Park Hop or not, and other ticket Questions

[rosey1]

We are going the beginning of May and staying at POFQ. Its DH, me and DD7. We have 5 day regular tickets. For those that bought park hopper - do you really use them?? Also, for the water parks - is that a separate ticket? We are not renting a car - does Disney buses go there??

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Disney buses do go to the water parks as well as Down Town Disney. You do need a ticket for the water parks. As far a hopping, we do use it. If it is your first visit to WDW you may not. An example from my experience is...on our last trip we were at EPCOT. Not my kids favorite park (my favorite). After about two hours they were just not excited to be there (EPCOT). We hopped on a bus and spent the rest of the day at MGM. If I would not have had the hopper I would have had miserable kids making for a miserable mom. It is worth the extra money for us.

 

[KAMommy]

I can't imagine not hopping. Our kids get bored with the World Showcase, too. So we do it in 2 or 3 hour spans in the evenings. By then they are wound down from being in another park all day and enjoy walking through the exhibits. Also keep in mind that AK closes much earlier than the other parks. We always spend the day at AK and then hop somewhere else for fireworks and parades.

 

[TallMidgetGirl]

Hollyster2 here, borrowing her daughter's computer!

We have never hopped. We took the hopper option off of our ticket package. I can see how it can work, especially if you are lucky enough to visit WDW often, but usually we plan to spend the whole day at a park, and if we are too tired of it or too hot, we just go back to the hotel and swim.
Depending on the age of your kids, it may be a lot of trouble to change parks, and since we are traveling with first timers with small children this summer we know park hopping is not a good choice for us. I might try it on my next trip though, since my youngest is past the stroller age.

 

[TallMidgetGirl]

I do like the idea of hopping over to another park at night...just not with tired kids.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

We are going the beginning of May and staying at POFQ. Its DH, me and DD7. We have 5 day regular tickets. For those that bought park hopper - do you really use them?? Also, for the water parks - is that a separate ticket? We are not renting a car - does Disney buses go there??

Right now Disney is offering free upgrades for your MYW base tickets if you are booked in a package. This way you can upgrade to hoppers and waterparks for free and see how you like it. Call Disney or your travel agent and see if the promotion is still available for your resort. Never hurts.

Have a great stay!

oh, I wouldn't go without hopping or waterparks!

 

[rosey1]

We booked thru AAA, so to add the special - we would lose our rate and in effect cost us $300. I think we will pass on the water park since DD is 7 and may be to young for some of the park. We are staying at POFQ - the slide there so be enough.

 

[mickey0216]

We always buy and use Park Hoppers. We may not hop everyday, but I can't imagine being "forced" to stay in the same park when: it's too crowded, we're ready for change, the DW decides that she wants to go to the Candlelight Processional the 3rd night in a row....

 

[daisyduck123]

We always park hop too. We usually go to one park in the a.m.
Then head to a water park for 2 hours or so right after lunch.
Then go back to the hotel & change.
Then off to dinner & another park somewhere.

We also always have our van...so transportation is not a problem.

 

[tjmw2727]

We always park hop, even when the kids were little, its easy and WDW transportation makes it very convenient. Our AM parks are usually AK and MK with Epcot and as MGM are our evening parks - with exceptions of course especially for Wishes.

I also like the option to leave a park if its getting to crowded or we just want to do something else.

However, if I were the OP I would start with the one park per day base ticket and if you find you want to hop add the hopper option, you can just add it any time during your trip. Although it will cost the same no matter when you add it at least this way you won't pay for it until or unless you decide you want/need it.

TJ

 

[WillCAD]

For those that bought park hopper - do you really use them??

Absolutely! Every single day! The best use for hopping - if you arrive at MK or Epcot in the morning and find it so crowded that you can't breathe, you can hop to another park that's less crowded.

Also, for the water parks - is that a separate ticket?

Regular tickets don't cover water parks. You need the Water Parks and More option for that, or you can get water park tickets seperately at the gate for $37.28.

We are not renting a car - does Disney buses go there??

Disney busses go everywhere on property - there's noplace you can't get using the busses, boats, or monorails.

 

[bubba73]

I am a HUGE advocate of the park hopper ticket. I won't do WDW any other way. It gives you so much flexibility. For instance, last June we had done MGM, AK and EPCOT in 2 days. We were a day ahead of schedule so we decided to go to the MK since that was the only one we hadn't been to yet. BIG MISTAKE!!! We got there and I can't believe how crowded it was. When it takes you almost 40 minutes to get through the crowd from the Castle just to get to Tomorrowland, it is tooo crowded. So we left and went back over to MGM which this was the day that we set aside to go to that park anyway and we were able to do everything as many times we wanted to and it rained a lot that day. Plus, I was lucky enough to get to ride Star Tours 2 times in a row without having to wait in line for the second time. A CM gave me an escort through a tunnel behind the scenes and I got right back on the ride. It was awesome! I hopped just about everyday and I was able to hit each park twice with just 5 days. I loved it!

 

[seashoreCM]

BIG MISTAKE!!! We got there and I can't believe how crowded it was. When it takes you almost 40 minutes to get through the crowd from the Castle just to get to Tomorrowland, it is tooo crowded. So we left and went back over to MGM cool1:

Open question, or something worth exploring... If you enter a park and immediately find it unbearably crowded, would Disney undo the admission if you turned around and came right back out? This would permit you to go to a different park without a hopping pass, or have the day back if you decided not to go into any park.

 

[marcbelt]

Agree with the above. If it's your first time at WDW, park hopping is an added expense. Otherwise, it's a necessity.

 

[WillCAD]

Open question, or something worth exploring... If you enter a park and immediately find it unbearably crowded, would Disney undo the admission if you turned around and came right back out? This would permit you to go to a different park without a hopping pass, or have the day back if you decided not to go into any park.

Not a chance. Once you're in, you're in.

If you entered a park and got hurt or sick and left immediately, you might be able to convince the Guest Relations people to restore the day on your pass, but the reason would have to be far more compelling than just, "it was so crowded!"

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

We were there late last year and did have hoppers, but the only reason we used them was for dinner. We hopped over to Epcot two nights to eat. We are going in Dec. and decided (for now) that we will not get hoppers...it's another $160 and we'd rather do MVMCP and maybe the Family Magic Tour instead. Both of those extra's are enough. I've planned my trip and food around where we'll be or picked a place in a resort to eat, and we'll just stay at the park we go to and enjoy all it has into the evening. I also figure this way we'll get to see the fireworks and parade whereever we are.

We'll try this, we might decide to never go again w/o hoppers! We'll see.

 

[pinseeker11]

We are hopping! We will go to a park or water park in the morning, go back to the resort and let the little guy nap (and probably us too!) and then get up and hit another park in the evening!