First time going with hopper pass

[mom2munchkins]

This going to be a different trip for us. We bought park hoppers for the first time. I'd like to have a trip that does not require a vacation from the vacation. I feel at a loss in planning this trip. This trip is planned for the beginning of June as a surprise birthday gift for my kids. How do most people with park hoppers plan dining and FP+? Any advice would be greatly welcomed. TIA

 

[emldrl]

We are also getting hoppers, so that we will have a lot more flexibility. Imagine, making ADRs and FP+ times, not having to worry about having to coordinate park days, since you can hop wherever you need to go. If you go to one park and it gets really packed, just head to another one. I personally think it'll make all the planning MUCH easier!

Also, we are planning to go very slow, take breaks every day, do some half days, and maybe one or two days where we skip the parks entirely. So, traveling back and forth to different parks won't be that big a deal to us. Good luck and happy planning!

 

[chelseabun76]

We use park hoppers. Our trip in January, there are 2 days that we are splitting with HS and EP. First day we'll go to RD at HS and then head over to EP around noon to make our Akershus ADR, and that's where I booked my fp+ for, and we'll watch Illuminations. Second day we'll go to RD at EP and then head over to HS around noon to make our MM ADR, and stay to use our fp+ and watch Fantasmic! I'm not sure if we're hopping on any other day, there is a possible day that we can go to AK/HS or EP and then take a break at the resort, then head to MK for the late afternoon/evening where I have fp+ booked later on.

 

[InstituteMan]

We have always used park hoppers and really love the flexibility. We usually plan for a first park of the day with FP+ and maybe a lunch ADR. Even though our children aren't children anymore, we all still appreciate a break from the parks in the middle of the day, with perhaps an early-ish dinner at a resort before returning to Magic Kingdom or Epcot for evening festivities.

One of our favorite parts of using park hoppers is that sometimes (if the park schedules cooperate) you can see Wishes and Illuminations in one night. We often try to make this happen on our last night as our grand finale. Have a magical trip!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

We are hopping for the first time this trip too. My kids are older, so we are not trying to fit in naps between parks or anything, but I like knowing that we can change our plans midday if they want to do something different. I am looking forward to it.

 

[GillianP1301]

We did hoppers for the first time this past summer and now that I've used them, I can't imagine not having hoppers, it was great!

It was myself and my 6 year old DS. Our usual day would be to start in one park in the morning (usually with a pre-opening breakfast ADR) and the use our FP+ for late morning/early afternoon. I had pool timed planned most afternoons, but we actually ended up just staying in our morning park and then moving to our next park mid afternoon. That park was usually where we would have our dinner ADR. We were usually out of the parks and heading back to ou resort by 8pm.

If we were dining at a resort, then those were days that we didn't hop, but instead took advantage of things like mini golf or the arcade in the evening.

 

[Baptist]

Park hoppers are key for us. Our general strategy is rope drop one park, then hop to another for late afternoon FPs and ADRs. Basically, just one hop per day.

Enjoy the flexibility of your next stay!

 

[wdwjeffc37]

"Our general strategy is rope drop one park, then hop to another for late afternoon FPs and ADRs."

This is our how we do it also. Rope drop the EMH park, get the headliners and anything else we can done and when the park gets too crowded hop to our afternoon park for our FP+ for the headliners at that park. Sometimes we take a rest/swim at our resort before hitting our second park. We will even hop to evening EMH at MK if they last late enough and get in some late night attractions. It is not unusual for us to go to three park in a day. We like World Showcase at night and try and catch Wishes and Illuminations a couple of times during our trip.

As for ADRs, plan them for where you are going to be. Either at park one for breakfast/lunch or dinner at park two.

Park Hoppers are a must for us. Good luck and have fun.

 

[loafskier]

We "hopped" for the first time this past trip. It was great. We stayed at the Yacht Club and "hopped" into the World Showcase for dinner 2 out of 6 nights. One night we "hopped" to the Studios to check out the Osbourne lights (and ride RNRR one more time ) I have teenagers so it was really fun to hop around and go to Epcot a lot...we love the countries and they could ride Test Track one more time while we enjoy a drink in the World Showcase. Also, on our Magic Kingdom days, we could take the monorail back to Epcot and get to our hotel after hitting few attractions in Epcot along the way.

 

[Baptist]

I forgot to mention, this strategy of rope drop one park then have late afternoon FPs in another was not possible under legacy FP. You could not hop to HS and get a FP for TSM.

 

[Mome Rath]

This going to be a different trip for us. We bought park hoppers for the first time. I'd like to have a trip that does not require a vacation from the vacation. I feel at a loss in planning this trip. This trip is planned for the beginning of June as a surprise birthday gift for my kids. How do most people with park hoppers plan dining and FP+? Any advice would be greatly welcomed. TIA

Have always done hoppers, and the key is looking at park hours. See which opens the earliest and see which stays open the latest and go from there. We usually do 2 parks in a day; 1 in the morning and 1 after lunch/evening, if you want to eat outside of the park somewhere, use that as a transition. So, for example, MK in the morning, lunch at Kona cafe, and then on to EPCOT in the evening.

