Everything Park Hopping - Please Read Post 1

[tom1944]

Not sure what you saw but that is not correct. Adding park hopping as always been to length of ticket. It is a set price but will cost the same if you add it day 1 or the last day. It is not possible to add to only one day unless a guest only purchase a single day ticket.

I meant I saw the hopper was applied to each day you purchased a ticket

 

[tom1944]

Since I do a lot of WDW searches my home page constantly sends me feeds. The following was one of a "don't do these things at Disney that came today.

Any thoughts?

Park hopping at Disney World isn’t for the faint of heart (and as a Disneyland local, I know firsthand how surprising it can be to have to take a boat, bus, or even airborne gondola to jump from park to park!) While park hopping is a great way to cram more attractions, entertainment, and dining into each day of your visit, it can set a bit of a frenetic pace.


That’s why, if you’re visiting Disney World for more than four days, it’s a mistake to spend the extra money on Park Hopper tickets. Longer vacations provide you with more time to really explore the parks – and as a result, you can spend an entire day at each.

Adding Park Hopper onto your tickets costs between $60 and $65, depending on the length of your vacation and how many days of tickets you’re buying. For a 5-day visit, that can add $300 (or more!) to a single person’s ticket costs. For a family of four, that’s an additional $1,200 in ticket costs in total.

Skip the hundreds and thousands of extra dollars in ticket costs and don’t add on Park Hopper for longer vacations. Instead, take your time at the theme parks and do single-park tickets so you have plenty of time to explore and experience everything. With more than four days, you can easily plan out which individual park you’ll spend each day at and save both stress and money.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Since I do a lot of WDW searches my home page constantly sends me feeds. The following was one of a "don't do these things at Disney that came today.

Any thoughts?

Park hopping at Disney World isn’t for the faint of heart (and as a Disneyland local, I know firsthand how surprising it can be to have to take a boat, bus, or even airborne gondola to jump from park to park!) While park hopping is a great way to cram more attractions, entertainment, and dining into each day of your visit, it can set a bit of a frenetic pace.


That’s why, if you’re visiting Disney World for more than four days, it’s a mistake to spend the extra money on Park Hopper tickets. Longer vacations provide you with more time to really explore the parks – and as a result, you can spend an entire day at each.

Adding Park Hopper onto your tickets costs between $60 and $65, depending on the length of your vacation and how many days of tickets you’re buying. For a 5-day visit, that can add $300 (or more!) to a single person’s ticket costs. For a family of four, that’s an additional $1,200 in ticket costs in total.

Skip the hundreds and thousands of extra dollars in ticket costs and don’t add on Park Hopper for longer vacations. Instead, take your time at the theme parks and do single-park tickets so you have plenty of time to explore and experience everything. With more than four days, you can easily plan out which individual park you’ll spend each day at and save both stress and money.

Funny. I know what your points are, but other than the cost involved with park hopping, I disagree with most of what's here. We actually find park hopping to be less stressful sometimes. If we had a single park for one day, and it's extra crowded or an attraction we like goes down, having the flexibility to go to any of 3 other parks is a big plus for us. A fun Disney day for us is a park in the morning, a break in the afternoon, and another fun park in the late afternoon, evening. But everyone handles the parks differently!!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Since I do a lot of WDW searches my home page constantly sends me feeds. The following was one of a "don't do these things at Disney that came today.

Any thoughts?

Park hopping at Disney World isn’t for the faint of heart (and as a Disneyland local, I know firsthand how surprising it can be to have to take a boat, bus, or even airborne gondola to jump from park to park!) While park hopping is a great way to cram more attractions, entertainment, and dining into each day of your visit, it can set a bit of a frenetic pace.


That’s why, if you’re visiting Disney World for more than four days, it’s a mistake to spend the extra money on Park Hopper tickets. Longer vacations provide you with more time to really explore the parks – and as a result, you can spend an entire day at each.

Adding Park Hopper onto your tickets costs between $60 and $65, depending on the length of your vacation and how many days of tickets you’re buying. For a 5-day visit, that can add $300 (or more!) to a single person’s ticket costs. For a family of four, that’s an additional $1,200 in ticket costs in total.

