It pains us to admit that our Disney bucket list is embarrassingly short. We’re not big completists, don’t have to keep up with the Jonses, and, really, we’ve done a lot of stuff at Disney already! But one major tick that we hadn’t made on our somewhat small list was “do all the parks in one day”. Mostly because, walking. Since we’re annual passholders, we really don’t spend a lot of time in a hurry at Disney, and frequently arrive late to the parks, sit around people watching or enjoying a leisurely meal for a while, and then head back to our hotel for a few hours or an early evening. We’re jaded, we know, but we did want the satisfaction of seeing all four parks (and actually doing something fun in each park) in one day. We should probably start with a little backstory that explains our chronic desire to just slow down at Disney.

Chris: My first trip to Disney World was when we first got married, and Angie had just started a new job. To say we were broke was an understatement, and Angie didn’t have any vacation time either. But her friend, who was a seasonal cast member, was going to be working at the parks for a bit, and offered to get us into the parks for one day. We decided we were young, and when else would we get such an awesome deal? So we left Friday night, drove 8 hours to a rest area on the turnpike, slept in the car, and met her friend at the EPCOT main gate at basically rope drop. We made a beeline to Soarin’, walked around the world showcase, and hit up Test Track and Mission Space, all before lunch. From there, we went to Hollywood Studios for Rockin’ Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror (twice!) and Star Tours. We even ran into some of my extended family that was visiting. But Angie was just getting started. So off we go to Magic Kingdom, where we had just enough time for Space Mountain and Wishes. She swears the bridge area by the #purplewall is her favorite fireworks spot, but all I can remember is the TTA spiel that kept playing over and over and over. It was a great day, but by the time we checked into our budget motel late that night, my feet were actually bleeding. And we had to be on the road first thing the next morning so we could make it back to Alabama at a decent hour. It was a great trip, and it was very slow at the parks so we were able to experience a lot of attractions in one day, but it was so overwhelming.

Fast forward to our most recent trip, when somewhere mid-morning our last day of the trip we decided in our Disney-drunk brains that we could totally accomplish all 4 parks in one day…only, maybe more relaxed than that 3 park whirlwind day. (full disclosure,  due to a large number of unexpected “uh ohs” during our trip, we did feel like we needed to bring it to Disney’s attention, and they were gracious enough to compensate us with a couple of “special” fastpasses from guest relations, so a few of the rides we used that…but some we just used the regular fastpass+ app! We certainly DO NOT advocate complaining for every little thing that goes wrong, but we had some real dropped balls and headaches, and are so grateful for Disney’s customer service going above and beyond)

Our first stop of the day was Animal Kingdom, where we planned to stay until lunch and then maybe back to Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom for a few hours. Naturally, we started the day with Expedition Everest, arguably our favorite attraction at DAK. When we finished, it was just about time for Finding Nemo the musical, so we went, despite some protests from the boys. (this should be your first clue that we were not planning to go to 4 parks in one day, I think that show has the longest running time of any disney parks production) Long story short, after that we sent our friends to Pandora for Flight of Passage while we dealt with guest relations, and then headed over to Hollywood Studios for Rockin’ Rollercoaster. (we were planning to ride Tower of Terror also, but that’s part of that long story…) This is pretty much the part of the day when we decided, yeah, we could definitely do this. We’re down 2 parks, and it’s only noon? Why not go for four!? So off to EPCOT we went! We debated Soarin’ and a partial stroll around world showcase, but decided there was a lot to do at Magic Kingdom, so we left after only doing Test Track and hopped on the monorail. Angie of course voted for Space Mountain, but we ran by Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger spin first. We pitted girls vs boys at Test Track and the girls won, so the boys decided they needed to take back their glory at Buzz, then we could go to Space Mountain. We then grabbed a quick ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train before monorailing back to our car at EPCOT, while our friends stayed for the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. We thought about staying, but ultimately staying park open to close wasn’t on the bucket list, only making it to each park, so, check!