Is Park Hopping Worth $175 these days, given these circumstances?

[bicker]

The requisite background info: It's my wife and I (42 and 52), my brother and his wife (35 and 35), six year old Benjamin, and one year old Mikkel. Mikkel wears a size 3T, so that gives you a little more insight into our little darling.

We're aiming for 3 days a MK (Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday), and one day each at the other three parks. This is Sunday of MLK weekend, so I know that'll be bad, but I don't think I can legitimately get the kids to some other park before they have their fill of MK. Also, we've got CRT booked, already, and that was actually a bit tight, so moving it might be problematic. (However, if we could replace it with a character meal with the Incredibles characters, we do that in a minute.)

I'm not particularly happy about the 3-1-1-1 arrangement. I think 2.5-1.5-1-1 would be better, but do folks feel it would be so much better that it would be worth $175?

 

[Traveliz]

Well personally I do - I can rarely stay in one park all day or leave that park and want to come back to the same one...plus with it being a busy weekend it does give you some flexiblily to move on if you feel you need to.

Liz

 

[MareSINY]

I was there in September with my sister and two nieces (2 & 4) and we didn't bother with park hoppers because we knew the kids (and ourselves) wouldn't have the oomph to make all that hopping. We had one park hopper left from a previous trip, so we made use of that on the one day we decided to hop. We did MK three days (the day we arrived and day we left weren't full days in MK, but long enough), 1 night at Epcot (did DTD in the morning/afternoon), and on our hopping day we did Animal Kingdom and MGM. That turned out to be the hottest day we were there, and the kids were getting super cranky, so we basically did Festival of the Lion King and that dinosaur ride that's like Dumbo in AK and Playhouse Disney at MGM. All the bus traveling (we were staying at CR) made us so worn out that we went back to the hotel and swam for a bit before calling it a night.

I honestly don't think park hopping is worth the money when you're traveling with small kids. It wears them out, wears you out, it's one thing when you're just lugging yourself, but when you add on a couple of little ones who whine "pick me up" and "I want my stroller" and "Nooo I want mommy!" It gets to be a little much. LOL

Wow, after describing this I can't believe I'm still thinking about booking another trip in early 2006. LOL

Have a great trip!

 

[bicker]

I definitely feel that park hopping is a must for an all-adults trip -- We'd typically stay at the BWV on such trips, and spend every evening and night at Epcot, enjoying the live entertainment and the variety of dining. I did feel, though, that with the children with us, it just wouldn't make sense. Thanks for the input!

I remember when we took my other brother's children a few years back we did the park hopping thing, and to be honest, I think it was more to keep the adults interested than the kids. I think the kids wouldn't have noticed much of a difference if we did MK both in the morning and afternoon on the same day, instead of on different days.

 

[DazedandConfused]

We love the hopping option although my kids are and were a little older on our last trip and for this upcoming trip. We always take a break and head back to the hotel for a break during the day (a nap or a swim) to recharge then we head off to a differnt park. It really allows the kids to see a lot without being overwhelmed. I have not been to Disney with kids at the ages of yours, however. We did take our 7 month old in 1997 but he was such an easy baby that he enjoyed the sites while awake then would sleep in his stroller while we walked around and enjoyed! Good luck and enjoy your trip. Chris.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Just back from the Poly and in the past have used park hopping. But this trip for the extra money I didn't feel it necessary this trip. We're 56 years old and we go to a park, come back to the resort for a swim and relax and just go back to the same park in the evening. No different, crowds are less in evenings where ever you go and paying for hopping is a waste. Disney is getting quite expensive and throwing money away for nothing, really doesn't make sense. Regular tickets, none hopping and no add ons are just what most people need and if you have time and energy pay for an extra as you need it. To us its like packing for a trip and coming home and seeing what we didn't use or wear, extra baggage alot of weight not needed. Tickets are the same, you have great ideas at home, make iternieres and buy but when there after purchasing mega tickets with all the frills you find out somethings crowded, weather wouldn't allow use of item for the day, you're really tired for the day and can't fit alot of things in that you threw your money away. Plan wisely and cut back to enjoy what you can really do on a vacation, remember, its a vacation not a plan raid commando style.

 

[disneyfreak74]

We always do the park hopping because of the kids age. They get tired of Epcot quick!!! And AK closes early so we always want to go somewhere else. That way we can ride Buzz and Dumbo and PotC EVERY day!!!

 

[beattyfamily]

For us it's a must no matter our kids ages. We just budget it into our trips and I don't even bother looking to see the price difference with or without park hopping.

I couldn't live without hopping. I like that we can go where we want to go whenever we want to. We can start in one park and when it gets crowded or we're getting tired of it, we can hop to a different park after our break.

