Once upon a time…. a group of ET Family Travel agents planned an Orlando weekend getaway to check some Disney resort holiday decorations. The plan was simple: scope out some hotels, try out a few restaurants we’d never tried before and enjoy the final days of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

But then, one agent asked a question that changed our entire trip… could we attempt to hit all four Disney theme parks in ONE day? From there, the challenge was set: one ride and one picture in each park.

Like any group of travel planners, we spent some time researching park hours, debating modes of transportation and deciding which order to hit up each park. We used our travel day to take in a few sights, ride the new Skyliner from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, and grab a late dinner. Then, the big day.

Our Challenge begins!

7:30am
We woke up, threw on clothes, and began our day. It helped that we were staying at the Yacht Club, so we took a quick 15 min walk to Hollywood Studios for Morning Extra Magic Hours. Despite a delay at security, we managed to catch up to the rest of the park guests trying to rope drop Slinky Dog Dash.

8:05am
We made a game time decision to ride Alien Saucers instead and we walked on with no wait!

8:45 am
Took some pics on Hollywood Boulevard and exited the park before 9am to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom. Problem: bus was never showing up, so we made the quick decision to hop a bus to the Polynesian instead.

9:30 am
We walked around the Polynesian for a few minutes to see their decorations, then made our way down to the dock to take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom.

9:45 am
Cleared security pretty quickly and headed down Main Street USA. We made a beeline for It’s a Small World and made it in time for our FastPass.

11:15 am
After walking around the Magic Kingdom for a bit, we decided to head over to Epcot a bit earlier than planned. We jumped on the monorail, switched lines at the Ticket and Transportation Center, and were at Epcot before noon!

Two parks down before noon and already at the third!

11:45 am
Arrived at Epcot. On the way over, we made a lunch reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico (one of our favorites). After lunch, we strolled back toward the Future World for Journey into Imagination (30 min wait), followed by another stop at the Food & Wine Festival for dessert plus a surprise meeting with Mickey!

2 – 3:30pm
Time for a break! We chose to take some rest time, plus a dip in the hot tub to recharge. After we were ready to go, we chose to take an Uber to take over to Animal Kingdom.

4 – 4:30 pm
Stopped to take in the holiday decor in the Animal Kingdom (which none of us had seen before – very nice!), and then headed over to our FastPass at Dinosaur.

Challenge complete! But we didn’t stop there…

5 – 5:30 pm
Stopped for another break at Nomad Lounge (which we highly recommend) to celebrate our success. Then the highlight…

6:00 pm
We secured FastPasses at Flight of Passage! Chalk it up to successful stalking of the Disney Experience app… we searched for one at a time and over the course of a few hours and many tries we were able to get overlapping times! #Winning

After all that, we topped off the challenge with a nighttime ride through the Kilimanjaro Safari, and a celebratory drink at Jellyrolls (our favorite)….and we lived happily ever after!

Warning: This challenge was not for the faint of heart. It was a great exercise for us to better help clients who don’t want to plan every minute of their trip, but it’s fair to say we were exhausted the next day. If you’re someone who is flexible with planning your meals and rides, then you might just be able to have a whirlwind day like ours!

by Regina Saake – Director of Communications Marketing at ET Family Travel