Hopper As Later Add-On?

[carlbarry]

If I buy a Magic Your Way with Water Parks and non-expiring, can I add on the Park Hopper later? I'm not too sure I'd ever use the park hopper, but just in case the "need" arose later on . . . meanwhile, I'd be saving a few dollars. Thanks.

 

[mossy1]

You can add any option to a ticket as long as it still has days left on it, the past couple times I've gone with just a base ticket and then added whatever was needed. Usually just water park & fun. If you didn't buy your tickets yet I would hold off on the no expire until you see how many days you may be left with and add it at that time if needed. Use the same strat with hopper option as well. Good luck and have a great time---

 

[Hootch]

on the Theme Park board by Cheshire Figment on tickets. The author is a moderator on the board and, from his use of pronouns, a CM that has experience with tickets.

I had a similar question as I have a ten day no expiration that has not been used. We won't use all of the days the next trip, hence the no expiration, so I wanted to know if I needed to add all the options during the next trip. My daughter is a bit young to fully enjoy the water park but may like them on subsequent trips. According to the sticky note all upgrades have to be added within 14 days of the initial use:

"Any MYW ticket (other than Florida Resident Play Three or Play Four or any type of Annual Pass, discussed later) can be upgraded within 14 days of first use. There are no exceptions. This applies even if the ticket has the No Expire Option."

One good piece of information is that for the water park option the water park days are treated separately from the park days.

"B. I am buying a ten day hopper with WPF&M and No Expire. What happens to the WPF&M entries when I use up all my major (theme) park days?

In effect you have two tickets with different privleges on one card. Since you have the NE option all the entitlements are good until they are used up. Even if you use up all your major park days, the WPF&M enries remain valid until used. (Note you do not have to use the days consecutively.)

You have ten days of access to the four major parks (AK, DHS, EC, MK), and may visit more than one major park on a single day without any extra charges. Without the Park Hopper option you can only go to one major park per day.

You have ten entries to the minor parks (BB, DQ, PI, TL, WWS). These may or may not be used on the same days as you go to the major parks. However, if you went to TL in the morning, DQ in the afternoon, and club hopping at PI in the evening of one day you would have used three of the ten entries. (Note that leaving and returning to the same minor park on the same day does not use an extra entry.)

If you go to minor parks only on one day and do not go to a major park you do not use up one of your major park days.

If you were to go to a Water Park in the morning and then one of the major parks for the remainder of the day you would have used one minor park entry and one day of major park entry.

C. I have a No Expire ticket I originally used for my last trip, but it is not a park hopper. Since I have a few days left on it, can I add the Park Hopper option this trip.

No, you cannot. No MYW ticket may be modified or upgraded in any way more then 14 days after first use. This means no adding of days, hopper option, WPF&M option or upgrade to Annual Pass.

If ticket was issued before January 2, 2005 (Pre-Magic Your Way) and any entries have been used it cannot be upgraded. This applies even if the first use of the ticket has been on the current trip.

The only exception to this rule is the Florida Resident Play-3 and Play-4 tickets. These may be upgraded within six months of the date of first use."

It's a very useful thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1452684

 

[carlbarry]

Thanks. This solves my question. I want to buy a ten day non expire MYW and More. I don't know if I'd ever use the Park Hopper. I may not use the ticket this year. When I DO use it, I thought maybe sometime down the road, I'd want the Park Hopper. I now see that I must make this decision within 14 days of first use. THEREFORE, if I only go to a Waterpark this trip (in Dec.), I must make the decision then as to Park Hopper.
By the way, I find it very interesting that the non-hopper is only good for 1 park per day; you can't use another "entry" to go to another park the same day. As it says in the sticky, another day can cost only $2, much less than a Hopper option, so this way Disney makes more money.

 

[WillCAD]

Thanks. This solves my question. I want to buy a ten day non expire MYW and More. I don't know if I'd ever use the Park Hopper. I may not use the ticket this year. When I DO use it, I thought maybe sometime down the road, I'd want the Park Hopper. I now see that I must make this decision within 14 days of first use. THEREFORE, if I only go to a Waterpark this trip (in Dec.), I must make the decision then as to Park Hopper.
By the way, I find it very interesting that the non-hopper is only good for 1 park per day; you can't use another "entry" to go to another park the same day. As it says in the sticky, another day can cost only $2, much less than a Hopper option, so this way Disney makes more money.

Yes, and the funny part is, there are STILL Disney call center CMs who tell people that they CAN use 2 days of pass on the same day if they don't want to buy the hopper. Inadequate training, IMHO.

As to the hopper, my advice is that if you think you might need it, even once, GET IT. And get it ahead of time.

Having the hopper from the beginning allows you to structure your entire trip differently. If you have trouble getting an ADR for your favorite MK restaurant on your MK day, you can easily change your itinerary and make that day a split between MK and another park, rather than skipping your favorite restaurant or taking a time of day that's way too late, or having to juggle whole days around. With the hopper, you can juggle half-days.

You can also use the hopper to maximize your days. AK and MK don't hold my attention for whole days, so I like to go to Epcot or MGM after 3/4 of a day at MK or AK, and finish out my day there.

I also like hopping over to MK, MGM, or Epcot towards the end of my AK days to view Wishes, Illuminations, or Fantasmic a second time.

