to hop or not to hop?

[mommak1]

I can't decide whether to do park hoppers for our family trip. Initially I was going to, but now I'm wondering if I might be spending money that i don't need to spend.

My kids will be 7 yrs and almost 5 yrs at the time of our trip at the end of January. They don't nap anymore, so I doubt that we will head back to the resort mid-day, but we'll probably have early dinners and then head back to our room right after dinner most nights (will make an exception to see Wishes one night.) Based on my ADRs and somewhat planned schedule, I really feel like most of the days, we will be in just one park. The only thing that is up in the air is the last day and half or so. I've kept those pretty much unplanned so we can be flexible and go back to whatever thing were favorites or were missed the first time around. The last day could very well be one where we'd want to do one park in the morning and another one in the afternoon.

Is it possible to do a package with park-hopper added to just a couple of days, or is it all or nothing? If it's all or nothing, is it worth paying for the flexibility even if we only use it for one or two out of the six days?

 

[ziggystardust]

deleting this. wrong information.

my apologies..

 

[wdwrich]

what you could do is just add a day to your ticket. So say you were going to get a 5 day hopper, instead get a 6 day non hopper. And on that last day you could do MK in the morning and use a day. Then head over to another park and use another day.

Nope- you cannot do that. Once the ticket is used on a given day, it will not be accepted at another park on the same day unless you have added the park hopper option. The system is designed to prevent using additional days on the same ticket on the same day. You must purchase the park hopper option if you want to hop.

OP- Don't buy the park hopper option up front. You can add it during your visit if/when you decide you want to hop.

 

[princessallegra]

It sounds like you may not need hoppers on this trip, op. We don't do hoppers every single trip. If we have most of our days planned out (especially if it's a season where the parks close early) it doesn't pay for us to do hoppers.

 

[subtchr]

The park hopping option costs the same no matter when or how many times you use it, so if you think you will use it, add it at the beginning. And as a PP said, adding a park day to your tickets does NOT work.

We have always hopped, but then we do like to take a break midday and go to a different park. Even if you have the best laid plans to stay in one park all day, there are times when it is nice to have the flexibility to hop. Bad weather, unexpected crowd levels, a kid (or adult!) meltdown, any number of things can affect your plans, making it nice to be able to switch parks in a given day.

Like you, we especially like having the option to visit several parks the last day or two, to revisit favorites. I remember one trip we were staying at the Contemporary, and we went to EMH at MK, rode quite a few rides, then left as the masses were arriving to head to Epcot. We finished that day at DHS for Fantasmic! It was a perfect last day.

Having said that, if your budget is tight or you just don't want to spend it, then don't. Just stick with one park per day. Lots of people do that and have a great trip!

 

[cmh314]

If you're only going to use the hoppers 1 or 2 of the days IMO its not worth it. We've gone twice with the kids. Once with park hoppers, once without. We were thinking of getting them this trip, but as we planned out our days it seemed we were only really going to benefit from them 2 out of the 8 days. So I just rearranged things to do it without the hoppers. I'm going to put that extra $ towards doing something special while we're there. Now if something should impact our plans during the week, like really bad weather than keeps us from doing what we want in the parks, and we want to return to do things we missed we could always add it in once we're down there. Thats our plan.

 

[Cafeen]

At the end of Jan, crowds should be pretty light, this means that you should be able to handle the bulk of the must-do stuff relatively easily (so you won't have much need for running around at the end of the trip to take care of stuff you missed). Also, the parks will likely close pretty early (9pm EP/MK, 8 PM DHS, 5pm AK typically), so this devalues hopping as well as you simply won't get that much time (especially if you eat dinner first) in the 2nd park.

With that said, I'd also take the wait and see approach. Since it costs the same to add hopping to your tickets now as it does when you're down there, you may as well wait to make sure you'll need them. If your plans are working out into day 2 or 3, then you should be fine without them. If you've discovered you'd like to hop that early into the trip, then you can add them and know that you've utilized them .

 

[WedgieSock]

I can't decide whether to do park hoppers for our family trip. Initially I was going to, but now I'm wondering if I might be spending money that i don't need to spend.

My kids will be 7 yrs and almost 5 yrs at the time of our trip at the end of January. They don't nap anymore, so I doubt that we will head back to the resort mid-day, but we'll probably have early dinners and then head back to our room right after dinner most nights (will make an exception to see Wishes one night.) Based on my ADRs and somewhat planned schedule, I really feel like most of the days, we will be in just one park. The only thing that is up in the air is the last day and half or so. I've kept those pretty much unplanned so we can be flexible and go back to whatever thing were favorites or were missed the first time around. The last day could very well be one where we'd want to do one park in the morning and another one in the afternoon.

Is it possible to do a package with park-hopper added to just a couple of days, or is it all or nothing? If it's all or nothing, is it worth paying for the flexibility even if we only use it for one or two out of the six days?

