Do we need hoppers if we have a lot of ADRs?

[egjlsmommy]

I'm in the very early stages of planning our Christmas trip and I'm wondering if we need the hopper option. Or can I save the almost $400 and just try to plan meals around the parks and such. Would love some expert opinions on this! Thanks!

 

[Beauty & the Best]

I would not get park hoppers just for dining. If hoppers make sense to you in other ways (you want to do EMH's, you like to do more than 1 park/day, etc.) do it, but don't do it just for dining.

You can easily plan meals based on the parks where you'll be - remember that you don't need a park pass to eat in the resorts.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

I am no expert, but this is our second trip in 14 months and we have never gotten hoppers, but each trip, I have 7 ADRs. I always plan around parks.

For MK, we do either an in park ADR or one at a nearby resort (monorail resort - we haven't done Wilderness Lodge, but that would be easy too).

For Epcot, we prefer to dine in park, but there are many options a short walk away (e.g. cape may Cafe)

For DHS, we dined in park last trip. In a few weeks, we'll be checking out Kouzzina at the Boardwalk Resort.

For AK, both last trip and this trip, we will be dining at Sanaa at AKV. There are several in park options as well.

Last trip, we dined at: Akershus, Biergarten, Sci Fi, Sanaa, The Wave, Rose and Crown, and Coral Reef.

In March, we will be dining at, CRT, Ohana, Crystal Palace, Via Napoli, La Hacienda de San Angel, Biergarten, Sanaa, and Kouzzina and possibly Chef Mickey's.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

I don't get hoppers either because we don't really wish to do more than one park each day & I want to save the $.

We love Epcot so we always have more days there & we eat at the Epcot restaurants those days. Like on our upcoming trip I hope to get Teppon Edo, LeCellier & Coral Reef at lunch. I'm thinking about the Mexican food place at supper one night or we might walk or take the boat to the YachtClub & eat at Yachtmann's Steakhouse. Another Epcot night I'm thinking about Flying Fish....walk to or take the boat.

On the MK day it is easy to ride the monorail to one of the resorts & eat at Ohana or a signature close by.

AK day we will eat lunch at Yak & Yeti & then eat supper at a resort also...I'm thinking about a dinner show that night. And on HS days we always leave early so we eat either at a resort or DTD.

Traveling to the resorts takes time but we really enjoy it.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Plan well and you won't need hoppers. Planning in advance helps a lot, so you've won half the battle already! Remember that you can always leave a park and return to it without a hopper pay (same day re-entry) so don't forget about the resort restaurants near the parks, like Cape May Cafe near Epcot is a favorite of ours, or Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary, near MK. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the parks for a little while and rest in the relative quiet of a resort.

Happy planning!

 

[papamouse1]

Add one more vote to no hoppers. Especially since you are going during the holiday season when transportation, getting in & out of parks etc will be even more difficult.

Plan well, stay in one place and get the most out of your day

 

[egjlsmommy]

Thanks for the replies! Will it matter that we're there during Christmas? I'm kind of freaking out about how busy it will be, but that's for another thread altogether!

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Personally, I can't imagine NOT having hoppers. Everyone's different I guess

If you are going the week before/week after Christmas, what would you do if your park-of-the-day closed to capacity that day? You could leave to do a resort meal & not be able to get back in or the park could be so crowded that you'd want to hop someplace else to try to find some relief. If you are going early in the month no such an issue but....

 

[jdisnut]

Personally, I can't imagine NOT having hoppers. Everyone's different I guess

Same here. I wouldn't take a Disney vacation without hoppers. I consider the extra cost as a necessary part of the trip.

That said, that has nothing to do with my dining plans. Hoppers make touring the parks so much easier and convenient.

 

[OhThePain]

Same here. I wouldn't take a Disney vacation without hoppers. I consider the extra cost as a necessary part of the trip.

That said, that has nothing to do with my dining plans. Hoppers make touring the parks so much easier and convenient.

I agree. Also, if you are going durring Christmas, especially from a few days before Christmas till NYE, you might want hoppers. It is the busiest time of the year and of all the times of year I have gone, that is the one time where we felt we needed a change mid-day more than ever.

 

[LovinPooh]

HOPPERS!!!