 

[OB1]

Echo Baptist & wdwjeff. We do check out best parks by day, Most days, we are not able to take advantage of EMH. We try to have a start park and an end park for each day. We hit the start park at opening, hit some headliners and tour around. Once it start to get busy, we hop to our ending park (often EPCOT), with a possible break in between.
At the ending park, we can do lower tier attractions. We know we will be back another day to start at this park and see the headliners. NOW - the real strategy is how you plan your FP. If you want to see more headliners in your ending park, then you use FP for that park. We did that in May when we hopped to DHS, and had Toy Story, Tower, and Movie Ride as our FP.

 

[jensen]

We have always used park hoppers and really love the flexibility. We usually plan for a first park of the day with FP+ and maybe a lunch ADR. Even though our children aren't children anymore, we all still appreciate a break from the parks in the middle of the day, with perhaps an early-ish dinner at a resort before returning to Magic Kingdom or Epcot for evening festivities.

One of our favorite parts of using park hoppers is that sometimes (if the park schedules cooperate) you can see Wishes and Illuminations in one night. We often try to make this happen on our last night as our grand finale. Have a magical trip!

This is us, too! We try to watch both Wishes and Illuminations most nights of our trip. For us, this alone might be worth the cost of the hoppers. But, we do hop quite a bit - on our last trip, we hit all four parks, the Boardwalk and DTD in one day... loved it!

 

[LSUfan4444]

How do most people with park hoppers plan dining and FP+? Any advice would be greatly welcomed. TIA

I won't answer for how most do it, but we start our mornings in a recommended park, then hop to a park later in the day (that is usually more crowded and open later) and that is where our FP+ are.

 

[joe1946]

Dinner in Epcot every night!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Okay, I'll be the minority voice here! I actually find it less stressful NOT having hoppers and sticking to one park a day!

I know me. If I had hoppers, I'd be looking at who has EMH in the morning, who has them at night, how can I squeeze more in. But I have hoppers--I CAN'T stay in one park. I MUST HOP!!! I need to get my money's worth. That means I need at least two parks a day.

For me, non-hoppers means one park a day. Make my ADRs for that park or a nearby resort, make my FPs for that park. No picking and choosing and running here and there. That's it we're done. We can focus on this one park today and not worry about any of the others until tomorrow. Even after several trips, we have more than enough to spend a whole day in one park. If we take a break, we just go back to the same park in the evening.

And if we do happen to finish early, it's a great excuse to relax at the resort, swim, visit DTD, stroll another resort, play mini golf, etc., etc. If I had hoppers I would feel a need to be in a park somewhere!!

I also look at this way, for $60 per person ($240 for our family), we need to use the hopper numerous times to make it worthwhile. Honestly, riding one extra ride on one day or eating a meal in a specific park on one day isn't worth $240 to me! If I'm doing it every day, then it's worth it. But then we're back to the panic-stricken chant of "I MUST USE MY HOPPER!"

 

[mom2munchkins]

Mom2AidanAndEli~ I kinda feel the way you do. I've never done PH and we've never gone in June. I think I changed too may things to my normal planning . That's me the over achiever..

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I will try and find the park hours for June and the crowd predictor too.

Oh yeah di I mention I'm also keeping this trip a surprise from the kids for their birthdays. This is way harder than I thought. LOL

 

[hakepb]

Okay, I'll be the minority voice here! I actually find it less stressful NOT having hoppers and sticking to one park a day!

I know me. If I had hoppers, I'd be looking at who has EMH in the morning, who has them at night, how can I squeeze more in. But I have hoppers--I CAN'T stay in one park. I MUST HOP!!! I need to get my money's worth. That means I need at least two parks a day.

For me, non-hoppers means one park a day. Make my ADRs for that park or a nearby resort, make my FPs for that park. No picking and choosing and running here and there. That's it we're done. We can focus on this one park today and not worry about any of the others until tomorrow. Even after several trips, we have more than enough to spend a whole day in one park. If we take a break, we just go back to the same park in the evening.

And if we do happen to finish early, it's a great excuse to relax at the resort, swim, visit DTD, stroll another resort, play mini golf, etc., etc. If I had hoppers I would feel a need to be in a park somewhere!!

I also look at this way, for $60 per person ($240 for our family), we need to use the hopper numerous times to make it worthwhile. Honestly, riding one extra ride on one day or eating a meal in a specific park on one day isn't worth $240 to me! If I'm doing it every day, then it's worth it. But then we're back to the panic-stricken chant of "I MUST USE MY HOPPER!"

You should get an annual pass, then it will be "any day not spent at Disney, is a wasted day"

 

[DanInMN]

We have annual passes, but do not hop much. We waste at least an hour exiting one park, traveling to another, and entering again. Plus all the extra walking!