Our last trip we only hopped once and this trip, like you, based on our ADRs etc we will most likely be in one park all day so we dropped the hoppers. I think you'll do fine

 

[BYC]

We decided against hoppers for our upcoming trip. I am very comfortable with my decision. I couldn't justify the cost, when it was so easy to plan without hopping.

 

[dburg30]

what you could do is just add a day to your ticket. So say you were going to get a 5 day hopper, instead get a 6 day non hopper. And on that last day you could do MK in the morning and use a day. Then head over to another park and use another day.

This obviously doesn't work if you planned on hopping on other days but it doesn't sound like you are. We were just trying to decide on this too. It ends up being a lot more money to hop, but in some cases its worth it, some not.

Yea, please note this does NOT WORK!! It's only 10 bucks to add a day but $57 for hopping.. Disney closed that loop long ago...

 

[ziggystardust]

Nope- you cannot do that. Once the ticket is used on a given day, it will not be accepted at another park on the same day unless you have added the park hopper option. The system is designed to prevent using additional days on the same ticket on the same day. You must purchase the park hopper option if you want to hop.

OP- Don't buy the park hopper option up front. You can add it during your visit if/when you decide you want to hop.

SO sorry to give the wrong advice. I totally thought I read this some where on the boards. I have never done it myself but I swore I did read it here before. thanks so much for the correction, I would hate to screw up someone's vacation.

 

[mommak1]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like it makes a lot more sense for us to not get the hoppers initially and then add them there if we decide that we want to hop because of plans changing or weather, etc.

 

[Ashlander]

We are going to try to not get the hopper this time. We are at Disney for 7 days so I think we have plenty of time to get everything in without hopping. Instead we are going to go to the Christmas Party which we have never done before.

 

[Magpie]

In your circumstances, I wouldn't bother with the hoppers. We've been three times with the kids, and no hoppers were necessary - there's more than enough to do in each park to keep us busy all day.

Think of it this way - how many extra souvenirs and meals and other stuff would you be able to buy, for the money you're considering dropping on hoppers that you'll barely use (if at all)?

 

[ghtx]

what you could do is just add a day to your ticket. So say you were going to get a 5 day hopper, instead get a 6 day non hopper. And on that last day you could do MK in the morning and use a day. Then head over to another park and use another day.

Let me reiterate the PP and say again that you CANNOT do this. If you don't have a hopper, you won't be able to go to two parks in the same day, even if you are willing to use an extra day of your ticket.

OP should probably wait until at WDW to decide. If, on the last day, you think it is worth the cost of the PH upgrade to go to that second park, then do it.

 

[dburg30]

SO sorry to give the wrong advice. I totally thought I read this some where on the boards. I have never done it myself but I swore I did read it here before. thanks so much for the correction, I would hate to screw up someone's vacation.

Oh I'm sure you've SEEN this question / thought come up before, but it's usually squished pretty quickly as this is a VERY common question when people start thinking about it..

 

[wdw&sonny]

So, just to offer a different opinion. We love to hop.

I plan our itinerary with hopping as a must. We like to go to one park for the morning and early afternoon, take a pool break at the resort mid-day then go to a different park for dinner and evening. For us, it feels like 3 separate days all in one. By the end of the week, we feel like we had 21 days.

We did do non-hopping once, when you could hoard the FPs and return in the evening to use them. But, even then, it felt like we were just returning to the same park instead of getting the new experience of going to a different park.

Hopping also gives the flexibility of going to a different park if something is cancelled due to weather. I agree, you don't need it, and can add it if needed. But we like to plan for it.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

We get them always, but if you are on the fence I think it depends in part where you are staying.

At the BW YC BC S&D you may want them because you can always walk right in the back door at Epcot and when we stayed at BC last year we did that every day, regardless of what our main park was that day.

At the Poly CR GF WL you may want them because MK is so accessible.

 

[ZoZo]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like it makes a lot more sense for us to not get the hoppers initially and then add them there if we decide that we want to hop because of plans changing or weather, etc.

Figure out the "cost per hop"! Remember that it costs $57 per ticket to add the hopper feature, so if you only hop once, that's almost $60 per person to hop for just one day! Not worth it IMO unless you plan to hop throughout your whole trip.

If you hop every single day during a seven-day trip, that's only $8 per day --- but if you hop only once, it's $57 per day! Is that worth it? Probably not. I'd rather spend that money on something great like Cirque du Soleil tickets!

 

[LilRonGal]

I've not hopped in years. I felt like it put too much pressure on me to "get my money's worth" and we spent a lot of time traveling. It DID help with ADRs--the flexibility with that was great. But for us, it's just easier for us not to hop. There's plenty for us to do and we plan our ADRs accordingly. If we don't want what the park of the day is offering, we go to a resort.