Park Hopper or no?

[Lookn4Mickey]

I am planning our first trip to WDW for the week after Thanksgiving, the kids will be 3yrs. and 5 yrs. old.
One of my questions is about park hopping. At this time of year, the crowds aren't that bad are they? I am pretty sure I read this is one of the "slow times" of year to go. I figure if the parks don't get overly crowded we won't be forced to try a different park. One park per day seems like it would be fine, what reasons would I need to park hop? We will be there 11/27-12/3 we will have 7 days so it's not like we need to hurry through anything (right?).

Thanks.

 

[Kae]

Even during "slow" times the MK gets very busy on the weekends & sometimes it is the only time they do the Fireworks & SpectroMagic. So you can go to a less busy park during the day & then MK for the Fireworks & Parade. Also when we took our son(he was4) he loved Epcot's Illmuinations, but other than that Epcot was so so for him, so we went at nite after doing a different park during the day. It also gives you the chance on your last day to see things you might have missed or see again things you really liked. It also opens up more choices for meals.

So I guess hopping is important ot us.

Kae

 

[kirbsam]

The other thing during the slow times of year, you can do parks in less than one day. Going to MK in the morning, mid day break and then fantasmic, or illuminations at night. It is hard for our family to spend a whole day at one park. After our break, we always go to another park. Just suits our family better.

 

[dcmbshafe]

We have 4 & 5 year-old kids, so we almost always take an afternoon break. Therefore, park-hopping doesn't pose a time constraint as it otherwise might nor is it overly burdensome - we've got to go back to some park anyway, no big deal if it is a different from the one we went to in the morning.

It is really a question of flexibility and variety. You might find that you can only get your CRT ressie for a day that MK ends up being very crowded (perhaps due to EMH) or is closing early (perhaps due to MVMCP) - in this instance, you might enjoy the flexibility of going to a different park in the afternoon/evening. Maybe all of the changes taking place to the schedules right now will settle down by the time you go, but there is a high probability that you will have to make some of your PS ressies before you know either the park hours or the EMH schedule.

I don't know what the crowds will be like exactly, but I do believe the parks are at less than peak between Thanksgiving & Christmas. You will probably be just fine without park hopping. It really depends on how much you value the flexibility - it's worth it to us, might not be worth it to you.

 

[Lookn4Mickey]

Thanks for the opinions, this being my first time my head is spinning with all the info. It looks to be only $100 extra so maybe we will just get the hoppers.

 

[Kallison]

That week has been moderately busy both times we went. I know all the guidebooks tout it as being slow, but I did not find that to be the case. Out of our five trips in the past five years, that week has been the busiest. Our family likes to park hop, but my kids are older. With your two small ones, you might prefer to stick to one park per day.

 

[aec]

there have been several posts about this very recently on more than one board. Try to search so you can see what others have said.

This is going to be a popular question now since hopping is extra $ now on MYW

My short answer is that we hop a lot and it is well worth the extra $ for us.