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#4Parks1Day Challenge!

Updated: Jan 26, 2023

Have you heard of the #4Parks1Day Challenge?  It was on my bucket list of Disney things to do and I finally got to experience it for my birthday girls’ only trip!

First off, if you haven’t been to Disney MANY times – don’t try this.  We have both been many times and knew what highlights we wanted to hit and knew how to quickly get around to everywhere we wanted to go.

Before our trip, we went a little crazy making shirts.  I think we made 4 or 5 shirts total?  We didn’t even wear them all!  Oh well – there’s always the next trip!   But these were the shirts we made for our #4Parks1Day.  I just love the way they turned out, and we got tons of comments on them!

#4Parks1Day Shirts!


The back of the shirt


For our birthdays, my friend and I decided to go on a 3-Night Disney Cruise!  We love everything Disney but even if you don’t – the cruises are amazing.  I will also be doing a trip report on the Adults Only Disney Cruise, so subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when it’s ready! 

We thought since we were going to be in Florida and so close to one of our favorite places, that we would fit in a day at the park as well.  Since we love all four parks, we decided to cram them all in one day and just hit some of the highlights!

I was able to secure us fastpasses to Flight of Passage – which, if you know anything about Disney World – you know this is the hardest fastpass to get.  So I was super surprised to find it available at less than 30 days out.  Disney sometimes adds extra fastpasses on when park hours change.

So our plan was:  First park – Animal Kingdom (Extra Magic Morning Hours), Hollywood Studios, Epcot and then end our day at Magic Kingdom.  I am a serious planner (I am a travel agent, so I guess that’s a given!) and I had planned out what we wanted to do and what time I thought we would be through with everything.  I’m very happy to say that my plan worked almost down to the minute!  Was it brilliance or just luck?  I choose the first, haha!

My husband and I are passholders, and Animal Kingdom was having an early shopping event for passholders on the day we visited for their 20th Anniversary, which meant we got into Animal Kingdom even earlier than everyone else!  The passholder line opened at 7am.  We had to drop our bags with bell services that morning (and pack up) as we also did a split stay.  Our first night was at All Star Music, and our second night at Saratoga Springs Resort.  So not only were we going for a #4Parks1Day Challenge, we also had to have everything packed and out of our room before we got on the bus!  Yikes!  We kept telling ourselves that this exhausting day would be followed by a relaxing, wonderful cruise, so we could do it!

After dropping our bags off, we hopped in line to get on the bus (I had packed granola bars and we bought a Coke the night before for our breakfast).  Our bus came pretty quickly and we were off to Animal Kingdom!  The passholders had a separate line entrance, so we walked in to a fairly empty park!  We headed straight for Island Mercantile where they were having the passholder sale and O.M.G. what a madhouse!  I went specifically for the special edition 20th Anniversary Pin that I had seen pictured on some other blogs (my husband and I are crazy over collecting Disney pins – he is worse than me though, lol).  It was so crowded in there we couldn’t get to everything we wanted.  I was also interested in the 20th anniversary Animal Kingdom Magic Band, but for one, I couldn’t get to them, and secondly they were $32.99.  That was a little more than I wanted to pay because I already own about 20 different magic bands!  The pins were up at the registers, so we hopped in the shortest line we saw and asked for the pin when we got to the register.  Well, they only had one available for purchase, and it was the passholder edition, which I actually wasn’t crazy about, but I bought it anyway.  

20th anniversary pins animal kingdom

I wanted the top 2, but all they had was the Passholder pin on the bottom right


After leaving the store, we got our pics made in front of the Tree of Life.  

#4Parks1Day Challenge

Park #1 – Animal Kingdom


#4Parks1Day Challenge

Love the frame!


#4Parks1Day Challenge

Cute magic shot


Then we headed to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  We were the some of the first in line so walked right on.  It was a beautiful (even a little chilly) morning.  We opted to put our sweaters on when we got on the ride.  The animals seemed to be out and about.  I just love this ride.  It’s a must do for me every time I visit Disney.

#4Parks1Day Challenge
#4Parks1Day Challenge
#4Parks1Day Challenge

This was the first time I’d seen giraffes in the wooded area


After we left the safari ride, we headed over to Expedition Everest.  Our plan was to hop in the single rider line, but there was only a 5 minute wait so we got in the regular line.  We walked right onto that ride as well.  Early mornings are the BEST!!! 

#4Parks1Day Challenge

Our EE Ride Photo


By this time we headed over for our first (and only) fastpass I had scheduled – Flight of Passage!   Our fastpass time was for 8:55am – 9:55am and we were in line right at 8:55am.  We waited maybe 5 minutes, and were in!  After getting off the ride (seriously AMAZING ride), we took some pictures of Pandora before heading out to catch our bus to Hollywood Studios.  It is so pretty, they did a wonderful job.

#4Parks1Day Challenge
#4Parks1Day Challenge
#4Parks1Day Challenge

While we were on the bus to Hollywood Studios, I was able to score us a fastpass for one of our favorite rides – Rock ‘n Rollercoaster!!! We were on the bus around 10am and our fastpass was for 11:05am.  Also on the bus, a cast member was on there who noticed our birthday buttons (almost every cast member noticed our buttons and said happy birthday to us).  She got the whole bus to sing Happy Birthday to us.  Fun (although a little awkard?)  When we got to Hollywood Studios, we headed over to grab us a cupcake and found a table to enjoy it and wait for our fastpass time.  After finishing the cupcake (we split one), we walked over to see if we could catch a glimpse of the new Toy Story Land scheduled to open on June 30th.  This is what we saw:

This is why I love Disney.  Even the construction zone looks adorable!

