park hopper or not? please help

[goemanb]

We have our first trip planned from Jan 22-30. We have a list of things we are going to do.
Jan 23 - Discovery Cove 9-5:30 then epcot for supper? and look around
24 Busch Gardens 10-6, eat and drive the 1 hour back to Orlando
25 Magic Kingdom 9-8
26 Universal Studios 9-5, then walk around city walk
27 Hollywood studios 9-7
28 Universal IOA 9-6
29 Animal Kingdom, closes around 5pm?? then back to pack and early to bed
30 fly out at 6:35am so up early!!!

We will probably try to do epcot the night of the 23rd, but after reading the guidebooks, not sure if that is a park I want to spend a whole day at. My kids love rides, coasters but not sure if that is up their alley....
With a schedule like that, do you think we need to spend the extra $250 for the park hopper for the 5 of us? Realizing it is the off season and some of the parks close earlier, I wondered if we would run over to another park, but having never been there it is hard to imagine the time it takes or how tired we will be after. We do well at theme parks - often arriving at valley fair at 10 and leaving at 10pm, but this is a weeks worth...
Any input from those of you with trips already under your belt would be appreciated... and are there any parks where you don't think take you a whole day?
Bobby

 

[akcire]

We have our first trip planned from Jan 22-30. We have a list of things we are going to do.
Jan 23 - Discovery Cove 9-5:30 then epcot for supper? and look around
24 Busch Gardens 10-6, eat and drive the 1 hour back to Orlando
25 Magic Kingdom 9-8
26 Universal Studios 9-5, then walk around city walk
27 Hollywood studios 9-7
28 Universal IOA 9-6
29 Animal Kingdom, closes around 5pm?? then back to pack and early to bed
30 fly out at 6:35am so up early!!!

We will probably try to do epcot the night of the 23rd, but after reading the guidebooks, not sure if that is a park I want to spend a whole day at. My kids love rides, coasters but not sure if that is up their alley....
With a schedule like that, do you think we need to spend the extra $250 for the park hopper for the 5 of us? Realizing it is the off season and some of the parks close earlier, I wondered if we would run over to another park, but having never been there it is hard to imagine the time it takes or how tired we will be after. We do well at theme parks - often arriving at valley fair at 10 and leaving at 10pm, but this is a weeks worth...
Any input from those of you with trips already under your belt would be appreciated... and are there any parks where you don't think take you a whole day?
Bobby

Your schedule includes a LOT of parks in a few days--where are you coming from? I am pretty certain if you go to Discovery Cove you get free admission to Sea World--which could be nice. Personally, I would never do Disney and 2 other groups of parks in one trip unless it was at least 2 weeks. We have done Disney and Universal/Island of Adventure, we have also done Disney and Sea World/Discovery Cove/Aquatica.

I can't imagine you will want to park hop with all of those other parks. You will probably just want to sit down, and I am a super high energy adult who easily wears out both the young kids and the teenagers.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would question the committing to Discovery Cove in the middle of January.

 

[Kat&Dom]

We have our first trip planned from Jan 22-30. We have a list of things we are going to do.
Jan 23 - Discovery Cove 9-5:30 then epcot for supper? and look around
24 Busch Gardens 10-6, eat and drive the 1 hour back to Orlando
25 Magic Kingdom 9-8
26 Universal Studios 9-5, then walk around city walk
27 Hollywood studios 9-7
28 Universal IOA 9-6
29 Animal Kingdom, closes around 5pm?? then back to pack and early to bed
30 fly out at 6:35am so up early!!!

We will probably try to do epcot the night of the 23rd, but after reading the guidebooks, not sure if that is a park I want to spend a whole day at. My kids love rides, coasters but not sure if that is up their alley....
With a schedule like that, do you think we need to spend the extra $250 for the park hopper for the 5 of us? Realizing it is the off season and some of the parks close earlier, I wondered if we would run over to another park, but having never been there it is hard to imagine the time it takes or how tired we will be after. We do well at theme parks - often arriving at valley fair at 10 and leaving at 10pm, but this is a weeks worth...
Any input from those of you with trips already under your belt would be appreciated... and are there any parks where you don't think take you a whole day?
Bobby

Your schedule sounds similar to ours last August. We were there 8 days - did Universal, IOA, Epcot, MK, HS, AK and SeaWorld. It was overload and exhausting for everyone.

