Four Park Challenge: Expert Tips for Conquering All Four Walt Disney World Parks in One Day

Ready to tackle the ultimate Disney adventure? Join travel advisors Ryan and Julie as they break down everything you need to know about the Disney Four Park Challenge - visiting all four Walt Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom) in a single day.

Four Park Challenge Basics:

• Standard rules: Visit each park, ride one attraction, enjoy a snack, and take a photo
• Advanced options: Add character meet-and-greets or shows for an extra challenge
• Why this challenge is best for experienced Disney visitors, not first-timers

Critical Planning Factors:

• Transportation strategies between parks (bus, monorail, Skyliner, boat, or rideshare)
• Managing wait times and choosing efficient attractions
• Utilizing early park entry and understanding park hours
• Deciding whether to purchase Lightning Lane passes
• Avoiding rides with long pre-shows or frequent breakdowns

Ryan's Four Park Strategy: Starting at Magic Kingdom (Port Orleans French Quarter resort), he hits Peter Pan's Flight, grabs breakfast at Friar's Nook, then monorails to EPCOT for Finding Nemo and a French bakery treat. Next, he boats to Hollywood Studios for Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and a Ronto Wrap, takes the Skyliner to Riviera Resort for a coffee break, then rideshares to Animal Kingdom for Kilimanjaro Safari and celebration drinks at Nomad Lounge.

Julie's Family-Friendly Approach: Starting from a Magic Kingdom resort (Polynesian), she begins at Animal Kingdom earliest opening with Navi River Journey, takes in the Winged Encounters show, buses to Hollywood Studios for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and an Olaf meet-and-greet, Skyliners to EPCOT for lunch and character photos, then monorails to Magic Kingdom for It's a Small World, parade viewing, and finishes with the unique Kernel Kitchen popcorn sundae.

Pro Tips:

• Budget approximately 8 hours for the complete challenge
• Stay at resorts with convenient transportation options
• Use mobile ordering to save time
• Choose attractions near park entrances for efficiency
• Consider ending at the park with latest closing time
• Factor in special events that may affect park hours

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Transcript

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 0:00

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Have you heard of the Four Park Challenge? If your Insta Feed is full of Disney accounts, you probably have the Four Park Challenge is a challenge to visit. Yep. You guessed it. All four parks at Walt Disney World in one day. Today we're sharing our ideas on how you would complete this challenge, or at least try to.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 0:23

Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts, Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation, and I am a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 0:49

So Julie, my guess is with your kiddos ages, you have not attempted a four part challenge, have you?

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 0:56

I haven't, but as part as prepping for the show, I did kind of think through how we would do it I feel like it could be really doable.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 1:06

Yeah. my family many moons ago, did this one day'cause we were looking for a unique experience. and it was a lot of fun. Now I will say. This is best suited for somebody who goes to Walt Disney World multiple times, right? This is not how you want to handle your first or even third time you go to Walt Disney World because you're gonna be focusing on new fun experiences,

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 1:30

And you need to kind of know like the layout of the park and have a good plan going into it. So if it's your first time walking into Magic Kingdom, I

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 1:38

right?

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 1:38

there's a lot to soak in. we're gonna go through what we think the rules or things that you need to consider are, and then we'll share our plan.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 1:47

before we do that, if you have not listened to last week's episode, we discussed all sorts of shore excursion ideas when it comes to a European cruise.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 1:57

All right, so everyone's rules for a four Park challenge is always obviously visit each park,

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 2:06

Yep.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 2:06

the next typical ones are in each park you do a ride, a snack, and take a photo.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 2:13

Yep.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 2:14

But if you wanted to upgrade that plan or challenge your family a little bit more, I would say add in a show or a character, meet and greet as a requirement, because those things take a little bit more

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 2:26

They do. Yeah. And when my family did this, when my kids were younger, we did a ride, we did a snack, we did a photo, and then we also did some sort of show. And over the course of the day, we challenged ourselves to ride four different types of transportation to get around. which made it very interesting because that was the only time in all of my time at Walt Disney World that the monorail actually shut down. So we're like. That changes things dramatically.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 2:54

my gosh. Yeah. I guess like a hiccup like that, like when I'm writing out my plan, I'm

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 2:59

Yeah.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 2:59

isn't bad, but Right. Like you have a real time

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 3:02

And the skyliner was not in existence at that time. So, you know, it really did change our options.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 3:08

All right, so what are some things that we wanna consider? we mentioned just a couple just now, but kind of run through some things we wanna think about.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 3:16

