First trip for my anniversary. 6 days with or without hopper?

[cdnusagurl]

So my husband and I are planning to go to WDW and Universal next year for around 12 nights. With our current plan we were originally going to do 4 days at Universal and 6 days at WDW, however my husband and I both have 3 weeks paid vacation and he said that it's alright if I extend our trip to 14 days (yay!) Now my question is, which would you choose if you had the choice?

6 full days of parks with the park hopper option or 6 days without it? I really want to eat at Be Our Guest for dinner and don't want being stuck at one park for the day to ruin my chances of getting an ADR. And I would just upgrade at the parks, but we live in Canada and the special ticket pricing isn't available after May 20th of this year, which means we have to make our choice before it runs out. The price difference is basically $15 a day per person when I price it out which in the grand scheme of things doesn't seem like much money to me. However, I'm not sure if we'll use it aside from the 5th and 6th days when I know we'll probably go back to each park for half a day (HS might be just an hour depending on how boring I find it). Anyway, what would everyone here choose if they had a choice?

 

[jawa7400]

I like the park hopper option just for the possibility of hopping into a different park for dinner. Where are you staying? We purposely did park hopper since we are staying in Beach Club and want to be able to go into the world showcase for dinner even if we did another park that day.

 

[Traver Freeman]

If it's just the two of you, then park hopper for sure. If you have a group or kids, then it will be slower going and you could probably get away with not using the hopper if you wanted to save money. My wife and I love to hop, but it seems to be more difficult to do the larger your group. Doesn't mean we didn't do it before, but it's nicer to take things slower in larger groups.

We used the hopper mostly to eat at EPCOT every night as we prefer the food options there and eating at various countries around the world.

 

[arminnie]

I almost never hop - but i love it when I have an AP and can just stop in a park for a couple of hours. That's more important to me than hopping. Since we go every year with DVC I can usually get APs to cover two trips for less than two separate non hopping tickets.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I would buy 6 day non-hopper. Then if I wanted to hop, I would upgrade my tickets. That way, I wasn't paying for the hopper pass unless I was using it.

 

[LovesTimone]

Park Hopper would be a great benefit. With only the 2 of you moving around will be a lot easier, and dinner around the world show case for us would be an nightly thing. Also if you guys want to hit the parks for a drinks and /or fireworks after touring universal. Having some friends that just did a trip like yours, but they went with length of stay tickets at Disney just un case, they had planned 4 or 5 days at Universal and only did 2 days over there, she told me that she was glad they only started out with a 2 day ticket, with both parks and front of the line option, as they did almost everything they wanted on the first day. So they ended up going shopping at the outlet mall they bought so much stuff they had to buy another suitcase to get in all home, going to the movies and bowling at Disney Springs, And to which ever WDW water park was open on the other day that they planned to go to Universal. They had planned a couple of pool day already, and had dinner at the different resorts or at Disney Springs.

 

[cdnusagurl]

Park Hopper would be a great benefit. With only the 2 of you moving around will be a lot easier, and dinner around the world show case for us would be an nightly thing. Also if you guys want to hit the parks for a drinks and /or fireworks after touring universal. Having some friends that just did a trip like yours, but they went with length of stay tickets at Disney just un case, they had planned 4 or 5 days at Universal and only did 2 days over there, she told me that she was glad they only started out with a 2 day ticket, with both parks and front of the line option, as they did almost everything they wanted on the first day. So they ended up going shopping at the outlet mall they bought so much stuff they had to buy another suitcase to get in all home, going to the movies and bowling at Disney Springs, And to which ever WDW water park was open on the other day that they planned to go to Universal. They had planned a couple of pool day already, and had dinner at the different resorts or at Disney Springs.

Now you have me thinking that maybe we should just do 3 days at Universal and 8 days at Disney with no hopper. Hmm ...

