6 Parks in 1 Day!

[kokomos]

For your MK parking you could book ADR at the wave for 1 person and pay the 10 no show to park at the Contemporary and walk to Mk That would save some time back tracking to Epcot.

 

[Tksolomom]

I don’t know about the DS hotel, but the Disney hotels have the resort airline check in service, so you could give them your suitcases in the morning. That might save you time with your luggage.

 

[vinotinto]

Leaving at 12:00 for a 1:50 flight is nuts. The ride alone is 35-45 minutes, the security at MCO is super slow (and it's not volume; my home airport is Atlanta and the security lines there are usually only 10-25 minutes even though it's a bigger/busier airport), and there is no way to walk to the gates (you have to take that train shuttle). Any minor snag, any traffic delay and you may not make your flight. That would totally stress me out.

I would also try to go completely bagless when going through WDW park security to save time in bag check lines.

 

[lynn_s]

I'm really thinking about changing the order of our park hopping so we don't end at MK and have to worry about getting back to a place where we parked our car/where an Uber can pick us up. Any thoughts on this?

IMO you are going to need to be leaving your last park by 1130 to get to your flight....so its going to be hard to do 3 parks 9am-1130.

If you only care about riding the new TSL rides once each, and skip breakfast, and don't care which ride at the other parks you do....you could:

730-8 HS - TSL. You can easily be done with all 3 in 30 minutes. If you wait until 830 to leave TSL its going to be closer to 930 to get to your first ride at AK. (walk to front of park, transport over, walk to/through security, walk back to ride....)

8-9 Hop to AK via MinnieVan/uber/taxi. Ride Na'vi - they open Pandora rides before 9am, and Na'vi will be walk on. you can be walking back to the front of the park at about 9am instead of just getting to a ride.

9-1130 - MK and Epcot. If you can get a Minnie van from AK (stat trying as soon as you are off the ride), go to MK. They drop off at a bus stop. But I have found them harder to get from AK. If you can't get a Minnie van, uber/taxi to Epcot. That early at either park you should be able to grab a same day FP or just walk on to something.

Then monorail/minnievan/uber to the other park. look for FP on the way. You'd have to change monorails, so I think MinnieVan to/ from MK-EP is faster, or uber/taxi & walking to/from contemporary vs to/from the TTC.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

I looked into precheck, but we have 4 kids and both our families are nearby, so we never fly anywhere. This trip is a huge splurge so we need to save money anyway we can! lol

That's an interesting idea about the Contemporary bell services. Would they keep our bags even if we don't stay there? Definitely worth looking into. Thanks!

If one person in your family gets TSA pre-check and that person books all of the family on the same reservation, the entire family should all receive TSA pre-check. Make sure to include your TSA number, etc. when booking. I've done it in the past and my entire family has received pre-check.

 

[mattsnyder9]

1:50 - Flight to LAX

Are you committed to LAX? If you fly to John Wayne (Orange County) you'll save at least an hour drive from traffic. I drive the freeways of SoCal everyday, especially Orange County area. You can get from John Wayne, even Ontario to Disneyland area in about 45 minutes, compared to LAX which could take 90+ minutes.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Have you considered staying at an EPCOT hotel? I know you said you have points, but one night at, say Boardwalk would make that 7:30 opening at HS much easier and when it's 10pm PST at DL, you might just be happy for that extra bit of sleep or organization time or breakfast.

Also, yeah, shipping your stuff to LA is sounding better. You won't have to check anything in at MCO. If all you have on you are one nights things, you could probably put it in a small backpack, instead of two large ones, then bag check in WDW will be easier, too. Also, consider buying travel toiletries that you can toss after your one Orlando night (maybe even old undies, so no laundry?) and packing the rest of your toiletries in the stuff you're shipping. It'll minimize what you need to carry and any questions at TSA. As other have said, the pre-check sounds like a 'must' for this to work optimally.

 

[kniquy]

hopefully we can figure out some tricks to squeeze some more time in there so we're not cutting it so close.

Can the terms be that you hit 6 parks in 24 hours? So that you could possibly hit a couple of parks the evening before? The park hours for MK have them being open until midnight for EMH, but that would require you to stay on property. Those are the hours for 10/17, which i think it when you are there. So that might be something to reconsider.

 

[QueenHeather]

Thanks for all the excellent advice everyone! We sat down last night and came up with a plan we thought would work well and leave for the airport at 11:30 to give us more time. Then today, we decided to check flights again and found a nonstop flight that leaves at 4:30! So we figure we should have plenty of time at WDW to get everything done now!

