I think you do have to upgrade to Hopper to go to two parks on one day. It doesn't make sense, but now that I'm thinking about it, that does ring a vague bell....
No, you cannot opt to use a second day in lieu of the hopper option. Your ticket will be rejected at the second park if it doesn't have the hopper option.
The answer is no, at least according to www.allearsnet.com. You could use a completely separate 1-day ticket, but using two days from your 7-day ticket on the same day isn't allowed.
If you think about it, it makes sense. The cost of adding hopping to any ticket is $45, but the cost of going from a 6-day to a 7-day ticket is approximately $2. Very few people would buy the hopping option, unless they wanted to hop everyday of a long trip. In fact, if you wanted to stay at WDW for 6 days, and only wanted to hop on four of those days, it would still be cheaper to buy a 10-day non hopper ($230) than a 6-day hopper ($269).
A lot of people were told that by various CMs, mostly over the phone since call center CMs don't always have the straight dope on park operations, but it has never been possible. The computer system at WDW has always prevented you from using more than one day of the ticket on any given calendar day.
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