Is it possible to do all these ADR without the Park Hopper option

[Devin18]

I know it will take very careful planning as we were intending to ge the "Park Hoppers" but now I am wondering if we will need them. It seems like it is going to be a little hard to arrange unless there is some sort of system to doing it. The only one I am not having a problem with is AK since we are planning an ADR breakfast there and then plan on spending the day at that park and prboably having a CS there before heading back to the resort. Thanks for any opinions & guidance

 

[DannysMom]

I know it will take very careful planning as we were intending to ge the "Park Hoppers" but now I am wondering if we will need them. It seems like it is going to be a little hard to arrange unless there is some sort of system to doing it. The only one I am not having a problem with is AK since we are planning an ADR breakfast there and then plan on spending the day at that park and prboably having a CS there before heading back to the resort. Thanks for any opinions & guidance

Sure you can, it just takes careful planning. Plenty of folks manage just fine w/o parkhoppers. Also if you figure out mid-trip that not having PH tix is putting a crimp in your touring style, you can add them at that point. But there is no savings in adding them mid-trip vs, adding at the beginning of the trip, same cost no matter when you add the PH option.

I personally really like getting the parkhopper ticket as we frequently end up at Epcot for dinner, but that's just our personal preference. We often take midday breaks too & like having the option of doing a different park than where we spent the morning.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We never get hoppers, and we eat at many good places. You just have to plan well. On our last trip we ate at
WCC
Kona
50s PT
Cali Grill
CRT
Akerhaus
LeCellier
Chef Mickey's twice

A good variety and no hoppers, though a bunch were at resorts. Just plan well and you should be fine...

 

[ADisneyQueen]

We're not getting PH either. Last year we hardly used them b/c we got FP before we would leave for an afternoon break and the return time for them would be around 7 PM.

 

[smiths02]

It seems like a lot of people like to eat at Epcot, so that can be hard...

But there is also a lot of dining in the resorts (which are harder to get to), but can make the planning easier.

We are not park hopping, but are on basic DDP. I had 6 TS ressies to make, got them all.

Disneyworld is really large and with a 2 year old, it is too much for us to drive around/wait for a bus to a separate place to eat.


If you have the Deluxe plan, I could see it getting really difficult to not be able to change parks especially since so many restaurants are in Epcot.

 

[Devin18]

Thanks for the input. We are only getting the basic dining plan so we have 7 TS to plan and I think I can do it with careful planning and of course depending on availability of what we want. We will be travelling with young kiddos too so I think it may be just way too much for them dragging them around from park to park not to mention how tiring it would be for us

 

[Hopefully]

We always get Park Hoppers and the basic DDP. We love the hopping ability. Like others have said when it is DH, D Adult S and I we often eat in the International restaurantants in WS iin Epcot at night.
But when I went with DS and his youngsters our day always consisted of being at the park at Rope Drop and touring until lunch time. We would eat in the park and then head back to the resort for a nap and a swim followed by a dinner ADR around 6:30 - 7:00. We LOVED the ability to choose which park we would return to in the evening. It might be the same as our morning park, but most days it was a new park. I think with little ones in particular, a mid day break and a choice in the evening is especially important. For us, on that trip, the Hopper was well worth it.
Good Luck

 

[koolaidmoms]

I totally agree about dragging the kids around. We switched to the non-park hopper option the past two trips. It was just getting crazy. With very careful planning we are going to Le Cellier, CRT, CP, Tusker House, etc... I laid out the calander of dates, times and events and chose which park we were going to be in on which days. Then made my reservations from that. I am really pleased that we were able to get all my ADRs and really looking forward to our trip.

You should be just fine!

 

[diskids2]

We always get the Park Hopper option....but it is because we like to take mid day breaks and go to a different park in the evening.

I think you will most definitely be able to plan ADR's without the PH though. Keep in mind that the hotel restaurants don't interfer with that either....so if you find yourself at a park that didn't have a TS that you wanted ... you could always go to any of the onsite hotel TS restaurants....I bet you end up getting some of those anyway

 

[Colleen27]

We don't get hoppers for every trip any more. We don't want to spend the travel time involved in hopping, so we just plan our meals at the park we're at for the day or at a nearby resort.

