How do you do your hopping??

[Andrea73]

Okay, we are going for our 1st trip with 8 park days. I have not bought the hoppers. I was thinking, one park per day and save $200 Now I am considering adding them when we get there if we decide to hop.

How do you manage your hopping?? Early park with rides, break, then another park later? If you hop into a park after dinner, is it feasible to expect to be able to still ride without long lines with FP (which parks is this easier at) ? Or do you plan on doing something non-ride oriented like World Showcase? I guess I don't want to hop into a park after dinner only to face no FP's and long lines. That does not sound like a fun evening. Are some parks better to hop into then others?

As I was doing my 1 park a day planning, it seemed like some parks like DHS seem like they need more than one day, but not quite two whole ones. And the 7pm closing times on the days I think would be best to go to DHS does not help.

Others like Epcot it seems like so much to do, at least 2-3 days worth, but I don't know if I want to give EP 2-3 full park days.

So...how you YOU hop?

 

[PiperPizzaz]

We have done both and I really only have a few times where I do suggest getting hoppers.
1. If you are going to be there for a very short trip around 4-5 days or less.
2. If you are wanting to do a lot of dining at the Epcot restaurants in the evenings.
3. If you are there during a very very busy time like Easter/4th July/Thanksgiving/Christmas.
4. There are special parties going on that week like MVMCP or MNSSHP.


But, to answer your questions:
How do you manage your hopping?? Worked best for me to go back to the hotel in the afternoon to freshen up and then head out to wherever we are going.

Early park with rides, break, then another park later? If you hop into a park after dinner, is it feasible to expect to be able to still ride without long lines with FP (which parks is this easier at) ?Or do you plan on doing something non-ride oriented like World Showcase? Depends on the rides. There are plenty of rides at each park that won't have super long waits. It is just the bigger ones.

Are some parks better to hop into then others? MK will have tons to do as well as Epcot. AK closes too early and DHS often closes fairly early unless there is EMH

 

[innoculation]

Some folks may disagree with me, but for us, park hopping is a must.

Our hopping sometimes depends on multiple factors (EMH, AK, Crowd Levels).
For the most part, we overplan - but we always account for a "Plan B".
It is common for us to try and maximize our time in the parks, so we ALWAYS park hop if we are in AK - as it closes earlier than the other parks. There is plenty of time left in the day for more Disney Magic.
We do our best to utilize EMH, but usually, the park that has EMH is more crowded than others after the specified EMH times.
If crowd levels are at a point that they effect our schedule, we adjust and many times will move to "Plan B" which is an ideal park that we have specified for lower crowd levels that day.
Hope this helps in your decision!

 

[DisneyChristian]

When we get park hopppers, we generally like to hit the morning extra magic hours at one park. Stay until about 11 am or until the park starts to get real busy then go take an afternoon break. We then head to the park with the evening extra magic hours. We will also use park hoppers to work around the restaurants we want to eat at. It also can be a good idea to check out touring plans or tour guide mike for crowd calenders and hop between parks with the lowest crowds expected for the day.

 

[Kat&Dom]

We just got back from Disney today and did the PH for the first time. We were at park opening - stayed at the park until 2pm then headed back to resort to swim and relax. Then we headed to a different park for the evening at about 5pm or so. We chose to do the PH because Disney had Grad Nites for 3 of our 8 nights at MK. We really enjoyed the PH feature and it was nice to do lots of rides in the morning then enjoy the various shows and fireworks in the evenings. We did not find the line ups to be bad at all in the evenings.

 

[Evan&Kimberly]

Keep Your $200 bucks dont get me wrong the hopper is nice,last year I didnt do it and I loved it! Your family is staying long enough that you really dont need it, What I do is pick the park that will be open the latest say monday that the MK stays open till 12am HS 10pm, Epcot 11pm and AK 8pm, I would do MK that day Vice Versa now this does not work every day because parks like AK will never stay open as late at the other parks.Make sure you have a plan for your trip it makes things so much easy. If I do MK then I eat my meals N the MK or around the MK resorts, I found that not havN the hopper cut down on transportation and allowed us 2 focus more on the one park, dont think I will ever go back 2 hopN,no matter what you choose your family will have a ball!

 

[lucyem]

We hop because of how we like to visit the parks. We go to one park in the morning, then lunch, then hotel, then another park in the evening. We might do MK in the morning for lots of rides and then Epcot in the evening for a more casual/slower pace.

We hop to avoid surprise crazy crowds, for example in February we found ourselves caught in a crazy crowd of football fans after the super bowl. The players were there to ride a few rides too which meant some rides were shut on top of all the crowds. We had no idea this was going to happen. We jumped on the monorail and went to Epcot. I would have been livid if I had been stuck there.

 

[ancestry]

We "hop" in a variety of different ways.

1) We go to the park with early EMH and then hop to another park when the EMH park begins to get crowded.

2) We hop to a second park because of dining reservations.

3) We hop to a park for an evening fireworks show/parade -- i.e. we usually don't do our day long DHS day when Fantasmic is showing because the park is more crowded but if we want to see Fantasmic then we go there in the evening just to see Fantasmic.

4) We hop around as the kids want to depending on how the mood suits us.

 

[Magalex]

I would suggest the PH based on family members(age span) and the season. If it was the late fall/winter months I would say "no" you don't need the PH because the park hours are short. But for Spring/Summer I say "yes" because we visit one park in the morning and then visit another park in the evening. I like the ability to be flexible. You always have the option at a Disney resort or park to add the PH. Enjoy Your Very First Trip

Oh where are you staying? That is something to factor in.

