It's all about the mouse - 11th August 2018 day 11 4 parks 1 day

[Goldia]

Welcome to the It’s all about the mouse trip report. We are a family of four and this is our 4th trip to Orlando. I'm Abby, my DH is Dave and our children are Max (13) and Kate (11). This trip is all WDW and we stay inside the Disney bubble for the entirety of our holiday.

If you haven't read the previous day it can be found here

Today was the long awaited 4 park challenge day. I say long awaited, of course this was really only long awaited by me as the rest of my family were either ambivalent or ignorant in regards to it. I had done much research (trip report reading ) and decided that if I was going to attempt the 4 parks challenge then I was going to do it properly and there would be no half-hearted attempts at it, just popping into the parks was out of the question. Without giving away too much it was one of my most favourite and also most tiring days of the trip. Ok, so obviously that gives away loads!

Before I get into what actually happened I will recap the rules and my plans for the day.

We had 7 rules:
1. NO STAYING NEAR THE ENTRANCE AND JUST POPPING IN! This was really important to me. I wanted us to be in the park and make our way around the majority of it
2. Do a headliner, big thrill ride in each park
3. Use a FP in each park
4. Eat something in each park
5. Meet a character in each park – full disclosure this had originally been meet Minnie and Mickey in all the parks, but I ended up deciding against this as it would have added a whole extra level of difficulty.
6. Get a photopass in each park
7. Use every mode of transport – bus, monorail and boat

Park 1 was AK, I booked just one FP for FOP at 9.15am. The park had EMH from 8am so I figured we’d get all the other bits done before FOP. Then I wanted us to get the bus to HS and finish up there by lunch. Third park was Epcot via the boat from HS so entering in the World Showcase and then finally the monorail to MK for the evening.

Firstly, as wdw often do, the park hours for AK were changed and instead of an 8am opening it was now a 7am EMH! Argh! I’d already booked the FP for FOP, try as I might in the run up to the holiday I couldn’t change it so we ended up with a slightly earlier start to the day than I intended. In a second attempt to scupper my plans wdw announced that there was a special after hours event at MK that night starting at 10pm. I figured that would make the park even busier than usual on a Saturday night, but I wasn’t about to change the plan around now. So, we went ahead with the original order of parks.

Righty-oh, that's enough pre-amble, let’s get down to business, and I will tell you what actually happened.

I set my alarm for 5.45am. I was up like a rocket and out of bed straight away. The phone alarm went off at 6am and I harangued everyone else until they were ready. They did really well as we were walking to the bus stop (in the dark!) at 6.30am.

Kate was somewhat put out that I had made everyone put on sun tan lotion even though it was still dark out. She was muttering that the only thing we were likely to be burned by was the light from the street lamps! A morning person she is not…

The previous night I had checked yet again if the FOP FP could be moved, but there were no earlier options so I went with a Dinosaur FP at 8.15am.

At the bus stop I realised I had forgotten to put my back rings on after applying the sun tan lotion, so Dave went running back to the room to get them for me (additional exercise was not needed on today). Fortunately he didn’t miss the bus which arrived pretty promptly.

Bag check was pretty speedy and we were through nice and quick, off to a flying start.

Our first ride of the day was the Na’vi River Journey.

On the way to Asia we stopped off for one of our favourite donuts and coffee for breakfast at the Royal Anandapur truck.

Dave and myself both had one of the cold brew coffees.

We got a chocolate and pink donut to share between the 4 of us.

4 snack credits used.

Expedition Everest said it was supposed to be a 5 minute wait but ended up being a walk on. I do love doing rides early in the morning. One of the advertising signs in the queue for EE had Kate’s name on – the tea sign…my photo of it wasn’t much good!

We were really lucky here and were given the back two rows of the ride! Woo hoo!

We tried to go on Primeval Whirl but this was closed due to technical difficulties and so we went onwards to our first FP at Dinosaur. We were 6 minutes early, but were just waved through. There was no need to use a FP here and it served no advantage compared to the standby line.

We were in row number 2 in the car on Dinosaur, as ever we do all look a both bored and scared in the photo!

We went back to Primeval Whirl and did manage to ride it now as it was back up and running.

So far, we’ve eaten our breakfast, used a FP, done 4 rides! Not bad going considering it wasn’t even 9am.

