Park hopper worth it or not

gopher101 · Apr 29, 2015

I am going with my younger sister (24/downs) and my 11 yr old nephew. My dad is going also but not to parks, he gets wants to relax and see sights in Orlando. Next yr spring break.
We are staying on property, so if my dad takes off (driving in so we are going to have our SUV) we have the option to go back by bus. My sister can only spend about half a day (morning/lunch), but I bet my nephew will want to go back after a mid day break. I want to go to HS but not waste a whole day there, and not sure how much kids will enjoy Epcot.
So am I crazy that I am almost willing to spend an extra 200 on this?
Does anyone else think it would be worth it for my circumstances?

ICF · Apr 30, 2015

We always have PH tickets. It gives us the flexibility to move around if one park is too crowded or we just want to change things up.

Also, depending on when you are there AK closes pretty early (and isn't a full day park for us anyway). If we don't have PH-- we would have spent a whole days ticket at a park where we only want to be at for half a day.

a742246 · Apr 30, 2015

I believe you can upgrade your tickets to HP at the parks so why not wait and see if your sister can handle a full day when you are there. There is always DTD at night!

hsmamato2 · Apr 30, 2015

I would wait till you get there,and add the hopper if you decide you want it

amylevan · Apr 30, 2015

We get park hoppers simply because we go to the parks from rope drop until just after lunch. Then after our mid-day break we head back out for dinner/evening entertainment. For the most part our evenings are at EP for the better TS selections and Illuminations or MK for the fireworks/parade.

Having said that, could we do without them if our budget required us to? Absolutely.

ELSA711 · Apr 30, 2015

We love park hoppers because we usually go during time of special event MNSSHP or F&W festival and we love the opportunity to go to MK on a low crowd day and hop to Epcot at night for dinner and touring the countries.
Also AK usually closes early during the fall and once in a great while we will hop to another park on those days.
Typically AK wipes us out though so - LOL all the best laid plans usually don't pan out so well.

tzeitel · Apr 30, 2015

How many days? Most of our stay are without PH and we do just fine. Go to the parks until we are done for the day, then spend the evening (if not still in the park) at the pool. Or we go to dinner/character meal/dinner show at one of the other resorts or DtD. For longer stays (over 6 park days) we do hoppers since we can take our time in each park and usually go to Epcot for dinner.

I would do as others have mentioned and wait until you are there to add the PH. If your sister does not want to do evenings in the parks then maybe she could stay with your dad at the resort while you and your nephew go back to another park. That would be just the 2 of you with PH.

Eastern · Apr 30, 2015

As the others have said, wait and add it if you need it. I like to get a PH when we stay near Epcot or MK. It makes it convenient to stop by in the evening after you've been at another park all day. It's definitely not necessary so wait and see if you will actually want to use it.

gopher101 · May 1, 2015

5 days, I plan on leaving my sister with my dad in the evenings/nights. I feel embarrassed because I did not know you can wait to get park hopper. I just have to make sure to add a little budget into it without it biting into daily money.

leebee · May 1, 2015

gopher101 said:
5 days, I plan on leaving my sister with my dad in the evenings/nights. I feel embarrassed because I did not know you can wait to get park hopper. I just have to make sure to add a little budget into it without it biting into daily money.

Don't be embarrassed; asking questions and learning new things is why we are all here!

5stljayhawks · May 1, 2015

its a toss up for us. I have always gotten PH, but over the last few trips we just haven't utilized it every day. It is really worth the $60?? for split one or two days? For us animal kingdom is only half a day our entire trip. We knock it out early morning and spend the rest of the the day pool side or what ever. Do you have a planning sheet created?

This sheet would list out the days you are there - the park hours , as well as extra magic hours. Next start blocking out scheduled activities. Maybe you can catch a character meal with your sisters favorite character, that would be pretty cool. This will help lay out the week and see if you have an extra hour to 1-1/2 hours per a day to move from park a to b. If the stars align you can catch early magic hours, hotel nap/lunch then late night extra magic hours. 7AM to 2/3 AM For us we normally start late the next... or make it a pool morning.

