Is Park Hopper for a first time group necessary?

[AJA]

No I don't think you need them. We don't bother with them anymore unless we have a week or more planned onsite.

 

[BlueFairy]

I didn't read everyone's comments. But to clarify - you can add them at any time before your ticket expires. In other words, go with your plan until you decide you need to hop. Then go to Guest Services and have it added. Same price, but the money isn't wasted if you decide not to use it.

BTW, hopping never works out for us.

 

[joanchris]

How different might your touring style be from the teens in the group? Is it possible that they might (and would that be ok with you) like to hop while the adults stay at, say, Epcot, for the day?
It's easy to hop between parks using disney transportation. We had hoppers for our trip earlier this month (mother daughter trip) and while we spent much of our time together, my teen had grander touring plans than I did. She hopped all 4 parks in one day, while I took it easy and met her at the last park that evening after resting my feet!

 

[KittyKitty]

My last trip I decided to not buy P/H, and worked out fine. As others have said if you find that you want to go to another park that same day, then you can buy them . The price is around $56 per person.

Being 1st timers, you will find many things to do in one park. And you can always leave and come back to the same park on the same day.


If it is this June, have you signed up on My Disney Experience to put your tickets in so you can get fast passes? Staying off property you are allowed to get the fast passes 30 prior to 1st day at the park.

Have a great time!

 

[Dreamport]

Since it is your first time, and nearly half of your trip will be dedicated to Universal, I'd say you could skip the hoppers this one trip. As others have said, there is so much to see in each park you'll have a hard enough time fitting it all into one day, which is basically what will be allotted. If your teens tire of any park (probably not, but an if) you can always take the rest of the day to explore a resort or two, Downtown Disney, or the Boardwalk which doesn't require a ticket. The nearly $300 you'll save could already go to a downpayment on another trip with hoppers for after you learn what you like most at each park. I think you can also upgrade the tickets while you're at the parks if you do decide hopping would be best. It's a flat rate no matter how many days are left. Whatever you decide, I hope your family has loads of fun!

 

[Huff]

If you wish to dine in the parks a hopper makes it much easier to dine where you want rather than based on the park you visit for the day. Most of our favorite restaurants are in Epcot. We often visit one of the other 3 parks and head to Epcot at night. Other times we may head to Animal Kingdom or Disney Studios which often close much earlier than Magic Kingdom or Epcot. We'll visit AK or DS, dine at Ohana, Kona or The Wave then its quick to go to MK when its open late night. Hopping also makes it easier to see the night shows such as Fantasmic or Illuminations without having to spend the entire day there. Since you are only visiting the Disney parks for 4 or 5 days hopping might be a way to make sure you see everything. It really comes down to a personal preference on how you enjoy the parks.

 

[MNtwinsplus1mom]

No, I would not recommend hopping for a first trip. It adds unneeded complexity and time wasted traveling between parks. I used to hop as a rule at WDW years ago but now enjoy going without park hoppers. Saves money we can spend elsewhere, too. You can always add it later if you decide you'd like it during the trip.

 

[nacho113]

We are first timers and taking my 3 teens with us. We are trying to figure out if we really need the park hopper option. I have read the pros and cons, etc but am still not sure why we would need them. We are staying off site. We have a 7 day vacation planned with 2-3 days planned for Harry Potter/Universal Attractions. Other days are all Disney. We are going in June. What would you do?

Let me take you back (way back...1982) to our honeymoon trip to DisneyWorld. It was just the Magic Kingdom back then (with Epcot on the horizon). We had our Disney Ticket booked through our travel agent (1 day). It was glorious but we barely seemed to scratch the surface as to what was there so we added 2 more days to our ticket for just that one park. We were still finding stuff we had missed and wanted to do again and again on Day 3 (I think we had become Disney Junkies at this point) 3 days open to close, it was wonderfull.
Fast forward to 1985, now 2 parks open MK and Epcot. We bought a 4 day ticket, spent 2 at MK and 2 at Epcot.
After many many visits over the years we still love to explore and visit and usually 1 Day, 1 Park without hoppers.
We have been known to do a marathon 1 day hopper, where we try to hit all our favorites in all parks in just one day, but this is usually on our winter vacation when we don't have much Park time planned (but still need our Disney FIX)

All that being said, definitely try it without hoppers.
I suspect you will find that the day just gets away on you as you explore the parks and you won't even be thinking about leaving to go over to another park.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree with others to just add them later if you want. Having said that, we have never been without hoppers and I can't imagine not going. I can only think of one instance when we only did one park in a day and that was when on a whim we stopped at a DVC booth and decided to do the tour (even though we had actually stayed in a 1 bdrm villa at AKV and were currently in a studio at BWV on that trip). Turned out my son and then DIL drank the kool-aid and ended up buying DVC (I told them not to do it on the spot to go home and think about it and research and wouldn't you know it I was right, they separated 1 month later, she got the DVC in the divorce and they paid full price for Poly). The whole thing ended up taking longer than the advertised 45 min. and our plans for the night got sidelined so we ended up back at Epcot where we started since it was too late to do what we had planned.

 

[Skywise]

I'll echo the others - it's really a personal preference.

It can add flexibility to your plans - For instance I had one day planned at MK already but really couldn't get everything I wanted to do there in in one day so with park hoppers I could do half a day the next day at MK and then do the rest of the day at HS.

They're also good for NOT planning and/or having backup conditions - say MK is super crowded for some reason you can switch to somewhere else.

The coolest reason for using them though is to just get around - One day did TSMM at HS then lunched at Beaches and Cream (ok that wasn't really "lunch" so much as ice cream) then dinner at Epcot at Via Napoli and then finished the night at MK with Wishes.

But if you're first timers, one park one day is probably going to be way more than enough!

 

[shh]

"They're also good for NOT planning and/or having backup conditions - say MK is super crowded for some reason you can switch to somewhere else."

This is the key. I've visited both ways - with and without them. First time at WDW...probably not needed - and the suggestion to wait till you get there is right on target.

But for us, they're great backup insurance for the unexpected. We've seen special events, tapings or other things going on at a park after we were already inside that WDW rescheduled for that day last min and we were able to shift plans on the fly. Some parks are better than others in the rain. The weather here can be so unreliable: sometimes you can't tell if it'll be a short sunshower or a steady all-day rain until you're there. When you're committed to just one park, it really limits your flexibility.

 

[disneyseniors]

I vote for using park hoppers. It is just hubby and me, but we always get park hoppers in our magic your way package. It is cheaper that way. For us, it means we can come and go as we want. We schedule fp's in a specific park in the am, stay til noonish and go back to the resort to rest up. Then in the pm, we decide what we want to do and where we want to go. We never preplan our evenings. It is a lot of fun to decide what we want to do - gives us lots of flexibility. For us, that is important. We look forward to our scheduled fp park and also to our completely unplanned evenings. Sometimes, we just go to Disney springs, back to the same park, or to another completely different park. It totally works for our way of touring.
But it is an individual decision. I will say that our teenaged grandkids loved the freedom of the park hoppers and used them more than we did. You'll have fun either way.

 

[PHXscuba]

Now that all 4 parks have nightly entertainment, I think staying in one park all the way through the evening is more realistic. Even if you think HS had fewer attractions, several are still get-there-early types. With a midday break somewhere in that area, you could still come back for Fantasmic. Animal Kingdom just added all of their night stuff. If you only have 4-5 days, I'd do a day at each park, then maybe split up the last day if people have different favorites. Everything is new to you so you won't have trouble filling a full day at any park.

PHXscuba