Diehard DLR Parkhopper Thinking About Not Hopping This Summer

[Halloweenqueen]

We were there last week and was amazed how much time we spent in DCA. On Sunday we spent the entire day, minus lunch at Goofy's Kitchen there.

With ticket prices increasing, a non-park hopper seems like a good choice after our APs expire.

 

[profa]

Since it was $100+ savings to not buy hopper passes that is what I did. I really didn't even realize all the ins and outs at the time but now think it was an even better savings.
We have 3 kids - 4, 7, 8 and I planned to spend the entire day in CA w/ a midday break and then two full days at DL.
So now we are MM at DL on June 24 (yes unfortunate I know), Tues CA at opening. Wed DL all day.
The only reason I would want the hopper passes is so that my dd can have her BBB appt and then lunch at AG when she is all dolled up. But oh well. Not worth the extra price for us.

 

[Argento]

Consider that Disneyland itself has always had enough activity and entertainment to fill a full day so by the logic outlined in this thread, it should have ALWAYS made sense to skip park hoppers, at least for days you knew you would be in Disneyland. It would have made perfect sense to buy a single DL pass for one day, and maybe a park hopper for the next. That's not how it worked out though, hopping was a no-brainer not because there was a lack of a more sensible approach but because it was just easier to not have to bother with making a choice. You know, the kind of choices our sad, sad friends at WDW have to make. After all, it's vacation! I want to roll with the flow, not engineer a feat of human planning & organization.

When the parks are so accessible, why limit yourself to save a pittance? My 2¢

 

[chrissiecutie]

Hydroguy- my family appears to follow a similar strategy that yours does and many others on this board. We have always started in DL, hopped to DCA and come back to DL for evening activities or after DCA closed.

For us, DCA has always been a little on the S L O W side. Meaning, there just wasn't that much that interested my DH & DS. We literally hit up Soarin, GRR & then visited my son's "special" friends through the Disney Visa credit card benefits. BTW- if you don't already have one of these credit cards, I highly recommend them! The private visit with Disney characters alone, is worth it!

Anyways...that's all we've ever done beside maybe see a parade there. It was a 2-4 hour park for us. Now dont get me wrong, we've seen everything else it had to offer, but when I gave DS the choice of where'd he would rather be, it was DL all the way!

I'm really hoping that with the new CarsLand, it will now become a 6-8 hour day park for us. Because I have a heart condition and lots of walking actually makes me feel ill, I really try and avoid excessive park hopping. Now, I just dont see the value in it. If we spend almost an entire day at DCA, I know my family would personally choose to go back to the hotel for a swim or early to bed instead of more walking.

DH isn't a huge Disney guy, so we usually limit our visits to 2 or 3 days.

Typically this looks like: 1st day all at DL, 2nd day DCA then PH to DL and then if we do a 3rd day it's always all at DL. So even our normal schedule, we tend not to PH alot.

I imagine that now it will look like 1st day & 3rd day at DL with DCA on the 2nd day. So why spend the extra when we probably won't use it.

Save it for souviners!!

 

[DisneytheKid]

Interesting idea Hydroguy. I am not going to DLR until december but had honestly just planned to park hop like we always had. I'm really looking forward to reading yours and others trip reports regarding spending a whole day in DCA compared with the regular couple hours.

Anyone who reads my posts knows that like many experienced DLR visitors around here I think parkhopping is a no brainer.

But with DCA opening at 8AM this summer and all the news stuff including Mad T Party and new dining options, as well as EMH (we are staying at the GCH), I am starting to wonder whether this is still a good idea.

The more I think about it the more it seems to me that maybe parkhopping will not hold the same value as it has in the past. We will have so much to do in DCA maybe we just will stay the whole day.

Thoughts?

 

[limace]

I still think park hopping tickets are worth it for us. We will focus on one park or another each morning, but I want to take full advantage of the fast passes being unlinked in each park and be able to send a runner to get fps in one park while we are trecking around the other. I also like the flexibility-for instance, if we make WOC dinner package reservations, but DCA is crazy busy during the day, we aren't committed to spending our day there, we can just hop back for dinner and the show. We'll be there at a super busy time so YMMV.

 

[Disney Dreams]

My friends, family, and I have always approached the Parks in a different way than HydroGuy's hopping approach.

We either spend an entire day in DL or spend a good part of the day in DCA and then head over to DL. We believe that a LOT of time is actually wasted hopping back and forth between Parks AND there is soooooo much more to the Parks than just collecting FPs and riding "rides."

We place the focus on the overall experience: enjoying the ambience, taking in shows, riding rides, watching various entertainment offerings, and so forth.

To us, it is not about "collect 2 FPs, hop over, collect FPs, hop back, use FPs, etc...." In fact, that has never sounded like a fun day and is not how we approach DLR at all. We have a list of things we want to make sure we do and we enjoy whatever we encounter along the way. We don't worry about hopping. IF we decide we are done in one Park for the day, we switch Parks, otherwise we carry-on with whatever fun we encounter.

