Don't laugh, but... how do you park-hop?

[hvanes]

I know, weird question... but I'm just wondering what "park-hopping" really (and realistically) entails? Our kids are 12, 9, 5, and 4. Last summer was our first visit and we did not buy PHs. Our regret was that we had one day "designated" for HS - a Fantasmic! day - and it stormed that entire evening so F! was cancelled.

I'm debating about getting PHs this time, to make sure we get to see all the closing programs... but is it worth the $50+ per ticket just for that? How do other people use PHs to their benefit?

How can you get the most bang for your buck without running yourselves ragged?

 

[Robo]

I'm debating about getting PHs this time, to make sure we get to see all the closing programs... but is it worth the $50+ per ticket just for that? How do other people use PHs to their benefit?

We nearly always park-hop... virtually every single day.

But YOU may not NEED to.
How do you know?
What should you do?

Simple:
You don't need to buy the "Hopper Option" UNLESS and UNTIL you need it.

If you are already at one park and decide that you'd like to "hop" to another... right then,
just walk up to a ticket window and pay the $54 (plus tax) per tix (its the same price whenever you choose to do it) and you're ready to hop (that day, and any others, for the rest of your trip.) You must make this and all other upgrade choices within the first 14 day of when the ticket was first used.

If you go and NEVER need to hop, don't buy the upgrade, and you can then spend all those "extra" bucks on more WDW souvenirs!

One advantage of HOPPER is FLEXIBILITY-

So, on your Animal Kingdom day (AK closes pretty early), you could "close" AK and then HOP over to, say, Epcot for dinner and IllumiNations that evening.

If, say, Fantasmic! got "rained out" on your DHS day, you could HOP to there on the day that you were at another park, and catch the amazing show.

If the "entire population" of Hukalockistan poured into MK on one of the days you were there, and filled all the queues and took all the FP's, you could hop to Epcot and escape the crowd.

If you were at DHS and wanted to eat at, say, Canada in Epcot (like WE love to do) you could ride over on the boat, use your Hopper to get into the International Gateway, dine on CHEESE SOUP, then retrace your path back to DHS for more fun!

Hopping can be a valuable asset, and, again, you don't need to buy it unless or until you NEED it!

If you are already at one park and decide that you'd like to "hop" to another... right then,
just walk up to a ticket window and pay $54 (plus tax) per tix (its the same price whenever you choose to do it) and you're ready to hop (that day, and any others, for the rest of your trip.)

 

[ChattaAlley]

I personally LOVE PH'ing. Say if the HS has EMH in the AM and MK has them at night. It maximizes your park time. Or if you wanted to do AK in the morning when the animals are up and moving and you wanted to do the MK Wishes at night. I like having lots of options. We had a few kids with us last time and it worked fine. Go to park in the morning, go back to room to rest and then go to another in the evening.

 

[momtoejanda]

we never PH I find that it is too stressful for us. Our kids are too little. It is true though that AK closes way too early but we just make that a Chef Mickey night or something.

 

[MHSweb79]

We park hop just about every day. We hit a park at opening (if morning EMH we are there well before rope drop). Then we tour that park until about lunch time or so.

By early afternoon we are headed back to our resort for a rest or a swim. This gives us some recovery time from getting up so early. We also avoid the heat of the day which is a nice break.

Then, around 4pm we head out to a different park, usually Epcot, for dinner and evening touring.

This schedule keeps us all happy & energized and we can see TONS of attractions before the big crowds arrive, around 10-11 a.m.

 

[Pink Mouse Ears]

We always PH...and have young kids. We spend the morning in one park (at least one morning in each park, but most days in MK) then head back to the resort after lunch for nap (usually 1:00ish). After nap/pool/showers/etc (5:00ish), then we head back to a park for dinner and more attractions. Since we love time in MK but don't like any TS places there, the PH'er lets us do dinner other places...usually Epcot. If we go for a week, we eat at Epcot 3-4 times, but I definitely don't want to spend 3-4 full days in Epcot with young kids.

 

[KCSherri]

We always park hop...we love the flexibility it offers.

I carry my iPhone with me in the parks, and if we find a park to be exceptionally or unexpectedly busy, I check the Lines Ap on my iPhone and see which park appears to be the "emptiest." We then skip on over to that park to make use of the shorter lines!

And - as someone else has said - if we're at a park that closes earlier - we'll hop over to another park for the evening to take advantage of the longer park hours.

 

[stargazertechie]

My family starts out the day at Rope Drop at one park. We tour until noon, and then go back to the resort until 4 or 5. We then head back to the parks (getting back around 6PM) and enjoy them until closing (Extra points if you stay until a 3AM MK EMH evening).

 

[purplepixiedust]

My sons were 6 & 8 when we took our trip last year. We bought the park hopper tickets and I am so glad we did. We did use them a lot.

We had six full days in the parks and by the end of the week we were going wherever we wanted to eat no matter what park it was at. We also went to the later events at other parks that were open later after the parks we were in closed. And a few times when the park we were in got busy we left and went to the park that had extra magic hours the day before...We also had a few times where we went back to the resort and then the kids had a different park they wanted to go back and visit..

