Doing a Trip Without Park Hoppers - Pros and Cons

[Antonia]

We ALWAYS have park hoppers. We jump from one park to another every day taking in the parades, EMHs, etc. We wear ourselves out! LOL
This trip (3rd week of December) we are thinking about doing a 6 day trip with no hoppers. Try to just concentrate on one park per day and on our AK day plan for a relaxing evening at our resort VWL.
To anyone who has had a no hopper trip - what are the pro and cons?

 

[kittyab]

On our last trip we did it without hoppers. It takes more planning to do that.

On our next trip I want hoppers so can fireworks at our fav part (Epcott), or eat dinner at different park, etc.

 

[drdrowsy]

pro: save $$$ and possibly time (any time spent on moving from park to park is instead spent in a park)
con: we go in the off season when certain nighttime events (esp. MSEP) are not scheduled every night. nights with the events are often fall on days that are "not recommended" according to crowd calendars. Without hoppers we may end up having to go to a park on a not recommended day just so we can catch the nighttime entertainment

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

We kept buying hoppers for our trips and then would only use them one day. Eventually I started to think about why we were spending the money and we were only really hopping that one time because we had them and felt like we should use them. We usually get carried away in the park and don't even think about leaving (we don't take breaks that require us to leave the park either). So we decided it was a waste.

We also only make a WDW trip every other year or so, and it is easier for us to tour this way. We feel like we are having the best combo of fun and financial smarts by focusing on one park per day

They can be beneficial for those that visit often, have older kids or take mid-day breaks. They just don't make sense for us.

 

[Jewel3k]

All depends on how you tour. We go in Sept. AK closes at 5 so we then head to MK for dinner, parade and fireworks. We also enjoy hitting MK on party days (we are doing it twice that week) and hoping to EPCOT for evening touring. We also are mid day break/pool people so we already are okay with losing time traveling.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

For us park hoppers are the difference between a go, go, go vacation and a vacation where relaxing is important.

Planner by nature, so deciding in advance what type of WDW stay is in the cards each time is just part of my process. Shorter stays usually mean hopper tix, as do special events vacations like food & wine where we will want daily access to Epcot - but will want to go to other parks as well. Our resort choice plays into the hopper or not choice, we usually skip hopper tix when we book Deluxe stays, cause those stays are so we can slow down & take advantage of what the resort offers - spa days, room service, pools & hot tubs, signature restaurants.

So it all depends on the type of vacation we are planning when deciding to hop or not to hop.

 

[nat8199]

We do PH for the access to Epcot. DH doesn't care for dinner in MK (and I don't blame him), so on our 3 MK days we take the monorail to Epcot for dinner.

 

[Frozen2014]

First trip so never tried either, but we didn't see a need for park hopper. We plan on spending the entire day at the park we picked to get the most of it. Only exception is our Epcot day where we'll head over to MK in afternoon for MNSSHP. But the traveling for park hoppers didn't seem worth it to us.

 

[disnut8]

I agree with the others who said it really comes down to how you want to tour and it sounds like the OP wants a different feel to this trip so not doing park hoppers would fill that desire.

A con I see with not having the hoppers is if the party involved goes to one park and it's too crowded for their tastes. That no one can plan and that party would either have to stay at that one park or leave and do non park things. A pro with that is there are a lot of non park things to do.

For me personally (we have annual passes so hopping is included), we like to end up every night at Epcot. If for nothing else than just a walk around World Showcase and a nightcap. But that's how we tour, not anyone else.

A pro about park hoppers is that you can add them at anytime. A con about park hoppers is the price is the same no matter when you add them.

A pro with not having park hoppers is that you can plan the entire day at one park so you can do the less than popular things or have a nice meal somewhere since you will be there all day.

A con would be that you can't just go to one park for something (like seeing a vet procedure at Animal Kingdom) and then switch over to another one to go on attractions there (like maybe going to the Studios for Toy Story Mania, Twilight Zone and Star Tours or the Magic Kingdom for all three mountains). Or switching just to watch the nighttime shows at another park.

Really, there are a lot of pros and a lot of cons. Comes down to what that group wants in their vacation.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Since you can add the hopper at any time, go without and see how you like it. Add them later if you deem it necessary.

 

[sethschroeder]

I think it depends on where you stay as well. Being that we stay at the Boardwalk its way to easy to come back in the afternoon from the main park we wanted to see and catch lunch or dinner in Epcot followed by an evening either at MK (Monorail Hop), Epcot (stay there), or HS (boat hop).