We now however are getting into LAX at 6:50 instead of 5:50. But I'm getting a bit nervous reading things about 90+ minutes in traffic. Will traffic really be that bad on a Wednesday night at 7pm? What can we realistically expect to plan for travel time?

 

[toonaspie]

Yeah I was gonna say that it would be better in your case to get a later flight. I was shocked when I saw you had only 4.5 hrs to do all of this cause I thought by the title you had more time in your day which makes this more feasible.

 

[mattsnyder9]

Thanks for all the excellent advice everyone! We sat down last night and came up with a plan we thought would work well and leave for the airport at 11:30 to give us more time. Then today, we decided to check flights again and found a nonstop flight that leaves at 4:30! So we figure we should have plenty of time at WDW to get everything done now!

We now however are getting into LAX at 6:50 instead of 5:50. But I'm getting a bit nervous reading things about 90+ minutes in traffic. Will traffic really be that bad on a Wednesday night at 7pm? What can we realistically expect to plan for travel time?

If you have the Waze App or Google Maps, I would do a test during the week this week to give you rough ETAS from LAX to Disney. Around 7PM PST just change your starting location to LAX and destination to Disneyland. 7PM though, traffic is still pretty bad, especially getting out of Los Angeles.

 

[QueenHeather]

seriously, thank you so much for all the planning advice! We’ll continue to mess around with the plan, but thanks to you all I already feel like we are in a much better place. This has been a bucket list item for me for some time now, and I am crazy excited!

Allow me to be a bit sentimental for a minute . This past year has not been an easy one for me. Last year in October I lost my father unexpectedly literally 3 days before he was going to join my family on a trip to Disney World. Though bittersweet, going to Disney was therapeutic for me, as he really enjoyed it there and he enjoyed doing fun things with my kids.

I’ve since become a travel agent (because I was helping friends plan their trip anyway, might as well get a few dollars for it haha), and while I love planning trips for other people, my husband would tell you it’s had me longing to go back ourselves. I love to sew, and I make small items for my clients when they book. Again I love doing it, but every time I make something, I can’t help but be a little jealous.

So when my husband surprised me with this trip, it meant a little more this time. It’s been fun to introduce a little joy after a tough year, and it’s been made even more fun to share the excitement with you guys! Will continue to update! I love this board and the people who are a part of it!!

 

[Jajone]

You have me wanting to do this. Are there official rules anywhere? Or is this something you make up along the way?

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

Your trip sounds amazing! I don’t have any itinerary advice, but I would suggest shipping your Disneyland stuff and just going through the parks with a light daypack.

 

[Doug M]

I looked into precheck, but we have 4 kids and both our families are nearby, so we never fly anywhere. This trip is a huge splurge so we need to save money anyway we can! lol

That's an interesting idea about the Contemporary bell services. Would they keep our bags even if we don't stay there? Definitely worth looking into. Thanks!

It is 85 per person for 5 years so it is cheap, and MCO security is about the longest ive ever seen. Children are free.

 

[QueenHeather]

You have me wanting to do this. Are there official rules anywhere? Or is this something you make up along the way?

I think similar to regular park hopping, it’s however you want! I think generally most people ride something in each park and take a picture. I think, since we have more time now, we are going to try to get something to eat in each park too. Start a thread if/when you do it! I had such a fun time following along with all the planning and strategizing and finally the actual trip with the family who posted here who inspired me!

 

[QueenHeather]

Your trip sounds amazing! I don’t have any itinerary advice, but I would suggest shipping your Disneyland stuff and just going through the parks with a light daypack.

Good idea! I think this is exactly what we will do!

 

[QueenHeather]

It is 85 per person for 5 years so it is cheap, and MCO security is about the longest ive ever seen. Children are free.

Oh sure, it’s not that expensive if you make several trips over the five years! I meant that because we have four kids we almost never fly at all. In the last five years we’ve only flown once (when we only had 2 children to pay for), and I don’t anticipate making a lot of flights over the next five years either so it just doesn’t make too much sense for our family.

 

[QueenHeather]

If you have the Waze App or Google Maps, I would do a test during the week this week to give you rough ETAS from LAX to Disney. Around 7PM PST just change your starting location to LAX and destination to Disneyland. 7PM though, traffic is still pretty bad, especially getting out of Los Angeles.

Brilliant! I will definitely do this. Thanks!

 

[FigmentSpark]

Have you thought about the ultimate... 7 parks in a day? Start in Paris?