With the opening of CarsLand, this will just mean that we will most likely spend more time at DCA before/if we decide we are done with DCA for the day.

Dreams' Disney Reminder: There is sooooo much more to enjoy than just the rides. Don't miss out because you are rushing from ride to ride or FP to FP.

- Dreams

 

[chrissiecutie]

My friends, family, and I have always approached the Parks in a different way than HydroGuy's hopping approach.

We either spend an entire day in DL or spend a good part of the day in DCA and then head over to DL. We believe that a LOT of time is actually wasted hopping back and forth between Parks AND there is soooooo much more to the Parks than just collecting FPs and riding "rides."

We place the focus on the overall experience: enjoying the ambience, taking in shows, riding rides, watching various entertainment offerings, and so forth.

To us, it is not about "collect 2 FPs, hop over, collect FPs, hop back, use FPs, etc...." In fact, that has never sounded like a fun day and is not how we approach DLR at all. We have a list of things we want to make sure we do and we enjoy whatever we encounter along the way. We don't worry about hopping. IF we decide we are done in one Park for the day, we switch Parks, otherwise we carry-on with whatever fun we encounter.

With the opening of CarsLand, this will just mean that we will most likely spend more time at DCA before/if we decide we are done with DCA for the day.

Dreams' Disney Reminder: There is sooooo much more to enjoy than just the rides. Don't miss out because you are rushing from ride to ride or FP to FP.

- Dreams

Dreams- I think alot of folks approach their trip this way too. I know we certainly do! The only reason we get the PH to begin with is that for us, DCA was not a full day park. It seems many felt the same way too. We would either start at DL because it opened 2 hours earlier and then PH to DCA. From DCA we would either go back to the hotel or head into DL. It really just depended on how tired we were...We bought the PH so we could simply have that option.

We have never been a family that PH's for FP's. I know alot of people on this board like to do this and even have a "FP Runner". More power to them! It's just not for us...

However, it's important to remember that for lots of folks, the rides are a major reason they visit. To be honest, if they didn't have Space Mtn or BTMRR, DH would probably never set foot inside DL.

 

[PHXscuba]

I am debating buying single-park tickets (4-day) and seeing after two days how we want to spend our remaining time. But this won't be until next spring, so I have the advantage of watching many of you "kick the tires" on the idea.

As long as DLR offers the option upgrade to a parkhopper, that is.

PHXscuba

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

My friends, family, and I have always approached the Parks in a different way than HydroGuy's hopping approach.

We either spend an entire day in DL or spend a good part of the day in DCA and then head over to DL. We believe that a LOT of time is actually wasted hopping back and forth between Parks AND there is soooooo much more to the Parks than just collecting FPs and riding "rides."

We place the focus on the overall experience: enjoying the ambience, taking in shows, riding rides, watching various entertainment offerings, and so forth.

To us, it is not about "collect 2 FPs, hop over, collect FPs, hop back, use FPs, etc...." In fact, that has never sounded like a fun day and is not how we approach DLR at all. We have a list of things we want to make sure we do and we enjoy whatever we encounter along the way. We don't worry about hopping. IF we decide we are done in one Park for the day, we switch Parks, otherwise we carry-on with whatever fun we encounter.

With the opening of CarsLand, this will just mean that we will most likely spend more time at DCA before/if we decide we are done with DCA for the day.

Dreams' Disney Reminder: There is sooooo much more to enjoy than just the rides. Don't miss out because you are rushing from ride to ride or FP to FP.

- Dreams

This has always been our approach too. I can see surviving without park hoppers.....just not sure if I want to. We DO use them, just not to the extreme as some. We typically hop once a day at most, some days not hopping at all. Also the season will DEFINITELY play a part in the decision because of entertainment schedules.

 

[dedwards]

I think we will continue to ParkHop. We have Ap's and we usaully start at disneyland hop over to california adventures to grab a few FP's and catch a show or something and head back to hotel for rest. We then go back into DCA from hotel ride the rides we had FP's for and either watch WOC or not. Then head over to DL to see fireworks or ride any rides that have short lines or FP's for from the morning. We Don't commando the parks we go to DL which is about 2 hours away from us about 15 days a year so we always like to just go with flow and if we miss something we will see it next time ( I understand that approach does not work if it s a once every few years trip.) With a 3 day pass I think you can go pretty slow and still get to do everything you will want to do in both parks at least once.

I keep hearing that DCA is now going to be a full day park, I think during the intitial rush this is goign to be true as the crowd and lines at Carsland is goign to be pretty crazy. On a day where I do a lot in DCA I have always only managed to spend no more then 4 hours at DCA in one day adding 3 rides one I can get a FP for and a new main street is not going to add 4 hours to my DCA time. I mean I can only eat so many times. I took in carsland durignthe Preview SUnday and will now advoid that area for some time to come.

Hydro is correct though that the parks opening at same time will change the FP collectors approach to the parks. For me though I will still Parkhop I could spend a entire day in disneyland but as i get older I have to go to hotel to rest so i might as well park hop on way.

