Big decision! Extra day or Park hopper?

[Bunch0rz5]

The time is close where I will be booking our trip. We are down to this.
1. Extra day. 7 nights 8 days.
2. Park hopper. 6 nights 7 days.

Kids ages. 15,12 and 2.

Booking a moderate resort. Standard room. During September. With the dining plan.

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I am not a fan of hoppers. It takes too long to transfer parks and I feel like I get more of my money's worth spending an entire day in one park. I don't have to worry about being anywhere else.

Granted, other families love park hoppers. So while I would spring for the extra day, it is ultimately up to you.

 

[Jen731]

I totally agree with the above poster. We have done park hopper week long vacations and non park hopper vacations and much preferred not hopping. The transportation just took too long from one to the other. And the frustration with leaving, going back through another entrance, the crush of people at the gates. No thanks. The only day we considered it for was because we were going at christmas when magic kingdom didn't have fireworks every day, so the fireworks days were nuts. I did slightly wish we had been able to hop somewhere that day, instead we went back to the resort, swam, napped and enjoyed every minute. I do highly recommend a resort half day in that week, September should still be swimming pool perfect.

The good news is: there's no wrong answer!! Either way, you'll have a great time.

 

[tstidm1]

We have Park Hoppers for this trip because of how my tickets are set up (must choose Park Hopper or Water Parks and More with Military Salute tickets). I don't plan to use the Hopping for this trip because of spending time on transportation. I would go with an extra day.

 

[KristiMc]

We always get hoppers. Love going to one park in the morning, back to room to swim in the afternoon and then a different park in the evening for dinner.

 

[Disneylover99]

If you must choose, choose an extra day.

 

[Mainemama]

I have never used or missed hoppers until we ended up buying annual passes this year. Although we have continued to plan our usual 1 park a day, he few times we did use them were wonderful. If you have never had hoppers before, I don't think you will miss them. However, the hoppers give you an opportunity to be a bit more spontaneous, and seeing he ages of your kids, perhaps have some freedom to split up. I used a hopper to take my toddler to MK after Epcot while my big kids went to DS to see a movie, for example. Yes, we could have still had fun at the resort, but being able to ask her, "what do you want to do right now" and have her answer, "Dumbo, " and just go do it was priceless.

 

[danceteachermom]

I would go with the extra night and day at the parks for sure. I enjoy the hoppers but that enjoyment is not greater than the enjoyment of a longer vacation.

The only thing I would consider is if you have a favorite park and that park is MK...will it close early several nights of your visit due to MNSSHP? If it will and that is where you will be during the day, then I would consider the hopper.

 

[OB1]

WE always get hoppers. It is only wife & I, so a trip to EPCOT many nights is in order. I think the consideration for you is will your family be ok with a full day at the Studios and AK? Since the studios is in such chaos right now, and many do not want to stay a full day at AK (we can do 2 days), then that should help determine your needs. As long as you have other things you like to do when you are done with a park, then you are probably good without hoppers.

Agree with others that it does take time. We normally drive, so we lose about 45 minutes hopping. Just depends on your strategy for the parks.

 

[suse66]

I love the hoppers and have done them for every trip. Our touring style is to spend 4-5 hours at a park early in the day then have a leisurely lunch. After that we love to hang by the pool, read, swim and just relax for a few hours. Then we plan on a nice dinner followed by a fun evening at a different park. As well, staying at YC makes walking to two parks so easy it is no trouble to hop somewhere new in the evening. Hope you have a magical trip, whatever your decision.

 

[DisneyFirstTimer10]

We have done a few trips without hoppers and recently trips with hoppers. I think the kids (and your family as a whole) would enjoy the extra day more so than visiting two parks in one day. You can use the DHS and AK days as morning parks- then head back to the resort to swim/Relax. My kids really appreciate the parks, but to be honest- they are just as appreciative of me realizing that they need their downtime at the pool to just let loose without structure of ADRs and FP too.

