Park Hopper Passes - worth it for very first visit?

[kazlac4]

Remember that on most days there is always one park that opens early and closes late, so make sure you don't forget to take this into account when planning what park to visit on which day. (Though this perk is only available for guests staying on the Disney properties). Whatever your decision you will certainly have the time of your life. Have a great vacation!

 

[kimgg]

What we plan to do on our upcoming first trip (but we are going for 7 days) is to save the last day (we have a late flight) as open to do whatever we want to do again. Every other day is pretty planned out w/ touring plans, adr's, etc., but other than breakfast, I am leaving that last 1/2 day open to do whatever we feel like. Might just go to DTD or hit up a ride we all enjoyed one last time. That way we aren't deprived. From what I'm reading, you waste a lot of time during the busy season (we are going in the summer) riding the bus from place to place, and we want to avoid that. We are eating at either the parks we are at or somewhere pretty close at the end of the day (no back tracking). It's our first visit so we'll see how it goes.

If we were to decide to buy hoppers through the middle of the trip, am I right it would only be for the days left, correct? Thus possibly saving money if we either don't decide to get them at all or only use them half-way through??

Thanks.

 

[Alesia]

If we were to decide to buy hoppers through the middle of the trip, am I right it would only be for the days left, correct? Thus possibly saving money if we either don't decide to get them at all or only use them half-way through??

Thanks.

Adding park hopping is a flat $52 (plus tax) fee, regardless of original ticket length or how many days are left on the ticket.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

We do hoppers. We go in Sept and the parks tend to close early. We stay onsite, so we can go wherever we want during the day and then hop to the EMH park for evenings. My daughter also LOVES Fantasyland (she's almost 3), so she is perfectly happy to go to Magic Kingdom and stay until they close after we get tossed out of whatever park or after we have dinner somewhere else. Of couse, she likes to ride the bus, monorail, train, or anything else she can find so she doesn't mind the commute between parks.

 

[katierae81]

We like to do park hoppers because for us it feels like we double our vacation time. What is actually a 7 day trip feels like a 14 day trip, in a good way. We arrive at our morning park for rope drop, then leave right after lunch. We usually go back to our resort for a nap/cool-down for a couple hours and then go back out to a different park until closing...usually whichever park has night EMH. We have never felt like we missed out on anything and got a chance to ride all of the rides we wanted to. HTH

 

[Lglchick]

I'm gonna throw a curve ball as to another reason why I'm considering hoppers:

We're staying at FWR cabins and I made our ADRs for dinner back in October, not knowing which parks we would be visiting on what days. Now, I'm looking at our ADRs, in order:
Sat. Chef Mickey's
Sun. Trail's End
Mon. Cape May Cafe
Tues. Luau
Wed. T-Rex
Thurs. HDDR

and I'm wondering, if we don't get the hoppers, how difficult will it be to get to dinner? All of the ADRs are anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30.

 

[Wishes91]

Remember that everyone has different opinions on things (which parks to skip, which parks are their favorites) so be flexible. I would respectfully disagree with this poster, who said "AK is a small park with not much in it." It's by far the largest park, square-footage-wise, and there's tons to do if you like animals and zoo-type exhibits. I spent at least two-and-a-half days there in October.

On the other hand, I spent only about three hours at the Studios during my whole 11-day trip in October, because I'm not fond of many of the rides and attractions at the Studios. I did ToT, RnR, and the Muppet Adventure, then I was done. But I've been at that park many times, and don't feel I need to do too many "repeats."

i wasn't telling the author of the post to do what i said... i was just sharing my opinion on the subject. the choice is her decison on whether or not she wants to get a park hopper ticket.

sorry for sounding forceful with my post. i tend to ramble on about disney because i love it so much. haha

 

[Wicket's Mom]

When staying onsite we get the Hoppers added to our passes. We usually are there for 4 days & the hoppers let us jump around. We don't feel boxed in with our choices. We go to a park in the morning & another in the evening.

Do what you need that is good for your family.

 

[patman2011]

Really at the end of the day it is a matter of personal preference. I know lots of people on here that think they have to have it and for their particular family I sure they do. Me, my wife and 2 kids are the only ones that go so it is not like we have to meet up with anyone later in the day and as far as any reservations for dinner or lunch we just make sure we have reservations in the park we are at for that day. I personally think that the time getting out of the park and getting in your car or on a disney bus to go somewhere else is time you could have spent doing stuff at the park you are already at. There is more then enough to do at any of the parks you go to that will fill up more then a day so if it were me I say save the money that you would put towards park hopper and do something else with it.