My moto though it is almost impossible to have a bad unfun day at DLR so enjoy

 

[Judy from Boise]

We will continue to park hop, we have never done it for efficiency , but novelty. I think early am and after dusk to close are the prettiest times in the parks, so we want to experience both times in both parks.
We have always considered DCA a "full day" worth of experiences....in fact we can kill an hour just in Beast's library and Ursula's grotto !

The kicker is we only have 3 in our family, so the savings to not hop are minor.

 

[Babybears]

Funny, my husband and I were just discussing this yesterday that Parkhopping may be a given anymore. Another factor is that for our family's upcoming August trip, if we were to do "1 park a day" 5 day tickets as opposed to 5 day parkhoppers, we would save around $150.00. Kinda makes you go hmmmmm!!

However.....I still would like the "option" to park hop if we wanted to. Especially if one park or the other starts getting crazy, you could just head to the other one.

 

[SilentFeline]

There are so many good points in this thread on both sides. Truthfully, I hadn't even considered the effects that the increased hours at DCA would have to park hopping until HydroGuy started this thread! It really will change everything.

Right now I'm leaning towards continuing to hop because I really like having the option to do so when crowds become unbearable in one park. My boyfriend and I can't stand heavy crowds. We're planning on returning to DLR next year, and our decision on whether or not to buy PHs will most likely depend on how many days we're staying, and ultimately how much we can afford to spend. Ideally we like to stay 6 days since we don't live close enough (or have enough money) to make frequent visits. If the 6 day PHs were still around, this decision would be a no-brainer for us because we would likely save a lot more money. Since that's not the case, we're actually considering APs for the first time ever since there would only be a $108 difference between a Deluxe AP and 5 day + 1 day PHs. However, getting an AP would mean having to find the time and money to go to DLR twice in one year, which may not be possible. In this case, we'll probably get the 5 day 1-park + 1 day 1-park tickets. Or we may stay 5 days and get the 5-day hoppers. In other words, if money wasn't an issue we would probably continue to hop because I just like the freedom that it allows. I'm definitely interested in what others will report about their experiences though, and I'll keep an open mind.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Funny, my husband and I were just discussing this yesterday that Parkhopping may be a given anymore. Another factor is that for our family's upcoming August trip, if we were to do "1 park a day" 5 day tickets as opposed to 5 day parkhoppers, we would save around $150.00. Kinda makes you go hmmmmm!!

However.....I still would like the "option" to park hop if we wanted to. Especially if one park or the other starts getting crazy, you could just head to the other one.

I'm in the same pickle. Not park hopping would save us $180.


ETA: Not park hopping actually puts me back to the pre-price increase price.....

 

[tanyaewa]

We were just considering this as well. We are coming for a quick 2 day visit prior to going on a Mexican Cruise. With 8 and 10 yo boys and CarsLand being new it seems a shame to be in LA area and NOT go!
However, since it's just 2 days- we are used to leisurely 5 day trips- and since we are mostly coming for DCA I thought perhaps we could do one day at each, not parkhop, and save $120 for parasailing in Cabo!
It seems like a waste of $ to buy the park hoppers "just in case" you have the time.
But it's tough to wrap our head around the loss of flexibility and not being able to wring the very last minute out of the days.....
I will continue to lurk an decide. Trip isn't until Nov 29-Dec 1

 

[BlueBayou]

I never thought about not park hopping. It's an interesting idea. I have always liked the flexibility. We have done 4-days before and hopped some days and not others. But with expanded DCA hours - it does eliminate the closing down DCA and going back to DL.

 

[KateDrake]

Great discussion! I'm loving what everyone has to say, some fantastic points on all sides.
I don't see myself giving up hopping, but I do see modifying the way I do it. My family has always been the type that treats the whole area like one big theme park, having multiple FPs in different places, wandering over to the other park if we have a hankering to see what's going on over there or if it gets busy, etc. Even something as simple as "a Dole whip float sure sounds good right now..." and we'd hop on over.
So now that there is so much more to see (and so much more real estate to cover from Cars Land to Splash Mountain...) I see us staying at each park in large chunks. Hit Disneyland at opening, then head over to meander BVS and check out Mad Tea Party in the evening, something like that.
The money could be a factor as the prices keep going up and my family keeps growing, but for now I like the flexibility.

 

[Dobie]

The Dobies must hop. DL doesn't have beer.

 

[skier_pete]

I find this funny you are saying this, hydroguy.

The reason being there was a thread a month or so ago where I said because I am a newbie to DLR, that I was planning on doing DL day 1, DCA day 2, and then hopping our third day. You (and others) insisted that I was crazy NOT to hop back and forth. While I value the advice of fellow DISers greatly, I was still having a hard time finding a plan that included hopping as better than a plan that didn't and leaning toward not hopping until the third day.

Seeing hydroguy say this, it makes me feel better that it's not so stupid of me to want to do it that way.