Park hopper - 3 parks in one day?

[40ariel]

We are staying off site for 6 nights. We will have a rental car. We plan to do 3 days at Universal (one park per day). I am considering one day park hoppers for Disney.
The priorities for our group are: Flight of Passage, Everest, late breakfast at Tusker House, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron.
I am worried that we won't be able to ride all three Flight of Passage, Guardians of the Galaxy and Tron since we can only purchase 2 $ILL.

Has anyone tried park hopping and hitting just their favorites? We have always done one park per day so it is a very different strategy for us.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Mle8308]

When are you going? If it is after the park reservation/park hopping restriction is gone it will be easier to do. Also depending on the time of the year, spring break will be much more difficult than the end of August, park hours will make a difference, too. I'd rope drop AK and go right to Flights of Passage, and buy ILL's for Tron and Guardians the minute you are eligible, which since you are staying off property, will be at theme park opening time. Disney resort guests can purchase at 7am, so if it's a busy season you may have challenges.

 

[40ariel]

When are you going? If it is after the park reservation/park hopping restriction is gone it will be easier to do. Also depending on the time of the year, spring break will be much more difficult than the end of August, park hours will make a difference, too. I'd rope drop AK and go right to Flights of Passage, and buy ILL's for Tron and Guardians the minute you are eligible, which since you are staying off property, will be at theme park opening time. Disney resort guests can purchase at 7am, so if it's a busy season you may have challenges.

We are going after the park reservation/park hopping restrictions are gone, but at a very busy time of year.
I forgot about the $ILL off site restrictions.
Also wondering about virtual lines/ changes to genie +.

 

[buzz1fan]

We are going one day late December. Our plan is to go to HS in the am- go back to hotel to change and back out at 2 to Epcot- ride the rides we want- will not be able to hit all- then finish up at our favorites at magic kingdom in evening. We will not hit every ride but seem to never add Epcot to our trips and boys want to try guardians. We are staying near both.

 

[40ariel]

We are going one day late December. Our plan is to go to HS in the am- go back to hotel to change and back out at 2 to Epcot- ride the rides we want- will not be able to hit all- then finish up at our favorites at magic kingdom in evening. We will not hit every ride but seem to never add Epcot to our trips and boys want to try guardians. We are staying near both.

Are you planning to purchase $ILL?

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Are you married to the Tusker breakfast? Assuming both Guardians and Tron are still in VQ at the time you are going, I would:

1) Have two users on right at 7am pulling VQs for both rides. (Remember, no park reservation means you can theoretically pull for either of these since the system doesn't know which park you're starting in)

2) Based on which boarding groups, if any, you pull, you can pick which park you want to start at. As soon as you enter the first park, buy ILL at the times of day that work for hopping to the other two parks.

This obviously doesn't work with an ADR, though.

If Guardians goes off of VQ, this whole thing gets much easier for you because you can buy FoP and Tron and do Guardians as your 8:59pm hop in line.

Actually, assuming you do pull a guardians VQ (and assuming they still aren't enforcing the end time limit) you can go there any time after your BG gets called so you have flexibility about how you fit that one into your day. Make the ADR, plan to do AK-MK-EP as your day, and then you may have to bail on the ADR if you can't pull a Guardian VQ at 7am.

Even on busy days, the ILL for these rides aren't selling out before park open, so I wouldn't be concerned about not being able to buy them being off-site.

 

[buzz1fan]

Are you planning to purchase $ILL?

Yes for tron and guardians

 

[40ariel]

Are you married to the Tusker breakfast? Assuming both Guardians and Tron are still in VQ at the time you are going, I would:

1) Have two users on right at 7am pulling VQs for both rides. (Remember, no park reservation means you can theoretically pull for either of these since the system doesn't know which park you're starting in)

2) Based on which boarding groups, if any, you pull, you can pick which park you want to start at. As soon as you enter the first park, buy ILL at the times of day that work for hopping to the other two parks.

This obviously doesn't work with an ADR, though.

If Guardians goes off of VQ, this whole thing gets much easier for you because you can buy FoP and Tron and do Guardians as your 8:59pm hop in line.

Actually, assuming you do pull a guardians VQ (and assuming they still aren't enforcing the end time limit) you can go there any time after your BG gets called so you have flexibility about how you fit that one into your day. Make the ADR, plan to do AK-MK-EP as your day, and then you may have to bail on the ADR if you can't pull a Guardian VQ at 7am.

Even on busy days, the ILL for these rides aren't selling out before park open, so I wouldn't be concerned about not being able to buy them being off-site.

Thanks so much for your suggestions! Your post was very helpful. It is so hard to plan because I don't know if VQ will still be in place by Spring Break, and I don't know what changes are coming to G+.
1) No problem to have multiple users pulling VQ.
2) We could cancel the Tusker reservation to start at a different park. (it is impossible to do everything!)
I am the most concerned about Tron $ILL selling out before the park opens if I can't pull a VQ. Thrill Data shows it sold out Nov. 20 and 23 before park opening.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I am the most concerned about Tron $ILL selling out before the park opens if I can't pull a VQ. Thrill Data shows it sold out Nov. 20 and 23 before park opening.

The park opened to regular guests at 8am on those dates, not 9am (which is the dashed line that thrill data is showing). So, it did sell out in the first hour of park operation, but it didn't sell out before offsite guests had access. It's actually really interesting: you can somewhat tell which dates had 8am opens from the thrill data availability chart because those are the dates that Tron starts going yellow/orange at 8am instead of 9am.

And, don't forget you don't have to worry about party season during Spring Break, so there aren't any dates where you have high crowds mixed in with only offering ILL until 6pm.

 

[40ariel]

The park opened to regular guests at 8am on those dates, not 9am (which is the dashed line that thrill data is showing). So, it did sell out in the first hour of park operation, but it didn't sell out before offsite guests had access. It's actually really interesting: you can somewhat tell which dates had 8am opens from the thrill data availability chart because those are the dates that Tron starts going yellow/orange at 8am instead of 9am.

And, don't forget you don't have to worry about party season during Spring Break, so there aren't any dates where you have high crowds mixed in with only offering ILL until 6pm.

Wow, this is so helpful! I really appreciate your insight into this topic. Thanks so much!

 

[g-dad66]

You should be able to purchase ILL$ for both Guardians and Tron (if you can't get VQ for them. Keep in mind that you can have a substantial wait with VQ, so we just regularly purchase ILL$ and don't even mess with trying for VQ).

Since you are staying offsite, I would recommend going to Everest first thing at AK, rather than Flight of Passage. Thrill-data website shows pretty normal pattern for Flight of Passage waits today (75 minutes at 8:00 regular park opening, but 40 minutes at 9:00).