Park Hopper Questions: Are they worth it for us?

[aristocatz]

We are heading to WDW in January with our 2 kids (ages 6 & 3) & my parents. Staying at BLT for our first time.

My parents typically offer to watch our girls each night so my DH & can head to the parks for a few hours to have a little time to ourselves.

Our trip dates do not coordinate well with evening EMH's.

My question: Is it worth it to buy Park Hopper tickets for just my DH & I to have the flexibility to hit the different parks at night?

What is the price difference between base tix and PH tix? Also, I assume we can buy PH tickets for just us and base for everyone else?

Thanks!

 

[StacyStrong]

$75 each.

Personally, I say yes. Especially if you enjoy Epcot or your days end earlyish with the littles.

But, I always get hoppers so I'm biased.

You can always add them when you get there if you decide you want to hop.


With that said, if you'll only have an extra hour or two in the evening? Then no. Depends how early your park days end with the kids.

 

[aristocatz]

$75 each.

Personally, I say yes. Especially if you enjoy Epcot or your days end earlyish with the littles.

But, I always get hoppers so I'm biased.

You can always add them when you get there if you decide you want to hop.


With that said, if you'll only have an extra hour or two in the evening? Then no. Depends how early your park days end with the kids.

Thank you-is that $75 each per day?

We are staying 4 nights.

We typically do base tickets, but we've also never stayed as close to MK as we are this trip (since our honeymoon anyways).

Our kids day typically ends after dinner (6:30/7)

 

[StacyStrong]

Thank you-is that $75 each per day?

We are staying 4 nights.

We typically do base tickets, but we've also never stayed as close to MK as we are this trip (since our honeymoon anyways).

Our kids day typically ends after dinner (6:30/7)

It's 75 each total - it doesn't matter how many days. It could be 1 day or 10.

 

[aristocatz]

It's 75 each total - it doesn't matter how many days. It could be 1 day or 10.

Thank you-that actually seems reasonable.

Would you do it in my situation?

 

[StacyStrong]

I would wait until you get there and upgrade then. That way you can see what final park hours are. If the parks close at 8, it might not be worth it, but if the hours get extended then yes.

I likely wouldn't decide ahead of time in your situation because you don't know how much extra time you'll have.

I love hopping personally, but is definitely dependent on the dynamics of your group. I take midday breaks even without kids and switch to a different park in the afternoon. For you, you'd need to get hoppers for everyone in your group to do that, but with kids that end after dinner that doesn't make sense.

 

[aristocatz]

I would wait until you get there and upgrade then. That way you can see what final park hours are. If the parks close at 8, it might not be worth it, but if the hours get extended then yes.

I likely wouldn't decide ahead of time in your situation because you don't know how much extra time you'll have.

I love hopping personally, but is definitely dependent on the dynamics of your group. I take midday breaks even without kids and switch to a different park in the afternoon. For you, you'd need to get hoppers for everyone in your group to do that, but with kids that end after dinner that doesn't make sense.

Thank you-we wouldn't park hop mid day with the kids, as it would be too much for them. Just my DH & I at night.

 

[MrKnight]

I would wait until you get there and upgrade then. That way you can see what final park hours are. If the parks close at 8, it might not be worth it, but if the hours get extended then yes.

I likely wouldn't decide ahead of time in your situation because you don't know how much extra time you'll have.

I love hopping personally, but is definitely dependent on the dynamics of your group. I take midday breaks even without kids and switch to a different park in the afternoon. For you, you'd need to get hoppers for everyone in your group to do that, but with kids that end after dinner that doesn't make sense.

I agree with StacyStrong, I also recommend waiting until you arrive to upgrade them, you can do this easily at your resort concierge.

 

[leebee]

I'd wait until I get there to add hopping, to see what the final park hours are like. If the parks close around 7pm (which they have in the past in January, although usually Epcot is always open until 9) it'd be a waste of money, IMO. Remember- Disney Springs will be open, and they have some incredible restaurants for a "date night" if that's on your agenda!

 

[Shanti]

We are heading to WDW in January with our 2 kids (ages 6 & 3) & my parents. Staying at BLT for our first time.

My parents typically offer to watch our girls each night so my DH & can head to the parks for a few hours to have a little time to ourselves.

Our trip dates do not coordinate well with evening EMH's.

My question: Is it worth it to buy Park Hopper tickets for just my DH & I to have the flexibility to hit the different parks at night?

What is the price difference between base tix and PH tix? Also, I assume we can buy PH tickets for just us and base for everyone else?

Thanks!

You can book different ticket types for different members of your party as long as you book the resort and tickets separately. If you book a package, you'll all have the same ticket types. But even with package tickets, you can upgrade just your tickets to PH once you're onsite, & not upgrade the others.

Do you actually plan to attend different parks in the evening than the daytime? That's your decision & will determine if they're worth it or not. Maybe wait until you're onsite to upgrade or not, if you're not sure now.

 

[Shanti]

It's 75 each total - it doesn't matter how many days. It could be 1 day or 10.

Thank you-that actually seems reasonable.

That actually isn't right. The park hopper upgrade has different prices based on the number of ticket days you have.

 

[Ben E N]

The parks are mostly closing at 8 PM during January. Will you get out early enough to make it worthwhile, after transportation time to the parks comes into play? The fireworks shows do come after "closing", so that can also be something worth thinking about when considering the value.

 

[NJ Goofy]

We always get them because we usually stay at BWV, so we can pop right over to EPCOT, plus we love the flexibility. We almost always do two parks a day with a break in the afternoon. With that said, you need to be careful in January, as leebee noted if the parks close at 7:00 pm you are not going to have much to hop to. Although, we went in January a couple years ago and between EPCOT (open til 9:00) and EMH's we were able to go somewhere each night.

 

[StacyStrong]

That actually isn't right. The park hopper upgrade has different prices based on the number of ticket days you have.

Did not know that 1 and 2 days was cheaper.

 

[Micca]

There are definite advantages to late-night park hopping and having some couples time. Having said that, There are also advantages to getting to the room early and getting to bed early enough to make an early morning of it the following day. If your kids are the "up at the crack of dawn" types maybe take advantage of that?

 

[Luvs Mickey]

We’ve always used our park hoppers on our trip. Especially if you go to MK during the day with your kids but you and your husband want to walk around World Showcase in the evening.

 

[nacho113]

We are heading to WDW in January with our 2 kids (ages 6 & 3) & my parents. Staying at BLT for our first time.

My parents typically offer to watch our girls each night so my DH & can head to the parks for a few hours to have a little time to ourselves.

Our trip dates do not coordinate well with evening EMH's.

My question: Is it worth it to buy Park Hopper tickets for just my DH & I to have the flexibility to hit the different parks at night?

What is the price difference between base tix and PH tix? Also, I assume we can buy PH tickets for just us and base for everyone else?

Thanks!

Park hopper is pretty reasonably priced, the big problem in January is that the parks close pretty early (8pm-9pm).
If your thinking of popping back to a park after supper, you may only be getting an hour or 2 of park time (but it's a different place when it's just the adults- would be worth it for us to have a little time to ourselves).
There's nothing to stop you going back to the same park that you were visiting earlier in the day with the kids (and this wouldn't require hoppers so no extra cost)

 

[Nancyg56]

I would wait until I got there to add them on. You may find that you just head back to the same park after dinner, or go to DS for the evening.