Skip the hundreds and thousands of extra dollars in ticket costs and don’t add on Park Hopper for longer vacations. Instead, take your time at the theme parks and do single-park tickets so you have plenty of time to explore and experience everything. With more than four days, you can easily plan out which individual park you’ll spend each day at and save both stress and money.

Each person chooses what’s best for them. We visit WDW each year with 7-9 day tickets and LOVE the option to park hop. I’d guess we park hop 5-7 days each trip.

One of the big differences I see between DL and WDW is weather. Many guests choose to go back to their resort to swim and rest so going to another park later in the day is great! Also, hopping for food options is another perk.

The person who wrote the article has their opinion. I have mine and it is different from theirs.

 

[tom1944]

Funny. I know what your points are, but other than the cost involved with park hopping, I disagree with most of what's here. We actually find park hopping to be less stressful sometimes. If we had a single park for one day, and it's extra crowded or an attraction we like goes down, having the flexibility to go to any of 3 other parks is a big plus for us. A fun Disney day for us is a park in the morning, a break in the afternoon, and another fun park in the late afternoon, evening. But everyone handles the parks differently!!

Actually, not my points but the authors.

I am trying to figure out what to purchase for next year out of additional park days, hopping, the new Genie product, ILL and whatever other park related items you can buy like Disney After Hours.

Everything is on the table, and I like to get opinions and information to both confuse me and help decide what to try.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Actually, not my points but the authors.

I am trying to figure out what to purchase for next year out of additional park days, hopping, the new Genie product, ILL and whatever other park related items you can buy like Disney After Hours.

Everything is on the table, and I like to get opinions and information to both confuse me and help decide what to try.

Understood - I could have worded better!

 

[Keladry84]

Actually, not my points but the authors.

I am trying to figure out what to purchase for next year out of additional park days, hopping, the new Genie product, ILL and whatever other park related items you can buy like Disney After Hours.

Everything is on the table, and I like to get opinions and information to both confuse me and help decide what to try.

As a pp said, it depends a lot on how you want to tour. For me, it made a lot of sense. I need a midday rest at the hotel, so having the option to go to a different park in the afternoon was awesome. It didn’t take any travel or park time away that wasn’t already being used to get to/from the hotel. Also, my flight going to Orlando got cancelled and I couldn’t get in to the city until a day and a half after planned. I lost my half day planned at universal and a full Disney day. Having the park hopper saved a lot of my trip because I suddenly had to squeeze everything I wanted to do into one less day. I park hopped 3 of the 4 days I ultimately got in the parks. I also now have a 1 day park hopper comp ticket from Disney…..which I am very glad is a park hopper so I don’t have to choose between the parks when I go back for just one day!

But….park hopping becomes a little less attractive if you commando the parks and tour opening to closing. In that instance, it does take away park time due to travel time between parks. So it really does come down to preference and touring style.

In making a decision, I would recommend thinking about how you want to tour and what works for you. For example:

-Afternoon breaks or commando style? (Or something in between)
-are there any parks you aren’t as interested in? (For example I knew Hollywood studios would only be a half day park for me)
-how flexible are you if travel goes topsy turvy and you lose a park day?
-how much do you want to experience the monorail/skyliner?
-how much do you want firm plans each day vs flexibility?
-are you planning on purchasing extras such as MMLP/LL, etc, or trying for vqs?
-how fit are you? (Park hopping adds a lot of extra steps)

 

[tom1944]

As a pp said, it depends a lot on how you want to tour. For me, it made a lot of sense. I need a midday rest at the hotel, so having the option to go to a different park in the afternoon was awesome. It didn’t take any travel or park time away that wasn’t already being used to get to/from the hotel. Also, my flight going to Orlando got cancelled and I couldn’t get in to the city until a day and a half after planned. I lost my half day planned at universal and a full Disney day. Having the park hopper saved a lot of my trip because I suddenly had to squeeze everything I wanted to do into one less day. I park hopped 3 of the 4 days I ultimately got in the parks. I also now have a 1 day park hopper comp ticket from Disney…..which I am very glad is a park hopper so I don’t have to choose between the parks when I go back for just one day!

But….park hopping becomes a little less attractive if you commando the parks and tour opening to closing. In that instance, it does take away park time due to travel time between parks. So it really does come down to preference and touring style.

