Park Hopper Vets

[Shmily01]

So, with the free dining deal this year you had to either have the PH or the WPM on your tickets to get the deal. My wonderful TA, had all of my ressies moved over to the free dining deal before I even got into work at 7:30am. However, now I'm left wondering how to utilize hopping. We had Park Hoppers on our first visit in 2008 and didn't use it very much. Since then, we have always gotten base tickets and used Easywdw recommended parks and chose our ADR's based on where we would be. I would really like to use the PH option to our advantage but I'm a little lost. So, vets, any advice?

 

[sweetnjmom]

One good option is, if you are morning people, go to the park with the morning EMH and hit everything you can before lunch time -- when it gets more crowded -- then head to the Easy WDW recommended park in the afternoon and use your FP+ in your 2nd park. Make dinner reservations in the park where you'll end up.

 

[RookieLady]

We rope drop early EMH and get in some great rides. Then, we either break for the afternoon or hop out when it starts getting crowded. We also don't do all day at HS or AK, so we go to either MK or Epcot for the evening shows. They just come in handy if you want to change plans, too. For example, we "ended" the day at an 7:05 Ohana dinner once. After dinner, my son wanted one last ride on test track, so we hopped the monorail and rode it at about 8:45. Watched Illuminations and left. We had not been to Epcot that day.

Also, it can depend on where I stay. I might go to epcot to eat, when I might otherwise not be at the park that day. Also, I have been known to hop to epcot for lunch from HS, because we don't always like the options for lunch at HS.

 

[Shmily01]

One good option is, if you are morning people, go to the park with the morning EMH and hit everything you can before lunch time -- when it gets more crowded -- then head to the Easy WDW recommended park in the afternoon and use your FP+ in your 2nd park. Make dinner reservations in the park where you'll end up.

We are definitely RD people. Is Morning EMH worth it for somewhere like AK or HS?

 

[RookieLady]

Definitely for AK. We just ride the rides, and I can get AK done by 11:00, which includes safari, multiple EE rides, multiple whirl rides, and dinosaur. We have not ridden Kali in a while because of the weather. Last summer, I waited about 45 minutes at 11:00, so that was a longer morning. We never use FP+ here, and save them for the pm park. I used to do really well with HS, but lately, I am having more limited success.

 

[Shmily01]

Definitely for AK. We just ride the rides, and I can get AK done by 11:00, which includes safari, multiple EE rides, multiple whirl rides, and dinosaur. We have not ridden Kali in a while because of the weather. Last summer, I waited about 45 minutes at 11:00, so that was a longer morning. We never use FP+ here, and save them for the pm park. I used to do really well with HS, but lately, I am having more limited success.

Thanks for the input! We usually don't do a full day for AK anyway so I think it would be wonderful if we could get the rides in, maybe a couple of the shows and then off to another park. I'm kinda getting excited now at all the possiblities. More PLANNING!!!

 

[ktlm]

You said you are morning people, so I don't know if you are night people as well, but we use it to hop to evening EMH, especially at MK. The EMH parks are usually more crowded during the day, but they can be very nice during EMH hours. We are not morning people, so getting to a park at rope drop is as early as we are going to be and we don't utilize our hoppers for morning EMH, but we love them for evening EMH. Also, AK is not a full day park for us, so we like to hop to another park in the evening on AK day. Sometimes we do it on DHS day too. We wouldn't during Osborne lights season, but we typically skip Fantasmic because we prefer it at DL, so other than the Christmas season, we often hop DHS night. Another good use of hopping during party season is for night time entertainment at MK. Because the parties limit the days that Wishes and the Electrical parade are shown, those days will be more crowded at MK. If you want to see Wishes and the Electrical Parade, but don't want to deal with the extra crowds at MK that day, you can spend the day at a less crowded park and then hop over just for Wishes and the Parade.

 

[ajwolfe]

We usually go to whatever park we want in the morning and then hop to whatever park has EMH in the evening or that we want to watch the nighttime entertainment. We also use this to our advantage to be able to spend the day in MK but still have an ADR in Epcot, etc.

 

[sweetnjmom]

The only morning EMH that wasn't worth it for us was HS, because at the time my son (then 4) saw Donald and Daisy just when the gates opened and we got photos and autographs and by the time we were done the standby queue at TSMM was at 45 minutes. Then it started raining... so we swapped Star Tours (and my husband got my son a light saber at the store) and met a few more characters and then left the park by 11 AM. But I think it was a combo of a cranky boy, the last day of our trip, rain, etc. I've always had hoppers and have never had the standard tickets and it's usually worked out well. We often had dinners at EPCOT and toured another park during the day.

