Do you really need a "hopper" ticket?

[alecshawn]

IMHO, the hopper is the biggest waste of money. You waste valuable time traveling from one park to the next....meaning you are in 0 parks. We goto one park per day and get more out of our vacation that way. Besides...they arent cheap. Its a huge savings for a family of 4 to not buy them.

 

[alecshawn]

I look at time as money in WDW. Every minute I'm not on a ride or having some sort of experience is money wasted. I also hate to rush. Conisder how much time you will use in transit. Is this the best use of your time? If not then skip the hopper.

DH and I used the hoppers 18yrs ago so we could eat in Epcot every night. On our 2009 and 2010 we skipped the hopper due to my mobility issues and having small children. We found the best use of our time was to hit half of the MK and Epcot the two days we alloted for each and one day for each of the other parks and a free day in whatever one we all wanted to go back to. This past November (week after Thanksgiving) we were forced to use hoppers as a package with Dance the Magic despite only have 3-4 hrs a day to enjoy the parks. However the crowds were a 1-2 (yes it does get that quiet!). In the few hours we had we got alot packed in so if we go back in November directly after Thanksgiving, I would consider it only because we were able to arrive late to fantasmic and get great seats because it was half full!

My advice is most of the time it isn't worth it. You waste time in transit especially if you take the bus. However if you want to eat in Epcot most nights or go at an extreamly quiet time of the year you just might be able to get even more in by hopping.

yep

 

[tcherjen]

We are most likely going to be staying at POR, will park hopping be useful there?

 

[Cap'nJack'sMum]

We had hoppers on our first trip. We have not purchased hoppers since. We plan which park we will visit. During cooler months, we stay in the park the entire day. Switching parks would take too much time out of our park time. During the summer, we stay for 10+ days, so we visit each park at least 2 times. No need to hop.

I think it really depends on how much time you want to take traveling from park to park. For us it doesn't make monetary or time sense.

 

[mickey2minnie1]

No hoppers for us.

 

[LovesTimone]

When our DD's were little, we stayed to one park a day but taking a break mid day, by 3rd grade we were park hopping, which for us means, one park in the morning, taking a break mid-afternoon, and a Different park for the evening. We love Epcot at night and really enjoy the different countries and food.

We still tour this way, whether it's just DH and I or our DD's and husbands, and one grandsons he's not yet old enough to visit. But we can't wait to take him.

For my family we just can not do the camando style of touring, we enjoy relaxing, pool, and napping... After all your on vacation!!!!

 

[fitzperry]

We like the flexibility the hoppers offer. Also, I've only skimmed the other responses but one consideration I didn't see mentioned is that being able to switch parks can be nice when the parks are very crowded. When we were there during Thanksgiving week a few years ago we did some hopping for that reason.

 

[minnie mum]

We used to get hoppers, then noticed that we might only use them once in the whole week. Even during spring break when the parks were crowded. It depends on your touring preferences, I guess. We haven't gotten them in the last dozen trips and haven't missed them.

I think they're handy IF you like to hop away from an a.m. EMH park or to a p.m. EMH park; if you like to dine frequently at Epcot, or have money to burn and just want it in case.

You don't need to have it at all. And you don't need to have it if you like to take afternoon breaks- you can go back to the park you were in earlier- this is what we usually do. On our AK days we usually schedule a non-park activity (a long signature dinner, HDDR, a pool evening, DTD, etc)

As with most things when it comes to WDW vacations- different strokes for different folks.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

We love hoppers - can't imagine going without them. We love being able to start the day at one park and head over to another after supper...pretty much every day we're there, we do 2 parks.

 

[em36]

I have two daughters and they think that they MUST go to the MK every day. We get park hoppers and do a morning park and a different evening park. It works for us and takes away the stress of getting the girls to commit to a non MK park for an entire day.

