Best days for parks, to hop or not, advice please

[HaleyB]

Someone has made off with my Unofficial Guide! I bet it is somewhere in my son's room. I better find it soon, I am starting to dream about it. Anyway, THE question that is keeping me awake at night is- should we park hop or not. Is it too much of a time waster? Is it a good idea? We always get up early for Early entry. Some people say to leave EE park by noon and go back to yesterdays EE park. Is that a good plan?

Also which days are best for which parks? Some say day after EE. Any other guidelines? I KNOW this is in my Unofficial Guide...

Oh and one more question, while I have you, E ticket nights with younger kids- Is it worth it? Will I regret keeping them up so late? We are going first week of June, so I assume the parks will be open to 8 or 9pm at least. I assume they will have EE (or whatever it is called) starting at 8 or 9 am... and that we should leave the hotel (onsite, by bus) about 40 minutes before EE starts (maybe 1 hour to be safe) Am I off here??

Thanks for any advice, I always get good info here.

By the way, we are going May 31st to June 11th, have 8 days in the parks. Kids are 6 and 8.

 

[nicdanh]

I can answer the e-ride question. We went last year and it was a waste with my kids. I have 2 young ones that could only go on the buzz lightyear ride. It was so extremly crowded at e-ride night you could of used a fast pass if they allowed it! I was very disappointed. I thought you would walk right on rides. The lines were atleast 1 hour wait if not longer. So if your kids are older enough to ride the thrill rides it may be worth it depending on the crowds. Otherwise don't waste your time. ºoº

 

[ChairborneRangr]

I thought DIsney only sold a limited amount of E-Rides nights passes to keep the lines small. The whole advantage of paying a premium is to ride as much as you want on the big rides. I won't waste my money if they are starting to oversell.

I find getting up early and following a good schedule to be satisfactory in getting on the rides I want...

 

[Bill From PA]

If your crew is old enough to ride the 'E-Ticket' rides, by all means do E-Night at least once. We found it worth while.

As for park hopping, our strategy is to hit the EE park early and get the big attractions in. By about 1 pm the place is usually crowded, so we hop to Epcot and finish the day there. Below is Safari Steve's evaluation as to which park is busy on which days. I've found his advice to be good.


Sunday is historically the slowest day at MK, with Wednesday a close second. Sunday is slow at all four parks as it is a MAJOR travel day. Epcot is slow on Mondays, as most guests arrive on Monday and want to spend their first day at MK. Tuesday is Epcot's first heavy day of the week. Tuesday and Wednesday are heavy at MGM, but Sunday and Monday are slower. AK is still hard to judge as it is still a baby and still defies most attempts to identify patterns (just like a two to three year old human) Fridays and Saturdays are heavy at MK, but not as heavy as Mondays. Generally, Saturdays are heavier at all four, and all of these generalities are to be totally ignored during peak days and holidays (New Year's Eve was on a Sunday... we closed the gates before 10am) Good luck!

Bill From PA

 

[ColoradoDis]

Just wondering if Sunday's are busier at MK now that it is EE day?

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Originally posted by ColoradoDis
Just wondering if Sunday's are busier at MK now that it is EE day?

I'm wondering the same thing. I keep going back and forth on when I should go to the various parks, including Universal. I'm going during the off-season (early Feb), so does it really matter?

T&B

 

[shortbun]

We've never hopped, it just seems like too much trouble.
The exception might be on the monorail between EPCOT and
MK but again, walking out and walking in-the time in between-
seems like you lose an hour at least. I'd rather finish a park
early and go hang out at the pool or go to Downtown Disney
and see a movie. Our trips are always long so we have lots of
time. I hate to hurry.

 

[jd_mouse]

Last year was the first time we really "hopped"...it worked out great for us, but we had our own rental car and since we purchased our tickets through AAA, we also had AAA parking -- we usually could get pretty close to the gate of whichever park we hopped to. It did not take a lot of time (of course, it was early Decmeber, so crowds were not heavy), and we felt that of all our trips, we got our most "bang for our buck" by hopping.

 

[Selket]

We went in late August of '03 and the eride nights were early...like 7pm and 8pm start times and we went to both and took our 5 yr old and it was great! We had no trouble getting on rides. We also park hopped because we often went to a different park in the late afternoon. I think park hopping really depends on the time of year you go, how much stamina your kids have (if you take an afternoon break to the hotel) and how late the park is open. It is hard to park hop when the hours are short! Epcot is always a great park to hop to in the evening - it is open later and many places to grab a great dinner.

By all means take advantage of the eride nights if you kids can stay up that late! We slept in those days and had a light schedule so we were ready to go. Enjoy!

 

[HaleyB]

Wow,
Thanks everyone for the great advice and info.
Bill From PA, that is exactly what I was looking for. I think I will have to keep thinking about E night. Might be worth it to send older son and DH one night, and then I could take dd somewhere else or just relax with her. She will not go on any of the 'big' rides. We should be able to get on Buzz early in the day (We go to Disney Land on a regular basis so we have decided to skip SplashM and BTR) so Buzz is the ride we are all excited about. Bummed about AE though, we liked it.
Haley.

 

[lentesta]

Hey HaleyB,

E-Ride nights are one heck of a bargain. IMHO, it's better than EMH. And park-hopping only makes sense in some limited circumstances, otherwise I think the time lost in transportation would be better spent on rides.

The Animal Kingdom is probably the best example of when it makes sense to hop. You can usually finish a comprehensive tour of the AK by late afternoon. That would be a good time to hop over to, say, Epcot, which is open until 9 p.m. and has lots of good dinner choices.

Park hopping might also make sense if you're staying off-site but have a dinner reservation in the park that is hosting Extra Magic Hour. EMH crowds would be the primary reason for this.

If you're taking a mid-day break back at the hotel, park hopping doesn't hurt, as you're already taking the time to head back to your hotel and then back to a park. So you'd be spending time in transportation either way.

Hope you find that copy of the Guide!

Sincerely,

Len