: The following paragraphs are going to make me sound like I work for Disney but don’t be fooled. It’s just that I really, really think staying at a Disney resort is the bibbidi bobbidi bomb.

Here are some benefits to staying at a Disney resort:

⇢ Special “Extra Magic Hours” | Guests of Disney resorts are allowed early entry into parks (one hour) and extended time in the park after typical closing times (two hours). The schedule as to which park hosts Extra Magic Hours varies each day but if you plan your day right, you’ve just earned three extra hours to explore all 4 Disney parks in 1 day. You may be able to ride the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster after all! More on that in a minute ⇣⇣⇣

⇢ Free transportation | Not only can you take free shuttle buses, water taxis, and the monorail between the parks at no extra charge, you can also take a free shuttle to all of the parks from all of the Disney resorts. If you had to drive+park+walk every time you wanted to change parks, your experience visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day would be an absolute garbage dump. I’m pretty sure Disney park parking lots are where episodes of Snapped are born.

⇢ Advance ticket purchasing | Waiting in line at a park to buy your Park Hopper pass for the day is WASTED TIME. And what do we need when we’re attempting to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day, soldier? AS MUCH TIME AS WE CAN GET. SIR! Instead, get your ticket(s) at your Disney resort’s concierge desk at any damn time you want.

⇢ Extra FastPass+ privileges | With the FastPass+ you can reserve your spot in line for rides, entertainment, and character meet-and-greets up to 30 days in advance of your visit. If you stay at a Disney resort, that becomes 60 days. That’s a whole ‘nother month to plan your day but then completely forget what the hell you’ve chosen because that’s actually an absurd amount of time to wait in line for Space Mountain.

⇢ Gift shop / souvenir magic | If you want to purchase a souvenir (or more accurately, an entire wardrobe) at a Disney World gift shop but don’t want to carry around a ton of bags while you race from park to park, stay at a Disney resort. Instead of hauling a bunch of crap around with you all day, the gift shops can send your purchases directly to your resort for you to pick up when you finally call it a day. You might not have the strength to carry them back to your room, but let’s play it by ear.

And in case you’re like, “Okay, Ashley Moneybags. Disney resorts are Disgustingly expensive,” then you haven’t met the Walt Disney World All Star Movies Resort. This resort has all of the benefits, service, amenities, themes you’re way too old for, and magic of a Disney resort but with the price tag of like a Super 8 (for real, I just checked). I seriously don’t know how they do it but I don’t ask questions. All Star Movies is located right there between parks and other resorts, has pools, free parking, dining options, and we even got a Disney gift card for choosing to forego housekeeping during our stay. Getting paid to help our planet… it’s like the Peace Corps but for people who don’t wanna do any more for humanity than sleep in an unmade bed.

DO PURCHASE A 1-DAY PARK HOPPER PASS

Buying a Disney World Park Hopper Pass is going to be the only way to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day without spending your entire annual household income (pre-tax). Despite what it shows in this picture, the price may be something else. Disney World has three different ticket pricing options: Value, Regular, and Peak and your 1-day Park Hopper ticket could be (as of October 2017) $162, $170, or $174 depending on which day of the year you visit. This page will allow you to look ahead to see which days are which prices. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which is cheapest of them all?

DO PRIORITIZE. PRIORITIZE. PRIORITIZE.

So, no, you won’t be able to experience everything Disney World has to offer. (There can only be one Lightning McQueen after all.) Prioritizing what you want to see and do at each park is going to be key—as is a morning Starbucks run and not giving a shit what you look like all day under that hot Florida sun. (Visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day means not getting a single decent photo of yourself in front of a castle or a color block wall. Accept this, don’t waste time trying.)

Make a list of everything you think you want to see, do, and ride at each park and rank them in descending order of importance to you (and be prepared to toss out a few at the bottom). If you don’t know what there is to see and do at Disney World in the first place, there’s an internet for that. To help with your list, answer these questions:

Which rides do you want to ride?