MK has limited food options but all the monorail resorts are right there and WL/FW are just a boat ride away. AK closes early enough to get to dinner at whatever resort you want. EPCOT has so many good food options that there's no reason to leave. DHS is the only one that is a little tricky, but we usually plan for an ADR somewhere along the Boardwalk on our days there.

 

[septbaby]

We used the PH option to eat just once and we could have eaten elsewhere that day if we wanted to.

For us the PH option was used primarily to take an MK loving 5yo to Fantasyland and Toontown almost daily and to take advantage of evening EMH.

 

[GatorLady]

But when I went with DS and his youngsters our day always consisted of being at the park at Rope Drop and touring until lunch time. We would eat in the park and then head back to the resort for a nap and a swim followed by a dinner ADR around 6:30 - 7:00. We LOVED the ability to choose which park we would return to in the evening. It might be the same as our morning park, but most days it was a new park. I think with little ones in particular, a mid day break and a choice in the evening is especially important. For us, on that trip, the Hopper was well worth it.

I think doing a mid day break with younger children is a must, that way you are not having to drag them around whether you are park hopping or not.

We always do park-hoppers, but that is just us. Like PP's have said, careful planning will be necessary but certainly doable.

 

[winterman]

First, I pick the days that we will go to each park. Then I look at the list or restaurants that we are interested in. Then I made my plans for ADRs. I do not want to waste our precious time at WDW driving around. I also don't want to spend money that I don't have to - on hoppers.

Remember, you don't have to eat in a park, you can eat nearby. At the MK you can eat at any of the resorts on the monorail or take the boat to WL. At EPCOT or DHS you can go to the Boardwalk, the BC/YC or the S/D. We save our visits to more out of the way restaurants for our non park days.

 

[DaveStroem]

A little OT. Be cautious about late ADRs at different resorts. It can take hours to get back to your resort unless you take a cab or drive. There are no resort to resort transportation. We had good friends get stuck because their dinner ended after all of the parks had closed. So they couldn't take a bus to a park and then from the park to their resort.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

A little OT. Be cautious about late ADRs at different resorts. It can take hours to get back to your resort unless you take a cab or drive. There are no resort to resort transportation. We had good friends get stuck because their dinner ended after all of the parks had closed. So they couldn't take a bus to a park and then from the park to their resort.

they could have used the DTD bus and then to resort?

Generally in the past we paid for park hoppers but we found that we generally didn't use them THAT MUCH. Not enough to be worth that extra $62.50 a day (even on days we didn't park hop- 12.50x5ppl). This time we have some leftover park hoppers/nonexpiring but the rest I had to buy more tickets and I did not pay for park hopping this time. I did pay for the plusses though since we intend to use atleast 2 of those (BB and DQ) and the cost for adding plusses was less than the cost of paying gate prices for those. We aren't doing a ton of TS meals that need ADR's- but it's definitely workable.. like others said just have to plan a little on what park you want to be at what day and I generally do that anyway (either working with- or against- EMH parks that day, the hours they are open, the order we like to go to the parks- MK usually has to be first and last or atleast last LOL)... then pick ADR's there for that day.

If you go to book your ADR's and are unable to get the one(s) you want for that day- then you may have to change your whole plans around your ADR's but that's still something you can rearrange your days at the parks. It doesn't make it impossible to not park hop.

We found that we didn't really park hop "that often" and it wasn't like we couldn't avoid that if the option wasn't there. Like someone else said- often times we'd have FP for later so even if we took a break at the resort we had 2 options- go to another park without FP and take a chance it's packed and ride hardly nothing.. or go back to the park we were already at and use the fastpasses. The only time I think it might come in handy is if you miscalculate what park to be at that day and like if the park you go in is packed to the gills, you wouldn't have the option to go to another park instead and hope the crowd is less there. However you can always add park hopping later (same cost though!) if it's THAT much of a problem to stay at the same park all day.

(ps. it DOES take quite some time to get from resort to resort. We generally only make ADR's at resorts only if one of two things. 1) it's an "off" day for us and so we have time- ie: it's a day we're going to BB or it's a dtd day or something and we'll have plenty of time to go back to our room, get ready, then start the long complicated trip to the resort where our ADR is OR 2) it's an ADR that is at a resort that is easy to get to from the park we're at that day. For instance if it's at GF- and we're at MK that day... that's easy to get there. Or generally if we're going from any park to any resort ADR it's much quicker and easier than going from our resort to that resort.)