KennesawNemo · May 1, 2015

We will never pay for park hopper. We usually go for 4-5 days and do one park per day. There is always enough to do every day.

We always choose a day to go to MK when there is no special ticketed events there.

On AK day, we finish the park early and go to downtown disney for the night.

TravelMommy · May 1, 2015

We never get them. Just works for our style of touring these days. It sounds as if it might work for you. If you do decide to add to 2 tickets only, I believe that will be around an extra $100. Have a great trip!

angierae · May 1, 2015

I won't go to Disney without Park Hoppers. I want to be able to jump to a park that's open later if I go to one that closes early. I want to be able to schedule a dinner at Epcot no matter what park we're going to that day. I just want the flexibility. Our first trip we went to AK and everyone was bored by noon, but we didn't have park hoppers (and it was near the end of our trip, so not worth adding them on) and I decided I'd never go without again. You just don't know what you'll feel like doing or how your day will go.

ajwolfe · May 1, 2015

We love the flexibility of the PH. For us it makes the trip that much less stressful. To us the small price increase is worth it.

eliza61 · May 1, 2015

We're another family that doesn't go without Ph's. We usually go in August and parks are open until 11or 12 midnight so its plenty of time to do another park.

We also love the flexibility, I have gone to parks on the so called "best park" day and it been packed, no problem, we simply turn around and go someplace else.

texasroni75 · May 1, 2015

ICF said:
We always have PH tickets. It gives us the flexibility to move around if one park is too crowded or we just want to change things up.

Also, depending on when you are there AK closes pretty early (and isn't a full day park for us anyway). If we don't have PH-- we would have spent a whole days ticket at a park where we only want to be at for half a day.

This! Except for our very first visit, when we didn't even know there was such a thing, we have gotten Park Hoppers. We use them almost every park day, either due to crowds, weather, or just deciding that we want to visit another park for dinner/dessert or some specific rides we want to go on again. We particularly like being able to go to MK in the morning on hard-ticket party dates (last few trips were during Halloween or Christmas dates), and leave by 4 or 5 when party guests are arriving, so we can enjoy another park for the rest of the evening.

rdsx28 · May 2, 2015

It's up to you really and maybe purchasing a PH once you get there if you need it is a good suggestion. For our family the first few times we went we would get them thinking we would do one park in the morning and one at night. After a long day in the park we never wanted to go back because we were too tired. We just feel for us it was a waste of money that we could spend somewhere else. You are also able to return to the same park in the same day as well. So if you went to Epcot and did the front of the park in the morning you could return in the evening to do the countries at night if you wanted. There is no extra admission if you return to the same park. You cannot however use another day to go to another park in one day. We thought we could go to Magic Kingdom in the morning and use another day on our ticket to go to HS at night since we ended up having an extra day on our passes but Disney does not allow this.

mrsboz · May 2, 2015

We used to get park hoppers but for the last four years we haven't. I always book all our dinners and fast passes ahead and follow that schedule. I usually will go to leaps calendar and see which park is going to be the least crowded and follow that. This usually serves us well as far as the crowds are concerned and saves us money also.

lauradis · May 3, 2015

gopher101 said:
5 days, I plan on leaving my sister with my dad in the evenings/nights. I feel embarrassed because I did not know you can wait to get park hopper. I just have to make sure to add a little budget into it without it biting into daily money.

Don't feel embarrassed, some one else might have not know and you just helped them too.

As far as Park hoppers go, I love having them. Just for the simple fact that I want to go to any park anytime, i want.

Now when my son was going with us (mentally and physically handicapped) we always got non park hoppers, he just cant take a whole day in the park.

I don't know what the new policy is for Handicapped people that cant wait in lines but you might what to ask the board.

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