It was fun and we wouldn't do it any other way. But it isn't for everyone. A few of my friends laughed after they heard how much we used our hoppers so it is hard to say how much one family would use them over another family.. I find that to be the case with so many issues on here.

 

[Nadjalu]

We always get hoppers, it is automatically included when we plan for the vacation.
Sometimes we hop once or twice in a 7 day period, sometimes it is nearly everyday. But it doesn't matter, as it is peace of mind for us that we can go anywhere we want at the drop of a hat.
It also allows us to not stress to much about ressies for dinner each day. Even though we try and eat close to the park we have choosen for that day it doesn't always work that way.
Again hoppers gives us the peace of mind it doesn't matter.

Basically it really is an individual preference on worth of the hoppers.
What would've been worth it for you as a family to have gone to another park or traded days on the trip you missed Fantasmic???
There is where you really find it's worth to you.

One more factor for me is a silly one.....but it is dear to my heart. I NEED (notice I didn't say want) to end as many days in MK in front of the Castle as possible.
Why? It is a crazy fact I didn't get to go to WDW as a child and sat in front of the TV each Sat night for the "Wonderful World of Disney" and that Castle was signifigant for me.
So as an adult it doesn't matter if I don't use the hoppers for anything but to look at that castle one more time.
It is worth it for me.

 

[addiln]

back in 09 when we went we had the ph and never hopped once. i thought it was a waste of money. our next the following year i did not want to add them but dw wanted to and she got what she wanted. this time around we hopped just about everyday. it was well worth the money. we would start in one park and seemed like we ended in another park everyday. in fact one day we started in mk, had dinner in epcot and ended up back at mk for wishes. it was well worth the extra money and will be adding them on to our next trip this year. once you start hopping you will never go back to not having them. the flexablity with them makes your stay even more magical.

 

[Reddog1134]

I park hopped once.

We only had one day at Disney and we went to DHS (I think it was MGM at the time). RnRC was down that day and we were "evacuated" from Muppets 3-D because they were having technical difficulties. We ended up doing the whole park in only a few hours. So we bought park hoppers and went over to MK.

 

[dawn8179]

We park hop mostly for dinner. My favorite restaurants are in Epcot so a lot of our dinners are there. We have also park hopped just to see a show or attraction that we missed.

 

[Balt ravens fan]

For me I would rather buy extra days (which is much cheaper) than PH. But if I only had 3 or 4 days I might add the Park Hoppers.

Just think for a family of 6 - adding on 324 dolars for Park Hoppers is a lot of money when you can go from 4 days to 7 days - your family of 6 - for 96 dollars. SO ... We add more days at Substantial less cost. (thats a 200+ savings)

Now some on here will say you now need to rent a hotel for more days, and eat more in the parks, etc... but for my family we stay 7 days no matter what - that is our vacation. With 7 day tickets we can do a 1/2 day, or a big break in the middle of the day and come back to the same park.

For us it is more economical to do 7 days. (2 days for each park except AK - 1 day)

So it depends how long you are there.

 

[hvanes]

I didn't realize we could add the PH's later if desired. That's great information. Can that be done even if we purchase our tickets through UT?

Thanks for the great information. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like it's very possible to hop and live to tell about it. We take a mid-day break anyway, so it would be nice to have the option of going elsewhere.

And since MK is the one park that has the most stuff for all ages in our family, it would be great to bounce back there as desired. Thanks again!

 

[Chip's My Hero]

We always PH. For us it frees us up for food, for busy parks for just the need to ride something not in that park we are. WE have done 3 parks in one day...for us it's about the freedom to change our minds and follow the Disney spirit. LOL

 

[Reddog1134]

I didn't realize we could add the PH's later if desired. That's great information. Can that be done even if we purchase our tickets through UT?

Thanks for the great information. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like it's very possible to hop and live to tell about it. We take a mid-day break anyway, so it would be nice to have the option of going elsewhere.

And since MK is the one park that has the most stuff for all ages in our family, it would be great to bounce back there as desired. Thanks again!

Tickets from UT can be upgraded just as if you had purchased them directly from Disney.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Dh and I love to Park Hop. We have a 1 day park opper left from our Dec visit, so in April, we are going to drive down for a weekend. We will hit DHS for EMH on Sat morning, we will be out of there and at Epcot when they open at 9am for F&G Festival until lunch time, then we will probably head back to the resort for a swim/nap, them to MK for the evening, but we don't have children.

I wouldn't let having children stop me. We did it when my cousin went with us and brought her 3 children.

Suzanne

 

[Cherinva]

We usually get park hoppers...like a PP said, it's allows for flexability....

 

[SnipsNSnails]

All it involves is getting on the bus, (or monorail in the case of MK/EP) and going to the other park.

We debated park hoppers and at one point decided that we were not going to get them in Sept. Then when we looked at our schedule we decided it was in our best interest to do AK one day and hop to HS for F! that evening. We also decided that we have two days where we don't have a plan to allow us to do things we missed or re-do things we loved and that we may want to hit 2 or even 3 parks in one day those days. We have CP for dinner on one day and Le Cellier for lunch on the other and didn't want to be locked into only going to EP or MK those days. I'm not sure that we are getting our $$ worth per se but we want the flexibility and know we are using it at least once.