I wanted to check out the wait time for Mickey and Minnie, but this was already up to 25 minutes and I figured it would only be worse later in the other parks so I decided to not limit us to having to meeting M&M…

We wandered to the tree of life and got our photo taken there.

We also saw the parrots do their thing! I'm not too keen when they fly over your head though!

Then we mooched about the Discovery Trading Company shop as I wanted to meet Dug and Russell. The kids played with the bark-o-later machine by the meet and greet.

When I checked with a cast member though we were told the app was wrong and they weren’t due out at 9am and instead would be out at 10am.

So, we went back into Pandora and on to FOP. Of course this was amazing again. Kate felt this was the best FOP ride yet as she could feel the banshee breathing this time.

After FOP we did manage to meet Dug and Russell and I was a little less grumpy!

It was still only 10.15am and we had accomplished such a lot in AK. This was our last visit to AK of the trip and it had been a great morning, 5 rides, 2 characters, 4 snacks and 1 photopass with the tree of life. We had definitely walked all around the park and it was a big tick for park 1 of the challenge.

We headed out of the park to the bus stop to catch the bus to HS. It was bus stop 17, which is the farthest bus stop from the park. As we were walking to the bus stop a HS bus pulled in.

While waiting for the bus to leave I booked up a FP for Tower of Terror for 11.10am.

At HS we got our photopass straight away at the entrance.

As we headed into the park we decided to get in line to meet Daisy Duck, she is Kate’s favourite character.

Daisy really like Kate’s stars on her shorts and she said she wanted stars on her dress.

We decided that we wanted to do a show for a bit of a rest – so we wandered to the Frozen show but the next show wasn’t on until 11.30. We then figured some early lunch was called for and we went to Backlot Express but that wasn’t open yet either as it opened at 11am, so we decided to go on the star tours ride before lunch! This was about a 15 minute wait.

We did manage to get something to eat from Backlot Express after the ride.

I got the galactic vodka lemonade as my drink and Dave had a strawberry daiquiri (which gave him serious brain freeze).

For food, Max wanted nuggets and so got the chicken and waffle meal with a coke as the drink. Dave had a burger and fries pretty much to himself. Kate and me shared a chilli hot dog and fries.

3 QS credits used.

We could see the weather was coming in and it was pretty obvious that it was about to rain so we were rushing to try to get over to Tower of Terror for our FP. But the rain came down and we had to stop under the little shop near the Olaf meet and greet.

The rain was torrential and we ended up waiting quite a while. There was a little boy playing in the puddles. Obviously he was soaked.

Then Kate decided she really needed the toilet and couldn’t wait any longer so we made a dash for the nearest restroom. In spite of the fact that it was only about 20 feet away we managed to still get pretty wet. There was a huge puddle outside it that was about 2 inches deep and so our feet also got wet so we spent ages drying our socks and shoes out in there before heading back to the boys. I ended up giving Kate my socks as hers were not drying out well and I didn’t want her to end up with sore feet. I had no socks!

The rain had pretty much stopped by now and so we made our way to Tower of Terror even though our FP window had been and gone. I was pretty confident they would let us onto the ride as the whole park had been at a standstill during the rain. There was not even a discussion and it didn’t matter to Gary that we were 25 minutes late for the FP we were sent straight through to the waiting room area.

The kids and me decided to go on to RnR as single riders as we wanted to ride it again.

Dave decided to sit this one out and just have a rest. I had given the kids strict instructions to wait in the shop for me to come out before leaving the ride. Max went first, then Kate and then me. The kids actually ended up on the same ride just a couple of seats apart and I was on the next one.

In spite of the rain we managed 3 rides here, met Daisy, did our photopass and had lunch.

We decided it was time to head onto Epcot. We headed down to the boat dock.

As we entered Epcot via the World Showcase entrance we stopped off at France in Les Halles.

We shared 2 sandwiches which were the ham and cheese baguette and brie and apple baguette. We were asked if we wanted these toasted and I said no, which I think with hindsight was a mistake as the bread was a bit tough and slightly stale, plus the cheese would have melted a little too. As the drinks for these Dave got a beer and I got a glass of wine. We also got 2 puddings a Tarte aux Chocolate and a chocolate chip cookie which the kids ate. The puddings were the best bit of this meal and the kids really enjoyed them.

