FP+ with hoppers/do you regret?

[kimba]

Coming up is our first trip with the new fast pass system. I was apprehensive to get hoppers because it seems really complicated. We want to make the most our of our 4 days and thought hopping would be a good choice. Can you not get a fastpass at all in your 2nd park of the day? Those with experience, is it better to just do one park a day?

 

[siskaren]

Coming up is our first trip with the new fast pass system. I was apprehensive to get hoppers because it seems really complicated. We want to make the most our of our 4 days and thought hopping would be a good choice. Can you not get a fastpass at all in your 2nd park of the day? Those with experience, is it better to just do one park a day?

What a lot of people do if they want to park hop is do standby in the first park (which shouldn't have long lines for the first few hours) then book FP for the second park. But if you do book FP at your first park, you can use FP at the second - you just have to do it when you get there, and then for only one ride at a time.

 

[scdak]

I did exactly what siskaren mentioned and had no problems at all. Now, I will say that I don't do thrill rides so that might have influenced our success a little bit but if you make your plans so that you arrive at RD for your first park, do headliners when the lines are the shortest, finish up what other things you want to do at that park then proceed to park #1 to use your fast passes you should do fine.

 

[Rylie Grite]

I agree with siskaren, its all the better if you do AM EMH for your first park too.

 

[bcrook]

I think you still need hoppers because there isn't enough to do at Epcot, DHS, and DAK to fill a day. So I would use my Fastpasses at DHS and then ride the boat down to Epcot for Dinner catch the Nemo ride and Spaceship Earth (they don't need FP at night).

If you are going to DAK even in the morning (if you don't get there right at opening) It is still nice to have that FP for the Safari, Dinosaur and Everest.

But if you hop to MK - save your FP for the evening, otherwise you will be frustrated. Book them early, even the high capacity rides like Haunted Mansion book up in the evening. I think a lot of people are going to one park in the morning and booking evening FP at MK along with watching the night time shows and parades.

Right now, the only thing to even use a FP for at Epcot is Test Track, I wouldn't waste my passes there.

At DHS, I had good luck getting Star Tours and The Great Movie Ride extra fastpasses in the afternoon. I even scored a RnRc and a TSMM one time (but I sure wouldn't expect that).

Honestly, I can't see going without hoppers anymore. DHS and Epcot together don't have as much to do as Disney California Adventure. So in my mind they are just one park connected by a pleasant boat ride.

 

[bostran1]

We are thinking of doing exactly this. The only thing that makes me a little nervous is that my kids will be 4 years old and 20 months old so we still need to account for naps, dinner, and a little bit of an early bedtime (probably 8 pm but back to the hotel by 7 or 7:30 at the latest). I'm more nervous that we will feel rushed if we do 4, 5, 6 or 7 pm FP+. Especially if we do a sit down dinner.

Anyone else in that boat?

 

[jawa7400]

We are thinking of doing exactly this. The only thing that makes me a little nervous is that my kids will be 4 years old and 20 months old so we still need to account for naps, dinner, and a little bit of an early bedtime (probably 8 pm but back to the hotel by 7 or 7:30 at the latest). I'm more nervous that we will feel rushed if we do 4, 5, 6 or 7 pm FP+. Especially if we do a sit down dinner.

Anyone else in that boat?

We did a trip last year and DD was barely 4 and DS was 20 months. My kids were used to an 8pm bedtime too. We got out early and went back to the resort for naps from about 2-5pm then back out to the parks. We were able to stay out much later than normal and got lots done!! One evening my son got tired and just laid his head down in my lap on IASW and was out! But I realize every kid is different when they're tired.

With this touring pattern and making good use of FPs and rain (bring ponchos!) we were able to do everything on our list (including meeting A and E without a FP) with less than a 30 minute wait anywhere... And we went the week of Christmas!!

 

[Monykalyn]

We are thinking of doing exactly this. The only thing that makes me a little nervous is that my kids will be 4 years old and 20 months old so we still need to account for naps, dinner, and a little bit of an early bedtime (probably 8 pm but back to the hotel by 7 or 7:30 at the latest). I'm more nervous that we will feel rushed if we do 4, 5, 6 or 7 pm FP+. Especially if we do a sit down dinner.

Anyone else in that boat?

We didn't have little ones last trip but my tween middle child and husband (and frequently my youngest) went back to resort nearly everyday for an early afternoon siesta. Sometimes me and my oldest joined them in nap/pool time, sometimes not (was our first onsite stay and we took FULL advantage of being able to split up). We did more sit down lunches before the break and then CS dinners so there wasn't a rushed feeling. We started in one park, lunch, then break then FP in second park. worked great.

