Everything Park Hopping - Please Read Post 1

[scrappinginontario]

This is a thread intended to talk about everything to do with park hopping as we understand there are many questions.

Update: As of Jan 9, 2024, park hopping is no longer be restricted to 2:00PM!!! Guests are able to park hop from park open to close!!

Park Hopping Capacity: There may be times that a park is closed to park hopping IF it has reached Park Hopping capacity.

With the exception of a couple of hours to Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon of Oct 1, 2021 and a bit on Apr 4, 2024, park hopping has always been allowed to all parks, even when all parks were full for new park reservations.

Park Reservation Capacity vs Park Hopping Capacity: Park capacity for daily reservations is not the same as park capacity for park hopping. If a park has reached capacity to book a daily reservation (for guests who require a park reservation) this does not automatically mean you cannot hop to it.

Park Hopping Phone Number: To find out if a park is open for park hopping, guests may call 1-407-560-5000.

Park Hopping Requirement: In order to hop to a second park, a guest who requires a park reservation (AP, special event tickets, etc.) must have tapped into the park where they have booked a reservation for that day. Guests cannot just go to the second park, unless it is after 2PM. Guests only need a park reservation at their original park. They do not need a 2nd reservation at a different park in order to hop to it.

Park Reservations (re: Hopping) for Annual Passholders: Beginning April 18, 2023 Walt Disney World Annual Passholders will be able to visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without needing a park reservation. The one exception to this is park reservations for APs are required at Magic Kingdom Park from park open to park close on Saturdays and Sundays.

Returning to Original Park: A guest can always return to the original park they had a reservation for. Even if it is at capacity for hopping, a guest with a reservation may enter their original park at any time that day.

Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR): An ADR may be booked at a park a guest intends to hop to but an ADR does not guarantee entrance to that park if it has reached park hopping capacity. (Reiterating that as of today a park has only reached capacity for hopping 2 different days. The no-show fee for a missed reservation due to inability to hop has not yet been an issue so it is not known if the $10/person no-show fee would be charged or if this fee would be waived by Disney.

Park Hopper Tickets: The park hopping option must be added to the entire number of days of the ticket. It is not possible to add Park Hopping to only a portion of the ticket.

Park Hopping to Multiple Parks: It is possible to hop to as many parks as a guest wishes to.

Transportation Between Parks:

• Animal Kingdom to all parks - Bus
• Epcot to Hollywood Studios - Skyliner, Friendship Boat or Walk (approx. 20 min walk)
• Epcot to Animal Kingdom - Bus
• Epcot to Magic Kingdom - Monorail
• Hollywood Studios to Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom - Bus
• Hollywood Studios to Epcot - Skyliner, Friendship Boat or Walk (approx. 20 min walk)
• Magic Kingdom to Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios - Bus
• Magic Kingdom to Epcot - Monorail

Adding Park Hopping to Ticket in Use: Park Hopper option can be added at any point in your trip although it will be added for all days. It is not possible to add the PH option to one day of a multiple day ticket. Once PH is added, PH can begin that same day.

Cost to add PH is now:

• 1 Day ticket: $60-$65 above MK ticket price
• 2-3Day ticket: $75
• 4-10 Day ticket: $85

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

Thank you for making this dedicated thread. Everything you knew doesn't apply to todays day and age trip planning. Thoughts on park hopping during Christmas crowds. Will it be impossible to hop?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thank you for making this dedicated thread. Everything you knew doesn't apply to todays day and age trip planning. Thoughts on park hopping during Christmas crowds. Will it be impossible to hop?

My personal thoughts, yes it will be possible to park hop at Christmas. Possibly not to the MK on Christmas Day or New Years Day but this is no different than in years past. MK reached capacity almost every pre-COVID year so it could easily happen this year too.

This is only my guess and over time my thoughts may change but, given the park hopping that has been happening so far in 2021 even the days all 4 parks reached reservation capacity, I would anticipate the ability to park hop even on busier days.

 

[sammm_11]

Thanks for this info! We went at the end of February and when we would call the hotline after 2 pm, all it said was "Park hopping starts after 2 pm" and we were slightly confused because it was after 2 pm? So we just checked the "park reservation system" and noticed which parks were full. BUT it's awesome to know that we shouldn't pay much attention to that because they are different! We will definitely be doing it differently in April, and hopefully the phone automated message is updated! Thanks so much, again!

 

[Raech]

So wait if the recording just says park hopping is available after 2pm how do you know from that hotline where you can go?

 

[scrappinginontario]

So wait if the recording just says park hopping is available after 2pm how do you know from that hotline where you can go?

It has never happened that all parks are not available but I would anticipate that if a park is closed to hopping, the recording would say that.

