Four Parks One Day Challenge - Twirling Down Main Street

Everyone has their version of the famous “Four Parks One Day Challenge”, so here’s mine. I completed this challenge over spring break in 2019, and I’d like to try it again sometime, it was a lot of fun!

The Challenge:

Visit all four parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom) in one day.

At each park complete the following activities:

Ride a “Top Tier” Ride
- Everest, Flight of Passage, Soarin’, Test Track, Mine Train, Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, etc.
Ride a “Lower Tier” Ride
- Primeval Whirl, Triceratop Spin, Living with the Land, Gran Fiesta Tour, It’s a Small World, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Alien Swirling Saucers, etc.
Take a picture with the park icon
- Cinderella Castle, Tree of Life, Chinese Theater or Tower of Terror, Spaceship Earth
Eat a food (can be specific to the park or not)
Buy a pin specific to the park
Meet and get an autograph of a character (one you’ve never met before if possible)
BONUS!! Travel by a different mode of transportation to get to each park

My Experience

*Prior preparation: I made two fastpasses in advance for Tower of Terror and Alien Swirling Saucers, I also booked an early dinner at Via Napoli in Epcot for me and a friend.

I woke up early to catch one of the first buses to Animal Kingdom, once I got through the gate, I headed to the entrance to Dinoland. I still had about 30 minutes before they opened the park, but my plan was to rope drop the single rider line for Everest. I chose the Dinoland entrance because less people were going to that than the Asia entrance, and it’s the same distance to Everest from either bridge. After waiting for rope drop, we were finally told to WALK to wherever we were going. I power walked over to Everest and made my way through the single rider line, after seeing a mass of people coming from Asia to the standby line. Since the single rider line is so short, we made it through the line before the standby people caught up, so I was on the first train of the day for park guests! We got to pick our seats too, so of course I chose the back!

After Everest, I headed to Primeval Whirl and got in my lower tier ride. (I know some people don’t like it, but I LOVE Primeval Whirl!)

From there I went to Zuri’s Sweets and grabbed a tiger striped Rice Krispy bar and went to stand in line for Pocahontas. I was first in line to meet her for her second greeting of the day. The cast member that was hanging out around that area also happened to have a pin I needed to complete a set, so I traded with her to get that pin!

After meeting Pocahontas, I headed to the front of the park to get my icon picture with the Tree of Life, and then over to Island Mercantile to get my Animal Kingdom Pin.

From there I braved the hoards of people coming into the park, and went out to the bus stops to catch a bus to Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom only has buses, so this was the transportation I had to take.

Hollywood Studios was a little more crowded to get in the park, but I had some time before my Tower of Terror fastpass, so I wasn’t too worried. I bought my Hollywood Studios pin and took my picture with Tower of Terror as I made my way down Sunset Boulevard to ride it.

After Tower of Terror my original plan was to get lunch at Woody’s Lunchbox, but the line was horrendous, and I realized it was time for my Alien Swirling Saucer’s Fastpass, so I rode Saucers first, then got my Totchos (gluten free of course!) from Woody’s Lunchbox. I was lucky that my cousins were in Hollywood Studios for the day, so I was able to hang out with them a little bit as I ate lunch.

HS Lower Tier Ride: Alien Swirling Saucers

*After scanning my Magicband for my Saucers Fastpass, I checked myDisneyExperience and found a Fastpass for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for that night when I’d be in Magic Kingdom.

I then went to meet Olaf, who doesn’t give autographs, but he hands out a card with his picture on it.

After that, I made my way out of the park and rode the boat over to Epcot. I had never ridden the boat between the two parks and it was quite a peaceful ride! Now that the Skyliner is open though, I’d probably choose it over the boat.

The boat dropped me off at the International Gateway entrance to Epcot, which had almost no line, and even had a Passholder entrance that had zero line! I checked the myDisneyExperience app for Belle meet times and saw she was meeting soon, so I headed to France to stand in line to meet her.

After meeting Belle, I went to Test Track to meet up with my friend. We rode Test Track single rider and then headed over to Italy for our early dinner at Via Napoli. Via Napoli was okay as far as gluten free pasta goes, but I don’t think I’ll be going back, you can read my full review here.

We headed to Village Traders in The Outpost so I could buy my Epcot pin and then I got my icon photo with Spaceship Earth.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends was my lower tier attraction for Epcot, and after that we jumped on the monorail to head to Magic Kingdom.

Epcot Lower Tier Ride: The Seas With Nemo and Friends

Upon entering Magic Kingdom, I got the icon picture on Main Street. I grabbed a Dole Whip as my food (like I need an excuse to grab a Dole Whip…)

After I finished the Dole Whip, we rode the Carousel of Progress as my lower tier ride. From there we rode Mine Train using the Fastpasses I booked earlier that day as my top tier ride.

MK Lower Tier Ride: Carousel of Progress

MK Top Tier Ride: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Right before the Fireworks we met Tinkerbell at Town Square Theater. We then navigated our way over to Peter Pan’s Flight during Happily Ever After because the wait time was low (not part of the challenge). After that we headed to Frontier Trading Post to get my Magic Kingdom pin, and it was actually some friends from home that we ran into that helped me find the pin!

And with that my four parks one day challenge was done!

Tips

Use your Fastpasses wisely, if you know you can single ride a ride, then don’t use a Fastpass for it. Also if you can rope drop a ride, don’t use your Fastpass for it. As soon as you use your last Fastpass, book a new one for the next park.

Utilize Extra Magic Hours if possible. See which parks have Extra Magic Hours either in the morning or evening and use those to your advantage!

Mobile Ordering is a great way to save time in line for Quick Service foods!

Wear comfortable shoes. I only walked about 8 miles but my feet were killing me at the end of the day.

Remember, try to spread as much pixie dust as possible throughout your challenge, it just makes it more fun!

If you do this Challenge, be sure to use #tdms4parks1day on Instagram!