And I disagree with needing FP for AK if you get there at rope drop &/or EMH. We did an am EMH there - Everest together once then 2x more in single rider, Dinosaur (and some other ride in that area-nearly jerked my neck off) and still only had 15 min wait on Safari-all before official opening time in early June (higher crowds). I should add that none of us was interested in Kali River Rapids that early in the day (and frankly-the raft water ride at Silver Dollar City near us is actually far superior than Kali) Key is Rope Drop. We did several rides one morning in MK that way too (as long as you don't need a Mine train or Anna/Elsa M&G).

If you do a character dinner then things may change up for you. Then I'd do Opening, then schedule late morning FP for the park you are in (and possibly see if you can get a 4th FP for later after dinner at that park), then head out for naps. Then the dinner and depending on how kids are-go for fireworks or show or head back to resort.

 

[bostran1]

We did a trip last year and DD was barely 4 and DS was 20 months. My kids were used to an 8pm bedtime too. We got out early and went back to the resort for naps from about 2-5pm then back out to the parks. We were able to stay out much later than normal and got lots done!! One evening my son got tired and just laid his head down in my lap on IASW and was out! But I realize every kid is different when they're tired.

With this touring pattern and making good use of FPs and rain (bring ponchos!) we were able to do everything on our list (including meeting A and E without a FP) with less than a 30 minute wait anywhere... And we went the week of Christmas!!

That is encouraging to hear! Thank you for sharing. The parks shouldn't be too crowded while we are there and your experience makes me feel pretty good about this plan. Thank you!

 

[Monykalyn]

Reading these responses of families with little ones just made me laugh and realize my young teen and DH are alot like toddlers/young children-they needed naps and got cranky when not fed &/or tired

 

[Babydreamz]

Reading these responses of families with little ones just made me laugh and realize my young teen and DH are alot like toddlers/young children-they needed naps and got cranky when not fed &/or tired

Haha totally agree. DH gets cranky along with DD(4).

 

[d1gitman]

We did our first FP+ trip this past August and did Hoppers. For our trip this week we are not using Hoppers. What we found in August was that while we made our FP+ reservations for the PM parks, choices for SDFP+ that we used on our extra link it later bands, was extremely limited when arriving at the second park for the day. The hope for this trip is that by staying in the same park all day, we are able to get a good selection of SDPF+ on our link it later bands when arriving first thing in the morning and still have our FP+ reservations as our 'anchor' throughout the day.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I think you still need hoppers because there isn't enough to do at Epcot, DHS, and DAK to fill a day.

Wow! I kind of agree with DHS at the moment, but only because we've done all the shows and don't feel a need to do them all each visit. But we could certainly spend a whole day at Epcot, a whole day at AK--both very easily. And a whole day at HS if we were doing the shows. We've never had hoppers, never missed them. Actually find it easier to stick to one park a day.

 

[jade1]

Agree with 2nd park reserved FP+. We can do all of AK by noon or 1 without them, after a break its awesome to have FP+ for DHS and Fantasmic and Star Wars fireworks just one example.

 

[Lulu27]

We didn't have little ones last trip but my tween middle child and husband (and frequently my youngest) went back to resort nearly everyday for an early afternoon siesta. Sometimes me and my oldest joined them in nap/pool time, sometimes not (was our first onsite stay and we took FULL advantage of being able to split up). We did more sit down lunches before the break and then CS dinners so there wasn't a rushed feeling. We started in one park, lunch, then break then FP in second park. worked great.

And I disagree with needing FP for AK if you get there at rope drop &/or EMH. We did an am EMH there - Everest together once then 2x more in single rider, Dinosaur (and some other ride in that area-nearly jerked my neck off) and still only had 15 min wait on Safari-all before official opening time in early June (higher crowds). I should add that none of us was interested in Kali River Rapids that early in the day (and frankly-the raft water ride at Silver Dollar City near us is actually far superior than Kali) Key is Rope Drop. We did several rides one morning in MK that way too (as long as you don't need a Mine train or Anna/Elsa M&G).

If you do a character dinner then things may change up for you. Then I'd do Opening, then schedule late morning FP for the park you are in (and possibly see if you can get a 4th FP for later after dinner at that park), then head out for naps. Then the dinner and depending on how kids are-go for fireworks or show or head back to resort.

I like your strategy!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We always add the Hopper option as we feel that some parks close too early (Epcot & AK) to be considered a full day. Our strategy is a little different than some as we book FP+ for our first park then go standby at the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th). We don't do morning EMH or Rope Drop and prefer to arrive around 11 am or so. Parks are always less crowded during the night time hours so we don't feel that FP+ is necessary for our evening parks.