Our last trip I planned and planned and worked our dining around park schedules and all that. It all worked out, but ugh! This time around I have bought the hoppers and have no stresses as to park schedules and if something changes. If my kids want to play somewhere where we dont have an ADR we certainly can. I bought the hoppers just to take the stress off my ADR planning lol.
I hated being tied down to 1 park per day cause of my ADR... just my opinion

 

[hannahdrewmom]

We do dxd,p which means LOTS of ADR's, but we still don't need hoppers. We never get them. Remember that you can add them whenever you do need them during your trip. I'd say plan to not need them and if something unforseen comes up (park closes due to capacity or DD HAS to see a certain character or she might just DIE ) then add them when they are necessary. Otherwise hold on to that $400! Disney is expensive enough that if you can cut that cost you can splurge someplace else!

 

[beroh2253]

Another vote here for Hoppers, wwe go during the Food and Wine Fest and head to EPCOT just about every night for the Fest and watch Illuminations or mainly because all our favorite restaurants are in EPCOT for a different country. Also our last day we like to hop to each park and hit all our favorite rides. Only ablut of day of rides are at the Animal Kingdom but we hop there several times a week to do a CS at Flame Tree BBQ. We have never gone without hoppers but that's us, you do save some money if you can plan without them.

 

[Coconuts]

We do dxd,p which means LOTS of ADR's, but we still don't need hoppers. We never get them. Remember that you can add them whenever you do need them during your trip. I'd say plan to not need them and if something unforseen comes up (park closes due to capacity or DD HAS to see a certain character or she might just DIE ) then add them when they are necessary. Otherwise hold on to that $400! Disney is expensive enough that if you can cut that cost you can splurge someplace else!

I agree. On our previous trips we always bought PH, but on this last trip we didn't. I planned our ADR's on our planned park days. We were also there in January which isn't busy like Christmas. My kids are also little, so we're not park commandos that are there for EMH or rope drops and we don't always move very quickly. When they're all older, we would probably benefit from PH since we can tour more quickly with no diaper changes!

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

This is my humble opinion on hoppers...

If you just want to hit the highlights of a certain park and then visit a second park, then park hoppers are great!

But, if you want to fully enjoy a park and do most of the things in that park, you need to spend a full day there.

Also, during busy seasons (like Holidays) I think you can loose a lot of time park hopping.

Once, I went to MK in the morning and then over to HWS by 1pm. I wanted to get FPs for Rocking Roller Coaster. But, they FPs were all given out by that point. I decided then that maybe park hopping was not the best plan for me???

 

[Hopefully]

We wouldn't even consider a trip without hoppers. We always hop each day. Especially if you are visiting in December near Christmas, which is one of the busiest times of the year.
We have been to WDW more times than I can count - and we are only semi commandos now . But we start our day early at one park, usually take an afternoon break for a rest or a swim, we freshen up before we head out in the evening for an ADR and often Epcot at night.
The money is well worth it to us.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We do 2 TS meals a day and we always get hoppers. We always do night EMH's and since those aren't out when we have to make ADR's, hoppers work for us. We make a lunch ADR, spend the day in that park, then head back to the resort for a nap, or to wherever dinner is, then head to the park with night EMH's. It's just what works for us but I'm sure you could do it without hoppers with more planning.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We never get PH as we never have time for such thing and it's money wasted. We usually eat at the park we are at(plan days ahead of time with ADR) and then eat at a resort.

 

[egjlsmommy]

Lots of different opinions here! I love it!

How much time does it really take to hop? Another friend of mine stated that we would be wasting a lot of our time just "hopping". What do the hoppers have to say about that?

 

[sndral]

I'm not sure that I see it as 'wasted' time. I don't happen to like any of the 1 TS restaurants in DHS, and love several @ Epcot, so I'll hop for my meal from DHS to Epcot via the boat - I enjoy boat rides and seeing the Epcot resorts along the way. I may even allow extra time to get off the boat and go into BC to see the chocolate Christmas carousel there. Ak closes early and has few dinning options, on AK days @ closing I'll head over to Epcot for dinner and rides/illuminations, or if it's EMH over to MK for the evening often having a dinner break @ one of the monorail resorts then head into MK to finish my evening. I may take the monorail from Epcot to the TTC, switch to the resort monorail and ride it to MK, just because I like that long monorail ride, stopping on the way @ the GF to buy gingerbread in their life sized gingerbread house and admire the gorgeous tree there. Certainly waiting for buses then riding takes time (I allow an hour) but if you get a seat, it's a nice dry seat and mid day not usually crowded.
With planning you can certainly do fine w/out hoppers, I just like the freedom of not being tied to only one park.