• There are the classics: Spaceship Earth, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Expedition Everest (good god Disney, branch out a little), Tower of Terror, It’s a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, etc.
• There are the newer ones: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Avatar Flight of Passage, Frozen Ever After (AKA The Ride Formerly Known as Maelstrom), Na’vi River Journey, Star Tours, etc.
• There are a million others: Test Track, Animal Kingdom Jungle Cruise, Soarin’, Gran Fiesta Tour, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Kilimanjaro Safari, etc.
• Normally I’d say ain’t nobody got time for sitting down for a stage show BUT attractions like Mickey’s PhilharMagic and Muppet*Vision 3D take place in dark, air-conditioned theaters so we cool.
• Check the Disney website to see which rides are closed for refurbishment and cross those suckers off your list.

I see what you did there…

How old are you?

• If the answer suggests, “I’ve got hair growing in strange places,” go ahead and omit every single ride you’d be embarrassed to be seen on alone: Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mad Tea Party, the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, etc.

What entertainment do you want to see?

• For every show, concert, parade, etc. that you’d want to see, there is a well-defined schedule and these shows happen all the livelong day.
• My favorites: British Revolution at Epcot’s UK pavilion, Let the Magic Begin at Magic Kingdom, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, and the Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios. I wrote a whole piece on the Jedi training somewhere down there ⇣⇣⇣

Hollywood Studios

What or where do you want to eat?

• We prioritized the all-you-can-eat buffet dinner and liters of beer in Epcot Germany’s Biergarten restaurant so our whole day revolved around our reservation time.
• Maybe you want breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the Magic Kingdom’s Be Our Guest Restaurant or Cinderella’s Table or maybe you’re visiting in the fall and want to make the entire Epcot International Food and Wine Festival your dinner—no judgement. Actually, that’s a fabulous idea.
• If a fancy meal doesn’t concern you, there are about a trillion places to eat at Disney World so you can just ignore this point. For all the more popular places, you’ll need a reservation made as in advance as possible.

What are your favorite Disney movies?

• For instance, if you love love love Frozen or the Little Mermaid or Toy Story, you can’t miss those respective park areas (Epcot’s Norway pavilion, the Magic Kingdom’s newest Fantasyland addition, and Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland).
• Similarly, if you think Dumbo is a big fat stupid loser (OMG YOU HAVE NO SOUL) then you should altogether skip the Storybook Circus Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom.
• Get my drift? The great thing about Disney World is that it’s hella organized so if you don’t care for certain movies/characters you can cut out whole chunks of the parks.

DO DRAW UP A DETAILED PLAN OF YOUR DAY.

The way to succeed at visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day is to start organized and stay organized. Be your own Disney drill sergeant, maggot! For me, I came up with a rough timetable of when I expected to arrive at each park and when I should leave to head to the next one. And don’t just divide twelve hours by four parks. I knew I’d want more time at Magic Kingdom because it’s just so much bigger than the other three and since I was actually going to be spending the entire next day at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, I cut time out of the Epcot portion of this program. If Magic Kingdom has more you want to see than at, say, Animal Kingdom (it totes will, btw), give yourself more time there. This is not rocket science. However, if it’s actually rocket science you’re looking for, don’t miss Epcot’s Mission: Space.

Magic Kingdom

Some things to consider when planning your day:

⇢ Is there any one thing this day is focused around? Somewhere you absolutely have to be at a certain time? Ours was dinner reservations. Yours may be one particular ride and a reserved FastPass+ time for it, a particular character meet-and-greet, or meeting up with a friend, etc. Maybe you’re dying to see the fireworks display at Cinderella’s castle (freaking Tinkerbell flies from the roof! Disney World, y’all hirin’?), Illuminations at Epcot, or Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular. If so, you’ll have to order your parks so that you end at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, or Hollywood Studios.

⇢ Determine the order in which you’ll visit the parks. Base this order on the question above combined with that particular day’s schedule of Extra Magic Hours. Ideally you’d benefit from starting at the park that opens the earliest and ending in the park that closes the latest. But I don’t need to give you such elementary advice—you’ve got hair in strange places! Yer a grownup!

Animal Kingdom

⇢ Determine how long you’ll need at each park based on the number of things you want to see, do, and ride. And if you think you’ll have to ask for help or not. It’s almost impossible to speak to anyone at Disney World and keep it under a minute.

