Park Hopper Q

[TracyMags]

I need some opinions about the park hopper passes. I am buying tickets for my DH, myself and 5 kids. We are staying off site and my kids are young 2-10. OH and we were planning on 5 days at DW. Would you get the park hopper? It will increase the cost a lot and we were thinking about not getting the park hopper. WWYD?

If I have a reservation for Ohana at the polynesian, (which I have not made yet) which park will I be in- or which park should I plan on visiting?

TIA you folks have already helped in my planning so much.

Tracy

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

With little ones I would skip the PH for now.
For dinner I would go with Magic Kingdom since it is just monorail ride away or you could do epcot and ride the monorail to the TTC then switch to the resorts monorail.

 

[TracyMags]

I get it, the resorts have their own monorail.

Thanks so much.

 

[Princess Roo]

In my opinion, the hoppers are definitely nice, but not essential, especially if you plan well and take advantage of Fastpasses. Also, use baby swap to let the coaster-aged children ride each ride twice. I think you would be happy with one day each at EPCOT, MGM, AK and 2 days at MK (or maybe some other split if you have a different favorite).

 

[brymolmom]

I don't do hoppers....I think it's one of the easiest ways to save $ at WDW. I mean - each park has SO MUCh to do that you can definitely plan it to be one day at each park. With kids - it is so much easier to stick with one park at a time (just the transfer process - especially if there are strollers involved) takes too much valuable time.

Most people I know with larger families only ends up using their hoppers once anyway (usually to go back to a park for a dinner ressie - you can plan upfront to not need to do that) - and that's way too expensive ($40 per ticket) to only use once or twice for that for MY money anyway.

I say - if budget is a big concern - skip hoppers and use the extra $$ for something else (an extra character meal or special souveniers). BUT...if it's not a big deal to spend all that extra...go for it.

 

[TracyMags]

So can I leave the park and return without the park hopper pass? Like say if I wanted to go to the van with a cranky baby to nap in the AC and return to my party later?

Thanks again...

 

[Princess Roo]

Yes - you can exit and enter the same park as many times as you want in that day. You just can't go to ANOTHER park, even for a dinner reservation.

 

[bgirl29]

Another thing to look at when considering whether or not to buy hoppers, I think, is what are the park hours when you are going to be there? We like hoppers because we usually go in October and some of the parks close by 7 and we like to then be able to go to a different park for the night.

 

[DisneyMomto3]

Honestly, we are just finishing up our first round of 7 day PH's and have never done more than one park in a day. I would skip it.