 

[Mynamewastaken]

This was an informative thread! I bought hoppers last year and used it once. I am buying a base ticket this year and will add the hopper on if I need it! I had no idea you could do that

 

[dzneelvr]

I tend to coordinate our park day with the evening EMH, so a hopper isn't a necessity. When we travel with our adult DS and DD, they DO hop, so I believe it depends on what your family members realistically use. IMO you have several years before you'll fully utilize the hoppers

 

[Soccer and Swim Mom]

We got the park hopper for my 5 year old daughter and I. I was so glad I did. Epcot just wasn't her cup of tea so we were able to do a couple things there and go to another park. It was her first trip to Disney so if it didn't have Minnie or a Princess on it she wasn't interested.

Also I liked that on the night we had dinner reservations at 1900 Park Faire she and I were able to go to Magic Kingdom and see the fireworks.

I am getting hoppers for our trip this summer which will include the whole family - husband, 14 year old son and my 5 year old. Daddy and big brother will be able to go to all the teenager/ cool things and meet up with us for meals and family time.

 

[Lynne M]

Moving to the Theme Parks board...

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We are AP holders, which allow us to hop. We are two adults and we like to sleep in but stay until park close. We often hope, especially when AK and MK close early. We like to hop over to EPCOT for a mean and watch Illuminations. Many times we have started at another park and hoped for EMH at another park.

If you're unsure, you can add it awhile you're there. I won't cost you any more or less.

 

[GreenCntryGirl]

We hop.

 

[Sparkie]

We are most likely going to be staying at POR, will park hopping be useful there?

I dont think your resort offers any advantage to adding the hopper. POR is not in close physical proximity to a theme park as say the monorail resorts or the Boardwalk/Beach Club area.

** This is what I tell my friends/coworkers. Just buy the basic ticket. Go with a plan or at least a rough idea of what park you want to do which day. If you decide to change the plan and would like to "hop" then you can always upgrade your ticket (with a few exceptions -read the Ticket sticky) to add the hopper feature. **

Personally. I have hopped and have not hopped. I have gone with tickets with hoppers already and I have upgraded after we arrived. On average though even in my longest stay of 13 days... we only truly "hopped" 2 or 3 times. On short stays, 5 days --- I rarely hop and even then its just to make a dinner reservation. I also agree with several others. Going with little kids, I have found myself not utilizing the hopper feature so much but going with older teens who are park touring on their own some... we have utilized the hopper feature so they could go to their park choice and the adults to theirs and then meet up later.

So my best advice would be this: just get the basic ticket, go with a plan, and add hopper later if it is desired/needed

 

[TomTi89]

We tend to hop quite a bit .... especially when we stay at the EPCOT area resorts. (hopping between EPCOT and DHS). I think the only new "park" since 1995 is the Animal Kingdom and we find ourselves only spending about half a day there for any given day.

Last time we stayed at Swan, and definitely appreciated hoppers.

We split most days up to morning/afternoon, then a hotel rest, then an evening in a different park, usually HS or Epcot.

 

[MrRomance]

I think the debate about hopper tickets is a really difficult one to answer because each family or party has different ideas about what they want from their trip. Being from the UK and always booking direct with the WDTC, we automatically get 14 day Ultimate Tickets. Our tickets give us 14 days unlimited access to the parks, water parks and Disney Quest and we can hop to our hearts content. But hopping isn't right for everyone!

It really depends on your experience level with WDW, the length of your trip, how busy you like to be, how ride orientated you are,the demographics of your party etc. as to whether or not a hopper ticket is needed in my opinion.

For example, we are on our 12th (I think!) trip, we know what we like to do, what we don't, how much our kids can manage, etc. We know we don't want to ride small world, we know we don't want to see hall of presidents again, we know we're bored to death of the Great Movie Ride etc. We also know that we love Crystal Palace breakfast and don't like Garden Grill etc. Experience tells us that parks with EMH tend to be busier but making use of morning EMH to get the big ticket rides done is a good idea. Without that knowledge and experience we probably wouldn't want or need to park hop.

If it's your first trip, you're going to want to do EVERYTHING at the parks, so spending a whole day in one park will work well for you. It really is horses for courses.

Consider the needs and desires of your party and see if hopping is something that will suit you. If not, save the money!

 

[ses1230]

No hopping for us, to much time in transit, imo. OP I would tart with a basic ticket, you can always upgrade to a hopper if you feel you need to.