 

[BinaryRun]

Get park hopper. They have a new system that allows you to travel from park to park with a direct bus, without having to transfer at the transportation center or go through turnstyles again. Changing your travel between parks from 40 to 60+ minutes to roughly 20 minutes. It does cost 29 dollars per person for 7 days.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/express-transportation-options/

 

[cdnusagurl]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I talked to my husband tonight and he said without question he wants to do the park hopper so we have options. So I guess the park hopper it is. Now I have to decide if it will be for 6 or 7 days.

 

[kruel]

My husband and I are staying 6 nights, 7 days and we got the Park Hopper for 7 days because it was not much more and we have a later flight when we leave so we will use the 7th day. Park hopping for us is great because when I make ADRs I don't have to worry about planning a restaurant for the same park, we have freedom to go where we want. It is a great choice for the two of you!

 

[com_op_2000]

Are you saying onsite at US/IoA for those park days? If so be sure to take advantage of the FOTL access you have by staying onsite at US.

IMHO, go to the parks for two days, take a day off, go to the parks for two days, take a day off, etc.
This way you do not need a vacation from your vacation when you get home.
There are a lot of thing you can do outside the parks:
Depending upon what you are into:
sports: golf, mini-golf, fishing, marathon, bowling, ESPN Club, WWS/ESPN Zone, etc
shopping: DTD, area outlet malls, large scale malls
drinking: Jellyrolls, Raglan Road, monorail tour of resorts, walking tour of resorts in the Boardwalk area
movies: DTD 24 screen theater some with meals served by waiters
night clubbing: Jellyrolls, Atlantic Dance, Raglan Road, Citywalk
resort tours: monorail tour of resorts, Boardwalk around the lake tour of resorts, horse drawn tour of FWC, AKL/AKV
offsite: Gaylord Palms Resort, Citywalk, swamp tour
eating: Formal GF 5* Chef's Table @ V&As

 

[NH-to-FL]

Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary trip!

Before getting our APs we always got hoppers. But then we stayed at the Boardwalk and would hop ever to Epcot almost every evening. If you are staying at either one of the Epcot or MK adjacent hotels then hoppers are close to being required.

Given the number of days you are visiting you could put together a schedule that focuses on one park per day and skip the hoppers.

However, if the finances permit, I would suggest going for the hoppers as they give you more freedom to adjust plans as you go. As a previous poster noted, being able to hop over to Epcot in the evening for the variety of food and drinks around the world can be very fun.

Wishing you a magical trip!

 

[cdnusagurl]

My husband and I are staying 6 nights, 7 days and we got the Park Hopper for 7 days because it was not much more and we have a later flight when we leave so we will use the 7th day. Park hopping for us is great because when I make ADRs I don't have to worry about planning a restaurant for the same park, we have freedom to go where we want. It is a great choice for the two of you!

This is the main reason I want the hoppers. I also want half a day for each park to re-ride the rides we really like before we leave. We won't be coming back to Orlando for a few years, and when we do it will probably be with children, so I really want to make our time there count. The price also is only about $15 per day for each of us which in the grand scheme of things isn't much for us.

 

[BinaryRun]

Good choice! Be sure to have a look at the new express transportation between parks that I linked before, can safe you some more time.

 

[YawningDodo]

Having some friends that just did a trip like yours, but they went with length of stay tickets at Disney just un case, they had planned 4 or 5 days at Universal and only did 2 days over there, she told me that she was glad they only started out with a 2 day ticket, with both parks and front of the line option, as they did almost everything they wanted on the first day.

That was kind of our experience when I did a Disney / Universal trip with my mom in 2015 -- there was plenty at Universal that we enjoyed and I'm certainly glad we went, but we only did two days at the Universal parks and kind of ran out of things we wanted to do there before running out the time we'd allowed for it.

Now you have me thinking that maybe we should just do 3 days at Universal and 8 days at Disney with no hopper. Hmm ...

It really depends on what kind of attractions you like, how much you enjoy Universal, and tbh whether you're doing a split stay or taking a taxi over to Universal from Disney property on your days there. We stayed on Disney property for our entire trip...on the one hand it was nice being able to reschedule our second Universal day on the fly (there's wiggle room in how soon you have to use the second day on a two-day ticket), but on the other it was a real pain (and surprisingly expensive) to get a car over there and back.