We don't like staying in one park all day. I like that I can go to MK in the AM and then head to MGM for Fantasmic in the evening. Or I can run to Epcot for the fireworks.

Good luck deciding.

 

[jordanyosh]

The Park Hopper feature gives you more flexibility. Even if you were to use it just once during your entire stay, I still think it's worth it. I mean 175 dollars is still cheaper than using another entire day's worth of admission for each of you.

 

[JenniferW]

Completely personal preference, I used to always hop, have a hopper ticket, but this trip in Nov I did not buy Hoppers for the other 8 people in our group since they were on a budget. I am a bit nervous about not being able to hop especially if the weather turns bad on us, BUT for the price I decided to do one park per day and we have a 2 year old and a 3 year old who may not last the day anyway! The group I'm going with only wants to spend 6-10 hours a day at a park anyway so hopping would be wasted time for us.

Think of your group and decide what is best for you.

Jenn

 

[cindyfan]

We have ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS HOPPED.
Could not live without that option.
What happens if you get to the second day and plan on AK and it is pouring down rain after an hour.... then say to yourself "most of the attractions at MGM are indoors, let's go there?" But you don't have the hopper option??
Or you enter MK only to find it unbearably crowded that day (for whatever reason?!) and you want to hop to Epcot thinking it might not be so bad over-there?
I just always like the freedom a hopper gives you!
It's worth the extra $$

 

[speakupjc]

We use park hoppers because it gives us more flexibility with our 2 year old. If one park is to crowded we can hop to the next one etc.

 

[Aliki]

We got a park hopper, and didn't use it at all on our last vacation...

 

[Lucky4me]

There were some trips we didn't hop at all, others we did 3 parks in a day.
Even when my dd was 2, we park hopped.
Look at it as insurance. You never know what you'll walk into at any park on any day.

 

[glass-slipper]

bicker,

Beginning on Nov. 3rd, WDW is going to start offering a package discount for stays beginning Jan.1st. If you purchase the MYW base tickets along with your room reservation, you'll get free hopper and free waterpark/ disneyquest options! This info. is from mousesavers!

 

[MOMOFMNM]

we did not buy the park hopper option and I am so glad we did not!!

to be honest there is sooooooooooo much to do at each park, you will have a hard time seeing it all in a day for the other parks and 3 even at MK especially with ADR's at crowds!! I thought park hopping sounded exausting and I never plan on hopping until the kids are waaaay older!! It saves money and I just liked seeing one park a day...we did not have enough time to hop and frankly, walking in and out of two or more parks a day will take up a huge chunk of time...also think about how long the parks are open while u are there, they were not open very late while we were there!! We did not see everything we wanted to see and we were in every park from 10am to 9pm everyday!! Late start on EPCOT, 11 AM and boy will I never do that again!!

Another thing I do not understand, how people have time to do all this stuff!!

You definitely need two days for EPCOT especially if wanting to see WS and Illuminations and futureworld!!! I have no idea why people say any of the parks are boring or nothing to do...we did not have enough time for any park but MK and we were there 1 day and 3 EMH'S one night and still missed a few things!!

 

[Rella Bella]

We always do the park hopping because of the kids age. They get tired of Epcot quick!!! And AK closes early so we always want to go somewhere else. That way we can ride Buzz and Dumbo and PotC EVERY day!!!

This is so true. We almost always do Epcot in two separate days... in fact it can't be done completely in two full days.It is so huge that we break it up on several days so we can focus on different parts of the park. And when AK closes (often around 5PM), we almost always go to another park.

 

[LightBurnsBlue]

I don't think park hopping is necessary to have a good time. We don't need to spend every hour of the day in the parks...so it's not a big deal for us to go to AK 9-5, then have a relaxing evening at the hotel. Also...seems like a lot of time is wasted during transportation. I love AK, Epcot, and MK all so much that once I get there, I never want to leave!

 

[katgarbars]

Another thing to remember is that you can always upgrade your ticket to a hopper when you are at the parks if you find that you really NEED to hop. No need to worry about it now. Don't stress about what could happen. Just smile and remember Your going to DisneyWorld!!!

 

[HaleyB]

If the deal posted earlier in this thread works for you it sonds great. But I will say that we only used park hopping one time our last trip with the kids, so it was a waste of money.

I thought we we would hop at night to hit the night time stuff (Fantasmic, Spectro, Wishes, Illuminations) but as it turned out the kids were ready to call it a day around 8 (which was about when we finished dinner most nights). We were on the dining plan so we spent a lot of time eating, maybe if we had not been we would have used it more...