UPDATED: Ultimate park hop - 6 parks in one day - WE DID IT!

[Tozzie]

Thank you!

We land at LAX at 5:30 pm so I'm sure rush hour is going to suck. But we will do the private Super Shuttle again this year so we don't have to waste time picking up and dropping off other people. We're staying at the Grand Californian (major splurge!) and will hit DCA first through the special entrance. Just need CA park times to come out so we can plan the other half of the day!!

Prior to my previous answer I looked up park hours for last year the same time of year (disney is predictable that way) DL closed at 9 and DCA closed at 8 so go to DCA first, then rush over to DL

 

[AngiTN]

Good luck! Sounds like an amazing experience. I would love to try it one day

We definitely want to use FP as much as possible! We generally don't hop a ton so I'm less versed in how to do FP in multiple parks on the same day. We don't need FP for MK because of EMM. But we could do our prebooked FP at AK. If we only prebook one FP at AK, can we then try to do a same day FP in the app for DHS? And then repeat for EPCOT? That would be a game changer!!

Yes, you can use 1 FP at AK and immediately try for a FP at HS and then once used at HS try for one at Epcot

 

[snuggly duckling]

Good luck! Sounds like an amazing experience. I would love to try it one day


Yes, you can use 1 FP at AK and immediately try for a FP at HS and then once used at HS try for one at Epcot

Yippee!!! Thank you!!! That is awesone news!

My husband loves playing the FP refresh game in MDE. We decided a week ago to head down this weekend for the Pandora AP previews and he was able to get all 4 of us Frozen FPs for Saturday and 7DMT for Sunday. That will be his job!

So looking at Touring Plans, overall crowd level is 3 that day, with a 2 at AK and a 5 at DHS. So maybe we will do standby for Dinosaur (or whatever else is short) at AK and use our pre booked FPs at DHS. Then refresh refresh refresh for a FP at EPCOT while we are on our way over there. Plus we will practically be rope dropping AK, and I'm sure the bulk of the crowd will be headed to Pandora, Safari, or Everest. Dinoland is usually very dead in the early morning.

I love geeking out like this!!

 

[katmatry]

Sounds like fun! Good luck!

 

[snuggly duckling]

Sounds like fun! Good luck!

Thank you!! I'm ridiculously excited about it! It has been my husband's goal for a while now so we're stoked to get to try!

 

[snuggly duckling]

Prior to my previous answer I looked up park hours for last year the same time of year (disney is predictable that way) DL closed at 9 and DCA closed at 8 so go to DCA first, then rush over to DL

Yup, when we hopped from WDW to DL last year it was the same: DCA closed at 8 and DL at 9. Our plane last year landed at 7:50 pm at John Wayne so DCA was completely off the table. But we were able to get to the GCH, ditch our stuff, buy tickets, and get into DL before it closed at 9! We even had time to ride Hyperspace Mountain before the park closed!!

 

[bladiator]

I have to agree with the sentiment earlier about telling Disney about this, and you can probably get some help (or if not help, maybe they can waive some of the costs? I don't know). I just think about how recently there was a guy on Twitter that asked the Wendy's twitter account how many retweets he needed to get free nuggets for a year and Wendy's responded "18 million" (which is ridiculous), but then he went on a crusade and the Wendy's account helped as well.

In the end, this guy just recently got the most retweets on a tweet in all of Twitter history (over 3.3 million). And Wendy's did everything they could to get this guy recognized by late night hosts and all sorts of things. So I gotta imagine that the 6 park hop would be worth something to Disney that they could help cover and get some value out of it.

 

[danikoski]

Yippee!!! Thank you!!! That is awesone news!

My husband loves playing the FP refresh game in MDE. We decided a week ago to head down this weekend for the Pandora AP previews and he was able to get all 4 of us Frozen FPs for Saturday and 7DMT for Sunday. That will be his job!

So looking at Touring Plans, overall crowd level is 3 that day, with a 2 at AK and a 5 at DHS. So maybe we will do standby for Dinosaur (or whatever else is short) at AK and use our pre booked FPs at DHS. Then refresh refresh refresh for a FP at EPCOT while we are on our way over there. Plus we will practically be rope dropping AK, and I'm sure the bulk of the crowd will be headed to Pandora, Safari, or Everest. Dinoland is usually very dead in the early morning.

I love geeking out like this!!

The Touring Plans crowd level for AK doesn't take into account Pandora crowds...just remember that. Might be better to get fast passes...

 

[snuggly duckling]

The Touring Plans crowd level for AK doesn't take into account Pandora crowds...just remember that. Might be better to get fast passes...

Oh good to know! I always forget that about TP. We definitely plan to watch average wait times for the time periods we plan to be in each park to get a good handle on what we can expect. I'm just worried that if we prebook FPs at AK then there won't be anything left at DHS when we look for them on the way there. Ack! This is hard! But still fun!!!

 

[snuggly duckling]

I have to agree with the sentiment earlier about telling Disney about this, and you can probably get some help (or if not help, maybe they can waive some of the costs? I don't know). I just think about how recently there was a guy on Twitter that asked the Wendy's twitter account how many retweets he needed to get free nuggets for a year and Wendy's responded "18 million" (which is ridiculous), but then he went on a crusade and the Wendy's account helped as well.