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

We buy hoppers everytime. But...most of the time we don't hop. We just make ADR in the park we plan on going to and end up staying all day.
Last trip we hopped everyday.
My trip next week, I bought hoppers because it is just me and when I am tired of a park, I will change or go take a swim and then go to Epcot in the evening.

 

[JimmyV]

We kept buying hoppers for our trips and then would only use them one day. Eventually I started to think about why we were spending the money and we were only really hopping that one time because we had them and felt like we should use them. We usually get carried away in the park and don't even think about leaving (we don't take breaks that require us to leave the park either). So we decided it was a waste.

Perfect summary of what I think. We easily fill a full day in each park on most days and when we do find that we have extra time (mostly in the evening), we fill it with non park activities since there is so much else to do. Such as a lengthy Signature dinner or evening at the Boardwalk or some bar hopping on the monorail circuit. We found that park hopping "forced" us to go go go in the parks (because we paid for the option) leaving us little time to enjoy everything else in the World. Not hopping actually opens up many other doors.

 

[HiHoWeGo]

I agree with those that say a big pro for hoppers is to be able to go to one of the other parks during the day and then end up in Epcot in the evening. I would like very much to nab an Epcot area hotel and do this on the next visit. A hopper will be required! Dinner most nights in Epcot, followed by Illuminations, followed by a short relaxing walk to the resort, would be ideal for me.

Now, BC or BWI ... decisions, decisions!

I think if I was to stay elsewhere that hoppers wouldn't be worth it. Last trip we passed on hoppers.

 

[ZoZo]

I agree with the others - it depends on how you tour and what your plans are when you're there. I used to be a die-hard hopper, but figured out it was for a specific reason!

My first four or five trips to WDW were in October, during the Food and Wine Festival. So pretty much every day, we would start the day at MK/AK/DHS, then hop over to Epcot in the mid/late afternoon to graze the F&W booths.

Then the next trip, I went on a solo trip. I don't drink wine (my friends do, though!), and I only ended hopping once that trip! I figured out that we were hopping to Epcot so my buddies could do wine tastings and other F&W events. I usually went with them, but did other things at Epcot while they did wine tastings. When I went solo, I only did F&W a couple of days, and usually on my full Epcot day. No need to hop when I was by myself!

I could see getting hoppers if you plan to catch a morning EMH, then hop to another park when it gets crowded. It all depends!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Gosh! this is a complicated question. One complication is that FP+ is still in flux. Under old FP-, non -hopping became the best way to max FP-. When FP+ was fixed at three per day, and tiered FP picks, hopping suddenly became very attractive. Now that guests can do 4 FP+, hopping is less of an advantage.

Hopping always costs time. The hop between Epcot/HS is about 20min via the IG. Hopping between MK can be much slower.

Still....the best place to use FP+ is MK. Epcot really only has two FP rides: TT and Soarin. Skip Soarin', and it is entirely possible to do the rest of Epcot without any FP.

We've long hopped to Epcot for dinner, but Illuminations is old, and the monorail resorts have excellent dining choices.Also, so much depends on the weather. If there's a downpour, there's just no good way to access the WS. You are going to get soaked.

Length of trip , and love of afternoon breaks also matter. Hopping is a plus if the trip is very short, and you wan to cover all the e-rides. With a week or more, hopping makes less sense.

 

[salamander3]

We're only doing a 3 day trip, but we didn't do hoppers. Our princess is 3, and we are planning one day at AK, one at MK and one at HS. Our thought was that we would go to AKL and do dinner at Boma to extend the day, but get her rested for the long day at MK. When we're at MK, the only place we might go is back to our hotel for a nap, but I'm hoping she'll just sleep in her stroller. The day we have HS, we did the fantasmic package. We did think about it, but it just doesn't make sense for us. I'm not sure I'd want to waste my time travelling between parks when you could do 1 per day and go back to your favorites.

If you're only going to hop possibly one day, would it be less to just buy tickets for that extra park? I don't know, just a thought.

 

[scoolover]

I always want to get the hoppers but when it comes down to purchasing the passes, I just can't pull the trigger due to the money. I just have to spend a little more time planning after I make that decision.

 

[RedStars]

We did hoppers last time and we were too worn out by the end of the week. We're not doing hoppers this time.

We aren't RD/commando people. We like to do one park a day and take it easy.

 

[Antonia]

Thanks everyone for your replies! So it's official - we're going to do our first no hopper trip!!! I am actually looking forward to it and if we just can't do it we can always add it. But I don't think we will. Last trip the hopping was wearing us out a little.