As this was 2 QS credits and 2 snack credits used it had to be put through as 2 transactions.

We watched the serveur amusant show after our 2nd lunch and while we were watching Dave and myself also treated ourselves to the Grand Marnier and Citron Slushes from the kiosk. These are yummy!

Just after the show we were heading out of France towards the UK and we saw a wedding proposal, the lady looked very surprised, but she did say yes.

I hadn’t banked on us seeing a proposal on our 4 parks challenge so this was a bonus!

We walked through the UK and we booked a FP for the character spot on the way out of World Showcase. I really wasn’t that fussed what we got as our FPs as they were all a bonus really and I think that as it didn’t really matter to us what we got it was just a case of picking up something that was available right now.

Before the characters we stopped off to ride Figment as you can’t go to Epcot on a four parks challenge and not ride the mascot ride!

Onwards to the characters. I'm glad we managed to fit both Mickey and Minnie in on the day.

We had a pit stop at Club Cool and Kate brought me 4 cups of different drinks to try out…I think you can guess what was in one of them!

She has now got this photo on her phone as her screen saver as she thinks it’s hilarious.

We got a photopass by the fountains.

Then we went on to Mission Space, the green ride, as it was only a 5 minute wait. I was the navigator, Max was the commander, Kate was the pilot and Dave was the engineer.

We felt like we’d done enough at Epcot, I’m not sure if you would call either Figment or Mission Space a top tier ride! I had planned on going on Spaceship Earth, but it was a 25 minute wait and we couldn’t be bothered to hang around, we just wanted a bit of a sit down. Of course, now that the character spot has moved to tier 1 I’m going to say it wasn’t a fail at Epcot. We had managed to walk through part of the World Showcase and all over the rest of the park. We met 3 characters, got our photopass, did 2 rides and saw a proposal, had a cocktail and a glass of wine/beer and I had the Beverly, not a bad couple of hours at Epcot.

We wearily waited for the monorail and when we got on I did a time check and it was now 4.08pm.

The monorail was actually quite crowded and we ended up having to stand for the first part of the journey to the TTC.

When we made it to MK it was around 4.40pm and we went in to the Tinkerbell meet. The wait time was posted at 25 minutes and while we had just passed up Spaceship Earth we decided this was a good idea as we could sit on the floor inside while waiting for our turn.

After Tink we got on the railway heading to Frontierland.

We weren’t really in the mood for walking over there!

We were tired out and there were more than a few grumbles. We wanted something more to eat, partly as we were hungry and partly because it would mean we could have a little sit down. We went to Pecos Bill’s for dinner and used 3 QS credits.

Kate and me shared the beef nachos and a coke. Max had a burger which came with a side of nachos, he had a sprite. Dave had the fajita platter, plus a root beer as the drink.

We took our time eating. After we finished the boys had gone for a toilet break so Kate and me were sitting on the wall outside and we spotted Brer Rabbit and Clarabelle going towards the Country Bear Jamboree so as soon as the boys came out we headed on down to see what was going on. There ended up being a hoe-down going on.

I have not seen or heard of this before. It felt very much like a Disney version of a flash mob! Does this happen all the time? Has anyone else seen this?

There was a lot of dancing and then all of a sudden lots of the Country Bear Jamboree characters came out and started joining in with the dancing.

Then the cast members were getting people from the audience in to join in.

It was really fun to come across something unexpected like this and something that was brand new for us!

We had a FP for POTC and so we headed there, we stopped on the way to watch the Captain Jack Sparrow show.

Both these little shows were great, the only thing that would have improved them for us was if we could have sat on a chair! Did I mention already that we were pretty tired out and our feet were aching.

We used our POTC FP.

There was only one option for pudding DOLE WHIP! We hadn’t had any dole whip so far, which is criminal really!

I opted for the pineapple upside down cake with dole whip, this was delicious and DFB are right it is so tasty. Kate and Dave both had the dole whip and vanilla swirl. Max had a vanilla swirl.

4 snack credits well worth it!

We booked up another FP for the tea cups and went over to Fantasyland.

The boys were both a bit moany and tired now and were really keen to head back home. It was 7.17pm, and I'm sorry to say that I was just a little sulky about the idea that the day was coming to an end as I just wanted it to go on forever Looking at Max in this photo though and he seems absolutely shattered.

