First time visit: Park Hopper or not??

[disneybliss2]

We're big fans of the park hopper. We like having the flexibility to choose where we want to go. Having gone several times in June, it's nice to have a backup plan for weather. There's been many times that we wanted to go to an evening light show that we didn't stick around for due to rain. It was nice to know we could go back a different day when weather was nicer, when we felt more rested, or for whatever reason...not just because that's the day I was in that park and felt like it was my only option. Although I plan out our days meticulously, I also like to know I can throw that by the wayside if my family finds a articular park/ride/show, etc. we really love and want to readjust plans to revisit. There are days I like to stay all day at one park, some days we only hop to another after dinner for a short bit, and some days we spend half a day at one park and half at another. We love knowing we're not locked in though and can enjoy what we want to do if we change our mind. I don't think that there is a right or wrong, just what fits your family best. For us, we love the flexibility of having the park hopper.

 

[lp199]

I really really appreciate everyone who took the time to reply. This board is full of amazing people! You have all given me a lot to think about. I think at this point I'm leaning towards getting the hopper and, while I have signed up for touring plans and and am a big planner, I would like to have the flexibility to go back and redo things that we enjoy. It also seems like the hopper would make sense if we take afternoon breaks and if we do emh.

Again huge thank you to everyone!

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

I have always been a proponent of park hopping. I love having the flexibility, and we are avid "mid day break" people. If I am staying at BCV and I go back for an afternoon swim after being at MK in the morning, it makes sense for me to be able to walk to DHS or Epcot instead of having to get back on a bus to MK. For your trip, it may not make as much of a difference for your 7 days at AKL, since you need to get on a bus anywhere you go, but for your GF days, having access to the monorail, you may find you want to move around a little more.

For a first trip, I would recommend the hopper option. This way, you can see what works best for your family. You can do a few days where you hop, a few days where you don't, and determine if you think it's worth it for your next trip.

 

[havoc315]

For long on property trips, I like having the park hopper for the extra flexibility. Especially for crowd avoidance— the freedom to do morning in 1 park and evening in another.

For shorter trips, it can make more sense to just plow through a park per day. And with very young kids, 1 trip to/from parks per day is plenty.
But staying on property, with tweens, for 8 park days...

You’re staying at GF for 3 days, next door to Magic Kingdom. You may want to do Epcot morning, but still wander over to MK for a couple hours in the evening.

Or you may find... instead of 2 full days per park, you may find 1 park is a 1 1/2 day park and another you want 2 1/2 days.
You may find a given park really shines at night, so you want to spend many nights there and fewer mornings.

spreading the cost of park hopper over 8 days, I do find it very worthwhile in your case.

 

[brockash]

Hi there,

We are heading to WDW for a first time family trip in June (yay!!) We will be doing a split stay, first staying at AKL Kidani for seven nights and then staying at the GF for three nights. Not including our travel days, we are looking at eight days for the parks (I took one day as a rest resort day but did include our resort switchover day).

I would like to buy our park tickets but am having a hard time deciding if we should get the regular base tickets or park hopper option. To give some background, our kids will be between 9-14 years old. While I would like us to get to the parks for rope drop, I realize that we will probably not want to do that every day. Assuming we do rope drop, we will most probably want to come back to rest/swim in the afternoons before heading out again.

Also, don’t know if this is necessary or worth it if we have so many days, but was thinking about also doing After Hours at the MK or early morning magic if it becomes available for our dates but then this starts to become very expensive...so don’t know what the best thing to do is. I’m thinking about these experiences as my DH (who is being a sport) really doesn’t like crowds..

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

In my opinion Park Hopper at WDW is not needed or worth it. We always get it at Disneyland, but after getting it just automatically our first few years and almost never using it, we stopped years ago and have never really had a wish/want to hop. There's plenty to do in each park to take up a full day (usually multiple) and if there's a park where we have more "down" time, we enjoy the down time. Obviously all families are different, but I think you'd be just fine without it.

 

[ViperRT10Matt]

We went back and analyzed how much actual park hopping we did. We park-hopped exactly once in our last two visits. We no longer buy the option.

 

[magicband]

With the way that WDW trips need an extreme amount of preplanning, park hoppers are a necessity to me. In the case that hours change or you're unable to get a certain fast pass on a certain day, or maybe while you're there your goals change, it's nice to be able to be flexible. I personally love doing two parks in a day. Morning and night are my favorite times as the parks, so taking an afternoon break after spending some time at MK and then heading to epcot or AK for the nighttime vibe is a favorite move. It really makes me feel like I'm in bubble when I can take mass transit to another magical place whenever I feel like it.

 

[MediumSizedMermaid]

I'm pro-parkhopper. Unless they've changed it, for two day or longer tickets it's a flat fee of $70 or something like that. So you're paying once and you get added flexibility every single day. Hopping between MK and Epcot and Epcot and DHS is so quick and easy I'd say go for it.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I only ever get a hopper if I'm there for less than 4 days, that way I can hit all the parks. 4 days or more, they're not needed. Way more than enough to do in each park for a full day. Plus, you can always add it on later.

 

[Jonfw2]

My typical day is rope-drop or EMH park #1, leave around lunch, chill at the hotel for a while, go to park #2 mid/late afternoon.