I often hop to avoid crowds. If I arrive at a park in the morning only to find it mobbed beyond all reason and sanity, I will simply hop to another park in search of lighter crowds.

And I sometimes use the hopper on my last day to visit other parks for that one souvenir item that I saw earlier in the trip but couldn't find anywhere else on WDW property.

On the other hand, if you've gone through half of your trip without the hopper, then find that you want it, you will probably not spend the extra because "half my trip is over and I don't want to waste the money to only hop for half my trip." This removes all of the options I just mentioned above, limiting you to one park per day.

 

[justplaingoofy]

You can add any option to a ticket as long as it still has days left on it, the past couple times I've gone with just a base ticket and then added whatever was needed. Usually just water park & fun. If you didn't buy your tickets yet I would hold off on the no expire until you see how many days you may be left with and add it at that time if needed. Use the same strat with hopper option as well. Good luck and have a great time---

Not sure if you are suggesting see how many days are left, then purchase the no expiration option based on the number of days remaining on the ticket?

If so, it doesn't matter. The cost of the no expiration option is based on the original # of days on the ticket, not the remaining days.

 

[DisneyMagick2008]

I would strongly suggest getting the hopper option added on. Personally, I like it for the flexibility it gives and and for the options mentioned by Willcad above. It's especially useful if you are going to AK since it closes a lot earlier than the other parks, your day is not done as you can shoot over to MK or Epcot or whatever. It increases your dining options also as you can leave your current park and head to a restaurant at Epcot (my personal favorite as far as restaurants are concerned) for dinner.

It also doesn't limit you to what park you choose at the beginning of the day. I don't know how many times in the past, especially later during my stay, that I've started out at a park and it just wasn't doing it for me as I started to wish that I was at a different park. With park hopper you can just hop onto a monorail or bus and scratch that itch.

Not to mention, the shopping as it doesn't force you to buy whatever on the only day you plan to attend any particular park.

 

[thepwa]

I would strongly suggest getting the hopper option added on. Personally, I like it for the flexibility it gives and and for the options mentioned by Willcad above. It's especially useful if you are going to AK since it closes a lot earlier than the other parks, your day is not done as you can shoot over to MK or Epcot or whatever. It increases your dining options also as you can leave your current park and head to a restaurant at Epcot (my personal favorite as far as restaurants are concerned) for dinner.

It also doesn't limit you to what park you choose at the beginning of the day. I don't know how many times in the past, especially later during my stay, that I've started out at a park and it just wasn't doing it for me as I started to wish that I was at a different park. With park hopper you can just hop onto a monorail or bus and scratch that itch.

Not to mention, the shopping as it doesn't force you to buy whatever on the only day you plan to attend any particular park.

I agree. The park hopper option, to me, is the most important one. Essential tool for maximizing time in parks.

 

[DisneyMagick2008]

I agree. The park hopper option, to me, is the most important one. Essential tool for maximizing time in parks.

Ditto. Not to mention, if you go to a park and it's wicked crowded, you can just jet over to a different park that might not be so bad. I would never buy tickets without park hopper added in, but that's just my personal preference.

 

[CleveRocks]

Not sure if you are suggesting see how many days are left, then purchase the no expiration option based on the number of days remaining on the ticket?

If so, it doesn't matter. The cost of the no expiration option is based on the original # of days on the ticket, not the remaining days.

You're correct that it doesn't matter in terms of how much it will cost to add the no expiration feature ... but how many days are left are of HUGE importance in deciding whether or not to buy the no expiration feature.

A simple example would be a 10-day ticket that has only 1 day left. Adding the no expiration option to this ticket would be silly, since in order to save that one day you'd have to pay abut $200, and you could buy a 1-day ticket in the future for less than that.

It gets less obvious if you have a 10-day ticket with, say, 3 days left. Is it a good idea to buy the no expiration option? Here, the decision shoudl rest ONLY on your future plans for visiting parks. If you will come back and use ONLY the 3 remaining park days, then buying the no expiration feature would be a marginally good deal financially. But if you will need 5 park days for your next trip, you are better off just letting those 3 days expire and buying a new 5-day ticket for your next trip. I won't bore anyone with the math (unless requested).

So like I said, the number of days left should be the big factor in deciding whether or not to buy the no expiration feature. But I totally agree that the up-front cost of the NE option is disctated by the original number of days on the ticket and not on the number of days remaining.

 

[ZoZo]

You can add the "hopper" option at any time.

For me, though, I would reconsider the decision to add the "water parks and more" option to your tickets up front. We did that on our trip in 2005, and I totally regretted it. Due to a hurricane (and the subsequent drop in temperature, which ruled out the water parks!), we only used one "water parks and more option" on the ticket. It cost us an additional $50 for the "water parks and more" upgrade on our tickets, which we used for a single, one-time entry to Pleasure Island, which (if purchased separately) would have cost about $20! That was $30 down the drain!

You can add the water parks option to your base ticket at any time during your trip (just like you can add the hopper option) and if you find that you won't be using that option, you save lots of money.

 

[carlbarry]

Just got the ticket today. Much to my surprise, it's the plain paper ticket. I've purchased them through the Siemmens employee program, and they're plastic!
Anyway, thanks for all the advice. Actually, I am definitely NOT going to use all 10 days in one vacation. Actually, I figure the ticket will last me about 8years! I just hope I last that long.