I don't think that getting PH for Disney would be a big benefit to you and most likely not worth the extra money.

However, do you have the 2 park access for Universal/IOA? Since the 2 parks are located so closely, having the 2 park access works good. Harry Potter was not open at IOA yet so we were pretty much done with the park by 2pm so we went over to Universal and caught a few rides. You walk the City Walk on your way to the parks. IOA is off to the left and Universal to the right.

I think that you should re-evaluate your 26th-28th - doing Universal then HS then back to Universal/IOA - not sure about. HS and Universal are very similar parks so having 3 days in row might not be the best. Maybe switch your Busch Gardens on the 24th with HS on the 27th just to mix it up a bit more. Just a suggestion!

Have a great vacation!

 

[goemanb]

thanks for the input, my days aren't set in stone except for the Discovery cove. I too hesitated in jan for that but went back and reviewed message boards and found some posts that even though weather was in the 50's people really enjoyed it, the water is warm and they have wet suits if you want.
We are coming from South Dakota.
Do you think that the universal parks will each take one day? I am buying the disney tickets sometime today or tomorrow to avoid the increase the beginning of august, but will wait to buy universal till it gets closer. The boards/books say they often have specials - so will wait and see if I can get one.
We took busch gardens for our free day with our discovery cove package, we have gone to sea worlds before, so thought we would try something different.
Thanks for the suggestions - I will keep that in mind. I was trying to avoid the disney parks on the extra magic hour days due to the crowd, but the rest of the days are flexible.
Bobby

 

[goemanb]

Your schedule sounds similar to ours last August. We were there 8 days - did Universal, IOA, Epcot, MK, HS, AK and SeaWorld. It was overload and exhausting for everyone.

I don't think that getting PH for Disney would be a big benefit to you and most likely not worth the extra money.

However, do you have the 2 park access for Universal/IOA? Since the 2 parks are located so closely, having the 2 park access works good. Harry Potter was not open at IOA yet so we were pretty much done with the park by 2pm so we went over to Universal and caught a few rides. You walk the City Walk on your way to the parks. IOA is off to the left and Universal to the right.

I think that you should re-evaluate your 26th-28th - doing Universal then HS then back to Universal/IOA - not sure about. HS and Universal are very similar parks so having 3 days in row might not be the best. Maybe switch your Busch Gardens on the 24th with HS on the 27th just to mix it up a bit more. Just a suggestion!

Have a great vacation!

Can I ask you a few more questions since the time you were thee was about the same as us? I don't know how to PM. did you get that flex pass thing at universal? Do you think we would be able to spend a whole day at each park at universal?? Did you enjoy epcot? Where did you stay when you went? I want everything to go smooth, so I bought several books and am reading the message boards quite a bit. That really helped.
Bobby

 

[FFerret]

Definitely NIX the park hoppers.

Try to plan in some SERIOUS downtime wherever you can. Like park day park day rest park day park day rest.


Looks like y'all are going during a pretty quiet time of year--I'm VERY jealous! Your EMH nights might be something to do and not avoid since it won't be busy. Take advantage of extra hours.

You'll have a blast.

 

[mercydisney]

Are you planing on going to Epcot after Discovery Cove? Would this be to much? Why not save a whole day for Epcot? This way you can go back to your room in the afternoon and return to Epcot that evening.

 

[Maddie2]

Hi, South Dakota!!! I'm in SD too! North of SF.

You have chosen a great time to go! We have been there twice in April and once in January and LOVED the weather and lighter crowds of January.

You mentioned that there are 5 of you, so I'm guessing at least some of them are kids? What ages?

You do have a very full schedule planned. If you think you may go back to Florida again sometime, I would suggest going to fewer places. Just within the WDW parks, there is SO much to do and see that it really is enough just doing this. Every family is different, but I would nix Busch Gardens and probably the Universal Parks as well. IMO, Universal is just a bigger version of Valleyfair.