“Hi, can you tell me how to get to…”
“Well hello there princess. How are you this lovely day?”
“Great, thank you. Can you tell me where…”
“I love your mouse ears. So festive and purple-y!”
“Thanks. So I need to find…”
“Sure. I can certainly help you with that! But first, do you know who Ariel’s father is?”
“KINGTRITONOMGCANYOUJUSTTELLMEWHERETOGO!”
*gives directions*
“Thank you!”
“You’re so very welcome! Take Care! Have a magical day!”
*…he says to Ashley-shaped dust cloud left where I once stood.*

⇢ Write down ideal times you’d like to enter and leave each park and STICK TO IT like a vegetarian to a soy diet. I also gave myself an hour between parks because I had no idea what the shuttle situation was going to be like but it turns out I vastly overestimated how long those trips would take. Disney shuttle buses run every twenty minutes and the longest we waited for one was fifteen. The trips between parks also average about twenty minutes; the water taxi from Hollywood Studios to Epcot took us twenty-five. I have no idea how long the monorail takes but it’s probably nowhere near as fast as they thought it would have been by now when they built it in 1971.

Epcot

⇢ Map out your time at each park. Circle everything you want to see, do, and ride on each park’s map and do them in order. These parks are HUGE and running back and forth across them would be a massive time suck. Find maps here: Magic Kingdom | Animal Kingdom | Hollywood Studios | Epcot Center | Epcot during the Food and Wine Festival

DON’T FORGET TO DOWNLOAD THE MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE APP

Because if you can download an app that gives you driving directions sung by boy bands, then of course there’s an app for Disney World. The My Disney Experience mobile app has many functions but as far as time-saving usage goes, with this app you can see: that day’s park hours, show and parade times, restaurant hours and menus, character greeting times and locations, wait times for rides and attractions, and all the times you tried to get a decent photo of yourself even though I told you to scrap that idea, soldier!

You can also: purchase park tickets, manage your FastPass+, manage your FatPass (that’s what I call dining reservations at all-you-can-eat buffets), navigate the parks with GPS-enabled maps that offer step-by-step directions, and find the nearest restroom (for the love of God, THANK YOU DISNEY).

DON’T NEGLECT THE FASTPASS+!

Okay… so you’ve just stepped out of your underground Y2K bunker and you don’t know what FastPass+ is, I see. In that case, you should know that I am your queen and emojis are the new currency. Look how rich I am ➘

Disney World’s FastPass+ system is basically a way to stand in line for a ride but like, without putting on a bra and leaving your house. Say your trip to Disney World isn’t for another six weeks but you know you’ll want to ride the new Pandora thing when you get there… go ahead and get in line now. In cyberspace. (Or in reality actually because WHOA.) As I mentioned before, you can make your FastPass+ selections (up to three per day) up to 30 days in advance and up to 60 days in advance if you stay at a Disney resort.

To begin using FastPass+ you’ll need to have already purchased your 1-day Park Hopper ticket so they can be linked. To begin using FastPass+ earlier than the 30 days in advance, you’ll need to have already booked your room at a Disney resort. You’ll also need: either the MyDisneyExperience.com website or the mobile app, an idea of what rides you want to ride and when, and patience, Iago, patience! You’ll choose your visit date, a park, a ride or attraction, then the time you want to ride. You’ll be given a 1-hour window during which you can show up to the ride and skip all those poor, unfortunate souls waiting standby.

For everything else you could ever want to know about using Disney World’s FastPass+ system, this page has it all.

DON’T HAVE A FASTPASS+? LET IT GOOOO, LET IT GO!

Much like rebooting hit TV shows from the ‘90s and having no clue what our spouses’ phone numbers are, FastPass+ is the new normal. What seems counterproductive in theory (if everyone’s skipping to the front of the line, wouldn’t there just be another line, just as long as the original?) actually works because Disney knows a thing or two about logistics and I fell down my staircase three times this month.

Turns out, using the FastPass+ system is really the only way to ride your favorite rides while visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day. On my visit, standby lines were two hours for the new Avatar rides, 3 hours (I shit you not) for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and anywhere between an hour and two hours for all the other popular rides. If there’s something you just have to ride, all aboard the FastPass+ train, woo-woo!! (That’s a metaphor, not an actual Disney World ride though there are trains a-plenty.) Without a FastPass+ reservation, don’t even think about riding some of the more popular rides. People were running to get in line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train when the rope dropped. RUNNING. It was a stroller stampede, I tell you! Parent pandemonium! An all-out dad dash for the end of the line.

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s into line we go…

DO WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES (AND MOUSE EARS!).