In making a decision, I would recommend thinking about how you want to tour and what works for you. For example:

-Afternoon breaks or commando style? (Or something in between)
-are there any parks you aren’t as interested in? (For example I knew Hollywood studios would only be a half day park for me)
-how flexible are you if travel goes topsy turvy and you lose a park day?
-how much do you want to experience the monorail/skyliner?
-how much do you want firm plans each day vs flexibility?
-are you planning on purchasing extras such as MMLP/LL, etc, or trying for vqs?
-how fit are you? (Park hopping adds a lot of extra steps)

We don’t stay a full day but hopping also did not work for us because our granddaughter was not able to handle it.

We are get there early take lunch at 2 and leave around 5 or 6 or earlier.

By full day I mean how my parents did it when I was a kid. Get there at opening and leave as they closed.

If we went back to the resort earlier I am not sure we would make it back.

All that is subject to change for future trips

 

[pens4821]

My first trip as an adult and paying for it I decided to not get the hoppers. While we still had fun, I’ve got it the last 4/5 trips and wouldn’t do it any other way. We enjoy a morning park, followed by an evening park. There are also some things we like doing multiple times so it also helps us accomplish that.

We even did 4 parks in one day this past busy March just for rides and still got a 2-3 hour break. It was such a fun day. Our rides in order were sdd, tsm, tot, Dino, ee (then lunch in ak), gog, break/nap, poc, hm, iasw, pp, btm (dinner), buzz, space, 7d. Granted we stacked LL for the evening at MK but it was such an amazing day.

As far as it being too much, we personally don’t feel that way. You do end up doing more walking, but the transportation between the parks can be a little bit of a break. It’s just great to know you can go to a park after your first one closed, or just to hop on a ride or two.

Without hoppers we’d probably never get to animal kingdom. We truly only like Everest. So we hop over to ride that and maybe another ride or have a meal. Even Hollywood studios being my favorite park as far as rides goes we wouldn’t want to do without hoppers. We usually do HS and MK four times in our six days so we can ride everything and our favorites multiple times.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

One thing worth considering is that if you only like some kinds of rides (thrill rides, kids’ rides) you can only get one LL a day for them with the current G+ system, so hopping can let you get more total LLs on your favorite rides…of course, for those who are ride standby this is not an especially useful feature.

 

[calablovedisney]

I thought I knew this answer, but now I feel unsure. I just added 7 day park hoppers to my Disney Experience. I then saw a message saying I needed to make reservations. I thought I would not have to make park reservations because I did have to enter a start date for the ticket. Is that just a standard message that pops up, and I really do not need reservations. Or, since I bought PH tix, does that mean I do need to make them? I did try to read through this thread, but just confused myself more!
Thanks!

 

[DJFan88]

I thought I knew this answer, but now I feel unsure. I just added 7 day park hoppers to my Disney Experience. I then saw a message saying I needed to make reservations. I thought I would not have to make park reservations because I did have to enter a start date for the ticket. Is that just a standard message that pops up, and I really do not need reservations. Or, since I bought PH tix, does that mean I do need to make them? I did try to read through this thread, but just confused myself more!
Thanks!

My belief is if they are dated tickets ( such as length of stay through Disney, certain tickets purchased through 3rd party like AAA that have dates attached) you do not. But if they are just added on and attached and are non-dated you do. It could also just be a standard pop-up reminding everyone for those who need to do it. If you go to wherever that would be done in the app, i would think it would only work if you are someone who needs to.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I thought I knew this answer, but now I feel unsure. I just added 7 day park hoppers to my Disney Experience. I then saw a message saying I needed to make reservations. I thought I would not have to make park reservations because I did have to enter a start date for the ticket. Is that just a standard message that pops up, and I really do not need reservations. Or, since I bought PH tix, does that mean I do need to make them? I did try to read through this thread, but just confused myself more!
Thanks!

The vast majority of tickets no longer park reservations. You entered a start date to your tickets so you should be good.

If you want to doublecheck, you can try to add a park reservation on your MDE app:
- click the + symbol at the bottom of the home page
- select ‘Make or Modify Park Reservations’
- follow the steps to attempt to make a park reservation
- you will either be told you do not need a park reservation or, a list of guests who do require reservations will appear.

