Entering Park for Reservation Only - No Park Hopper

[wen8jr]

I know this has probably been asked many times, but for some reason I cannot locate a post.

We will not have park hoppers, but we would like to return one evening to EPCOT for a reservation only after visiting Magic Kingdom. How will that work when entering the park to go only to the restaurant?

I'm in the middle of making reservations for an upcoming trip but I don't want to make it so aggravating it ruins the effort to go just for a meal.

 

[minnie mum]

If you want to enter 2 parks on the same day, no matter what the reason, you must have a park hopper ticket.

 

[DaisyD]

You will need a park ticket to enter the park even if just going to a restaurant. So either upgrade to hopper or buy a one day ticket to use for dinner.

 

[LilyWDW]

I know this has probably been asked many times, but for some reason I cannot locate a post.

We will not have park hoppers, but we would like to return one evening to EPCOT for a reservation only after visiting Magic Kingdom. How will that work when entering the park to go only to the restaurant?

I'm in the middle of making reservations for an upcoming trip but I don't want to make it so aggravating it ruins the effort to go just for a meal.

It won't work. Without the park hopper option you can only enter a single theme park that day, so you will not be able to hop to Epcot after spending the day at MK.

 

[wen8jr]

Thanks for the quick reply minnie mum.

So...not worth it for us then. I wish Magic Kingdom had offered a little something different in TS resturants and I wish Maya Grill at our resort did not have so many bad reviews. (Sigh) EPCOT has all of our favorite restaurants.

 

[Missyrose]

You could also pick a TS at one of the Monorail resorts on your MK day, that's what we're doing. HTH

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Like the pp poster suggested, I'd take the monorail to a resort TS.

 

[wen8jr]

Excellent idea using the monorail!! Thanks, that has saved the day.

 

[minnie mum]

Excellent idea using the monorail!! Thanks, that has saved the day.

Absolutely. There are some really great restaurants at GF, Poly or CR.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Normally when you make any reservation for dining in a Park you will get a warning that "valid park admission is required". This is a mandatory statement for anyone working in reservations, and it is on all on-line reservation notices and confirmation.

Valid Park Admission is a ticket which will allow you into the Park. If you have a non-hopper ticket and have entered a different park that day you do not have valid park admission. And, if your meal, for example, is at CRT where a deposit is taken, you are considered a "no-show" and forfeit your payment.

 

[traylorc]

Normally when you make any reservation for dining in a Park you will get a warning that "valid park admission is required". This is a mandatory statement for anyone working in reservations, and it is on all on-line reservation notices and confirmation.

Valid Park Admission is a ticket which will allow you into the Park. If you have a non-hopper ticket and have entered a different park that day you do not have valid park admission. And, if your meal, for example, is at CRT where a deposit is taken, you are considered a "no-show" and forfeit your payment.

Good info!

 

[nicki.momof3]

: EPCOT has all of our favorite restaurants.

That is the exact reason that we love park hoppers. Hopping is great for dinner. Many nights we go to a park in the morning, epcot for dinner, and than hop to a evening park.

I would not go to WDW without park hoppers. I would rather cut on the souviners and get hoppers.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

That is the exact reason that we love park hoppers. Hopping is great for dinner. Many nights we go to a park in the morning, epcot for dinner, and than hop to a evening park.

I would not go to WDW without park hoppers. I would rather cut on the souviners and get hoppers.

The OP has not expressed an interest in park hopping outside of that 1 day. IMO, $50 per person is a lot of money just to get to a restaurant. We never get park hoppers and we don't miss them.

 

[goofy4tink]

The OP has not expressed an interest in park hopping outside of that 1 day. IMO, $50 per person is a lot of money just to get to a restaurant. We never get park hoppers and we don't miss them.

Actually, it's $58 (tax included), but that's not for a day..that covers each day of your stay. A 5 day, expiring, non-hopper is $267. A 5 day, expiring park hoppper pass is $326. You are getting the ability to hop to other parks, every day of your trip, for less than $60 pp. There is no way I would ever do WDW without hopping ability.

