Do I need park hoppers?

[dlsanchez]

Should I get PH's for a visit the first week of May and we are staying at BC? My kids are 9,9 and 10.

 

[hakepb]

If you like the idea of visiting one park in the morning, then an afternoon swim at your great pool, then walking to EPCOT in the evening for a dinner, then yes

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Park Hoppers allow you to go to more than one park on the same day. So if you go to Epcot in the morning, you could go to another park later that day.

If you don't buy PH's and decide you want them, it can be added later.

 

[EmilyS90]

It really just depends on what you want to do. I have them because we have dinner ADRs on a couple days at EP even when we won't be spending the day there, and because we're considering hitting a different park after AK one day.

If you plan to stay at one park per day, don't bother. But EP is pretty close by(I think) and has great dining options, so hoppers might be useful if you want to eat there a few times.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

We only get park hoppers if we are staying at a Boardwalk area resort. Normally we feel that it is not necessary to pay for them (just plan in advance for your preferred park / ADR). With a little planning, we can maximize our time in one park per day; however, with Epcot and the many wonderful restaurants that you can walk to I would splurge for the hoppers. I would pick the most recommended park in morning, swim in the awesome SAB pool in the afternoon, then walk into Epcot for supper in the evening.
Sounds magical

 

[dlsanchez]

It is $250 at UT to add them but it would be over $300 at park. So I feel like if I going to add them, I should do so now! I am horrible at making decisions! I think my kids would be happy no matter what.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

A lot of people will tell you that you need them. I believed them on my first trip and bought them. Never used them---huge waste of money! Have gone back four times since and never bought them, never missed them. We just plan one park per day. Make our ADRs in or near that park. If we take a break, we go back to the same park. If we finish early somewhere, we go to the pool, play mini golf, go to DTD, etc., etc.

But it really is a personal choice. You'll have to decide for what you think your family will do. For us, the $250 can be used for other things!

 

[supersnoop]

It is $250 at UT to add them but it would be over $300 at park. So I feel like if I going to add them, I should do so now! I am horrible at making decisions! I think my kids would be happy no matter what.

How much difference is there in the "discount" listed on UT? UT tickets will be bridged to the current gate price as long as you use them once. So, the price to upgrade should be much closer, if not less expenisve if you wait.

 

[dlsanchez]

How much difference is there in the "discount" listed on UT? UT tickets will be bridged to the current gate price as long as you use them once. So, the price to upgrade should be much closer, if not less expensive if you wait.

I don't get this. My 5 day MYW tickets will be worth 1634.80 at gate. I will pay 1502.97 for UT. Won't I have to pay $64/person to upgrade to PH? I am so confused. The price difference between MYW and PH undercover tourist tickets is only about $250 for 5 people.

 

[jmkjr72]

We have used them every time but have always gone in Jan Feb
the nice thing being ak isn't open as late you can plan to do more that day if you have a hopper
plus if you are eating in parks you have more choices for your adrs you aren't stuck at just one park

 

[ziravan]

We roam parks. Rope drop one park, FP another.

We just got back two weeks ago and on our last day, we did a 17 ride, 4 park roller coaster day. We are already in deep planning to top 20 rides in June!

The flexibility of changing plans is essential to how I do Disney. When you're locked into a park/plan, you're locked in, even when things don't go as planned. For all the complaints about FP locking you in, I've had great success with FP while being spontaneous. The only hard FPs that lock a schedule for me are TSMM, Soarin', 7DMT, and A&E, if that's your thing. For everything else, I've successfully made changes on the fly.

For me, part of the excitement is working the system.

Raining in EPCOT? No problem. Pizza night in the room, reschedule EPCOT FPs for tomorrow night and do AK at rope drop without FPs. This happened on my last trip. Without the ability to park hop, I'd of had to do EPCOT during a 1PM-closing downpour. No thanks.

Live report from my roller coaster day: http://www.disboards.com/threads/live-report-from-our-roller-coaster-day.3378861/

 

[ArielDreams]

I never go without them! However, that's our personal preference. I like the variety of being able to visit two parks a day. When Park #1 gets crazy, we can leave, rest up at the hotel and try something different in the evening. But if you didn't care about switching it up, you could still rest and go back to the same park. To me, it's worth getting park hoppers but I know many don't see the need. Like other posters have said, Epcot has our favorite restaurants and we will probably dine there 3 times on our next trip. I don't even think we'll be doing Epcot in the morning. For us, it works!

 

[supersnoop]

I don't get this. My 5 day MYW tickets will be worth 1634.80 at gate. I will pay 1502.97 for UT. Won't I have to pay $64/person to upgrade to PH? I am so confused. The price difference between MYW and PH undercover tourist tickets is only about $250 for 5 people.

You'll still have to pay the $64 to upgrade, but you achieve your savings from the UT discount. For three adults and two children, the UT price different is $280.18, while the price at the parks if you wait to upgrade is $340.80. So, are you willing to take the $60 risk by waiting to upgrade when you get there, with the chance you could save $280 if you decide you don't need the park hopper option at all.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Should I get PH's for a visit the first week of May and we are staying at BC? My kids are 9,9 and 10.

Growing up, when park hoppers were included, we liked using them most often towards the end of a trip when we were doing repeats.

As an adult, we would do similar.

But when it cost money--well, we didn't add it on and we didn't miss it.

I think it depends on of the cost would not be a big deal to your budget, how you tour, and how much flexibility you wish to have.

We prefer the flexibility, but we were fine to go without because it would cost several hundred for our family.

A nice compromise would be to hold off and then add them if you would like to use them.

 

[rtilner]

If you're staying that many days I wouldn't purchase the park hopper. I did 1 year and it very exhausting going from park to park in 1 day. Concentrate on 1 park a day. If you want go back to the hotel for a few hours or to Downtown Disney.

 

[andee515]

If we stay less than a week, I want hoppers; more we get 2+ days in each park! we don't upgrade