The other thing that comes to mind for me, reading this thread, is that you might want to take com_op_2000's advice and schedule time off from the parks. Our trip was six full days plus two travel days, and we went to one or more parks every day except arrival day. If we'd taken shorter days that might have been okay, but six full park days in a row left us both very tired and sore, and by the midpoint of the trip my legs swelled up and I would have had to cut a day short if it hadn't been the evening we were scheduled to go sit down for two and a half hours for Hoop Dee Doo anyhow. If I do another trip of that length I'll probably do just one day at Universal and get the express pass to be sure I get it all in, then use the spare day to relax at the resort in the middle of the trip. On a longer trip I'd probably want to take at least a half day's rest every third day, or a full day every fourth. There's a lot to do at the resorts that's much less taxing than going to the parks -- enjoy the pools, try new restaurants, take in a show -- so taking a day off from the parks isn't the kind of bummer it might look like at first glance.

If you're talking about a 3/8 split for parks on a 14 day trip, though, it sounds like you're probably already taking this into account.

 

[georgina]

The Universal resorts are great for relaxing at the resort time and pool hopping is allowed!

 

[cdnusagurl]

It really depends on what kind of attractions you like, how much you enjoy Universal, and tbh whether you're doing a split stay or taking a taxi over to Universal from Disney property on your days there. We stayed on Disney property for our entire trip...on the one hand it was nice being able to reschedule our second Universal day on the fly (there's wiggle room in how soon you have to use the second day on a two-day ticket), but on the other it was a real pain (and surprisingly expensive) to get a car over there and back.

My husband isn't too big on thrill rides, but loves fireworks and shows which is why I'm aiming at more days at Disney (although he claims he thinks it's still mostly for children). However the pool will be much better at Royal Pacific than Disney World which will give us a nice relaxing resort day if we do get bored with the parks. I also figure 4 days will be a nice amount of time to wind down after going to Disney for almost 8 days straight. With the express pass we will be able to visit the parks while taking our time at the same time which will be a good way to end our trip.

The other thing that comes to mind for me, reading this thread, is that you might want to take com_op_2000's advice and schedule time off from the parks. Our trip was six full days plus two travel days, and we went to one or more parks every day except arrival day. If we'd taken shorter days that might have been okay, but six full park days in a row left us both very tired and sore, and by the midpoint of the trip my legs swelled up and I would have had to cut a day short if it hadn't been the evening we were scheduled to go sit down for two and a half hours for Hoop Dee Doo anyhow. If I do another trip of that length I'll probably do just one day at Universal and get the express pass to be sure I get it all in, then use the spare day to relax at the resort in the middle of the trip. On a longer trip I'd probably want to take at least a half day's rest every third day, or a full day every fourth. There's a lot to do at the resorts that's much less taxing than going to the parks -- enjoy the pools, try new restaurants, take in a show -- so taking a day off from the parks isn't the kind of bummer it might look like at first glance.

If you're talking about a 3/8 split for parks on a 14 day trip, though, it sounds like you're probably already taking this into account.

Right now my tentative plan has us doing 3 parks the first 3 days with the first full day being a sleep in day before heading to HS. Then a day off, followed by two days with one park in the morning, pool/nap time around lunch, and another park for the evening. Then Universal bright and early on our check out day, sleeping in a little before heading to Volcano Bay the next day, another early day on our second to last day at Universal, and a sleep in day on our last day that could very well turn into a resort day depending on how tired we are.

 

[Leelo]

We LOVE park hopper. We usually choose one park in the morning and afternoon and another park after dinner. We like being able to go wherever we want and we think it is worth the $ to upgrade. Sometimes we have a specific ride we loved that we want to ride again and we can hop whenever we want during the day or eat wherever we want. We don't even consider doing the 1 park a day option anymore. I think you will love it!