I still wanted us to get a photo on Main Street as our photopass. Unfortunately as there had been thunderstorms in the area none of the photographers were out on Main Street.

The boys really had had enough so they left and Kate stayed with me. I asked her what she wanted to do and she wanted to go to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, regular readers will recall that the kids find this hilarious and even more so when I am picked on to join in!

While we were waiting for the show to start we booked up a FP for Under the Sea.

This time though it was Kate that was picked! They asked the audience if anyone knew where they lived and she put her hand up. The guy joked it was a shame that not everyone in the audience could remember where they lived. Kate said she was from England. The guy told her lots of facts about France and then asked if he was correct.

As we came out of the theatre Dave sent me a what's app message from the hotel room, they had arrive back and mousekeeping had been playing with the cuddly toys.

We were thirsty and shared a strawberry smoothie and diet coke from Auntie Gravity’s.

2 more snack credits.

We decided that watching shows was definitely the way forward if we were going to last until park close. So we headed into the Carousel of Progress. This was great actually and the couple of shows and drinks helped to revive us.

We headed over to use the Under the Sea FP and once we had scanned in I booked another FP for Winnie the Pooh. We got a photopass with just the two of us by the Gaston fountain which was lovely.

As it was getting on for HEA we thought we would check out the wait times for 7DMT, BTMR and Splash but 7DMT was 80 minutes and the others were 40 minutes. We didn’t do these and just went on Pooh!

We had a little look to see if the lantern photo was a short line, but it really wasn’t, plus I wasn’t so fussed at getting a photo of us both when were hot, sweaty and tired! If I get a lantern one I want us to at least look semi-decent and not like we’d just been out for 15 hours on a 4 park challenge!

We were going to leave but we saw that Haunted Mansion had a 5 minute wait, in fact it was a walk on and so we went on there.

Then we realised that the Princess meet and greet with Elena and Cinderella was a 5 minute wait so we went over to the castle to meet them.

They were gorgeous and charming and I felt like a sweaty mess

That really was enough now. We headed out of the park and over to the bus stop. Then while we were waiting for the bus Kate decided she needed the toilet, so we went over the restrooms by the bus stops. We managed to get a seat on the bus and we made it back to the resort at 10.40pm.

It was an exhausting but brilliant day and I'm really glad we made it to all 4 parks.

I think we were pretty successful in meeting our objectives for the challenge. We absolutely made the most of being in the parks and while at points it was a slog it was also brilliant fun and a day I will remember for a long time.

At the time I thought this would not be something we would ever repeat and that once and done for this challenge would be enough. But now that I’ve reminded myself of how much fun we had I think this is only the beginning and of course we will want to do it all again one day!

Statistics for the day:

Credits Used 12 snack, 8 QS and 0 TS. Yay! We used some snack credits today.

Credits Remaining 49 snack 14 QS and 20 TS. We are making a little headway. 3 more days to go on the dining plan.

Parks: 4
Rides: 14
FP: 8
Characters: 9
Steps: 31,652

Tomorrow the much needed rest day! No parks at all, just brunch at California Grill and pool time planned.

[MrsSilverStar]

I’m exhausted just reading about it Abby! Sounds like it was a fantastic day, even if the boys couldn’t hack the pace

So pleased you achieved everything you wanted to, although I get the impression that failure was not an option

[Eccle]

That sounds an exhausting but amazing day, you managed to do such a lot! Well done to you and Kate for lasting out

[Zomax25]

What a fabulous day. No way I would get my grumpy family to do this, but maybe my eldest daughter might be up for it with me one day 😂.
Thanks for sharing.

[Hel22]

WOW You did soooo much, I'm in awe 😀 Was so looking forward to this installment of your report and it was well worth waiting for. Your reports really ramp up our excitement and anticipation for forthcoming trip. Think my Hubby is a little afraid I might now want to try a four park challenge of our own LOL. Your family are hilarious and your writing style is fab, Thank you so much for sharing.

[tory79]

That is a whole lot of steps!