In the end, this guy just recently got the most retweets on a tweet in all of Twitter history (over 3.3 million). And Wendy's did everything they could to get this guy recognized by late night hosts and all sorts of things. So I gotta imagine that the 6 park hop would be worth something to Disney that they could help cover and get some value out of it.

Maybe!

It would certainly be easier to have to wheels greased a bit, but at the same time, it feels like cheating. I kinda want to see if we can pull it off with only what's readily available to us, like the people who compete on that Naked and Afraid show LOL

 

[danikoski]

Also, just as an FYI, the last time I checked, there are busses that go from AK to TTC. So, if you wanted to leave AK as the last park, you can get back to TTC from there. I hate to say this, but the busses might be more reliable then the monorail...

 

[Kerriowl]

I wonder if there is a way to tweak the plan so that you use the Express bus to go to AK? This would minimize any impact of Pandora crowds at the gate getting through security.

 

[danikoski]

I wonder if there is a way to tweak the plan so that you use the Express bus to go to AK? This would minimize any impact of Pandora crowds at the gate getting through security.

If you did MK to Epcot to (either Express or walk through IG) DHS and took the Express Bus to AK then do Dinosaur and take a regular bus to TTC...

 

[Accident]

If you did MK to Epcot to (either Express or walk through IG) DHS and took the Express Bus to AK then do Dinosaur and take a regular bus to TTC...

There is no regular bus to ttc. the only time a bus to ttc is running is if a parking lot is full and they are sending cars to MK to park or the epcot monorail is not running.

There is a bus to poly where you could walk over to ttc.

I personally think the plan to park at epcot and then end there is a good one, future world might be fairly sparse by that time.

 

[bladiator]

Maybe!

It would certainly be easier to have to wheels greased a bit, but at the same time, it feels like cheating. I kinda want to see if we can pull it off with only what's readily available to us, like the people who compete on that Naked and Afraid show LOL

I totally get that. I guess I was thinking specifically more about getting some of the additional costs waived. I mean, you were going to use them anyways, but like you, it hurts to get the EMM and then leave before it's even over when you pay that kind of money out. So you wouldn't be getting any preferential treatment as far as .... getting walked to the front of a line, but then you aren't quite being financially punished for doing something that could get them some good media coverage.

Who knows? Maybe they'll just throw you a party at the end!

 

[danikoski]

There is no regular bus to ttc. the only time a bus to ttc is running is if a parking lot is full and they are sending cars to MK to park or the epcot monorail is not running.

There is a bus to poly where you could walk over to ttc.

I personally think the plan to park at epcot and then end there is a good one, future world might be fairly sparse by that time.

Did there used to be a bus...ah well..the point was to avoid the early crowd at AK due to Pandora...

Edit: I see where they changed after 2013...

 

[snuggly duckling]

I wonder if there is a way to tweak the plan so that you use the Express bus to go to AK? This would minimize any impact of Pandora crowds at the gate getting through security.

Definitely something to keep in consideration. It's tricky though. We have to start at MK because of EMM, and given their proximity it makes sense to do DHS and EPCOT next to each other, but we could move AK to the end. The hard part with that is getting the car to the AK parking lot early, early in the morning so we can leave straight for MCO. Plus getting from AK to MK at that hour is a guaranteed cab or Uber ride. Hmmmm...

 

[snuggly duckling]

I totally get that. I guess I was thinking specifically more about getting some of the additional costs waived. I mean, you were going to use them anyways, but like you, it hurts to get the EMM and then leave before it's even over when you pay that kind of money out. So you wouldn't be getting any preferential treatment as far as .... getting walked to the front of a line, but then you aren't quite being financially punished for doing something that could get them some good media coverage.

Who knows? Maybe they'll just throw you a party at the end!

Maybe they'll pay our whole Grand Californian bill ? Or upgrade us all to Premium APs? LOL

My husband is a Twitter addict so I am sure he will be tweeting at the Parks' Twitter handles as we go along. I will just be annoying all my friends on Facebook, many who do not understand the Disney obsession!!

 

[Dallas_Lady]

There was someone on the boards that did it several years ago, so it's possible.

 

[snuggly duckling]

With a month before we can do FPs and probably 6+ weeks before we get DL/DCA park hours, I'm only able to keep thinking and rethinking our approach.

Right now, my big question is whether I should go ahead and purchase the Early Morning Magic tickets for MK now, or wait.

On the "pro" side:

• With current park hours, getting this bonus time at MK is the only way we'll be able to pull this off
• No risk of it selling out before we buy our tickets

On the "con" side:

• Tickets are non-refundable, so if park hours change (like an extension of EMH at another park, especially like 7:00 am at DAK which might be even more useful than EMM) we'd be out of almost $300

I think I'm leaning towards purchasing them now just to have it out of the way. We waited too long on MVMCP tickets one time and didn't buy tickets before they sold out. I'd hate for that to happen here, and kill our chances of pulling this off right off the bat. Plus, park hours from this same time period last year did not change substantially. It's "low" crowd value season so we probably won't see any significant extensions. Except DAK. That's the wild card with the excitement around Pandora. But even if they did have 7:00 am EMH for Pandora, it would probably not be fast because of the crowds.

What to do? What to do?