How important is park hopping??

[rcpae]

How important is park hopping? We are going to be in WDW 11/12-11/19. This is the week after Jersey week, and the week before Thanksgiving. I've been told this should be a fairly calm week. The hopper option will cost my family an extra 175$. Will we feel the need to hop due to crowds?

 

[donaldsgal]

it all depends on your attitude toward the parks. for my sister and i (my fellow Disney vacationer), we don't necessarily park hop due to the length of lines. the longest line we've ever waited in was 60 minutes (sign posted said 20 I think) for space mountain in october of 2004. we go in march, sept, or oct due to lines and work schedules.

one reason we park hop is, when you're at AK, you get there at 8 or and leave at 5 when it closes (unless it's an evening extra magic hour, which has never existed for us since that's a new program). for us, that's too early to end a day at WDW. we eat dinner and head off to another park.

another big reason we park hop is because we eat all our meals in the parks or at the resorts. thus, we may be at MK and have dinner scheduled for coral reef at epcot. then we spend the rest of the day at epcot.

lastly, on our last day of a vacation, we split it up among our favorite rides at the various parks. since this is your first trip, you may find you LOVE ToT or RnR at MGM, and you or your kids can't bear to leave without one more ride. thus, the park hopper is essential.

the convenience and freedom park hopping offers is just a "must-do" for us. granted the extra cost is significant, but it's not always about the length of lines that might cause you to want to park hop. i'd say if there's any chance you'll be eating at another park, the PH is important, or if you think you may want to spend a last day catching one more ride at your favorites, you should go for it.

just my thoughts...

Jenny

 

[RamseyTrio]

Hi -

We always seem to get good deals on the park hoppers but we never really bother park hopping.

I find it's always too much of an effort to leave one park and go to another. We have 2 children so we choose to either get to a park early in the morning and then leave around dinnertime or go to a park early afternoon and stay late.

If we were without the kids I'm sure we'd park hop so we could take advantage of every possible second

 

[ktink]

Last year when we were able to hop we didn't. So I thought that it wouldn't be a necessity for us this year and now I'm second guessing the decision. But my DH doesn't want to pay the extra and we weren't able to enjoy the pool any last year. So I think we're going to stick with our gut and not hop I hope it's the right decision.

 

[beccasmom]

I think it's more difficult with kids. Since MGM is my least favorite park, I usually visit my favorite attractions (the Muppets, Little Mermaid and Great Movie Ride) there and then head to Epcot for the rest of the day. The Muppets attraction is non-negotiable (one of my absolute all-time favorites! ), but I hate to "waste" a ticket on a few-hour visit. Park hopping makes this possible.

Park hopping requires at least a modicum of energy, too.....in warmer weather, it can pose challenges. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm a fan.

 

[Miranda Danda]

I think that it depends on the person/people going. I am very spontaneous and unpredictable so I might be standing in the line of RnR and decide that I want to go on Thunder Mountain next. I always get the park hopper. Last time I went we ran out of tickets so we had to buy a one day ticket (no park hopper) and we felt "stuck" in MGM all day. It's up to you!

 

[Micki_Streeter]

The last two years we do not hop.... Just stick with one park a day The only way I would suggest hopping is if you plan on doing a park in a day and a half... and want to spend that other half of day at another park. Have fun! We will be back for another ten days in January.... We do it every year

 

[maxaroni]

We park hop but since you are going in November, the park hours are probably alot shorter for you. We like to do EPCOT (WS) in the evenings, for one thing. Also, we plan on taking a break mid-day and want the flexibility of going to an different park late afternoon/evening.

 

[pdchris]

I thought about Park Hopper this year but decided against it. For parks like AK that close early, we just head over to DTD. For the others, if it gets crowded we leave and go back to our resort (pofq this year) and relax.