It hasn't happened so far so we don't have an example to follow.

 

[mickeysmith]

I apologize if I missed this somewhere; we are finally getting to go in April!
If I have a res for MK, hop to another park, can I come back to MK even if it is at capacity?
Thank you (and for this thread).

 

[JJ2017]

We are going to be making an "in the moment" decision to add park hoppers and hop to MK from HS to meet friends. I'm scared of upgrading and then the parks being full. I guess I'll call the hotline first, and if it's a go, pay for the upgrade.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I apologize if I missed this somewhere; we are finally getting to go in April!
If I have a res for MK, hop to another park, can I come back to MK even if it is at capacity?
Thank you (and for this thread).

Thank you for asking this question!

Yes, a guest may always return to the original park they have a reservation for, even if it's at capacity for hopping.

I have updated the original post based on your question. Thanks for asking it!

 

[loves to dive]

Weird question here. Since PH begins at 2, can you go to any park that is open even if you haven't reserved one for earlier in the day? Example: It's travel day and you arrive at 2:30 but did not book a park reservation for that day. You want to go to a park and have tickets for that day. Do you still need to reserve the park you want to go even though it's after 2?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Weird question here. Since PH begins at 2, can you go to any park that is open even if you haven't reserved one for earlier in the day? Example: It's travel day and you arrive at 2:30 but did not book a park reservation for that day. You want to go to a park and have tickets for that day. Do you still need to reserve the park you want to go even though it's after 2?

Yes, you must have a park reservation for whatever park you enter first, even if you enter for the first time after 2:00 PM.

 

[scrappinginontario]

It looks like the coming week is going to be a good time to see if any parks reach 'no park hopping' capacity. All 4 parks from this Saturday, Mar 13 - Fri, Mar 19 are at full capacity.

If anyone is there next week and has park hopper tickets, any experiences you can share with us would be appreciated. And, we're hoping it's that you could still park hop without any trouble!!

 

[Heather07438]

If at some point hopping capacity is reached at a certain park, MDE will send out push notifications as soon as it’s known. Make sure you turn-on/allow push notifications in MDE to receive the message.

On WDW site for hopping:
In the event that the Park Hopper option is unavailable at a theme park, Guests will be notified in real time via a push notification from the My Disney Experience app.

 

[lanejudy]

There have been a couple of reports on the ticket sticky of refusal to allow a Hopper add-on for next week - people who already have base tickets and theme park reservations and wanted to add hopping. It's unknown whether that's because ticket sales are frozen for those start dates, or if WDW feels they've reached hopper capacity as well. It'll be interesting to read reports.


ETA: one of those was finally able to reach a CM who was able to help add the Hopper option.

 

[disprincess2213]

Wondering if there were any rules or restrictions on how many times in a day you could park hop or to which park.

We are going to epcot at open for lunch (have park passes). We were hoping to park hop to DHS around 6pm then back to epcot after DHS closes around 8.

I wasn't sure if they would let us park hop back and forth to epcot. Thanks for any input!

 

[sammm_11]

Wondering if there were any rules or restrictions on how many times in a day you could park hop or to which park.

We are going to epcot at open for lunch (have park passes). We were hoping to park hop to DHS around 6pm then back to epcot after DHS closes around 8.

I wasn't sure if they would let us park hop back and forth to epcot. Thanks for any input!

Yes! You can park hop how every many times after 2 pm! And since you have reservations to Epcot already, you will be able to get back to Epcot no matter if park hopping is at capacity or not!

 

[closetmickey]

We hopped to HS two days (from Epcot) earlier in the month when HS was at capacity for park reservations.

 

[bksomody]

It has never happened that all parks are not available but I would anticipate that if a park is closed to hopping, the recording would say that.

It hasn't happened so far so we don't have an example to follow.

Do you know if park reservations were gone during Christmas week like they are for Spring Break?

Just wondering if parks will be busier during spring break than they were at Christmas and possibly not allow park hopping. I am trying to decide if I should add a park hopper.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Do you know if park reservations were gone during Christmas week like they are for Spring Break?

Just wondering if parks will be busier during spring break than they were at Christmas and possibly not allow park hopping. I am trying to decide if I should add a park hopper.

Park Hopping did not begin until January 1st so we are not able to compare.

 

[Heather07438]

Do you know if park reservations were gone during Christmas week like they are for Spring Break?

Just wondering if parks will be busier during spring break than they were at Christmas and possibly not allow park hopping. I am trying to decide if I should add a park hopper.

Christmas week didn't fill as quickly and fully as Spring Break. The week or two before there were still openings for park reservations, and even day of some openings left at certain parks.