benefits of park hopper vs. cost

[mousefan73]

I'm trying to decide if getting park hopper is worth it. I know this is a very subjective decision depending on how you manage your trip.

I am looking at going for about 10 days. We'll probably do one table service meal each day. I thought I'd decide which restaurants we'd like to try and then schedule park days around the crowd calendar and which ADRs I can get.

I also figured I'd plan 2 days each at MK, Epcot, and DHS and 1 day at AK. Some afternoons we may head back to the pool and then return to the same park that evening (or not go back to a park at all). That would leave 3 days of our trip for resorts, DTD, or whichever park ds wants to go to again.

My thought right now is to not get park hopper and then, once we get there add it if I feel that not having it is really limiting us.

I'm just trying to figure out what kind of scenario would come up that I'd want it. I don't think we're going to be the type that wants to do MK all day and then really want to go to Epcot for dinner. And I also don't think any one ride is going to be so important to us that we'd head to another park just to grab a FP for it.[/QUOTE

The IF scenario can come up. You just need to know IF it's worth the money. IMO buying the PH near the end just so one can eat there or see that firework, is IMO too expensive, especially for us as we are a family.

Since we only do one park a day it's not worth it. We an AdRs as best we can. The 200 plus for a pH for me is better spent adding an extra day overall. Also we added this year the water park option. Here worth it.

PH are great if you know you will be hitting more parks one day or plan midday breaks and want the option for a different park. 200 for the option to see wishes spontaneously, while at HS is for me too much cash I can use elsewhere

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

I have found personally there is enough at each park that I do one park each day. Now if I only had a few days and really wanted to do make sure I saw at least something of multiple parks, then I would do it.

 

[Britgirlus]

It also depends on where you are staying, I would imagine. We were just at Beach Club for 9 nights - having DHS and Epcot so close, it would have been crazy to not have park hoppers. We would go to one park in the morning and/or afternoon, and all but, I think, one or two days, we would take a break in our room, then head out to Epcot in the evening to wander the World Showcase.

 

[Redarrow5150]

You can also use the hopper to do RD in one park and use FP in other parks...which we plan on doing.

True, but once you're in the park you can set FP up for it. Obviously it'll depend on availability, but depending on the time of year you might get some decent ones.

 

[Aliceacc]

Our first ever day we got to AK under beautiful sunny skies. We went on Kali and got soaked.

Then, about 10 minutes later, it got COLD. And started rain. Not "get your ponchos out" rain, but "build an Ark" kind of rain. And it didn't stop.

We gave up, went back to change, and spent a delightful afternoon and evening in Epcot. Then, a day or two later, we started our day in AK, saw what we wanted to see, and hopped elsewhere.

Also, keep in mind, with the changes to FP+, you can do your 3 FPs in one park, then hop elsewhere and get more FPs there. I'm not sure you'll snag Toy Story Mania or Soarin', but you could certainly find enough at the Magic Kingdom to lead to an enjoyable afternoon and evening.

We're doing a family reunion at WDW this summer. The 3 different households are meeting for a meal almost every day. Some days we'll do the same parks, some days not... my kids are 11-18 years younger than their cousins, and we'll do a lot more Magic Kingdom time than they will. We'll do the parks we want at Rope Drop. We have afternoon/evening FPs set up with the extended family.

So for us, Parkhoppers will be an important part of the planning.

It's incredibly subjective, of course. But we love the flexibility we get from Parkhoppers.

 

[Mikie]

OP - not sure when you are going but if it is during a time of MNSSHH or MVMCP keep in mind MK will close early a few days each week. The days that it doesn't close early, MK is busier b/c folks want to see MSEP and Wishes. So hoppers can come in handy during those time periods as you can visit a more recommended park during the day and hop to MK for night time entertainment. On my last trip it was just a friend and I and we hopped for 6 days and I loved it! Next trip is with my sister and her kids and I'm not planning on hopping that trip. Either way can be fun....not one right way. But if you don't know you'll use it for sure, I would wait and add it on once you are there.

On the other hand, we have gone in fall 3 times, bought hoppers twice and basically had to make a point to go see fireworks somewhere else and make it feel like we didn't waste them. Fall park hours are shorter overall (not just early close on MNSSHP) so it's not like you have 4-5 hours of post-dinner hop time to use anywhere. My kids (preteen & elementary) have not yet been old enough to make it late into the evening and we luckily haven't had lots of "must-do" shows rain out on us.

I think technology can help make hoppers more useful - if the park you're in has been overtaken by the entire population of Hukalokistan (awesome!) you can look up wait times in other parks to get a feel for whether another park is less crowded.

In short, I'd evaluate overall park hours, your touring style (do you do a morning 1/2 day, take a break, ready for another 1/2 day of action), if you've already scheduled park days around crowd calendars and ADRs, and of course your budget! = not worth it for my family of 5

 

[Disuser]

I didn't get a hopper this trip. We've had them in the previous 2 trips and never used it. This year 10 family members will be our guests and I decided spending $1,000 dollars for something we may not even use was being stupid.

