Sell me on getting the Park Hopper

[wdwgypsy]

Park Hopper absolutley. Lets face it some of the parks like AK and DHS don't take all day unless it is really crowded or you just putz around. It hasn't been unusual for us to be in 3 Parks in one day. Morning magic hours in AK, afternoon in DHS and then Dinner in Epcot or MK for more late Magic hours.
Even when we did MK all day we have caught the train over to Epcot for an ADR. It's just makes things that much more flexible and less stressful.

Our part we cut is the waterparks but other people swear by them. One year we did Mornings in the theme parks, when it got hot we bounced over to Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, then back to parks the evening.

I would hop. I would spend the extra 200 on that and stay in a value resort instead.

 

[tommymac5]

For us its Park Hoppers always. When we are at Disney, we want to go where we want,when we want. We have done 3 parks in a day during summer/ hot weather, long hours days with trips back to resort pool in between. After all if your spending the $$ to go to Disney, do it how you want,not how they make you.

 

[nicknamy1996]

I guess I phrased that wrong. I would not buy hoppers if the only time I would use them would be to hop once to Studios to catch Fantasmic!.

If Fantasmic! was one reason--then you also benefit from other uses.

I think $200 for hoppers is worth it for our family to catch Fantasmic! (and not have to be at Studios that day earlier) AND to catch Spectromagic, hop for IllumiNations & Wishes and ADRs, and the ability to leave a crowded park and/or EMH considerations and the other things I may have mentioned in post partially quoted (Read the whole thing!). I plan alot for our trip--still like the flexibility of hoppers for us.

If $200 was make/break for the trip, as other posters have said you could still thoroughly enjoy yourself and the magic.

Not sure how many friends I have here, but I don't think I've ever made an UN-friendly comment/recommendation/post on DIS !

No prob. Wasn't trying to misquote you, just singling out that statement. And hopefully didn't come off unfriendly.

And I'd say 98% friends, 1% trolls, and 1% flamer thrower

 

[WillCAD]

Let's say you have a 5-day trip - Monday thru Friday.

On Monday, you go to MK. MK is super crowded that day, but you don't have the hopper option, soi you tough it out. And because of the crowds, you can only do about 2/3 of your must-do attractions before heading off to your lunch and dinner ADRs. But you stay all day and watch Wishes, finding that you love it.

On Tuesday, you go to MGM. As many people do, you find that MGM doesn't have enough to keep you occupied all day, so you call it a day at about 5pm and head off to your resort.

On Wednesday, you go to AK. And again, AK doesn't have enough to keep you occupied all day, so you call it a day at 3pm, wasting a large part of your day.

Thursday finds you at Epcot. You stay all day, but still feel that you haven't seen it all, and at days end you find that you simply love Illuminations.

Friday, your last full day, finds you repeating MK to hit those attractions you skipped on Monday. But you are now kicking yourself for not staying all day at MGM on Tuesday, because after seeing Wishes on Monday and Illuminations on Thursday, you are now itching to see Fantasmic!

So at the end of the trip, you consider adding the hopper option so you can return to MGM and see Fantasmic! But since it's the end, you just leave it off and finish your day at MK again. On the other hand, any time after the first or second day, you'd dismiss the idea of adding the hopper option becuas it would seem like a waste to spend the whole amount just to hop for part of your trip.

But look at all the time you could have saved by having the hopper - you could have hopped to a less crowded park on Monday and done twice as many attractions; you could have split Tuesday between MGM and AK, avoiding wasting two half-days and freeing up a whole day to repeat your faves or split Epcot into two days; and you could have returned to MGM on any day to see Fantasmic!

Had you only had the hopper from the beginning, you could have had a far better trip, utilized your time much more effectively without feeling rushed, and gotten a lot more value for your vacation dollars.

 

[bubblycoconut]

We loved having the park hopper on our first trip. I don't think we ever spent a whole day at one park. We would usually go to one park for the extra magic hours and then spend the rest of the day at another park. Or spend the morning at one park and then head over to another park for the evening. Most days we ended back at Magic Kingdom for the evening and usually spent the afternoon in Epcot. It came in really handy on our last day because we were able to go back to each of the parks and do anything that we didn't get a chance to do before or something that we wanted to do one last time. For us they are well worth the additional cost but it really depends on your family and how often you think you would use them.

 

[J3nn78]

Not getting a park hopper has never been something we even considered. I never even consider the cost of having it vs not having it. We just do it.

I like having the freedom to go where ever when ever.
I like being able to make my ADRs without worry of "is that the park we want to be in that day"
I like that if we miss out on Spectro or Wishes or Illuminations because it is raining, we can go back the next time it shows, even if we were not planning on that park.

I would feel trapped if I HAD to stay in only one park per day.

 

[mdetloff]

We have gone twice once without and once with. This time we are doing without because when we had them we only used them once. We do have 3 kids and my inlaws with us. We just plan accordingly and don't like running all over the place. This year we are planning on doing DTD and the Boardwalk at night when the park we are at for the day closes early. However, my kids did want to do the WP again so we did add that. If we go to a WP in the a.m. , break and regular park at night that is plenty for us. We originally had them for this years trip but dropped them after I did the itinerary and we saved enough on that to purchase tickets to MNSSHP.

