Does anyone not opt for the Park Hopper option?

[Va-bear]

I agree with a lot of you - I'd rather put that money to some good food! And many of the budgeting books point out, you also lose time by spending twenty or thirty minutes to travel, each way, whichh you don't get to spend in any park.

If I do ever spend extra money on tickets it will be to buy extra days and add the "no experation" option - to "freeze the per day cost at todays prices. (But, gotta have a lot of upfront money.........bleh)

 

[ainmama2001]

We're not going to for our next trip. It's going to be four days and it's with a four year old girl. The only park she's really interested in is Magic Kingdom. We're going to stay at a Deluxe studio in OKW and use the money for some nice character meals in the MK.

 

[va32h]

We always use to have the park hopper option. And I liked the freedom of knowing we COULD change parks if we wanted to.

This is how we felt, also. If we got to a park, and it was more crowded than we expected, we could change our plans.

We are not hopping this year, though. We may take that money and get MVMCP tickets, though.

Overall, I like the idea of "having" to go back to the resort. We are staying at Ft. Wilderness, so we can do the wagon rides, campfire, etc. And we always like to visit other resorts to see the holiday decorations and eat at different restaurants.

 

[MomofKatie]

Wow, I'm really suprised! I thought most folks would say it was important to hop- but it seems that most of you are saying otherwise!

That being said- we ALWAYS get the Hoppers- and take advantage of them almost every day we are in the parks. It just feels less tiring to us for some reason to go to one park in the AM, head back to the resort for an afternoon break, then take advantage of the later open parks in the evenings. On our last trip, we never did a morning at Epcot- we did early days at all the other parks, and saved the nights for MK and Epcot, since they were open late.

DD7 and I are doing a short trip in January, and only doing the parks for 2 of our 4 days there- and we will be spending the extra $$ for hoppers so we can do our favorite 2 or 3 rides at MGM and AK before heading over to Epcot for the rest of the day (we will do MK for the entire other day).

 

[1st_trip4us]

Oh good....glad to see I didn't make a huge mistake. $175 is alot of money that I'd rather spend on something else. The way I originally had the trip planned we'd have switched parks once. When I realized just how much the park hopper option was I knew we could rearrange our plans to save that money. When I made the reservations I added park hopper like it was a no brainer, for sure thing to do.
Now I'm so excited that we'll be getting to see MNSSHP!!!

 

[lexmelinda]

When I made the reservations I added park hopper like it was a no brainer, for sure thing to do.

Me, too! Then I read on another thread how much someone said that the park hoppers were costing their family and I was shocked. Guess what? I got back on the Disney site, looked at ticket costs, did the math, and EUREKA, that's how much extra they were costing us, too! Like you I was only planning to hop on one day so I decided we would use that money to go to MNSSHP instead. I have posted that on several other threads so maybe that was my post you referred to in your original post. I hope so! Could it be possible that I have helped someone here on the DIS? (cue Hallelujah Chorus..... ) Sounds like we are doing the right thing by spending our money on MNSSHP.

 

[allegracristina]

We always park-hop and love it! We like being able to go all over the place in one day. However, we are an mid-twenties couple without children. If I had little ones I for certain would not be park-hopping. I think it would be a lot easier on everyone to do one park a day. Have a great trip OP!

 

[Va-bear]

Lexmilinda, you're about to become a Mouseketeer - let me be the first to congratulate you!! (A wee little bit early!) Smart savings tips too!

 

[byoung]

No need to park hop for us we have the AP.

 

[Ella's Mom]

We are going with our 2 year old in Sept. and we are not park hopping. I don't see a need to.

 

[DOOM1001]

Florida resident with a seasonal pass and I couldn't do Disney without hopping, for me doing 2-3 parks a day seems like you're experiencing more and different experiences by hitting different parks in 1 day. But I understand people who feel hopping might not be needed for them.

 

[Sonno]

I don't. Really don't need it. Click the link in my sig and you'll see, don't have any time to use it if we wanted to.

 

[Twende]

When the parks are open very late at night, like MK open until 2AM and the kids are old enough to be out that late, then we get hoppers but otherwise we do not hop. For example we would do AK until it closed and then go do MK.

One year DD and I hopped to avoid crowds in the early entry park. For example if MGM opened early for resort guest we would be there as it opened. By lunch time if it was getting too busy we would switch to MGM or MK. That helped a bit.

 

[munchkin bunchkin]

I don't use it either because I feel it puts alot of stress on the kids as well as the adults!We are content with one a day!

 

[dlf]

Have never park-hopped and never would. I find it hard enough to see everything in each park anyway in one day (and that's after 11 trips!) without the hassle to travelling between parks.

 

[MichelleVW]

I think we must have short attention spans because we hop like mad!!!

We usually hop around lunchtime and use the bus/boat travel between the parks as a little rest. Or we go back to the room to swim and then head to a different park in the evening.

My family would go nuts in one park all day. But whatever works for you!

 

[alicenwonder99]

We've done it both ways. When we have the whole family going, we get hoppers because we split up (like a couple of us will do EMH morning for an hour or two and then meet up the rest of the party later at another park).

This trip, we're staying at the CR and plan on hitting MK most mornings. We'll then come back for a swim/lunch and then go to another park later.

It's costing us an extra $200 to hop!!!

Mary

 

[roryc]

With two 4-year olds and a 9-year old, hopping is just too stressful. We do sometimes go back to the hotel and rest for a couple hours and then return to the original park. Not hopping saves us some extra $$$$, too.

When they get older we'll probably hop though.

 

[jennymouse]

I was going to hop this time because we always get hoppers. Then, I was looking at our itinerary and realized we were only planning on hopping the day we do AK. I switched our AK to the day we leave and go to Disney's Vero Beach Resort and we're skipping the hopping this time! I'll be using that extra money for a cabana/chairs & activities at Vero Beach!

 

[Lisa_Belle]

We're not hopping. My DD isn't a big fan of fireworks, so there is little point in staying out late. We're just planning to visit the parks from opening until just after the parades end (or until she gets tired) and then head back to our resort for the evening. So for us, it would be pointless to pay for hopping.