Uh, you saw my Fitbit stats up there, right? Maybe walking 12 miles ain’t no thang to you but I’m a blogger. I work on a couch. Some days I don’t even walk as far as my mailbox. (Mystery of the staircase mishaps solved!) I don’t care if it’s just a mile of walking, something about theme parks makes yo’ feet hurt! I already told you to give up on your dreams of looking cute at Disney World so just focus on actually being able to walk for the entirety of the day.

I swear by the most comfortable shoes ever made: the Adidas NEO Women’s Lite Racer Casual Sneaker. They’re so soft and snuggly it’s like having your feet wrapped in 101 teeny tiny Dalmatians. My favorite are the ones that look like Spaceship Earth (cough*Disneygeek) but sometimes that pattern isn’t available? I don’t know—what the hell is up Amazon?

My legs and feet and back were all still functioning properly as we headed for our very last shuttle of the day and I owe it all to those shoes. Don’t get me wrong, I could still barely walk after 15 hours of Disney parks but that had everything to do with the all-you-can-eat buffet of heavy German food. And a liter of dunkel.

Attempting to visit all 4 Disney parks in 1 day? Get yourself a Fitbit and tell me how you do!

And as a self-proclaimed Disney geek (see? I admit it!), I also encourage the wearing of mouse ears. This has nothing to do with physical endurance; they’re just cute. I got a couple of pairs this year from my official ear sponsor, Abuzz Designs (I have an official ear sponsor, all of my career goals have been met), but afterwards had a thought. Because these ears are interchangeable, I should’ve gotten four different sets to change into when I switched parks. FACEPALM to the max. Instead I wore my hollow purple ears on my day visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day and switched to my Food and Wine ears for Epcot the next day. Like a boss.

DON’T BRING A BAG IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO.

Other than at the rides themselves, the longest lines I encountered at all 4 parks were the lines to get my purse checked. My husband skipped right on through the “people without bags” entrance while I was stuck, every time, behind “Mommy” with her purse, her backpack, her diaper bag, and her stroller all needing to be checked for whatever they check for. At one point the lady starting pulling out gallon-sized bags of sliced apples. But I can assure you, Disney, if it’s weapons you’re worried about, the folks most likely to snap are the ones stuck in line behind this lunacy. Or the bitches with the poisoned apples. Have you learned nothing from working at Disney World???

Disney security was consistently fast and efficient, but getting stuck in a line full of this shiznit wasted precious time I could’ve spent chasing down a Dole Whip.

DO KNOW THE SHUTTLES START RUNNING 45 MINUTES BEFORE THE PARKS OPEN.

If the park’s opening time is 8:00 am, the shuttles begin running at 7:15. If it opens at 9 am, the shuttles can pick you up at your Disney resort as early as 8:15. Visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day requires efficient use of every single minute so don’t be late for your very important date… with destiny.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY THOSE MAGIC HOUR OPENING TIMES.

Those Extra Magic Hours are nice but they aren’t, in fact, magical. Yes, you can get into the park at 8 am instead of 9, but you can’t get all the way up in it. At Magic Kingdom and Epcot (the two parks where I’ve experienced this), you can get into the park and are free to explore the main areas: down Main Street USA and up to Cinderella’s castle, or around Epcot’s Future World. However, you can’t get into the true guts of the parks (like Fantasyland or the World Showcase) until standard opening time.

This blows a little, sure. But you can still use this time wisely. Use this extra hour to do your coffee drinking, your breakfast sandwich eating, your gift-shopping, your last-minute plan amending, and your picture taking. One nice thing about being the first nerd in the park is that not a lot of people show up before the standard opening time so you can get some pretty great pictures with shockingly few strollers in them. That being said, even at 8:15 am the humidity has already done wonders on your curls so concentrate your camera lens on scenes, not selfies.

Squirrel!

DON’T BOTHER WAITING IN LINE FOR A PINT OF LEFOU’S BREW.

I thought the day had finally come when I could get a breakfast beer at the Magic Kingdom but, alas, I was wrong. After waiting in line longer than I’d like to admit for a pint of Lefou’s Brew at Gaston’s Tavern, we came to find out it wasn’t beer after all, but apple freaking juice. “Frozen apple juice with a hint of toasted marshmallow and topped with all-natural passion fruit-mango foam served in a souvenir stein,” to be exact. Here’s a souvenir stein to remember that time you felt like an alcoholic at Disney World! ⇠ The place that won’t let you drink beer but has no issue with helping children look like they’re drinking beer. Maybe they’ll start selling candy cigarettes too, Cruella De Vil style.

