5 day park hopper? or not?

[excitedfamof4]

Hello all!
We are going to Disney World the end of April and staying at Bonnet Creek for 5days/6nights. We plan on visiting only the Disney Parks, nothing offsite. I have heard mixed things from friends about purchasing the Park Hopper options. Part of me wants to go ahead and spend the extra money so we have the option to park hop...then I also wonder if one day per park is enough. We have two princess loving daughters so I feel like we will want to spend more time at Magic Kingdom, so I wonder if we want to do Epcot early in the day...then head to Magic Kingdom at night....it would be nice to have that option.

If we didn't do the park hopper I would think our schedule would be like this
Day 1 - Magic Kingdom
Day 2 - Epcot
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom
Day 4 - Hollywood Studios
Day 5 - Magic Kingdom

For those that didn't get the park hopper, do you wish you did so you could go back to your favorite place more? I just want to make sure we have enough time to do all we want, especially at Magic Kingdom.

Thank you for any suggestions you can give!

 

[softballmom3]

You can always add the option to park hop after you get there. So, if you purchased your tix from someone like undercover tourist make sure you use the first time before adding the hopping option to lock in price. If you are unsure, then I would wait. It's very simple and easy to do.

 

[mickeygirl14]

I think I'm in the minority here, but we always do PHs. I do plan and try to plan our meals for the park or resort we'll be in/near each day, but I like the flexibility of being able to walk around World Showcase in the evenings, or head over to MK late one night for Wishes. It's a lot of money for that flexibility, but it just works better for our family.

 

[moret1sm]

Softballmom---- can you elaborate. I'm buying my tickets through undercover tourist for my Dec trip, and am in the same situation--- don't know whether to park hop or do a 5 day base--- so you can add on after but have to use the ticket first? This is where I'm confused. Does undercover tourist upgrade your ticket or Disney. I'm totally unfamiliar.

 

[mickeygirl14]

You can always add the option to park hop after you get there. So, if you purchased your tix from someone like undercover tourist make sure you use the first time before adding the hopping option to lock in price. If you are unsure, then I would wait. It's very simple and easy to do.

But IIRC, remember that when you add the PH option, you'll add it to the entire ticket. So if you do decide to do it, do it early so you can take advantage of it throughout your trip.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

Agree....see if you want to hop after you get there...

How old are your daughters? You may find that they would prefer to go back to the resort for a swim. If you have strollers and really little ones, they may be out of energy or it may not be worth the hassle. Wait and see!

 

[mickeygirl14]

Check out Cheshire Figment's sticky on the Theme Park boards...it will answer ALL of your ticket questions.

 

[moret1sm]

(In the past we have always park hopped, but with really young kids, we won't be touring very aggressively, we plan to really make it a out the kids- no real thrills for this trip)

 

[wiigirl]

You can always add the option to park hop after you get there. So, if you purchased your tix from someone like undercover tourist make sure you use the first time before adding the hopping option to lock in price. If you are unsure, then I would wait. It's very simple and easy to do.

I would wait also....easy enough to add the park hop to the tix.

 

[excitedfamof4]

Thank you for all of your replies!

Our daughters are 9 and 6, so they will be able to hang pretty good all day. We won't have to lug around strollers or worry about naps, etc.. which will make it a little easier getting around.

I like the idea of adding the park hopper once we get there!! Thank you for the suggestion! Do you do it at the Disney gate, or how would you do it? Like a PP said, so you have to use day 1 then add the Park Hopper?
We do plan on purchasing tickets from undercover tourist too.

 

[Sandi]

Softballmom---- can you elaborate. I'm buying my tickets through undercover tourist for my Dec trip, and am in the same situation--- don't know whether to park hop or do a 5 day base--- so you can add on after but have to use the ticket first? This is where I'm confused. Does undercover tourist upgrade your ticket or Disney. I'm totally unfamiliar.