 

[epsmith921]

Personally we can't go without them after we got used to hopping years ago with Florida resident passes. This was when we were just married and had no kids. Now we took our 2.5 year old in September and we did have park hopper tickets for us grown ups and they were quite useful. We stayed at boardwalk so we would go to MK in the AM and then monorail over to Epcot and see if we felt like anything, take a nap or rest, and then figure out if we wanted to go elsewhere or not. One day we even walked to DHS to go to the Disney JR show and then left and had dinner at Epcot. So that was 3 parks in one day.

My husband even did ToT at DHS that day and I did test track in the single rider line. It was lovely I have the flexibility to pick up and have a change of scenery.

I'm struggling with whether or not to buy our DD park hopper tickets for our next trip as we will have a baby with us then. Our tickets are NE park hoppers. I'm thinking I'll buy the regular tickets for her and add the hopper if we need to while we're there. That seems to be the best option if you're unsure.

 

[nfceagles]

I think where you are staying is important to the decision. My children are young and not night owls, so late evenings in a park aren't in the cards for us yet, but we stay at BLT and it's so easy to walk over to MK for an hour or two after an afternoon by the pool. We end up there for dinner a lot, even if it's just QS or a Dole Whip.

When our youngest was really little, DH and I would take turns putting her to bed while the other one took our oldest over to MK for a little one on one time. Very special memories.

 

[mousekatool]

We have hopped on our previous two trips, and plan to hop again in September.. We have stayed on the monorail and in the Boardwalk area, so it is really nice to be able to go back to the resort after rope dropping one park, then have dinner somewhere else. I usually plan our mornings around most recommended parks, and evenings around ADRs, so having the Hopper really opens our options. Plus, as mentioned before, if a park gets crowded, we can just leave and go elsewhere. On our last trip, we had eaten dinner in Epcot, and had a great time wandering around World Showcase, when DD started talking about how great Haunted Mansion is. So we looked at each other, shrugged, and hit the monorail over to MK for a nighttime ride! It ended up being one of the most fun nights on our trip. We were able to ride HM, POtC, BTMRR and SM during the parade and fireworks with no wait! The ability to go where we want on a whim is huge for us. Well worth the price.

 

[jsh1975]

We just got back from 5 days DH/DW/DS4 and DD6. We had the hopper and used in once. We found opening a park/mid day break then closing the same park to be better for us especially without making FP+s 60 days in advance. We felt guilty Saturday so we took monorail to EPCOT from MK rode Nemo then left. I think the only way I will do park hopper in future is if I make the FP+s 60 days in advance and have half day taken up opposed to passes in AM and PM or is DW allows the FP+s to travel from park to park. Honestly WDW is not as magical as it used to be since you have to do so much planning just to get things accomplished.

 

[nkereina]

It's true that you can add PH while there when/if you want it, but it's the same price whether you add PH on Day 1 of your trip or on Day 4 of your trip. IMO, you get a better value out of it if you add it from the beginning so you have more opportunities to utilize it. I wouldn't consider it worth the cost to just hop one time.

We tour much like you are planning - hit a park at rope drop, take a mid-day break, visit another park (or the same park) at night. After we have hit every park once, we then start to revisit our favorite rides in each park utilizing park hoppers a lot.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I've been doing the hopper debate for our August trip and am doing that exact balance of "is it worth it?"

We've had four trips so far. Bought hoppers on the first one because everything I read said you needed them. Never used them = wasted lots of money! So never bought them for next three trips and did fine.

Now I'm debating again. But again, trying to justify the cost.

If we go to AK one day and it closes at 6:00, might be nice to jump to another park and do a few rides. But are those few rides worth $240 for our family??? Might be fun on our last day to go park to park and just hit our favorites or missed rides. But again is it worth it? If we use it just to go to dinner at Epcot on our MK day, is it worth $60 each for that dinner? Now, what if we do two of those things? Or do we need to hop every day?

How much do you need to actually use the hopper before it becomes "worth it"? I know it's different for everyone, but where's the tipping point?

Yes, I'm driving myself crazy.... I know $240 isn't a huge amount of money in the scope of a Disney trip. But it's an extra nice TS meal. Or it's some great souvenirs. Or it's DisneyQuest for a day. Or it's....any number of other special things we could do with that money!

 

[ShannonMB]

We aren't big on hopping, but I think it depends on a couple of factors...

The big one is experience level. If you have been to WDW multiple times and know what it is you want to see and what you are planning on skipping, then you know when you really only need to be in AK for a half day. Also, with experience, you know about how long it will take you to get such-and-such done before hopping over to catch Fantasmic! on the fly. Being experienced also allows you to have a much better idea of what IS a crowded park. For all a newbie knows, they could hop to Epcot when MK seems too packed and Epcot be even worse. IMHO, someone relatively new to touring WDW does not need a hopper. Too much pressure to hop so you didn't waste all that money, when you have more than enough to scope out at each park in a day.