You’ve been warned.

This fountain is entirely misleading.

IF YOU’VE GOT KIDS WITH YOU, DO BE PREPARED TO EXPLAIN HOW CERTAIN DISNEY CHARACTERS CAN BE IN TWO PARKS AT ONCE.

Personally, I think you’d be foolish to attempt visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day with a child in tow because isn’t one whiny husband enough? Regardless, should you do this, be prepared for questions. Many of the same characters do meet-and-greets at different parks and your. child. will. notice.

Jasmine: What a preposterous insinuation! Aladdin: Hey, hey, hey, let’s all remain calm here… (I wish to God I had actually listened to what was going down at this moment!)

DON’T MISS THE JEDI TRAINING AT HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS.

The Jedi Training show at Hollywood Studios is THE BEST THING AT DISNEY WORLD.  It’s heartwarming; it’s hilarious; and it must be absolutely terrifying for these children, right?

Watch random kids (not actors) learn to fight as Jedis. Then watch them almost shit themselves when Darth Vader and Kylo Ren storm out and they realize how seriously being a Jedi is not their calling. Some kids get super angry and take defeating these villains as serious as a Force choke. Some kids have no idea WTF is going on. Some are so over-the-top elated at their ability to “use the force” to fight the bad guys. Some kids cry and that’s my favorite.

DO TAKE THE WATER TAXI TO EPCOT.

Aiight, this’ll be the only time Lightning McQueen will ever tell you to slow your roll. The shuttle buses are always your quickest option when moving between parks but at some point your husband is going to need to take a nap and the water taxi, excuse me, the Friend Ship, is the perfect way to do so.

The water taxis run between Epcot and Hollywood Studios (with some resort stops in between). They’re part of Disney’s complimentary transportation network and, let’s be honest, at this point in your attempt at visiting all 4 Disney parks in 1 day you’re going to be begging for a break. Give yourself this time to chill out on a boat and gather yourself for your 4^th and final park (while your husband sleeps).

DON’T FORGET TO HYDRATE!

I can’t stress this point enough. Just because you’re not peeing every ten minutes doesn’t mean you aren’t losing vital fluids. It’s Florida; it’s hot AF; and you are tramping your tush off. You’re peeing out ya pores! In a manner of speaking. Keep a water bottle with you at all times. That’s what your husband’s cargo shorts are for, don’t you know that? There are water fountains all over all the Disney parks that I’m sure no little kid has put his or her lips on. Use those to refill your bottle constantly and just keep sipping… (I love Camelbaks for this very purpose.)

There’s plenty of ice water at Gaston’s Tavern — wah wahhhh

DO TOAST TO A CHALLENGE ROCKED AND A JOB WELL DONE!

It is time. You’ve successfully visited all 4 Disney parks in 1 day! You deserve a beer that is actually beer and not fruit foam! When you wish upon a bar, makes no difference where you are. Actually, that’s not true. If you’re at the Magic Kingdom for closing ceremonies you’re shit outta luck. There are a handful of places at MK where you can get a drink, but you can’t leave the restaurant with it. Good-bye fireworks + frozen margarita! So long Tinkerbell + tequila! But while you’re stuck inebriating indoors at Magic Kingdom, the other three parks have plenty of op-booze-tunities. It may be time for me to go to bed.

This is another chief reason I vote for ending your day at Epcot. You can’t swing a honeypot at Epcot Center without hitting a booth to get hooch.

BONUS: DON’T PLAN ANOTHER PARK DAY THE VERY NEXT DAY. JUST DON’T.

Maybe you feel great after visiting 4 Disney parks in 1 day—it’s those shoes, honey!—but don’t get cocky. Attempting another theme park day the following day is masochism at its purest. It’s like you never want to walk or be able to stand up straight again. You’ll be nothing more than a dead person in very cute mouse ears.

MORE INFO

Heading to Disney World? Find great places to stay here.
But where do I personally recommend? the Walt Disney World All Star Movies Resort
All pictures were taken with my Google Pixel XL. (That’s a cell phone, can you believe it!?)
Before you plan your trip, don’t forget to check Orlando Groupon and Living Social deals first!
What else have I covered on Disney World? Check out these posts.
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