 

[traylorc]

Actually, it's $58 (tax included), but that's not for a day..that covers each day of your stay. A 5 day, expiring, non-hopper is $267. A 5 day, expiring park hoppper pass is $326. You are getting the ability to hop to other parks, every day of your trip, for less than $60 pp. There is no way I would ever do WDW without hopping ability.

I totally agree....IMHO the flexibility to be able to jump from park to park is worth the additional cost.

 

[wen8jr]

Thanks for everyone's advice but as someone advised we are just going to use the Monorail on our MK day and have decided to go to 'Ohana for dinner (resv already made).

We have no interest in park hoppers...cost is not an issue...we just don't move from park to park as our stay will be long enough to cover two parks twice anyway and we may go to Universal and Blue Man Group one day as well.

I think different people have different ideas on what they like to do ...we like to relax and don't like jumping around much from resort to resort and park to park on the same day. It just takes a lot of planning to work around any TS reservations and as we've purchased the dining plan we want to make sure we work those we think we'll like into our schedule properly.

 

[crisi]

We do hoppers - and originally for the whole dinner reason. Now MOST of our dinners are hotel dinners - we still get hoppers for the flexibility, they certainly wouldn't be necessary.

There are a lot of good restaurants in the hotels. If you don't want a monorail hotel, Wilderness Lodge with Whispering Canyon is a boat ride away. Getting to any resort from a park is easy - some resorts its harder to get back to your hotel after dinner though - we usually budget $15-20 in cab fare. Boardwalk and Y&BC have some good restaurants - and spending the evening watching the Boardwalk entertainment can be fun. Higher Illuminations fireworks can be seen from the bridge (better, IMO, down at the Swan Dolphin bridge).

 

[goofy4tink]

Thanks for everyone's advice but as someone advised we are just going to use the Monorail on our MK day and have decided to go to 'Ohana for dinner (resv already made).

We have no interest in park hoppers...cost is not an issue...we just don't move from park to park as our stay will be long enough to cover two parks twice anyway and we may go to Universal and Blue Man Group one day as well.

I think different people have different ideas on what they like to do ...we like to relax and don't like jumping around much from resort to resort and park to park on the same day. It just takes a lot of planning to work around any TS reservations and as we've purchased the dining plan we want to make sure we work those we think we'll like into our schedule properly.

Good choice...you'll be happy there.

I totally get that people have different ways of 'doing' the parks. And many, many people don't feel the need for hopping ability. My only reason for my post regarding price was to be sure that no one mistakenly thougth that it was an addlt $50 (or so) per day to get hopping abilities. I hate it when someone see's something here, and makes a choice based on what they 'thought' they saw, rather than the actual facts.

 

[joxer1014]

Just a quick comparison. A park hopper add on for no matter how long your ticket is costs $58 each. A one day ticket to cover your additional visit to Epcot costs at least $80 each. If you cant make your plans work to visit Epcot that whole day and you aren't worried about the extra cost, the hopper add on is the lesser of the two and you have the option of using the hopper for the rest of your trip even if your plans dont use it. Your plans might change at the last minute and that hopper will come in handy. E.g. you might plan for AK all day and after you get there, it starts to rain and it rains all day. There are alot of outdoor attractions at AK and they might close down. You will then have the option to go to another park that has more indoor attractions that outdoor like Hollywood Studios.

Just my two cents. Enjoy your trip!

 

[DisneyBabies]

That is the exact reason that we love park hoppers. Hopping is great for dinner. Many nights we go to a park in the morning, epcot for dinner, and than hop to a evening park.

I would not go to WDW without park hoppers. I would rather cut on the souviners and get hoppers.

That's us too. We make sure we get the park hoppers on every trip. It has really come in handy on the trips with the children as they LOVE to park hop everyday. On our DD's trip, we were there for 8 days and hopped for six of those (arrival and departure days were the only ones we didn't hop) because she wanted to do one park in the morning and see a show in a different park at night.