Do You Park Hop

[scoker]

We are planning a trip to WDW the 3rd week of November, historically a lower attendance time being the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. We will have 6 full days for the parks. My rough plan is basically 2 days each MK and Epcot and 1 day each AK and HS.

Should we buy park hoppers or is it a waste? I haven't been to WDW in a long time and I don't remember park hopping in the past. I've been to DLR though 3 times in the past 3 years and there I went between the parks multiple times a day.

We will be staying offsite. We have a very nice two bedroom villa reserved and similar accommodations onsite would be 5 times the amount we are paying. It is just out of the question.

 

[sbmorasch]

It really all depends on what you want to do. I really like to get park hoppers because I don't like to spend a lot of time in animal and epcot so I go right over to magic or Hollywood. Really what I would suggest is get the base ticket see how your first day goes and then upgrade if you really need it. That's what my mom did this trip. Hope you had fun and I'll see you there because ill be there that week

 

[frozengurl]

I park hop... BUT sometimes I barely ever actually hop. I think you will be fine without hopping if you want to save money. Only thing is, say you get to MK and it's beyond crowded you are stuck there. But who's to say that if you hop to Epcot the crowds will be much better anyway.

 

[scoker]

see how your first day goes and then upgrade if you really need it

That is a great idea. I've never upgraded tickets before so I kind of forgot that option exists.

 

[sbmorasch]

That is a great idea. I've never upgraded tickets before so I kind of forgot that option exists.

Hehe I never even new about it until this week haha

 

[scjo68]

Yes, we park hop. We hop frequently each trip. I guess we got in the habit of touring that way back when hopping was included in regular tickets, so we just continue to add the hopper if we are not using AP's.

However, I would not call the hopper feature necessary. If you are looking for a good way to lower the cost for the trip, not hopping is a pretty pain-free way to do so. And like PP said, you can always add it after your trip starts if you find you need it. Once you add it, you can't get your money back once you realize you didn't need it after all.

I'm sure you know this, but if you wait and add hopping later, you pay the same to add it for just the last day as you would for the whole trip.

 

[mickeygirl14]

We are planning a trip to WDW the 3rd week of November, historically a lower attendance time being the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. We will have 6 full days for the parks. My rough plan is basically 2 days each MK and Epcot and 1 day each AK and HS.

Should we buy park hoppers or is it a waste? I haven't been to WDW in a long time and I don't remember park hopping in the past. I've been to DLR though 3 times in the past 3 years and there I went between the parks multiple times a day.

We will be staying offsite. We have a very nice two bedroom villa reserved and similar accommodations onsite would be 5 times the amount we are paying. It is just out of the question.

Something to keep in mind is it does take a lot of time sometimes to get to/from one park to another. I've always gotten park hoppers, mainly for meals...we like to eat in World Showcase at Epcot and I have been known to change our dining plans on the fly. But the new FP+ system has me questioning it since we can only pull FPs at one park/day. I think if you've planned your meals and looked at which parks you will be touring each day, you don't really need them. And like a PP said, you can always add them, if you find you need them.

 

[Chuckers]

I park hop because I take a nap in the afternoon every day. I am done with my first park by about 2pm. Return to my resort and nap for about an hour. Then I am ready for dinner and night time fun at another park.

Plus I am not a resort person.. I don't go to WDW for the resorts, so since AK is usually closed by 6pm when I go, I don't want to spend the rest of the night at my hotel (or spend money in DTD). Park hopping lets me maximize park time.

 

[JimmyV]

That is a great idea. I've never upgraded tickets before so I kind of forgot that option exists.

Be mindful, however, that your first day may not be indicative of what the rest of your trip will be like. For example, if on day one you go to AK and find yourself done early and wanting to go to another park, you might think: Eureka!, hopping is for us. But then on day two, after upgrading, you might find yourself in Epcot all day and night. And on day three, you might find yourself staying at DHS all day and night for dinner and Fantasmic, and then you will wonder why you spent the money. Or the reverse might be true. On day one you might be in a park all day and conclude that you don't need to hop, but on day four you might want to. Generally, out of six days on a trip, we might have the urge/need to hop once or twice. The rest of the time we do a park all day including dinner. So for us, the extra cost for hopping isn't worth it and on the days we think we should hop, we simply find other activities to enjoy like a Signature dinner or a nice dinner at the Swan/Dolphin. If we are only going to hop once or twice, we don't find the cost to be justified. Others do.