 

[luv2sew]

We were just at WDW in January and did 9 days without the PH thinking we were saving money. I missed not being able to park hop so from now on we are not saving on that option.

To top if off we didnt really save that money because it was during the 4/3 deal and we had previous ressies that we switched to the 4/3 and somehow they made a mistake in pricing out the switch. So when I called to take off the parkhoppers the credit was only a few bucks and when I called back they told me they had no idea how I was charged the price I was charged and that to add the park hoppers back on it would now cost me $200....so I lost out on both counts, had I just kept the Park hoppers on my reservations we would have had them cheaper (which we didn't know at the time since they did not give me the credit amount over the phone when I cancelled them). So from now on I will make sure i have all the amounts and everything in order before I close the deal.

 

[dizzneebabe]

I can't imagine going without it. We may start at one park, take a break, then go to another in the evening. For teh last day, we do 'greatest hits' and hop all over the place.

We do the exact same thing!!! I would never go without it--we never start and end the day in the same place! For us a change of scenery is nice and we like the freedom to come and go as we please!

 

[OmahaNEDad]

Keep in mind that you can add the park hopper option later. I dont recall the exact time limit but there is a grace period when you can add it later.

We bought a 8 day standard park pass for everyone. I do plan on adding the park hopper if we need it. According to other posts you can add the Park Hopper option to your tickets at any ticket counter or at your resort.

I just wish I could remember the grace period.. 4 days maybe?

 

[nicknamy1996]

you can add it at any point of your stay.

 

[brymolmom]

If we are staying longer than 5 nights...I don't see the need to hop. Some people like it - great. I don't see a need. I have seen a lot of people on the DIS comment that they get the hoppers but only use it once or twice on their trip - that's $25 per hop per person - I think that's a lot.

I've never quite gotten the issue with staying in the same park all day long. The parks have so many things to do and so much variety in each park - you can do lots of different things without changing parks. You can do rides in each park...then do shows or parades later...

Many people who utilize their hoppers a lot like to eat meals at EPCOT. We don't like to use that time hopping just to eat a meal. We just make sure we're at EPCOT at least two of our days to have nice meals there. Then we usually do one night at DTD with a meal there. The rest are usually character meals at resorts or other parks.

I'm with you - you can tell DH there's at least one more of us!

 

[Piglets Mommy]

I think it totally depends on how long you are going for and the time of year you are going...four our trip, we will be there 3nts/4 days. We KNOW we won't even get close to seeing everything,... the first day we get there is likely the taping of the Christmas Parade in MK. The next night is MVMCP, so MK will close early. We pretty much NEED Park Hoppers in order to get to MK before our 3rd (and last full) day. Add in trying to schedule in some character meals and Osborne lights, Fantasmic!, etc, I can't imagine trying to be with out them. Now....If we were going for a full week, I'd skip the hoppers and spend the $200 elsewhere.

 

[bsbrady]

Worth every Penny! It also opens up your dining choices. If you are in the MK in the AM and you want to have diner in epcot you are not confined. Opens up many more options.

 

[robinbutterfly]

I should also add... my kids are only 5 and 4 so I dont think they can go all day long anyway. Is it still worth it??

 

[tkldisney]

I think it would still be worth it even with 4 & 5 year olds. You might want to take a break in the afternoon for nap and/or swim then head to another park.
I've always purchased hoppers and to me worth it.

 

[rbork]

Personal Preferance.
I've done it both ways... depends on the time of year, expected crowding and length of trip for me.
We've gone 9 days during Spring break with little kids and had them... they worked well.
Gone in the off season for 8 days with older kid's and didn't get them... that was fine too. Just planned ADR's around the park I was in or booked at the various Resorts for DDP. Also keep in mind the park hours are shorter in the winter and by the time you facter in traveling on Disney transportation it wasn't worth it. We were at the parks for rope drop, did the park then went back to the resort to swim, then off to dinner for a relaxing evening.

 

[CathieArms]

I love the flexibility it provides. The last time we were there - nearly 10 years ago - I thought it was a ridiculous purchase, but we did it anyway. As the week progressed, it wasn't uncommon for us to go to 3 different parks on the same day for different things.

 

[kerri0616]

We've done several trips with PH and our most recent budget trip (in March 4/3 deal at Pop Century) we did NOT purchase hoppers.

We honestly did great without the hoppers. We started in a park in the morning, accumulating fast passes for our favorites. Then we took a hotel/pool break after lunch. After our break, we returned to our original park for more fun and used our fastpasses!

This worked great for us and saved us $200.

I can do without the fastpasses!

Kerri

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I couldn't imagine being without them. While we are there, Spectro and Fantasmic are only on a couple of times. Of course, when they are scheduled are supposed to be busy days in those parks. So with hoppers, we get to go the the less busy park, and then hop over to see those shows at night. I don't want to spend the whole day at DHS when its packed just to see Fantasmic. I feel with the hoppers, I get total flexibility. Also with free dining, it gives me flexibility to eat anywhere, not just in the park I'm spending the day at.