So transportation, first and foremost, where is your resort and how are you going to get from each place? Are you looking for. For speed and efficiency. is there, is there a consideration based on where your resort is, where you should start, where you should end? All those things come into play. Wait times, obviously, for me this was not the time to ride the newest awesomes. the focus was on the challenge. So we were looking for what maximized our time as far as wait times. obviously not having table service meals, focusing on quick service meals. if you're gonna focus on snacks I think that's a good way to do it. And then maybe, have a sit down dinner, at the end of your time.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 4:01

Yeah.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 4:01

popularity of characters. If you're doing character meet and greets, do you know where those character meet and greets are? for instance, Julie, you've talked about, some places people may not know, like the Pixar, theater in Epcot. if you're looking for a low wait time ride. And a character meet and greet, pop over and do, figment? right next door is the character meet and greet that not a lot of people know about. And then you could stay and then you could stay. Well, we're like done, right? Grab, grab yourself a whatever on the way out. And you're, you're done at Epcot. That's probably not what people want to do, but you get the idea.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 4:38

Right. Do you wanna purchase lightning lanes and take advantage of lightning lanes? if it was an adult's trip, I honestly think I would just buy the single pass and for

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 4:47

A hundred percent.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 4:48

and boom, boom, boom.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 4:49

Yeah. It's it.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 4:50

not something that I could do with the kids necessarily, so I didn't include that on my sample plan. early entry. So take advantage of early entry. Look at the park hours. some parks open way earlier than

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 5:05

Yeah.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 5:05

some parks stay open much later than other parks. So you don't wanna get to a park or have that planned as your last park and get there and be like, oh wait, they're closed. think about if there's any evening parties going on, and this is more so. along with those park hours, things like the Halloween party, the Christmas party, Jo, Hollywood Nights. If one of those is going on, your time could be cut short, or could affect the crowds.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 5:30

I will tell you, Julie, when we did this as a family, it took us about eight hours to do this. we weren't running, you know, amazing race style, but when you factor in all the transportation, waiting in lines, all that kind of stuff, this does take some time to accomplish. So you really do need to be mindful, and like we said at the very beginning, the last tip is this is not your first visit. This is something to work on when you're kind of a Disney Pro, if you will.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 5:57

Yeah, absolutely. And I think going back to like your comment about how long it could take, waiting for that bus could take some time. don't go on the ride that tends to break down. rise of the resistance probably shouldn't be on your list because there's a solid chance you're gonna get stuck on the ride.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 6:15

Yeah, really good point. Well, before we get into our ideas, I wanna talk about where in the world is Wonder and Beyond Travel, I have a client who's worked with me for. Many years. one of the fun things that she does is when each of her grandkids, I think we're on the third grandkid, when each of the grandkids get to a certain age, she takes them on a Disney trip. from a travel advisor standpoint, it's never the most expensive trip that I book, but it's always one of the most special because they always stay. At the All Star movies because when her kids were younger and they would go, that's where they stayed. And so that resort, even though it's a value resort, has always been a special one to her and her family. they're going next month, they've got a park hopper because she has all these ideas of the different places they're gonna bebop around. we've done some really good character meals with, Ohana Breakfast, and we're going to the rodeo roundup for barbecue. she just has such a good time and with each of these kids, it's so special to have that time with grandma. I absolutely love helping her plan each of these trips.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 7:27

How old are the kids?

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 7:28

usually around eight years old.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 7:30

Oh, that's so perfect.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 7:32

Yeah. and sometimes they've been to Disney in the past, sometimes they haven't. it really depends on the families but she has just such a fun time planning these out with her grandkids.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 7:42

that's amazing.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 7:44

All right, so let's talk about a four Park challenge. here's what I'm gonna do I'm going to start with the classic. I'm gonna start my day at Magic Kingdom. Because to me that's just the right thing to do what resort do you think I should stay at Julie For this trip?

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 8:06

Hmm. moderate.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 8:09

A moderate. Okay. So I'm gonna stay at French Quarter. at Port Orleans, which actually was the resort that I was staying at when we did this the first time. So I'm gonna take the bus over to Magic Kingdom, so that's gonna be my transportation.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 8:24

Perfect.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 8:25

what I always want to do at Magic Kingdom, first and foremost, is I want to go to Peter Pan's flight. I'm going to then get a snack over at the Friar's Nook'cause they have some really good breakfast items. and most of them are like, grab and go so I can eat it while I'm bebopping around. and it's right there close to Peter Pan. Then for my.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 8:47

on this bebop.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 8:49

Then for my photo, it's a Midwestern thing, maybe. I don't know. and then for my photo as I'm leaving'cause I'm done, right? I'm done with what I'm doing. I am going to stop at the castle everybody in my party's gonna hold up on number one'cause that's the first part that we went to.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 9:07

