Do you pay more to hop?

[deanainnc]

We are going to WDW Dec. 1-10 and trying to decide what days will be the best to do what park. My question is Since you have to pay extra to hop now how many of you actually hop now? And if the majority of the people don't pay extra to hop do you go to the park with early entry or late closing?

 

[carol-lamb]

I always add the hopper feature to my tickets. On my trip a few weeks ago, we "hopped" all over the place. One of the reasons being was because of the free dining plan and having to be in certain parks for meals. It didn't always work out that we were in the park where we had an ADR. On our trip last summer, we hardly hopped at all. You just never know. However, I would never want to be tied to one park for the whole day - I would always want the flexibility to be able to go to a different park. One particular park may be a bit crowded and you might want to try for a less crowded one. Sometimes you just need to go to a park to finish up just a few attractions you haven't done yet and then spend the rest of the day at a different park.

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

I don't.

I think that if you stay in one park all day, then you can enjoy all that it has to offer.

I also don't want the hassle of finding our car, driving to the next park, parking, etc. It takes up too much time. I don't want to ride on a bus either (though I still wouldn't hop if I rode a bus).

 

[DaisyD]

We never hop. Even though we have APs and can hop all we want we still never do. Hanging at one park a day is enough for us!

 

[LindaR]

We always hop. We also always take a break in the middle of the day to go back to the hotel. I have spinal problems and have to lay down for 1-2 hours in order to make it thru the rest of the day. So, we choose a different park to visit for the afternoon. Since we usually stay 9-10 days we make sure that we work it to have a morning and evening at each park, just not on the same day. We quit doing the early entry a few years ago. We used to love the e-nights at MK but we don't like the new thing so we just don't do it. We've been plenty of times and don't feel the need to go commando!

 

[Mike and Natalie]

Depending on the time of year you go there are several factors you want to consider. First of all are you a trooper who can last all day till the bitter end? You may want to add the hopper on b/c you may be at a park that closes earlier say A.K. After they close, that's it. If you have a hopper you can jump over to MGM or Epcot to see Fantasmic or Illuminations. Also on you last day or two, you can use your hopper to take care of attractions you were unable to see earlier in your visit. We ALWAYS get hopper tickets.

 

[4shinystars]

We hopped every day of our August trip. Went to a park first thing in the AM, saw/did all we wanted to until it got too crowded/hot, then went to our resort for abit to cool down,change, rest. Then off to our designated evening park. I'd hate to be stuck in one park all day without the option of going to another park-what if that park is way crowded?

 

[pepe of ohio]

We are AP'ers and hop all the time, when we didn't have annual passes we always paid for the hopping extra. We like a different park in the morning and another in the evening. We always return to the resort around noon, swim and recharge for the evening. Just back 2 days ago from a Wilderness Lodge stay and hopped all over, be bop into the MK just for Casey's Hot Dogs. We hit MGM just for Prime Time meatloaf so we would pay extra for the hopping advantage. After 38 trips to WDW, we know where we want to eat, do and see and spending the whole day in one park from opening to closing is not what we consider a fun day. We pay big bucks for our delux resort and we like to utilize all the amenties it has to offer, plus we go to FW alot for meals, pizza and beer in the evenings. Alot to see and do in many different places on property.

 

[btuftee]

We always hop too, though usually not more than two parks in one day. It does eat up a lot of time getting from one park to another, but we like to have the option of hopping around. I prefer to sample the parks as a buffet, instead of concentrating on one park for a whole day. Also, if you do an early entry park, it's always a good idea to hop to another park around noon, before the crowds get oppressive. Without hopping, you'd be stuck in an overcrowded park for the whole day, so you'd probably end up not using early entry.

We also enjoy taking a break in the afternoon at the hotel, but if you're not staying on-site this may not apply. We also dine at table service places a lot, and will often hop to a park just to eat there. If you don't stay on-site, and don't do a lot of table service dining, I could see a hopper option being less useful.

 

[Mickeygolf]

We like the flexibility it gives us. No matter how well you plan or how accurate the guide books are, you never know for sure how crowded a park will be until you're there. We stay on-site, so I also think that makes a difference. We, like so many others, go back to our room for afternoon rest and relaxatoin. It's nice to go to a different park in the evening. Now I would say hopping would be less advantageous staying off-site. It does take some time to get from one park to the other and people usually don't go back to their resorts for afternoon breaks when staying off-site. I know that isn't always the case, but I'm guessing most of the time that would be true.

 

[ssleblanc]

For this trip I'm only have 4 park days, so I'm not hopping. Too much to do and too little time to spend time going from one park to another. But if I were going from the 1st to the 10th, I would definitely add the hopping option and would use it.

 

[bettyann29]

Sometimes I hop and sometimes I dont.. I actually prefer not to.. With having to go from park to park I feel like I lose too much time doing this.. I always plan ahead of time and know which parks Im going on what days.. as far as MK I try to go on EMH days when they are open 3 hours later.. I did this on this last trip and we left mid day and took a nap and went back around 8:30 and then stayed till 1 in the morning and it worked out great..

 

[Dan Murphy]

For less than $50 you can give yourself so much flexibility. I really enjoy the ability to hop as I want to, stop by a park for just a short time if I want, etc.

 

[MariDisney]

We always add the park hopper option. I like to have as much flexibilty as possible...having breakfast at Magic Kingdom, but planning to see Illuminations that night, that sort of thing. I also like to know that if I get to one park and it's too crowded, we get bored, or we just NEED to do something else right now that I have the option to do that. I always rent a car, so I feel like it's pretty quick and easy to leave one park and get to another. I can't imagine a situation where I would choose not to have the hopper option for my family. We rarely (if ever) start and end the day at the same park.

 

[Becky_Boop]

I hop! There are so many restaurants in Epcot. Still, I can't spend half my trip there! There are definitely more places there that I would love to eat at for dinner than days I would spend at Epcot. Same goes for events- parades, fireworks, MNSSHP, MVMCP, EMH, and a million other things. To me, it would be hard to be confined to a single park each day and see all that I want to see.

 

[juligrl]

We have hopped in the past and on our last trip, but next trip, with a little more planning, we might save the $ and not hop.

 

[JenniferAtl]

We always hop. We have favorite places to dine so we need to have the flexibility of hopping. Also, you can hop over to another park that is open later than the one you visited that day. Take AK for example, it always closes before any of the other parks so you could leave there and catch a show you may have missed some place else.

 

[Squirlz]

I like the hopper because we stay in the Boardwalk resorts and it's so easy to stroll between EPCOT and MGM, and no matter what parks you've visited on any given day you always have the option of dining at one of the many excellent EPCOT restaurants.

My experience and opinion only; your mileage may vary.

 

[ncseric]

We get the park hoppers so we can time our visits to various parks. MK is always less busy in the evening, so we'll do something in the morning, go back for naps (although that may not happen this trip) and then go back later. There are still days where we spend the majority of the time in one park, but AK is not a full day park so it's nice to go elsewhere when we get done with the safari, etc.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

We pratically never hop. Before the MYW tickets, we had hoppers automatically on our park tickets and we tried hopping a few times, we found that it eats up alot of our time so we prefer to stick to one park per day and visit it thoroughly.

We don't miss hopping one bit either. With good planning, (we avoid ALL emh parks) and touring plans we have never been stuck in huge crowds.