park hop for 30 mins

[DisneyLuv06]

just wanted to share an interesting story with you all. my family and i were at the world last week and one of my cousins met up with his friend. so, we spent the day at epcot and met my cousin's friend, then we park hopped to magic kingdom. we arrived at magic kingdom with only 30 minutess until closing. my family got through the gates easily because we all had park hoppers, however, my cousin's friend did not. my cousin's friend did not know he did not have park hopper tickets. (im guessing did not even know what park hoppers were?) anyway, the people at the gate sent him over to guest services and he was willing to pay 52 bucks to park hop for 30 mins. however, they let him in without paying. i thought that was pretty magical. so we got to fit in one round of space mountain and finished the night eating ice cream and getting pins at city hall.

just wondering if anyone had similar stories?

 

[jkh1978]

Do they still allow you to enter the parks for 30 or 60 minutes or I forget how long... "just to shop or eat"?

 

[aceys_h0ney]

I read here that they do not anymore but have not tried that.

 

[lynn46356]

This past November we were visiting WDW for a week. It was a weekday evening (like one minute before parking closing) when we got to the turnstyles. We were cutting it very very close (yes, we did have parkhoppers) and they allowed us into Hollywood Studios. We were wanting to see the Osborne Lights that evening. Castmembers told us that they would be closing (turning the lights off) by the time we got back there and tried to talk us out of entering. We told them we would take our chances and they let us in. We hurried back to the area and it was in deed still open and stayed open a hour after closing. We were so glad we took a chance. There was hardly anyone back there and it was also breathtaking.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I'm not sure how it is handled at the theme parks, but at the water parks our policy is we will sell a person a one day ticket and if they return it within 30 minutes of having gone through the turnstiles (and they are not wet) we will refund the payment. This is intended for people who need to go in to buy or pick up something.

 

[WEDWDW]

Do they still allow you to enter the parks for 30 or 60 minutes or I forget how long... "just to shop or eat"?

There used to be a "Shopping Pass" for Epcot,but it was discontinued quite some time ago.

 

[disnut8]

We once left our annual pass renewal exchange vouchers at home. Our passes had expired so they were useless. We were there for Memorial Day weekend and I explained things to Guest Relations. I was prepared to suck it up and pay again but it was made right and our existing, expired passes were extended to the day we were leaving (we only needed two days). When we returned on our next trip with the exchange vouchers, we got our new passes but the expiration date reverted back to the old dates. We didn't technically get two days for free but it was a life saver for that one weekend.

 

[ElementCamper]

I expect OP that you experienced a little Disney 'magic' and they decided to let your friend in. I would not go expecting this, magic just 'happens'.