Yeah.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 9:08

Then I'm going to get on the monorail. I'm gonna head over to Epcot. And then I'm going to choose a ride that's at the front of the park and is relatively easy to do. So I'm gonna get on Nemo.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 9:25

That's a

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 9:25

And, yep. And so I'm gonna get on Nemo, And then I need to get back over to the International Gateway, so I'm gonna make sure that I get a photo. outside of nemo, then I'm gonna walk back and for my snack, I'm gonna go to the bakery in France because even though World Showcase isn't open yet, the bakery is, and that's also right by the bridge to the international gateway, then I'm going to walk and get on a boat, and that's gonna be my third form of transportation.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 9:58

Perfect

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 9:59

And then for the boat where you think I'm taking that.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 10:04

Hollywood studios.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 10:06

to Hollywood Studios. once I get off the boat at Hollywood Studios, I am going to, throw an audible here. Instead of doing a ride at Hollywood Studios, I'm going to do a show, and I'm going to do the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular because it is the quintessential Hollywood studio thing to do. then I'm gonna take a little bit ex of extra time and I'm gonna walk back to Batou and get a lunch Ron wrap because I'm there. I've got to do it

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 10:38

Yes.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 10:39

way out. I'm gonna stop over by the Chinese theater and I'm gonna get my number three photo of the day. Are we tired yet? Okay, so.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 10:50

gotten breaks. We got to sit down on the boat.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 10:52

Okay, I'm gonna head out of Hollywood Studios and I am going to get on the Skyliner and I'm gonna take the Skyliner over to Riviera.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 11:02

Ooh,

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 11:03

I'm gonna go over to Riviera. I'm gonna take a second, take a breath, and I'm going to get a nice coffee in the afternoon there.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 11:12

that.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 11:12

I'm gonna get a coffee or maybe an alcoholic coffee beverage. I'm gonna take a second and I'm gonna sit in that beautiful voyager's room that's right next to there. then to get over to Animal Kingdom, Julie, I'm gonna call myself a minivan.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 11:25

Look at you.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 11:27

So I'm going to call myself a minivan. I'm going to take that minivan over to Animal Kingdom. I am gonna stop at the Tree of life. As I first go in. I'm gonna hold up number four with my fingers. So I've got my four photos. I'm going to go on. Let's see, what would be the ride that I would want to go on? I think the Safari is gonna be the perfect ride. Now that's a little tricky because the wait time may be up, so it depends if I've got my lightning lanes or not

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:00

But

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:01

For,

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:01

park.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:02

it's just hang out.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:04

yeah.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:05

That's the quintessential animal kingdom ride. So I'm gonna do that and then, or Everest, let's toss those up. Maybe I'm going to celebrate by getting on the single rider line for Everest and getting through quickly. boy, it's time for my snack Assuming, well, it doesn't even matter if I'm with all adults, but then I'm gonna head over to the Nomad Lounge and have a nice appetizer and drink to celebrate my time with my four Park challenge.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:34

Perfect.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:36

There we go.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:36

the, and like,

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:37

I.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 12:38

this through, like it sounds doable.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 12:41

Oh, it's doable. It, it's very doable. And, and you know, obviously it depends on your party what you need is you do need a strategy. everybody needs to be on the same page, or you need a team leader. with lightning lanes, if you're using them or the app with wait times, with mobile ordering, either snacks or quick service, you can totally save time in doing these things.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:03

So I'm gonna take a little bit of a different approach because I'm gonna pretend that I have my kids with me. Maybe in like three years, maybe not this year.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 13:10

Okay.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:11

so we are gonna stay at a Magic Kingdom resort because, you know, I love the Polynesian.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 13:16

I've heard that in past shows.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:17

it, you know, only about 50 ish days until I'm back. I'm getting pretty excited. we are actually gonna start at Animal Kingdom and I chose that because they opened the earliest. I wanted to maximize the amount of time available.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 13:30

idea.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:31

we're gonna take a bus there, and I didn't focus on The different transportation, but I did add some other things in.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 13:36

Okay, great.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:37

we're gonna do Navi River Journey because it's right in the front of the park and it opens with early entry. Kilimanjaro Safari does not open with early entry, so you'd waste a lot of time just standing in line waiting.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 13:48

Yeah, that's not the right way to start a day like this.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 13:51

