Park Hopper in October?

[AEGault]

We'll be doing a 5-6day park pass in October. I wasn't going to add the park-hopper to the tickets since the hours are shortened anyway. (MK- 9-6, EPC 9-7, MGM 9-7:30 and AK 9-5 most days)

The trip planning is still in it's infancy (devouring these boards as quickly as I can) but I'm thinking that we'll do 2 days at MK and 1 day at MGM, EPC, and AK- visiting the park that has late hours to be able to go back. If we do the 6 day pass that would then give us another day to go back to one of the parks.

What are your opinions? We are staying on-site, probably at POFQ, and it will be me, dh, ds (5) and dd (1).

 

[WillCAD]

Short hours or not, if you arrive at MK one morning to find it crowded beyond sanity, you will want to have the option to hop to another less crowded park.

With two littles you may also want to take a couple of hours in the middle of the day for a nap back at the resort, and when you are don with the nap you might go to a second park, one that's open longer the the one you started in.

And of course, many people feel that MGM or AK are half-day parks (personally I think they're wrong about MGM), so you might finish up with everything in one of those parks and want to re-do some of your favorit attractions in another park.

I say, HOP.

 

[magicaldisney]

We are people who would always say "get the hopper".

You can be open to so much more if you have the hopper option. It is a must in my opinion. You'll find some out there who don't think the extra money is worth it, but my opinion is the only one that counts, right?

 

[ZoZo]

I always get the hopper option, even at times of year where park hours are shorter. It's not that much more money (if I remember correctly, about $5 per day more than a non-hopper ticket), but gives you so much more flexibility.

I nearly always go in October, and although the hours are shorter than other times of the year, some parks are open late (like Epcot). The day we went to AK, it closed at 5:00 p.m. -- so we headed over to Epcot, which was open until late evening.

(BTW, if you're going in October, take advantage of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. Last year, we started out at different parks most days, but nearly always ended our days at Epcot. You don't have to be a wine drinker to enjoy the F&W Festival - the food is great, too!)

 

[Harvest02]

We are going back in October 2007, and I have debated the park hopper option also. We had it on our trip in June, and we hopped every day we were there! I think, IMHO, that it is worth the extra money. I agree with some other posts, MGM and Animal Kingdom could be done in a day, so if one or the other is busy you can hop to another park. Also, with EMH by staying onsite, you have more time during each day. I would say go for it!!!

 

[MiknMinMouse]

Just joining the Hopper bandwagon. I would NEVER go to Disney without being able to park hop. It just makes the most of your tickets and makes so much sense. Defintely add the option.

 

[kima86]

I'm in the HOP majority, too! We have always had park hopper passes to allow us more flexibility. We have gone to MK before, only to find it super crowded and we would just stay for a bit and then hop over to another park that we find less crowded.

Kim

 

[AEGault]

Thanks, looks pretty unanimous to hop!

 

[GoldenOldie]

You have the option of buying base tickets (one park per day) as you planned and if you find yourself in a situation at one of the parks where you wished you had bought the PH so you could leave and go to another park, you can go to Guest Relations and have it added to your tickets. It won't cost you anymore than if you had purchased it originally. PH is a flat fee of $40 plus tax per ticket. It does not matter how many days are on the ticket, the price is the same. You have 14 days from first use of the base ticket to do this.

 

[hockeybabe]

Don't forget about weather! If it gets to raining more than the "daily rinse", you don't want to be stuck at, say, AK all day. You want to hop to Epcot, or a park that is better to do in the rain.

 

[WillCAD]

You have the option of buying base tickets (one park per day) as you planned and if you find yourself in a situation at one of the parks where you wished you had bought the PH so you could leave and go to another park, you can go to Guest Relations and have it added to your tickets. It won't cost you anymore than if you had purchased it originally. PH is a flat fee of $40 plus tax per ticket. It does not matter how many days are on the ticket, the price is the same. You have 14 days from first use of the base ticket to do this.

That is an option, of course, but trying that option can cost you more than money. First, you might do one park per day for a couple of days before upgrading, and kick yourself for not getting the hopper option in the beginning ("If we had upgraded yesterday, we could have hopped to Epcot and watched Illuminations instead of just going back to the hotel!")

Upgrading will also nessesitate a visit to Guest Relations at one of the parks, sucking away valuable vacation time.

And if you don't decide to upgrade until halfway through your trip, you might feel gypped that you have to pay the same amount to make HALF of your ticket a hopper as you would have to make the ENTIRE ticket a hopper in advance.

So I say, get the hopper in advance.

 

[mking624]

What it boils down to is what YOU want to do...regardless of shorter hours. My husband and I are the type of people who like to have the option to hop. For example, when we do AK, we want to be able to do something else rather than just sit at our resort or go to DTD. MK closes early (6pm) on September 15th (our last night there) for MNSSHP. We have tickets for that, but for those who don't, they may want to go to a different park that is staying open. If I were them, I know I sure would want to hop to another park. Other examples for us include 2 ADRs at Epcot, but we don't plan on spending two full days at Epcot (same situation for us at MGM). For us, the extra cost of a hopper was worth it. For others it's not. It just comes down to what you want to do.

 

[GoodFairies]

Epcot is open until 9 I believe. I think shorter hours makes for the perfect time to utilize the hopper option. You can enjoy MK all day then head over to Epcot for dinner, and catch Illuminations. Twice even! Also for crowds as one of the first posters stated. It's nice not to be locked into a schedule.