4 Parks in 1 Day!

We have done a lot at Disney World, but one thing we had not done was go to four parks in one day!  We had done three many times, but never all four. It can be challenging to accomplish especially considering the commute time between parks, but we did it, and even managed to get a picture with each parks Christmas tree. We even wore our “Just Engaged” buttons which made this day extra special!

We started the day right before rope drop at Epcot. We were here with two missions-get a picture in front of the tree and go on Soarin’ for the last time. Next year they are changing it to be Soarin over Horizons, so the movie will be different. I am sure they will do a good job with the new one, but I am emotionally attached to the California version, so I will really miss it!
Starbucks in hand, we were off to the second park Animal Kingdom. We took the bus over and were in need of  a snack so we got some fried rice and egg rolls near Yak and Yeti. We wanted to go on Dinosaur, but it was a really long line for what it was, so we did Everest instead.
I loved the decorations they had here! I thought this Jungle Book nod was a cute touch to the tree and the worn decoration in Africa were very unique too. We continued snacking by having some Lobster Mac and Cheese from the Beastly Kiosk and then sharing ribs at Harambe market. Everything was excellent and we are really impressed with the Animal Kingdom counter service lately.
We headed over to Hollywood Studios mid afternoon to use our fastpasses! We had booked them there because we knew it would be crazy. We got to ride Toy Story Mania (still can’t beat our previous scores) and Tower of Terror which are our two favorites. Then our last fastpass was for Star Tours, which was changed up a little for the new movie! We always enjoy the different scenes and this made us very excited for Episode VII. We had some leisurely fun hanging around in between fast passes, getting Shock Top Pretzel beer, seeing the Star Wars Launch Bay and enjoying some soft serve ice cream from Gertie’s!

Once it got dark though, it was time for the main event-the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights! We saw this last year and loved it. The lights are so beautiful and the atmosphere and music make for a magical experience. We could not believe how great the lights looked this year and are sad they will be going away. The only downside of this event was how packed it was. We could barely move! I remember last year getting to walk around and explore, but this year you were stuck with the crowd. Everyone was polite though so it was still a great experience that we will always remember.
Now we just had one park left-Magic Kingdom! It was pretty easy to do three parks but this last one was brutal. We wanted to park at Polynesian and eat at Captain Cook’s, but it took us half an hour to find parking in there! That ended up being frustrating but we finally got a spot. Then we had some nice pulled pork nachos for a snack. We went upstairs to take the monorail, but the line was out the door! So then we went to the boat which still was slow getting there. Magic Kingdom can be a hard one to get to so it probably was not ideal to save it for last. We made it in and fought the crowds to take a picture by the tree. Walking around, all the lines were so long! We decided to take an It’s a Small World ride and call it a night. Leaving the park also took a while to get on the boat but when we finally did, we saw the finale of Wishes! So that was a great way to end the day.

We almost gave up getting to the Magic Kingdom, but I am glad we did not. It was worth it to see this beautiful view. Though I do not recommend this strategy, it is fun for Disney World veterans to see all the Christmas Offerings in one day. With the right amount of patience, flexibility and caffeine it can be very enjoyable!