Can't Decide about Park Hoppers

[ChicagoMom]

We're a family of 3 and DD will be almost 5 when we visit in late October (predicted crowd level is 3).

When we traveled to WDW 2 years ago, I decided against getting park hoppers and didn't regret it. It was a short trip and we only visited MK and AK. We did everything we wanted to do and had a good time even though it was ungodly hot (mid August).

This time we will be there for 7 or 8 nights and will visit all 4 parks. DD is over 40 inches so can ride most rides. She will want to see plenty of characters, especially the princesses.

We will probably be staying at Pop or POR or maybe an Epcot area resort (dark horse WL?) but definitely not a Monorail resort.

My plan is to take full advantage of EMHs, RDs and FP+ to hit the "must dos" and make ADRs to meet the characters (although I'm worried about Anna and Elsa since they don't appear to be in any of the restaurants - Anna and Elsa are a "must do" for our Frozen crazy DD). Eat lunch in the park and then go back to the resort in the afternoon for swim time or nap and then go back to the park in the evening.

I'm thinking I will buy 6 days of park tickets. Since we're going in late October and DD isn't much of a swimmer yet, I think we will skip the water parks. But my DH will probably want to play golf one morning.

Do you think we would benefit from Park Hoppers? I thought maybe it would be nice to do evenings in Epcot a couple of nights.

ETA that our ride list of "must dos" is probably shorter than most. Fantasyland is definitely a "must do" and HM, POTC and Big Thunder RR. In Epcot, only Soarin' is a must. For AK, the safari and the Rapids are the must dos and for HS the only "must" is Toy Story Mania.

 

[amg35]

I find hoppers to be fantastic. We always end up in a different park at night, mostly Epcot for food!

And I'll tell you, if you end up staying in the Epcot resort area, the hoppers will be invaluable. Just to be able to pop in and out of Epcot during food/wine (while you will be there) is worth the extra cost.

Also, if you rope drop your morning park, you can go relax at resort in afternoon, and hop to an evening park and use your fast pass plus!

If you can afford it, I would most definitely get hoppers.

 

[jrjankowski8]

Sometimes on a longer stay, not getting hoppers works. It gives you time to relax and only figure out one park a day.

I always get hoppers though. Haha

 

[HookdonWDW]

We always hop. I like the flexibility of being able to do one park in the morning and another in the afternoon. It's also nice to be able to switch parks on the fly if we find that the park we're in has gotten overly-crowded. Also you'll be going during F&W... I'd definitely want to hop then so we could hit Epcot in the evenings.

 

[JimmyV]

I vote no. Check the park hours. During the slow or shoulder seasons, the parks are often not open late enough to make hoppers worth it. AK will likely close at 5:00. Epcot at 9:00. DHS at 8:00 or so. And the MK will likely have Halloween parties a couple of times when you are there. So it s not like you are going to hop to a second park and stay until midnight. And if you have a youngster with you, what are the dinner and bed time concerns. During the slow season with 6 days in the parks there is no need to spend extra money chasing one park after the other just to squeeze in an extra hour here or there. Especially with a young chiid who would probably enjoy staying in one park more than the hour walking to, waiting for and taking a bus from place to place.

 

[siskaren]

You don't have to decide now. You can add the hopper option when you get there if you decide you want it.

 

[Wendybird55]

I found that when my son was younger (2-5) and still using stroller that we really didn't use or need PHs as one park a day was plenty for my son and hopping around with stroller and all that goes with it was more hassle then it was worth with a young child (and I always loved park hopping). So for those trips we saved $ and didn't get PH. The last few trips however we have been using PH and we all love it including my son. At 6 & 7 he's not using stroller has more stamina for walking in heat (we usually go in August) and is so familiar with parks that he knows where he wants to go and likes to hop form place to place.

So I would base it on your child...if it's easier and more effective to plan 1 park a day then don't hop. I found sometimes it was easier to hit a park early enjoy it all day then have dinner and head back to resort for evening as DS was tired instead of taking an afternoon break. If you think mornings in one park, resort break then evening in another like EPCOT will work then got for it.
It will be F&W time in Oct. and you may enjoy going to EPCOT in the evening for F&W - though we found afternoons for F&W to be less crowded and easier to navigate with a young child.

 

[aaarcher86]

We have always gotten the hoppers, but last trip only 1 person in our group used them 1 time to go to MK and bring a freakin' balloon back to Epcot.

We're going without this time. IMO, the longer we stay the more time we have to do the stuff we want each day versus hopping to squeeze it all in. Obviously, that's not how everyone tours though.

I figure it we absolutely must hop we can add it once we're there. But the $60x5 we paid last trip for not using it is better in my pocket. Those were expensive balloons!

 

[minniemous]

I would agree that you do not need to decide now. The best thing to do would be go and do what you naturally want to do and then if the day comes that you decide you want to do something else in the evening then you can add the park hopper then.

The only thing that would be bad is if you would have liked to use the hopper earlier and you held off because you and then you ended up adding later anyhow.