 

[mspete]

Hi all.

We have 3 single day (non park hopper) tickets as part of our booked vacation package. We also have a complimentary park hopper ticket that Disney gave us awhile back that we'd like to use on our upcoming trip.

Is there a way to specify which ticket to use when we enter a park for the day? We have a specific day we'd like to park hop, towards the end of our stay.

Thanks for any advice given!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hi all.

We have 3 single day (non park hopper) tickets as part of our booked vacation package. We also have a complimentary park hopper ticket that Disney gave us awhile back that we'd like to use on our upcoming trip.

Is there a way to specify which ticket to use when we enter a park for the day? We have a specific day we'd like to park hop, towards the end of our stay.

Thanks for any advice given!

I believe you need to visit guest services BEFORE tapping into your first park the day you wish to hop but truly, I would recommend you ask your question in the Tickets and Annual Pass Questions thread as @lanejudy monitors that thread and her knowledge of tickets is off the charts amazing!!

 

[lanejudy]

Is there a way to specify which ticket to use when we enter a park for the day? We have a specific day we'd like to park hop, towards the end of our stay.

@scrappinginontario is correct -- you will want to visit Guest Relations or a ticket window before tapping in at any park. Ask to have your tickets prioritized. THEN after you tap in, check MDE to be sure the correct ticket was used; this is much easier to fix within the park than later.

And you'll need to do the same again the day you want to use the comp PH, unless you have used up the 3-day ticket at that point.

 

[bluecastle]

I noticed that park hopping on MDE matches the park hours. (I know that is not news) But I also remember reading somewhere that park to park transportation does not begin until after 10 am. I doubt I would ever hop that early, but i was just wondering if that was still true. TIA

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

I noticed that park hopping on MDE matches the park hours. (I know that is not news) But I also remember reading somewhere that park to park transportation does not begin until after 10 am. I doubt I would ever hop that early, but i was just wondering if that was still true. TIA

I am also curious to know if there is solid answer for this.

Planning for early 2025 with a 3 day PH and trying to prioritize early entry possibilities and the new LL Multipass system

Specifically wanting to know about hopping from AK to MK after doing 7:30am ETPE at AK (NRJ, KS and FoP SP), hopping to MK to use Multipass selections that would theoretically start around 9:30am.

Would busses between parks be running at 8:45/9:00 am?? or would my best/quickest option be to use a Minnie Van?

 

[subtchr]

I noticed that park hopping on MDE matches the park hours. (I know that is not news) But I also remember reading somewhere that park to park transportation does not begin until after 10 am. I doubt I would ever hop that early, but i was just wondering if that was still true. TIA

Still true.

I am also curious to know if there is solid answer for this.

Planning for early 2025 with a 3 day PH and trying to prioritize early entry possibilities and the new LL Multipass system

Specifically wanting to know about hopping from AK to MK after doing 7:30am ETPE at AK (NRJ, KS and FoP SP), hopping to MK to use Multipass selections that would theoretically start around 9:30am.

Would busses between parks be running at 8:45/9:00 am?? or would my best/quickest option be to use a Minnie Van?

No, park to park transportation doesn't start until 10. But you could take a bus to the Contemporary and then walk to MK. Or Minnie Van is always an option.

 

[pens4821]

I am also curious to know if there is solid answer for this.

Planning for early 2025 with a 3 day PH and trying to prioritize early entry possibilities and the new LL Multipass system

Specifically wanting to know about hopping from AK to MK after doing 7:30am ETPE at AK (NRJ, KS and FoP SP), hopping to MK to use Multipass selections that would theoretically start around 9:30am.

Would busses between parks be running at 8:45/9:00 am?? or would my best/quickest option be to use a Minnie Van?

We have hopped before the 10am buses start. As already mentioned when we went to MK we just took the Contemporary bus and walked over. We also went to AK once. We were staying at Yacht club and just took the boat from HS back to YC then the bus to AK.

What I can’t answer is if they actually start before 10 or not. We didn’t even try because we figured that was the time posted. I’m sure that it isn’t 10 on the nose, but how early (or late) they actually start I don’t know.