It was time to head over to get in line for our fastpass, but first we stopped for our 2nd Park Picture in front of Tower of Terror, and also a couple in front of the entrance to the Rock ‘n Rollercoaster ride.  Our photopass photographer in front of Tower of Terror was great and had us do a couple of poses, and brought up the idea of holding up 2 fingers for our “2nd Park”  We wish we had thought of that while at Animal Kingdom, but we knew we would continue that for our last two parks.

#4Parks1Day Challenge

Park #2!


#4Parks1Day Challenge

Pointing at our birthday buttons


#4Parks1Day Challenge

Showing off our ears!


#4Parks1Day Challenge

We were in line for Rock n’ Rollercoaster right when our fastpass time opened.  We love this ride!!

#4Parks1Day Challenge

One of my favorite rides!


After finishing the ride, we walked into some of the shops before heading out.  We didn’t buy anything and went out to catch the boat to Epcot!!

The boat ride was a nice change from the bus and again, it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  Not humid at all, a little windy and sunny.

At Epcot our goal was to walk around and look at all the topiaries since it was Flower & Garden Festival time and to have a sit down lunch at Via Napoli.

We walked around just taking it all in – I absolutely LOVE just walking around Epcot World Showcase.  It’s perfect for an adults only trip.   

#4Parks1Day Challenge
#4Parks1Day

Another magic shot


Flower and Garden Festival

Check out the topiaries – aren’t they beautiful?!

Flower and Garden Festival

Snow White and the Dwarves


#4Parks1Day

Beauty and the Beast


#4Parks1Day

Captain Hook & Peter Pan


#4Parks1Day

Lady and the Tramp


#4Parks1Day

Bambi and Thumper


#4Parks1Day

Simba


#4Parks1Day

Anna and Elsa


#4parks1Day
#4Parks1Day
#4Parks1Day

Entrance to the park


We walked around one half of the World Showcase and then headed back to Italy for our 1:15pm reservation at Via Napoli.  We split an appetizer (arancini) and an individual pepperoni pizza.  They also brought us out a dessert for our birthdays!  It was the perfect meal and just enough to fill us up but not make us miserable.

#4Parks1Day

Arancini (fried risotto)


#4Parks1Day

Individual Sized Pepperoni Pizza


#4Parks1Day

Birthday dessert!


After finishing up our walk around the World Showcase, we headed over to Test Track for the Single Rider line.  We only waited about 15 minutes – this is definitely the way to do this ride!

After the ride, we headed over to the Disney Visa Character Spot (a perk of the Disney Visa), and which characters did we see?  Minnie AND Pluto!!  We were kind of hoping for Minnie & Mickey, but hey – we were happy with any, especially with no line!!

Minnie and Pluto wanted to read my shirt…..

#4Parks1Day

Minnie and Pluto reading my shirt


#4Parks1Day

I love Minnie!


#4Parks1Day
#4Parks1Day

After our character meet, we headed out to get our picture in front of the ball for our Number 3 Park!!

#4Parks1Day

Park 3!!


#4Parks1Day

We then hopped on the monorail (all modes of Disney transport checked off!) and were off to Magic Kingdom!

We got to Magic Kingdom around 4:30pm.  We stopped in front of the castle for our Number 4 Park pics (wanted to get them before we looked like walking zombies!).  Although we both were surprised that we were not exhausted at this point.   I really think that the great weather with no humidity helped, because usually in a typical one park day, my feet are hurting by this point and I’m ready for a break.

#4Parks1Day
#4Parks1Day

Park 4!!


#4Parks1Day

The lines for all of the rides were pretty long at this point in the day and no fastpasses to be had until later in the night (Magic Kingdom was open until 1am – we definitely weren’t staying that long).  So we went first to Hall of Presidents to see it after the recent refurbishment.  They changed it right much and we enjoyed it!  After leaving there we headed over to Mickey’s Philharmagic.  I just love this show and the smell of blueberry pie!  We then went to grab some dinner at Casey’s.  We both got the corn dog nuggets, plastic cheese dipping sauce and fries.  The line is always so crazy in there – that is probably the longest line we waited in all day!  We found a table over by Main Street Bakery and sat and enjoyed our view:

#4Parks1Day

After eating we headed over to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, always such a cute show.  By the time we got out, it was almost time to find a spot to watch the fireworks.  But first we had things we wanted to buy in the gift shop, so we stopped to do that.  We had about 5 minutes to spare after shopping and grabbed us a place on Main Street right in front of the castle.  This was the first time either one of us has seen the Happily Ever After fireworks and we really enjoyed it.

magic kingdom fireworks
Magic Kingdom Fireworks
magic kingdom fireworks

I was thankful that it was an Extra Magic Hours night so everyone wasn’t rushing out at the same time.  As you can see, we look kind of tired by this point:

magic kingdom fireworks

We were on the bus around 9:30pm and were actually able to sit down!  When we arrived at Saratoga Springs, we still needed to check in!  Thankfully it was not busy and we were in our rooms by around 10:15pm.  Our original plan was to eat breakfast at Kona Café for some Tonga Toast, but we decided to cancel our reservation and just eat at the food court.  We wanted a little time to sleep in before heading off for our cruise on the Disney Wonder!!

We had an amazing time and although I wouldn’t do #4Parks1Day every time I’m at Disney, it was perfect for a one day trip to hit some of our favorites!

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