 

[dogdoctor]

We just got back from using a 5 day park hopper - and we really enjoyed it. While we didn't hop as much as I thought we would, we did use it. Our friends really used it as they did much more adult hopping to see fireworks shows and enjoy the night atmosphere. I would have liked to do that, but the kids are a little small still and getting them to bed for another fun filled day was important to us. We used the strategy of FP in the afternoon and standby in the AM for the hopper days. That worked really, really well. Even when we didn't hop, we found it very easy to get more FP in the afternoon for what we were looking to do so I don't see that as a real concern. You just have to know what rides you want to ride are really, really popular and then aim to get FPs for them. From there plan your days but be flexible. For example - we had 6 FP's for Kilimanjaro Safari (9:00 am) and Everest (10:10 am) set for Sunday 1/17. Well the rains/high winds came the night before and were predicted to go until 10 am. We made an educated guess to change those FPs. We bumped Everest to 2 pm in the afternoon, and the Safari could not be moved. So we changed it for Dinosaur at 3 pm. Of course the rains stopped at 7am - so we decided to come to the park at 8:30. We went straight to Safari hoping the rains/chill in the air would dull the crowds. We waited 40 min and had a fantastic ride. Then the sun came out - it made for a great Everest ride, and we already had our "extra" FP for Dinosaur booked. In all it was a fantastic afternoon at AK. We had every intent on using the hopper option on Monday 1/18 - hitting up a few missed things at a few parks, but we got to HS and just couldn't leave. The Force runs strong in this family. It was great to go out on a high note of Jedi Training for the kids.

 

[Lulu27]

We just got back from using a 5 day park hopper - and we really enjoyed it. While we didn't hop as much as I thought we would, we did use it. Our friends really used it as they did much more adult hopping to see fireworks shows and enjoy the night atmosphere. I would have liked to do that, but the kids are a little small still and getting them to bed for another fun filled day was important to us. We used the strategy of FP in the afternoon and standby in the AM for the hopper days. That worked really, really well. Even when we didn't hop, we found it very easy to get more FP in the afternoon for what we were looking to do so I don't see that as a real concern. You just have to know what rides you want to ride are really, really popular and then aim to get FPs for them. From there plan your days but be flexible. For example - we had 6 FP's for Kilimanjaro Safari (9:00 am) and Everest (10:10 am) set for Sunday 1/17. Well the rains/high winds came the night before and were predicted to go until 10 am. We made an educated guess to change those FPs. We bumped Everest to 2 pm in the afternoon, and the Safari could not be moved. So we changed it for Dinosaur at 3 pm. Of course the rains stopped at 7am - so we decided to come to the park at 8:30. We went straight to Safari hoping the rains/chill in the air would dull the crowds. We waited 40 min and had a fantastic ride. Then the sun came out - it made for a great Everest ride, and we already had our "extra" FP for Dinosaur booked. In all it was a fantastic afternoon at AK. We had every intent on using the hopper option on Monday 1/18 - hitting up a few missed things at a few parks, but we got to HS and just couldn't leave. The Force runs strong in this family. It was great to go out on a high note of Jedi Training for the kids.

Good info! This really helps in trying to decide our strategy. Thanks!

 

[dogdoctor]

Good info! This really helps in trying to decide our strategy. Thanks!

Glad I can help. I think the biggest key is knowing what you want to see. It's also good to read Mesaboy's fast pass thread. There are some rides you just don't need to fast pass and then there are some you will have Fast Passes for that you wont use. For examples - my kids really wanted to ride barnstormer, but I new from historical ride wait times and other recommendations not to waste a FP on it. They were right - we rode it 2 times in the span of 10 minutes. Then there was the 7DMT and Space Mntn FP's that I felt we really needed to have. Before our FP's came up - 7DMT was only a 30 min wait, and Space Mntn was 10 minutes. We chose to go standby both times, riding 7DMT a second time with the FP and choosing to change our FP with Space Mntn (smaller child was not a much of a fan), to BTMMR later in the day. Just keeping an eye on the wait times can be handy and allow you to open your fast passes for something else.

 

[SuzyQue]

We always add the Hopper option as we feel that some parks close too early (Epcot & AK) to be considered a full day. Our strategy is a little different than some as we book FP+ for our first park then go standby at the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th). We don't do morning EMH or Rope Drop and prefer to arrive around 11 am or so. Parks are always less crowded during the night time hours so we don't feel that FP+ is necessary for our evening parks.

What time of year do you go? Your schedule sounds like ours, but we're going for a shorter period of time this year so we will be park hopping more.