I'm not softballmom, but can answer your question. We always buy our tickets through UCT. You just have to make sure all of the tickets have gone throught the turnstile once before you try to upgrade. Then, if you decide you want to add park hopping, go to guest services and ask to upgrade them. I think it's like $52 or around that amount to get park hopping added. That is per ticket, not per day (like my silly sister thought). Also, the amount is not pro-rated for the number of days. So, as another poster noted, it is a better value if you add park hopping at the start of your trip (and use it for more days) than to add it at the end and potentially just use it one day.

 

[KristiMc]

We love to park hop. We will start out at one park, go back to the resort for a bit in the afternoon to swim/rest and then head to a different park in the evening for dinner.

 

[alc571]

But IIRC, remember that when you add the PH option, you'll add it to the entire ticket. So if you do decide to do it, do it early so you can take advantage of it throughout your trip.

Yes... beware of this! We opted not to get PH's last trip, and it wasn't until the last day when our son wanted to go to MK after having gone to EP. There was some confusion due to one of the CM's at our resort telling us we could add an extra day to go to MK and not have to buy the PH. They refused us entry in to MK, and so we were faced with paying $180 on the last night of our trip for 4-hours at MK, or leave the park with our son crying his eyes out.

We've bought the PHs for this trip. Even if we only hop once, at least we'll have the option for the entire trip! Besides, AK and HS are only half-day parks for us, so it will be nice to spend the evenings somewhere else. Also, we learned that we love going to a park in the evening. It's like a whole different place at night. Also, crowds seem to get lighter and lighter, and you can walk on a lot of rides when the parades/fireworks are going on.

 

[moret1sm]

Thanks Sandi, that makes sense now. I guess I didn't realize the price was the same regardless of the number of days I have left on the ticket or that an upgrade was even possible. Does that mean you could also add waterparks and more too then?

 

[Lynne M]

Moving to the Theme Parks board...

 

[polyfor4]

When we do 5 day tickets we always get hoppers to maximize our park time. We'll get to the end of the trip and decide we want to ride Soarin etc. one more time and park hoppers give us the option to go to Epcot to ride that "one last ride". We have found that any stay less than a week needs hoppers so that you're not locked into one schedule. I do think you can make the most of one park a day but if its in your budget I really think the hopper would give you more flexibility- less stress.

 

[Sandi]

Thanks Sandi, that makes sense now. I guess I didn't realize the price was the same regardless of the number of days I have left on the ticket or that an upgrade was even possible. Does that mean you could also add waterparks and more too then?

Yes. Just make sure you have used your ticket once before upgrading. Also, if, for example, you wanted to add park hopping and did that and then a day later wanted to add the waterparks and more option, you can upgrade at different times.

 

[freddyttt]

I also do PH.tickets- love going to epcot(the countries)at night and also will want to do MK more the one night.

 

[NaLisa]

We went Apri 2011 (DDs were 7 & 6) for 8 days and didn't need hoppers at all. I planned to upgrade our tickets if necessary but we found they weren't needed. We only went back two nights, though, and to the same park we had visited earlier in the day (with 2-3 sets of FPs in hand).

We're going again in June 2013 and will get hoppers and WP&M. Some differences:

It will be hotter this trip and we'll need afternoon breaks out of the heat, so we'll do more RD-break-return days. In April we could easily stay from RD through 3 or 4 p.m. and the heat wasn't a factor.

Girls are older and able to stay up later plus they're old enough for water parks. Adding on both options makes much more financial sense than just one or the other. When we went in 2011, IIRC, it was around $50 each or $100 for both options per ticket. Not it's $57 for one option or $79 for both per ticket.

FP return time enforcement means we won't have any FPs to use at the same park at night.

Last time we were rookies and not as familiar with the parks and attractions, so it made more sense for us to immerse ourselves in one park at a time. This time we have favorites and must-sees plus BTDTs in each park, so we'll hop around from morning to evening to catch our faves and enjoy the nighttime atmosphere in each park.

 

[EmilyJ517]

We always do PH's as well. Some of my favorite restaurants are in Epcot and I would be sad to limit myself to just the day(s) I'm touring there for that. And we are usually at either Boardwalk or BLT so walking in just to see fireworks is a nice option to have as well.