Best Park Strategy Without Park Hopper Option

[johnhan]

What is the best touring strategy w/o the park hopper option. Should we go early to the early entry park and stay there all day or should we go to the park that has the extra late hours and stay there all day or should we avoid the early entry park and the late night park and hit whichever park has neither?

We'll be there in early June.

Thanks!

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I would avoid the morning EMH parks if I could not hop away from them. I would choose to go to the evening EMH parks if I had any plans to do EMH at all. Why?

Because morning EMH is only one hour long. You'll get an hour of touring time in and then the rest of the guests will be admitted. Throughout the day, the park will become increasingly crowded, with other non-hoppers stuck there just like you.

Evening EMH is 3 hours later than regular closing. So, the crowds will begin to disperse with the last firework burst, giving you and your fellow EMHers more room to tour. This is especially nice if you would like to spend more time at AK, which generally closes earlier than the other parks.

 

[LongIslandCouple]

I've found that the best plan would be to go to whatever park had an EMH night the day before.

So if MK in EMH on Monday night, go to MK on Tuesday.

Avoid all EMH if you aren't park hopping.

 

[estnh]

In our experience, by 11AM the EMH parks are virtually impassable, particularly MK. The great advantage of hoppers is the ability to take advantage of the EMH, yet still get out of that park by the time it is too busy to enjoy.

We have visited WDW at least one week a year for the past 15 years, and would not even consider not having a hopper. For the small added cost, it makes your vacation so much more flexible and enjoyable.

 

[WorldlyWise]

just a thought, but unless you are only staying a couple of days, you can probably get several extra days of tickets for still less than park hopper. If you visit 2 parks in a single day, you would use 2 days of tickets but you could still come out ahead. When I was pricing a 5 night trip, I found I could get 10 day non-hopper tickets for less than 5 day hoppers!

 

[Tazicket]

I think it depends on what kind of person you are. If you're a morning person, the EMH is great. If you can handle being at the park all day and then three extra hours on top of that, do the late one. I'm a morning person and DH and I went to MK on the early day. I can't remember what the deal was for that night, but it seems like there was a chance to stay for at least a couple of hours after the park closed and we were going to try this....Didn't work. I was practically comatose by the end of Wishes and had to be dragged back to our hotel room to recuperate!

 

[brentalex]

just a thought, but unless you are only staying a couple of days, you can probably get several extra days of tickets for still less than park hopper. If you visit 2 parks in a single day, you would use 2 days of tickets but you could still come out ahead. When I was pricing a 5 night trip, I found I could get 10 day non-hopper tickets for less than 5 day hoppers!

If you buy non hopping tickets, you can only go to one park a day. You can't use 2 days of park tickets to enter 2 different parks on the same day. If you could do that, no one would buy the park hopper tickets. If you buy a 10 day, non hopper ticket, you can enter 10 parks on 10 different days. You will not be able to enter a second park with the same ticket.