Another factor for us is length of trip. If we were going for 10 days, no need to hop. Plenty of days to get our fill of each of the parks. A 3 day trip, that's different. We might need to hop over to AK to get on Everest, but time is short and we have to prioritize.

These are my thoughts. But like PPs have said, you can always add it later if it becomes necessary.

 

[MmmSuite]

Questions! Sorry to hijack!

We're only planning to hop with our kids once and then my hub and I another night! It would be Sooooo much cheaper to buy the kids an extra day's ticket and us two more days. Can we do that? Then use two tickets the same day?

 

[johde]

I have always been a park hopper, but I don't normally go for as many days as you are. Also most of my my trips have tended to be off season. There were several trips many years ago when there were several days AK closed at 5:00, MK closed at 7:00, DHS closed 7:30 and Epcot was the lone park open even until 9:00. So I tended to plan my vacation around hopping to EPCOT most evening. Then, the one night MK closed at 10:00 and had Spectromagic it would be swamped all day. So, you wanted to start the day somewhere else then hop to the MK in the evening for fireworks and the parade.

If I am traveling when theme park hours are full days for most of the parks I might consider starting off without parkhoppers.

 

[DisDayz]

Questions! Sorry to hijack!

We're only planning to hop with our kids once and then my hub and I another night! It would be Sooooo much cheaper to buy the kids an extra day's ticket and us two more days. Can we do that? Then use two tickets the same day?

Sorry, but you can't add an extra day and then use two park days in one calendar day. Disney thought of that loophole and closed it long ago.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We ALWAYS would get hoppers, for years! Because one park would close and you would go to the next and the next.

Last year, we were fitting in a few days at Disney with our Carnival cruise because I wanted to see the new Fantasyland area. We were barely eeking out getting there, so we only bought 2 base day tickets. We had the MOST relaxed time at MK, got to see everything we wanted to see and left at 10pm. The next day, we could barely fit in everything that we liked at HS and then went to DTD anyway after HS closed, so we still had a full day.

I guess we were getting old, but it was nice not to care if we had to wait a few minutes, because we weren't on a crazy schedule to make the extra cost of hopping pay off.

A week later, we got off our cruise and had managed to get out of a business deal a 1 day park hopper, and since our cruise came back on a Saturday, we blitzed all over all the parks and had a blast! We got to go to EP and AK which we had missed before, AND still went to the other parks too!

So at this point, we decided we liked both base AND hopping still! (But there is A LOT more time taken waiting for hopping buses or even for the monorails to go, so do not underestimate the time it takes to hop! It can be QUITE hefty!)

So 2014 this year, we decided we liked the option of sticking around and enjoying the day so even if we could have afforded it (we had Disney rewards cards and benefits now), my honey STILL choose to do one base day at EP and one base day at HS. And thanks to the crowds on the weekends (fitting around our cruise again) and thanks to the ridiculous new FP+ with NONE of the legacy stations left, we BARELY BARELY eeked out what we were looking to do with our single park days in one park. On the other hand, our friends got 3 day hoppers and did everything they wanted to do the entire time.

I wonder if there is an advantage now of hopping because if the park you are at is really full, you just move on to another park that is less busy (because NOW you can see wait times across ALL the parks, last year, you had to sign IN to the park to see the wait times so you didn't know until you had already hopped), but for us, we could barely get in all the stuff to do that ONE DAY we were there.

We are now looking to fly out to DisneyLAND where there is NO FP+ and where there are only 2 parks to hop and nearly all our favorite rides PLUS new ones and you can walk back and forth to the parks so it takes no time for hopping.

I guess if you get at least 3-4 days, you should probably hop and keep your options open. If you are going less than 3 days, than probably not hop since you probably won't be able to justify the cost because you will be running out of time as it in the park you are at? But if you hop, you can leave and go somewhere else if the wait times are better?

I don't know, last year, the base passes were SOOO relaxing. This year, with the base passes, we felt like hurry hurry the park is going to close!

All I can figure is that going on the weekends and with the new FP+ roll out has really changed things up. I for one won't be back to WDW until they can fix this tier and crowd management problem.

DisneyLAND here I COME!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Lol...my kids didn't need breaks when they were younger...but now at 21 and 23 they want naps mid day!

Mine are the same way now! They are a little younger than yours (15 and 17), but we have to come back every day for an afternoon nap. It's the only way I can get them to agree to rope drop in the morning.

Out of our last 3 trips we only had hoppers for the last one. The first 2 trips we'd just return to the same park after our mid day break. I made all our ADRs using the touringplans crowd calendar so we knew were we'd be each day and had no need to hop. Our last trip was our first using our 10 day no expire hoppers with waterpark fun. We bought them to use over three trips. We added hoppers to these so we could hit all four parks on each trip. Over 3 trips we will have 3 park days, 3 park days and 4 park days with waterpark & DQ days filling in the rest of the time.

 

[MmmSuite]

Sorry, but you can't add an extra day and then use two park days in one calendar day. Disney thought of that loophole and closed it long ago.

Rats! Thanks!