3 Day Park Hopper - How to divide up park reservations?

[EpcotNerd]

Assuming that there are no FPs or MaxPass, how should we divide our 3 day hopper days up for a mid-week visit at the end of June?

I assume we have to dedicate at least one day to a DCA park reservation if we want to rope drop Radiator Springs Racers to avoid a ridiculous wait? Or it that just a waste for one ride?

(Hoping and praying out of state visitors can go by then!!)

 

[coaches24]

As I understand it you can start in either park all three days. Hopping isnt allowed until 1pm and after but at that point you can go back and forth I would assume. For sure you can go to the park you didnt start in. But you could start all 3 days in DL if you wanted

 

[EpcotNerd]

As I understand it you can start in either park all three days. Hopping isnt allowed until 1pm and after but at that point you can go back and forth I would assume. For sure you can go to the park you didnt start in. But you could start all 3 days in DL if you wanted

Oh I understand the system, we actually went to WDW in February and it was similar. I guess my question was confusing, sorry about that. When I'm able to make park reservations, would you recommend I do all three days DL? Or should we start our day at DCA at least once?

 

[coaches24]

Oh I understand the system, we actually went to WDW in February and it was similar. I guess my question was confusing, sorry about that. When I'm able to make park reservations, would you recommend I do all three days DL? Or should we start our day at DCA at least once?

Oh I see. Thats more of a matter of personal preference. I like DL more than DCA so I chose to do 3 days at DL park and one day at DCA with my 4 day passes (one day per park for me). Before Covid we would always do park hoppers and would split up where we started evenly knowing we could hop back and forth at will. With the restrictions I would pick the park I like better to start in for two of the three days but thats just how we prefer to do it.

 

[starry_solo]

I would do DLR, DCA, DLR. two days at DLR, one at DCA.

you’ll need a day in the AM at DCA for Carsland and Avengers Campus

 

[starry_solo]

At DLR, if you want to go on the rides that differ from WDW, there are lots of rides: Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (where the blaster can actually be detached from the ride vehicle), Indiana Jones and a few others!

At DCA, GotG (used to be tower of terror), Carsland, Avengers Campus.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I would suggest doing one day at DCA for Avengers (and RSR). With 3 days, I'd personally start & end at DL with DCA in the middle.

 

[TinkerTay]

It’s all a matter of personal preference, which rides are your favorites, that you want to make sure you get on, maybe even several times? Which park has MORE of your favorites? Personally, we absolutely LOVE DCA in the mornings, and we stay at GCH so it’s an easy entry. To us, it’s just so calm, and wide open spaces, no huge crowds, and we like to get a coffee and just wander a bit... granted, this was all before COVID, and also during the EMH. We have a VGC trip in September, and actually plan on starting all of our 5 day hoppers in DCA, assuming things stay the same until then. I’m really hoping for more of a Disney normalcy by then, with less restrictions and more of how it used to be. We shall see...

 

[mel2014]

We're going in May with three-day hoppers and reserved one day at DCA and two days starting at DL. My assumption is that you will have to have DL reservation to try for the first drop of boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance, which was important to us since we've only ridden it twice.

I do love the empty feeling of DCA in the morning if you start with Paradise Pier -- usually you can get multiple Midway Mania and Incredicoaster rides done and then do the entire pier before it gets crowded. Historically, there is a race to RSR and unless you're prepared to sprint, you wouldn't save much wait time compared to going later in the day (kind of like Peter Pan, it quickly reaches a high wait time and then stays there)

With that said, I don't know how the crowds will spread out with no "rope drop" and at this point I honestly don't know that anyone can predict what wait times will be like without Maxpass and single rider. There aren't a lot of rides at DCA to spread demand across. It could be like Hollywood Studios where the wait times seem to be consistently high for everything even with a significantly reduced number of guests.

 

[SeaDis]

I would do DLR, DCA, DLR. two days at DLR, one at DCA.

you’ll need a day in the AM at DCA for Carsland and Avengers Campus

Ditto here. Well said

 

[Winnowill]

While we love DL, most of our favorite rides are at DCA: GotG, Soarin', Incredicoaster, RSR, TSMM. We love HM, Space, and BTMRR, too, but there are more I LOVE THIS RIDE favorites in DCA than in DL. So it's not outside the boundaries of reality to say that we may start three of our five days at DCA. That gives us a better chance of scoring a reservation, anyway!

 

[EpcotNerd]

We're going in May with three-day hoppers and reserved one day at DCA and two days starting at DL. My assumption is that you will have to have DL reservation to try for the first drop of boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance, which was important to us since we've only ridden it twice.

I do love the empty feeling of DCA in the morning if you start with Paradise Pier -- usually you can get multiple Midway Mania and Incredicoaster rides done and then do the entire pier before it gets crowded. Historically, there is a race to RSR and unless you're prepared to sprint, you wouldn't save much wait time compared to going later in the day (kind of like Peter Pan, it quickly reaches a high wait time and then stays there)

With that said, I don't know how the crowds will spread out with no "rope drop" and at this point I honestly don't know that anyone can predict what wait times will be like without Maxpass and single rider. There aren't a lot of rides at DCA to spread demand across. It could be like Hollywood Studios where the wait times seem to be consistently high for everything even with a significantly reduced number of guests.

Fantastic information and the WDW comparisons help, thanks so much.