Yeah, you're gonna take your picture at the Tree of Life sort of right outside Pandora. You're gonna go over to the Safari Bakery to grab some overnight oats, which sounds like this healthy snack you might not want, but it is delicious. It's so good. I'm also gonna stop at the front of the park after taking my Tree of Life picture and watch the Winked Encounters Show, which if you've never seen that, it

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 14:16

that's really cool.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 14:17

all the McCalls fly over you. It is so cool. So much fun.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 14:22

Agreed.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 14:23

Next, I'm gonna take the bus over to Hollywood Studio. you could also take a minivan if the buses are not running yet between the parks. sometimes that does take some time and we are gonna go on Mickey and mini's, runaway railway with or without a lightning lane. I just really love that ride and I wanted to make sure I was picking rides that the kids would still really enjoy. we're gonna take a picture outside of that at the Chinese theater. Go grab a Jack Jack Nam Nam cookie from that cart outside

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 14:52

that's a good idea.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 14:54

Hmm. Delicious. And then go over and meet Olaf because my kids are into Olaf right now.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 15:01

And what's interesting about this, Julie, is, and why we say don't try to do this until you've gone to the park several times. You are only seeing a small part of Hollywood Studios, and the same with Animal Kingdom. So you really want to make sure what your focus for that day is.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 15:19

Right. And especially when you think about doing it, if you have kids with you, they don't always understand we're not gonna do all the things here right now, we are moving on. So next we're gonna go over to Epcot via either the Skyliner or the boat. We are gonna ride Nemo just like Ryan said,'cause my kids love that ride and it can give them a little bit of downtime in that aquarium'cause we're gonna be moving at a little bit of a slower pace. actually gonna go over and grab lunch at Connections Cafe and Eatery. I love their general, so chicken salad. And we are gonna need a Starbucks cold brew by this point. We are gonna head over and meet Mickey and Minnie inside Camico Hall at one of their new meet and greet spots. Sometimes it's Mickey and Minnie, sometimes it's other characters, so whoever's there we're there for it. And take a picture outside Spaceship Earth. On our way outta the park to the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. to end at Magic Kingdom because they are usually open later, and our resort is right there. So now that we're gonna be tired at the end of the day, we have a quick ride back to the resorts.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 16:28

And you can celebrate with fireworks or with a fireworks dessert party if that's how you want to handle it.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 16:34

That's fancy. We are gonna go ride. It's a small world'cause that seems pretty magic kingdom to me.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 16:41

Mm-hmm.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 16:41

a photo at the castle, see a parade, whether that's the daytime parade, but I doubt we make it there that early

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 16:48

Right.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 16:48

Disney starlight. I really love that parade

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 16:52

is a great parade.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 16:53

I can't wait to see it again. Our snack is something not a lot of people know about. It's the kernel kitchen at the confectionary

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 17:01

Yeah. Tell me about this. I know it's there. I know it's there. I've seen people get it. I need to know about it'cause it sounds like something I might like.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 17:09

like a make your own popcorn sundae. Basically, there's three or four different popcorn bases you can Pick from different flavors of popcorn, like butter, caramel cheddar, and then there's Skittles or something that looks like rainbow. and then you can pick toppings, things like M and mss, chocolate syrup, caramel, Oreo cookies, Skittles, like all sorts of candies and sauces. you can mix and match whatever you want. It is amazing.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 17:37

Yeah.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 17:38

So good. It's definitely a snack that you split. it's not a one person popcorn

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 17:44

If you say.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 17:44

Um, I say so. So that's gonna be our day, and then we are gonna go back and collapse at our room in the Polynesian.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 17:52

I absolutely love it. So much fun. So just to wrap up here, you have not done this. I feel like I do this almost all the time with teenagers when I take them now.'cause we are just go, go, go, so next trip, is this something you want to try or is this still not time yet?

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 18:09

next trip for us is in like 50 days. So Mia's still only two and a half. Yeah, I'm not doing that with her yet. maybe when she is like five. So maybe in a couple years.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 18:19

Okay. Very good.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 18:20

because like I said, it's that understanding of like. gonna go to Toy Story land to do all those rides today. They have to kind of be on

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 18:27

Right,

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 18:28

you

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 18:28

right.

j_1_10-06-2025_114559: 18:29

The world is full of wonder and your next great adventure is waiting at Wonder and Beyond Travel. We work with you to create a one of a kind journey, taking the stress off your plate So you can focus on the joy of exploring and the memories that will stay with you forever. If you're ready to start planning or just want to dream a little bigger, head over to Wonder and beyond travel.com. We'd love to help you get started.

ryan_2_10-06-2025_114559: 18:53

We look forward to talking to you next week on all Things Travel. When we discuss the top Alaska Cruise Shore excursions.