 

[Andrea73]

Oh where are you staying? That is something to factor in.

Thanks everyone. We are staying at the POP. But we are driving to Disney so we will have access to our car if we want to drive instead of using the buses.

 

[Mikl657]

if yourstaying at a disney hotel thats a biggie because of extra magic hours

say one park stays open til 1 am (extra magic hours at MK) and animal kingdom closes at 5, you could get potentialy another 6 hours of park time!

thats the way you got to look at it, yes 200$ but just that one example 6 more hours of park time ~

 

[Kczimmy]

We get the park hopper every time so we can stay flexible. If it's a really hot day, we avoid Animal Kingdom because of the crowds and the animals are hiding from the heat. With small kids, it's good to take a hot afternoon break for swimming or a movie in Downtown Disney.
When just my wife and I go, we sometimes will jump on the first bus that comes to the resort, just to mix it up a bit. After ten or twelve visits, it's just fun to visit with the cast members, pin trade and jump on a few rides. Every park is worth visiting a few times every trip!
Have fun on your first visit!
Kurt

 

[tlh0726]

We are a park hopper family. Will always do them!

An example of what we did this last trip is hit MK grabbed FP's and did standby for rides that we wanted to do.
Left around lunch or when it started to get crowded
We then hit another park (one day it was to go back to AK to see Nemo the musical that we didn't make it to earlier in the week, play at the Boneyard, and to see Festival of the Lion King again)
We then left there and headed back to MK to use the FP's that we got in the morning and to do standby on other rides.

For us, just being able to jump to MK to catch Wishes or jump to another park just to ride that favorite ride again is worth it to us.

Here is a link to the trip report I did.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2444055

 

[Poohlovr]

We always hop, no matter how long (or short) our trip.

Our morning park is the one with morning EMH. When that park starts to get too crowded, we head back to the hotel for lunch/pool/break.

Our park of choice for the evening is dictated by fireworks, shows and /or evening EMH. We know that we will hit the rides during EMH, so we don't stress over lines when we go to the evening park. We just concentrate on the shows, fireworks and parades.

In the off season, when park hours are short, we usually end our day at Epcot since it's open later, if we are not going to the EM park.

 

[BeachClub1292]

We won't go without park hoppers. We can change parks if one is to busy. When we go to AK we can go to one of the other 3 for Wishes, Illuminations or Fantasmic. Also the last couple days of the trip we can change parks and just do rides that we want to do.

Now to answer your questions. When we change parks we have just gone from park to park and we have gone back to our resort inbetween it all depends on what we want to do.

You will still be able to ride any ride you want and a lot of times a park will clear out later in the day after dinner time. I can't tell you how many times we have gone to epcot after 6pm and almost walked on Soarin, TT and MS and done the same at HS with RnR and ToT it doesn't usually happen at MK and I'm not saying it always does but you can get lucky. It also depends on the time of year we usually go the week after Thanksgiving

 

[DisneyFamily123]

We have been to WDW twice and park hop for many of the same reasons as others posted. I'm guessing you have 4 people - $200 divided by 8 days and 4 people is about $6 per person per day to park hop. Not a bad deal unless you will never use it at all.

Here are some reasons I've park hopped.

• Large family group on 1st trip that went to different parks during the day then met for dinner at Epcot or just to meet other family.
• Stayed at All Star Sports and did not plan to come back to the resort mid-day, so we hopped to a different park to spend more time during evening magic hours.
• Changed plans and went to Animal Kingdom the next day to finish up some things we didn't get to do the day before -- were done in a few hours then hopped to another park. We did this again on the next trip in 2009 because we wanted more time at Hollywood Studios, we went there the next morning (after a full day at HS) and hopped to a different park later. These were last minute decisions.
• Took DS4 to Magic Kingdom for a few hours in the morning and to get a haircut there while Mom relaxed at the resort. Hopped to a different park later.
• Hopped to Magic Kingdom just to see the fireworks after being at a different park during the day and relaxing at the resort. This was easy to do since we were staying at the Polynesian on the monorail -- didn't take long to go to MK.
• Went to Magic Kingdom during the day and hopped to a different park on nights when Magic Kingdom was closed for Halloween Party ticket holders (on nights when we were not going to the party). Will do the same thing for our next trip when there are the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parties.

 

[kldmom2000]

The hoppers are a necessity for us

We always stay at the YC or BC so it's walking distance to Epcot's World Showcase. Usually, we start the day in one park and then return to the hotel mid-day for swimming. At dinnertime, we usually end up in a different park-most nights we end up at Epcot just because of the proximity to the resort

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

Hoppers are definitely worth it for us.

AK and DHS are both half day parks to us, so we hop to another park after we're done.

SO likes to go back and nap during the afternoon for an hour, so I'll hop over to MK and do Space Mountain or to AK for EE, since he's not a coaster person.

EPCOT is the only park we really stay the whole day in, without hopping once we get there. We will do EMH at a park and then hop to EPCOT for the day, though.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We tend to use them the most if we stay on site and go to one park in the morning/afternoon and another park for nighttime emh.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

Focus on one park per day and u will have a blast!!
Do your research, make a plan, relax over meals and do one park per day.
Hopping costs $$$ and TIME which is more valueable than $ !!
The only time we would hop is if we stayed just 4 days or less, which I have not yet done.(nor do I hope to!)
I dont feel there is ever a need to hop if u have done your homework...ie, be sure Spectromagic is schedualed on the day u will be in MK...etc

Have fun!