It's been the better part of 8 years....

[carcam51]

since I've been to the world, (a couple DCL trips during that time) but WOW there is so much information to sift through! I'll start by saying we are a family of 4, two adults and two teen boys who will be 16 and 14 at the time of travel - looking at either June or October 2017. My sons and I have been to WDW but my husband hasn't - he has no idea what he's in for...lol. Okay, so I have three burning questions I'm hoping you'll take a stab at:

1. Can you purchase room only and call to add TS dining if purchasing park tickets through a third party? If so, how does that affect any potential room discounts that may be released in the future?

2. To Hop or not...that is the question - I have always hopped in the past b/c when the kids were little we would go back to the hotel mid-day and then back to the parks in the evening - I have a feeling much would be the same - teen boys sleep a ton! Why do you hop or not?

3. This sort of leads me to my last question/concern - for those of you with teenagers, do they still love DIS? If they don't want to go, that's fine, the hubs and I are still going

 

[AaronInWI]

since I've been to the world, (a couple DCL trips during that time) but WOW there is so much information to sift through! I'll start by saying we are a family of 4, two adults and two teen boys who will be 16 and 14 at the time of travel - looking at either June or October 2017. My sons and I have been to WDW but my husband hasn't - he has no idea what he's in for...lol. Okay, so I have three burning questions I'm hoping you'll take a stab at:

1. Can you purchase room only and call to add TS dining if purchasing park tickets through a third party? If so, how does that affect any potential room discounts that may be released in the future?

2. To Hop or not...that is the question - I have always hopped in the past b/c when the kids were little we would go back to the hotel mid-day and then back to the parks in the evening - I have a feeling much would be the same - teen boys sleep a ton! Why do you hop or not?

3. This sort of leads me to my last question/concern - for those of you with teenagers, do they still love DIS? If they don't want to go, that's fine, the hubs and I are still going

1 - Yup, all you need is a resort reservation in order to make ADR's 180 days in advance. We always do a room only and get the tickets elsewhere to save a little money.

2 - We hop because we like the flexibility of visiting a different park in the afternoon than we were at in the morning. This is especially important since Hollywood Studios is very much a 1/2 (or even 1/4) day park for us. We'll head there first thing in the morning, do what we like to do, and then spend the afternoon and evening at Magic Kingdom. If we didn't have park hoppers, we'd most likely skip DHS altogether to avoid burning a day on it. We also like splitting Epcot up into two days. 1/2 of one day in Future World, 1/2 of a different day in World Showcase.

Oh, and you are probably aware of this, but I wanted to make sure you know that even without hoppers you can leave midday and return to the SAME park you were at in the morning. You just can't visit two parks in one day without a hopper. Again, I figured you knew this, but your question was worded in a way that prompted me to add this note...

3 - Sorry, can't help you there! No kiddos in our household.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Hopping means freedom. My 2p

 

[carcam51]

Oh, and you are probably aware of this, but I wanted to make sure you know that even without hoppers you can leave midday and return to the SAME park you were at in the morning. You just can't visit two parks in one day without a hopper. Again, I figured you knew this, but your question was worded in a way that prompted me to add this note...

Great reminder! Like I said, I have always hopped - I like being able to go to MK in the morning and have dinner in EP. I agree with your comments regarding DHS too - half day for sure!!!

 

[sunflare]

1. Can you purchase room only and call to add TS dining if purchasing park tickets through a third party? If so, how does that affect any potential room discounts that may be released in the future?

If you're talking about the dining plan, yes, but you MUST call and ask them for a ticketless package. It will be subject to the package rules, not the room only rules.