 

[tcherjen]

Always

 

[magrudersmakes3]

We park hop each trip. I do find that during summer, we find ourselves hopping more as we go back to the room to recharge and decide to go to another park. We have hopped in off peak times, just not everyday.

 

[Surfinpiratee]

We are planning a trip to WDW the 3rd week of November, historically a lower attendance time being the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. We will have 6 full days for the parks. My rough plan is basically 2 days each MK and Epcot and 1 day each AK and HS.

Should we buy park hoppers or is it a waste? I haven't been to WDW in a long time and I don't remember park hopping in the past. I've been to DLR though 3 times in the past 3 years and there I went between the parks multiple times a day.

We will be staying offsite. We have a very nice two bedroom villa reserved and similar accommodations onsite would be 5 times the amount we are paying. It is just out of the question.

With having 2 days for MK and epcot, I dont think you'll need the hoppers

 

[agavegirl1]

Every trip. I seldom stay in the same park all day.

 

[karly05]

I always have Hoppers. I don't hop every day, but I like the flexibility, and I love eating in Epcot. I also like having the freedom to hit multiple parks on my last day, to catch things I missed and redo favorites. If I want to see MSEP and MK isn't running it every night, I'd rather go to a "recommended" park for most of the day and then hop to MK just for the parade/fireworks. It really depends on how you like to tour and structure your day, though, and only you know the answer to that.

 

[AJ1983]

We bought PH last time because Epcot and AK are not full day parks to us. This time I think PH will be even more beneficial because we will hit AK in the early morning, then hop to another park where we will use our FP+.

Also, like someone said, PH can be helpful for dining plans.

 

[Holeshot1982]

I think if you plan things right you won't need them. We like to plan on what we will do so we can easily stay in one park all day/night. Saves money for other things.

 

[DisneyDad222]

With two kids, we generally upgrade to hoppers when we stay near a park, where we can walk or take a boat/monorail. With these we have the option of heading back to the resort mid day and then go to the closest park after dinner. When we've stayed at the moderates where we have to bus in and out of every park, we stick to the one a day rule because we want to avoid too much bus time with the kids.

 

[Laura's Dad]

We do a combination of both. We park hop if we use morning EMHs to go to a less crowded park. I think that FastPass+ will actually be a benefit for us on our upcoming May trip as we can do morning EMH at one park and do FastPass+ at our second park. We usually park hop in-between Epcot and MGM to ride the boat and in between the MK and Epcot to ride the monorail. In the past, we used to be able to ride in the front of the monorail and the ride from the MK to Epcot was one of the best rides in WDW. To me these methods of transportation are great ways to experience Disney and get a short break..

We usually don't park hop on our AK day as we usually do everything in one day and leave after the parade and rest at the hotel after that day. We are also going for Star Wars weekend in May and don't plan on park hopping on that day as we want to experience the Star Wars day.

 

[disnut8]

We have annual passes so park hopping is included and we do it every single trip. There's nothing like spending an evening at Epcot walking around World Showcase and enjoying each other.

But, that's not what the OP wanted to hear.

We have had guests join us on vacation and I have highly encouraged park hoppers to them and all have "complied". Mainly because I mentioned that if they go to, say Magic Kingdom, and it's very crowded and their kids are getting a melt down and want to go somewhere else but they still want to have fun but the lines are too long, then the family can move to another park and still have a great day. Or, if the family thinks The Studios are going to be great for their film loving kids but they get there, go through what they want, pass on the thrill stuff and still have some time in the day, they can go to another park. Or, if they only do one park per day on the first three days of a six day visit (borrowing from the OP's time), they can take the last three days to bounce around and do the things they have left.

Remember adding the park hopper costs the same no matter when you add it. If you don't need it, that's great. But, if you do, will will pay the same amount on day one that you would pay on day six.

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

We have always bought Park Hoppers but some years we rarely use them. We like to have the option and as DD gets older I think we will hop more.