[walt4it]

When you plan it in advance, you think it is such a big thing to do and as you found - it actually turns into one amazing day, a day where you maintain a pace and focus yet really soak up each park.
Your objectives were good as it is not about just stepping foot in each park, you really need to do a variety of things and absorb what is happening in each park - you just know not to linger. Well done to you and Kate for sticking it out until the end

As much as it is a tiring day , there is a real feeling of total fulfilment when you achieve all 4 parks in a day, it will stay with you forever

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

I’m exhausted just reading about it Abby! Sounds like it was a fantastic day, even if the boys couldn’t hack the pace

So pleased you achieved everything you wanted to, although I get the impression that failure was not an option

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Ha ha, no failure was not an option! You know me well!

It really was amazing. I'm ashamed to say I was way too sulky for a fully grown woman at the idea of leaving I'm lucky that Kate wanted to stat with me. Looking back, I think we should have tried to do more shows throughout the day because of course they're fab, but also the sitting down in aircon would have revived us!

Originally Posted by Eccle

That sounds an exhausting but amazing day, you managed to do such a lot! Well done to you and Kate for lasting out

See more...

It was exhausting, but also exhilarating. I think it helps that we had done each of the parks, so any of the rides we did were just a bonus. Although many of the characters were ones we hadn't met yet this summer, Russell and Dug, Tink, Elena, even Daisy in her cute pink and purple so they were all good.

Originally Posted by Zomax25

What a fabulous day. No way I would get my grumpy family to do this, but maybe my eldest daughter might be up for it with me one day 😂.
Thanks for sharing.

See more...

I don't think Dave was looking forward to it at all. We have never done a park open to park close day. It's just too hot and tiring in the August heat. We always have a break in the afternoon at the pool, so I pushing them to their limits. I think 12 hours for the boys was about all they could suffer!

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Hel22

WOW You did soooo much, I'm in awe 😀 Was so looking forward to this installment of your report and it was well worth waiting for. Your reports really ramp up our excitement and anticipation for forthcoming trip. Think my Hubby is a little afraid I might now want to try a four park challenge of our own LOL. Your family are hilarious and your writing style is fab, Thank you so much for sharing.

See more...

I'm blushing, what kind words. It's lovely reading trip reports when you're in the bleak days of your countdown and then nearer the end I agree it's so exciting to think of all the things you will be doing soon.

I'm glad we did the 4 park challenge towards the end of the trip, as we'd already done the things that were really important to us. It was one of those things that once I'd read about it in other people's trip reports I couldn't wait to try it out.

Originally Posted by tory79

That is a whole lot of steps!

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It was our biggest step count of the holiday! We do like walking though. Not that you've asked but in other hols we've reached close to 40k steps...our first day in NYC was a biggie 37k! Good shoes are essential.

Originally Posted by walt4it

When you plan it in advance, you think it is such a big thing to do and as you found - it actually turns into one amazing day, a day where you maintain a pace and focus yet really soak up each park.
Your objectives were good as it is not about just stepping foot in each park, you really need to do a variety of things and absorb what is happening in each park - you just know not to linger. Well done to you and Kate for sticking it out until the end

As much as it is a tiring day , there is a real feeling of total fulfilment when you achieve all 4 parks in a day, it will stay with you forever

See more...

It was actually very easy to fit the 4 parks in. When we were in line waiting for the Tink meet and greet we were chatting to the cast member and I said we were on our 4 park challenge and I explained the rules. She was gobsmacked and said that she'd tried to do it but had only wanted to do 1 ride and pretty much leave for the next park. I think she thought we were mad. I wanted to feel like we'd really been in each of the parks though and not just skim the surface.

You're right, it is something I will never forget, the others too I hope. I know there is a lot of time 'wasted' by travelling, but I even enjoyed that. We've done the boat between Epcot and HS before and while it might not be the quickest way to travel I really like it. As you say it was about trying to soak it all up.

I'm sure we will do it again someday, it really was amazing. I've read reports where people add in Disney Springs or a water park to make it a 5 park challenge, now that is taking it to an extra level.

[Rescuer]

Wow, I’m thinking I need a nap after just reading that never mind actually doing it.
I was laughing at Kate’s comment about the sun cream as that’s the kind of sarcastic nonsense we’d get from ds as well😂
You certainly kept your energy levels high by snacking all the way, I love days like that.
We’ve seen the hoe down - flash mob, they’ve been doing it for a fair few years.
We enjoyed our 3 parks in a day at Christmas, I’m not sure I could do 4 in the summer heat but I’m not ruling it out.
Great read - thanks for posting.