We always purchased the park hopper thinking we would regret not doing so (did not know you could add it at anytime). Hardly ever used it.

3 years ago we went and and we purchased the park hopper and used it once on the last full day there. This last trip past October/November we went for the longest stay we had to date which was 12 nights. I decided to not add park hopper and said if we want to hop we will add it.

We never added it and really had no need to add it. There was one night again when we thought it would be nice to go to another park but it was not worth it to us. The longer you stay I feel the hopper becomes less necessary because you will have ample time in each park and not feel like you have to do 2 parks in one day.

I think it is a good place to save a few hundred if you will have ample time in all the parks without it.

 

[Atchley]

We never purchase the park hopper option. We purchase 8 day tickets for our nine day trip and usually only use 6 days of those. (It's not that much more to purchase the extra days just in case) We usually just concentrate on one park per day and then head back to our resort and swim or explore another resort if we are done with the park for the day.
As another poster stated, you can add the park hopper option to your ticket at any time during your stay and it doesn't cost anymore. (but things are changing-so you never know)
Four people at 60 a piece is a lot of money that I can use for other things.

 

[Day-Day]

As mentioned already, you can wait to decide if you want to upgrade.

We always take advantage of hoppers. They may come in handy since you plan to take advantage of EMH's. We don't usually do EMH's.

We visited MK during the day when "Nights of Joy" was scheduled for that evening. The park was practically empty during the day because folks without park hoppers don't want to visit for a shortened day. As the crowds starting coming in for "Nights of Joy" we hopped to EPCOT. The situation should be the same for any other special event evenving (e.g. Halloween Party). This really worked well for us.

We like hoppers if we are staying for a long visit and don't see as much of a need for them if its a short visit. For a long visit, after we have visited all of the parks, we end up wanting to hit the high points again but not stay in one park for a full day.

 

[ChicagoMom]

Thanks everyone.

So if you add it, do you have to pay the extra cost for every day? For example, if we buy 6 days and on day 6, we decide to add it, do I have to pay the extra fee for all 6 days or just for 1 day?

 

[HookdonWDW]

Thanks everyone.

So if you add it, do you have to pay the extra cost for every day? For example, if we buy 6 days and on day 6, we decide to add it, do I have to pay the extra fee for all 6 days or just for 1 day?

It's a flat fee, so you pay the same whether it's for 1 day or 10 days...

 

[DisneyFamily123]

For us, I really like park hopping. DW, DS8 and I (DH) will make full use of it. We can do better to avoid crowds with park hopping and I just like having choices. Sometimes we do different things -- DW might want to sleep late so DS and I will go to a park early to do rides DW doesn't care for, then meet at lunch time at another park.

Often, we will all go early to a park to beat crowds, then come back to the resort for an afternoon break/freshen up, then go to a different park in the evening. I will be using park hopping to avoid crowds with Star Wars Weekend in our trip. We will go to SWW in the morning but no way I want to be in a crowded park all day. We will head to other parks for dinner and other things.

We will skip Wishes on days earlier in the week so we can get up early the next morning to be at MK before it opens. Then later in the week, park hop to MK just for Wishes and less popular attractions.

I could easily spend a whole day at Animal Kingdom but we will want to ride Expedition Everest several times. If DS and I want to go back on another day and ride it more... with park hopping... we can just go to AK for an hour or two and still be able to enjoy other parks that day.

 

[cruisingtwins]

Can you add an extra day to your ticket and use that if you want to hop one day? I think an extra day is only like 10$ after a certain number of days.

 

[bumbershoot]

Can you add an extra day to your ticket and use that if you want to hop one day? I think an extra day is only like 10$ after a certain number of days.

Sadly it doesn't work that way.

 

[WickedMom]

Sadly it doesn't work that way.

I was wondering about that too. Disney doesn't let you use 2 park tickets in the same day for 2 different parks? Otherwise we were thinking to go to the parks based on their magic hours but I'm worried the parks will be more crowded on their magic hours days.

 

[aaarcher86]

I was wondering about that too. Disney doesn't let you use 2 park tickets in the same day for 2 different parks? Otherwise we were thinking to go to the parks based on their magic hours but I'm worried the parks will be more crowded on their magic hours days.

No, they don't. You're buying 'days' not admissions when it comes to the theme parks.

 

[WickedMom]

Thanks. I thought my idea might be too good to be true! What about the parks being more crowded on their magic hours days?

 

[Julylady]

We routinely purchased park hoppers for 15+ trips over the last 10 years. (Some of us always had Annual passes as DVC members and then we purchased Park Hoppers for those traveling with us.)

For our April trip I didn't add park hopping because at that time you could only reserve FP+ in one park. I thought if we wanted to add park hopping at any point during the trip it would be easy to do so. There were a couple of times during our 7 day stay that I thought about hopping, but when I realized how much it would cost to add park hopping at that moment, it didn't seem worth it. Instead, we went to Downtown Disney one night, and just walked around the Boardwalk the other one. We enjoyed the "down" time.

We are currently planning a trip for next spring with two 20-somethings and I am advising them not to get park hoppers!