We have been to SeaWorld, but not Discovery Cove. I am thinking that admission to SeaWorld is included with your fees for DC. And, I know at least when we went, when you purchased a one-day ticket for SW, the 2nd day was free. If this is the case for you, you might want to plan one DC day and one SW day.

This would leave 5 days for Disney. One park per day and then one day at the end to go back to the park you liked the most, or felt like you didn't see enough of in one day. Even if you are up early and stay until the park closes, it is often difficult to do absolutely everything in one day.

No matter what you decide to do, you'll have a fabulous time!!

 

[JCMHutch]

I recommend not getting the hopper. DH & I opted not to get it for our last trip and didn't miss it. We found that we didn't use it when we had it so it saved us $100. Plus we dropped the water park option - saved even more!

 

[cglaura]

Keep in mind too, you don't have to get the park hopper option now. You can get it the day you need it (it will still cost the same, regardless of 1 day used or all days used). With that in mind, I'd say get the regular tickets and play it by ear, if you really decide one day you just have to hop,, then add at guest services that day....after all, you can't get a refund if you don't use them

 

[iloveallthingsdisney]

Do you think that the universal parks will each take one day?

Hi, there! We have gone to Universal twice and both times, we've done both parks in one day with time to spare. That was before the new Harry Potter ride opened, though. Good luck with your vacation planning!!

 

[mhsjax]

I am sorry, but there is no way I would do Discovery Cove in January. It can be warm it can be very cold you never know and for what they charge, I wouldn't chance it.

We went in March and there was a very strange storm off the coast, it never got above 75 degrees and was very wendy. It was freezing, the water there is VERY cold and those wet suits don't do a whole lot to keep you warm.

I know you are from up north but still I just had to express my opinion. It is such a great place to visit, but very expensive and to me the threat of cold weather would just be too much for me to chance personally.

 

[Disney+Family=Fun]

We had not paid the extra for the hoppers before our last trip. But we went in January during Disney Y.E.S. open enrollment/homeschool days. We got ten day park hoppers for $179 (including the Homeschool presentation). You are going during their Open Enrollment and Homeschool Days. If your children would be interested in attending a class a Disney it is an amazing opportunity. Only one child needs to participate for the whole family to get the discount tickets. Google Disney Youth Groups for info plus there are several threads here about it.

We loved having the Park Hoppers. One day we started off at HS then went to MK in time for the last Dream show in front of the castle stayed for the fireworks took the tram over to Epcot for the fireworks there. It was magical!

 

[Disney+Family=Fun]

for more information

http://disneyyouthgroups.disney.go....erview?page=OpenEnrollmentProgramOverviewPage

http://disneyyouthgroups.disney.go.com/wdyp/listing/listingPageRender?page=HSDEventInfoListingPage

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2332767&highlight=y+e+s+program+non+groups

 

[MissAndrea]

JMHO, but I would skip the PH's too. We haven't used them and until we've been there so many times that we only want to hop to do our favorite things, I won't spend the extra money on it. But considering you are going during such a slow time, I really wouldn't spend the extra money. I normally avoid EMH days too, but again, you are going during such a slow time, it might work out better to go during those days. Unless you are staying off property and it's irrelevant, then forget I mentioned it. Good luck and have a great time!

 

[Disney+Family=Fun]

We will probably try to do epcot the night of the 23rd, but after reading the guidebooks, not sure if that is a park I want to spend a whole day at. My kids love rides, coasters but not sure if that is up their alley....

We are huge roller coaster fans but...EPCOT is our favorite park! Out of our ten days we went to EPCOT for at least part of the day five days. We didn't think we would like it that much at first either...but you never know until you try it.

 

[leslie826]

I would skip the Park Hoppers as well. Use the time you will save hopping for a break. As for Epcot, I didn't think we would spend much time there either but we ended up staying before opening to close (with my 3 &4 year olds). There is so much more to see and do than you can imagine. Have a great trip!

 

[NancyIL]

For what you have planned, you can get by without park hoppers. We also spent one day per park on our first two multi-day WDW trips in 1996 and 1997. However, now that I have an annual pass, I would have a hard time NOT hopping. I went to WDW in December with a friend who didn't have a park hopper, and we had to plan our park days very carefully. Several times we split up because I wanted to go to a different park.