Am I missing something? Buy a park Hopper, why???

[revelstoke]

Wondering why anyone would purchase the park hopper option on their tickets?

It seems from looking at the ticket prices it's less expensive just to purchase more days on your base ticket then if you happen to go to another park in the same day you would just use up an extra day on your ticket....

If I recall correctly the tickets are only a couple dollars more expensive to move from 5 or 7 to 10 or more days...odd

I suppose if you went to 3 or more parks in one day a park hopper would work great...but who does that?

 

[buzz2400]

Disney won't allow you to use two days on your ticket for going to two parks in one day. You need to have the park hopper option in order to do that. I personally buy the park hopper because I want the flexibility.

 

[zipuzee]

We always park hop!
It may be that we have meal plans in one park but want to do rides in another. Or if we take a break mid day, we always go to a different park. To us, it's just variety that makes the vacation more fun. Or maybe we just get bored easily!

 

[allegracristina]

We also park hop every trip. We like to do one park in the early morning, sometimes a different park from noon on, and sometimes a different park for dinner! Any way you slice it, we move around from park to park every day. We love it!

 

[jbdreamer]

We always park hop. We'll go to AK in the morning and Epcot at night - we love Epcot at night! Or we'll spend the day at MGM and then head over to MK to see the Spectro and Wishes. I like being able to go where I please.

 

[allison443]

Disney won't allow you to use two days on your ticket for going to two parks in one day. You need to have the park hopper option in order to do that. I personally buy the park hopper because I want the flexibility.

I never knew that! Thanks for the info!

 

[MyZoeJane]

You're on the right track as far as taking advatage of the very low cost to add extra days to your tickets... but hte park hopper is invaluable because certain nights parks get crowded for one reason or another and it's nice to be able to hopt o a park that is less crowded, you know? Also, many of buy 10 day park hopper tickets with no expiration because it saves us money on future trips.

 

[patsal]

Sometimes you get to a park and even though you planned, you find that the park is more crowded than you want to deal with and head over to another park. Sometimes, most especially towards the end of a trip, you find that you need to see or do something in one park, but have a few things in another park as well--hopping solves the problem. Sometimes you want to go to AK, but since it closes early you can still hit another park.

 

[revelstoke]

Disney won't allow you to use two days on your ticket for going to two parks in one day. You need to have the park hopper option in order to do that.

Really? Wow...I didn't know that...I thought it would just burn 2 days on your ticket...

You learn something new everyday! That's why the disboards, ROCK!

love you all!

 

[goodferry]

Sometimes we will get up early and take advantadge of early extra magic hour, whichever park that might be, then hop on the monorail or a bus to another park around 10:30 am when things start to get crowded. Then we will usually take a break around 4:00 for a couple hours and have a late dinner at a third park so we get to see the fireworks. Even if there aren't morning extra magic hours, we are usually in a different park in the evening from the one we started at in the morning.
Yours is an interesting idea, too bad it wouldn't work. I also never knew you couldn't use two of your days on one day.

 

[giantgolfer]

Park hopping is the only way to go at WDW, IMO.

 

[Bev J]

We always go to at least 2 parks each day- one in the morning and a different one for the evening. Sometimes on our last day we will do a marathon and hit each park just for our favorite rides.
For us only one park for the day, the whole day, is too much of that park.More fun to mix it up. Plus if the park your at gets too busy then you can hop over to a different one..

Bev

 

[bopper]

We are not park hoppers. We pick a park, having made reservations for dinner in that park, and stay in that park all day. I think it wastes too much time going in between parks.

But it doesn't matter what i like to do...what do you all tend to do?
If you haven't been before, you need assess your family's "Personality Type".
Do you like things decided, or would you like to keep your options open?
Do you like to plan, or go with the flow?
Do you like to go back to the hotel during the day or have little kids that need a nap?

If you are decisive and planning, you may not need to hop parks.
If you like things open and flowy, you may like the freedom.

 

[Carol1973]

I suppose if you went to 3 or more parks in one day a park hopper would work great...but who does that?

If you've never done a 4 park hop in one day you really should try it some time. I only recommend this for people who have been to WDW several times because you spend a lot of time transferring rather than riding but we love to do it. My adult DD and I did it last September and my DH and I did it last Tuesday. We even included a swim at our resort.

We just pick a couple of our favorite things from each park. We always take pictures to document what we did. Last September my DD and I posed in front of a clock at each park (and at the pool). It made a great scrapbook page.

Here's a sample of what DH and I did this week.

1st park - Epcot - rode Soarin' twice. We were going to ride Test Track but it was closed because of rain. Rode Spaceship Earth and left.

2nd park - MK - Rode the train around the park. Then rode Splash Mountain and BTMRR. DH took at break and sat in a rocking chair in the smoking area in Frontierland while I shopped and had a treat at Main St. Bakery.

Went back to ASMu to get our car and left WDW to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday. It was wonderful. Very quiet (no kids in the entire restaurant).

3rd park - AK - Went there only to watch the parade. We had never seen the parade in this park before. Very cute. Also very hot! Since there was still time, we rode Kali River Rapids just before park closing.

Drove back to ASMu for a pool break and shower.

4th park - MGM - Rode the Great Movie Ride. Then got a seat an hour early for Fantasmic.

So obviously we didn't ride a lot of rides. But we've ridden them all before. Occasionally we just like to hop to all of the parks. On non-park days we like to hop resorts. As you can see we love WDW transportation. We use it a lot.

 

[ZoZo]

Disney won't allow you to use two days on your ticket for going to two parks in one day. You need to have the park hopper option in order to do that. I personally buy the park hopper because I want the flexibility.

This is correct - you cannot use two days from your multi-day pass to go to two parks in one day . . . without a park hopper option. If you choose not to do the park hopper, you're stuck with one park per day.

I'm totally into park hopping. It's a great option for days when you go to a park that closes early (like AK often does); then you can go to Epcot (a park that often stays open the latest, depending on the time of year) at night. I would never buy a ticket without a park hopper option. We went last October during the food and wine festival, and went to Epcot every single day (after going to another park). It's actually surprisingly inexpensive to add the Hopper option if you buy a seven day pass.

 

[eliza61]

Since we always go in the summer months when the parks are open some times to 12:00, we always park hop. AK always closes before the other parks so we have to have the flexibility to go to another park in the evenings. I can't imagine what I would do with 3 kids at Disney and not be able to get into a park.

 

[traviesojmt]

We are a park hopping family too. Our family loves to start our day at the parks with EMH. By lunch though, that park is just too crowded. So, we take an afternoon break. We go back to the resort and swim/relax. Later in the afternoon/evening, we visit a different park. We have never spent the entire day at one park. Of course, the kids (I really mean me) needs to take a break in the heat of the afternoon. It would be too much for our family with young children to stay at one park the entire day.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We don't hop. Never really bothered us. We also go to the water parks and those afford going to a park in the evening to finish up somewhere without needing to buy hoppers to do so.

 

[jmurphy625]

Yes, I too thought this would be a good deal, but learned on another thread, the ticket will not even allow you into another park on the same day. Glad I didn't try it.

Also learned here on the dis...you can upgrade when you are down there if you find the need.

 

[TIGGERGUY]

My favority pass is the 10 day/no expiration with no other options. I never park hop at Disney. Univeral I always park hop. With the parks being only a few minute walk I finish Universal Studios in the morning and hit Islands of Adventure in the afternoon.