 

[mom2rtk]

I would choose the extra day, especially now that it gets you 3 additional FPs. If there's a park you don't feel you need a full day for, use it as a short day. Do the FPs then go back and rest or swim.

 

[JimmyV]

An extra day waking up at WDW.
An extra dinner at a themed restaurant.
An extra day removed from the real world....

These things are all more valuable to me than the ability to go from DHS to Epcot. In our experiences, the MK is always a full day park. So much to absorb and take in. And it takes way too long to get to any other park than Epcot that moving around doesn't make sense to us. And Epcot is always a full day for us, so again, no desire to hop on those days. AK keeps us occupied until at least 4:00 and while we could hop elsewhere after that, we prefer to use the balance of our AK day as a time to recharge our batteries and/or shower and dress up for a nice dinner. The only day we would ever hop is our DHS day. Given the choice of an extra full day versus the ability to hop out of DHS on one day, we'd take the extra day every time. Extra time is such a luxury at WDW. It allows you to slow down and really soak in the special things at WDW both inside and out of the parks. When we used to hop, we found ourselves pushing and pushing and pushing, always worrying more about "what's next" instead of what is in front of us. Extra time relieves that pressure.

 

[TXStormtrooper]

We always get hoppers, but if I could add an extra day instead, I would probably do that.

 

[gatormom2tots]

It really just depends on your touring style...The first couple of trips we didn't use them. We wanted to spend as much time in the park as possible and didn't want to waste time hopping. Now that we have been a few times, we are much more likely to take a more relaxed touring plan- meaning we go in the morning for a few hours, spend a few hours back at the hotel swimming and napping, and then back for a casual evening in another park. This next trip is for 2 weeks- looking forward to REALLY slowing down and having the ultimate sponaneity in the evenings to go to any park in the evening- even if its just to see fireworks and no rides.

 

[Ms Marigny]

Funny, I was having this decision making problem myself. We are also staying moderate 7 days with two kids, 10 and 6. Our last trip in early June two years ago we went with the extra day (stayed 8 days). While the trip was fine, we did kind of miss having the hopper option after taking a break in the afternoon- it would have been nice to go Epcot for dinner or to the MK to see the fireworks.

This next trip this late May/early June we decided to get the hoppers. What swayed our decision was all of the construction at HS. We still want to go to HS but we figured we'd only be there a half day at most and with the wait times increasing at MK, we figured we'd need more time there. We also tend to spend only a short day at AK as well, so we could head over to MK after too. Park hopping time doesn't bother us- it is kind of a relaxing break to us.

 

[patty57]

We always get hoppers and love them, with the caveat that we stay at the Epcot Resorts. That way we can walk to Epcot a lot of evenings. In December of 2014, we stayed at WL with hoppers, and only hopped once. I think if I weren't staying around Epcot, I would choose the extra day.

 

[Thing 1]

Have you looked at the cost difference for adding one more day? With most tickets it is so little difference that you would not have to choose. If for some reason that is not the case I would consider a couple things: Will you have the DDP and plan to do
TS dinners? If yes, hoppers are great to allow more movement for dinners in different parks and even different resorts. Will you take breaks? If yes, it often nice to decide to go to a different park after a break. Will you take advantage of

• AM EMH? If yes, its nice to be able to enjoy a couple low crowd hours then to hop to another park as the crowds increase. Will it be a crowded time of year when you go? It really is interesting how some days a park can be very crowded and another much less. I know all about crowd predictors etc, but sometimes they are wrong and its nice to be able to skip from a busy to less busy park. IF however, you are going at a low crowd time, plan to stay in the park all day and eat mostly CS, you may not want or need hoppers.

 

[cmarsh31]

We like to use the AM EMH to hit MK (after doing at least a full day there) to get a second run on our favorites, then hop over to Epcot at lunch time. Usually we have a full day at both MK and Epcot, then split one day between the two (we also always seem to have a monsoon at Epcot so we need the extra half day to do what we couldn't - especially during the rainy early fall).

 

[AJA]

The extra day!