 

[Shmily01]

If you want to see Wishes and the Electrical Parade, but don't want to deal with the extra crowds at MK that day, you can spend the day at a less crowded park and then hop over just for Wishes and the Parade.

This intrigues me. We are going the week of the Night of Joy parties on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week, MK is not really "recommended". Using our PH's we could go to MK on a not recommended night to enjoy the fireworks and parade. Also, on the Night of Joy days we could go to MK and then hop to another park before MK closes early....HMMM, so many decisions. Not that I'm complaining!

 

[wdwjeffc37]

One good option is, if you are morning people, go to the park with the morning EMH and hit everything you can before lunch time -- when it gets more crowded -- then head to the Easy WDW recommended park in the afternoon and use your FP+ in your 2nd park. Make dinner reservations in the park where you'll end up.

We rope drop early EMH and get in some great rides. Then, we either break for the afternoon or hop out when it starts getting crowded. We also don't do all day at HS or AK, so we go to either MK or Epcot for the evening shows.

This is how we do it also. We always end up in either EPCOT for dinner and Illuminations or the MK for Wishes.

 

[ktlm]

This intrigues me. We are going the week of the Night of Joy parties on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week, MK is not really "recommended". Using our PH's we could go to MK on a not recommended night to enjoy the fireworks and parade. Also, on the Night of Joy days we could go to MK and then hop to another park before MK closes early....HMMM, so many decisions. Not that I'm complaining!

I haven't ever been to MK on Night of Joy days, but we have been many times on MNSSNP or MVMCP days, and we have found the crowds to be great on those early closing days. It doesn't pick up until they start letting people with party tickets in at 4:00.

 

[SaraJR]

my friend said she used hopper everyday because she always goes back to MK for wishes

 

[Shmily01]

my friend said she used hopper everyday because she always goes back to MK for wishes

That would be my perfect plan, too. Alas, my DH and kids don't love it as much I do.

 

[happymommy]

We've never done a trip without either park hoppers or annual passes. It's gives us flexibility!

Matter of fact, we used to go to the bus stop (depending on where we were staying) and whatever bus pulled up first, that's where we went! It became a game. That was in the days before the stupid FP+ and with the old disability card for DS (now DD has one and she's worse, needs a wheelchair at Disney).

We also are on the free QS dining at Pop the first week it's available (DD doesn't start school till Sept 8)! You also get 2 Disneyquest visits and 2 mini golf per reservation. Those are WF&M options, and my kids don't like the water parks anyway.

Nice thing is if you're at DHS and done for the day, you can take the boat to Epcot (or vice versa), or done with DAK like you said, and go elsewhere. Or go from MK to Epcot by monorail

 

[ShayBells]

We go to one park in the morning after lunch we go to resort rest/pool time than we hop to a different park. Usually for us cause it works best we do two full days at MK than we go to ak hs and Epcot for half a day and do MK as well those evenings. Epcot we are usually there longest so no break or we'll stay there all day or hop back another day. But we love to have the park hopper so because we get it we make the most of it.

 

[AJ1983]

I personally love the freedom of park hopping! Like other PP, I can go to one park in the morning and save my FP for my evening park. Example: I can finish at AK by 11 am if I use EMH, and can then take the bus back to the hotel for a quick lunch and to refill our cooler with ice and drinks, and be at my second park with FP by 12:30. If I ultimately only spend a few hours per day in each park, I don't feel that I've wasted a whole day's ticket for 3 hours at AK, nor did I suffer out for 7 hours at AK to make a full day of it.

 

[Shmily01]

I guess I need to start researching EMH hours for the week we will be there!

 

[richmo]

We've always had park hoppers, but generally only use them a couple of times:

- One is that its nice to have evenings at Epcot - have dinner in World Showcase, then stay for Illuminations
- During busy periods, sometimes you can get two nighttime shows in...for example, Illuminations then over to DHS for the late Fantasmic...that only works when DHS is open til 10 and the second Fantasmic is at 10:30
- If AK is not a full day park for you, go there in the morning and do everything standby. Wait times early at AK usually aren't bad (I'd start with the Safari though). Set up your FP+'s in the late afternoon/evening for another park.
- DHS for many is getting to be a partial day park also. Problem is unless you get there at rope drop, you will probably want FP's for TSM.

And sometimes its just nice to have the flexibility. Sometimes the touring plan providers are flat out wrong. If one park is just too busy (usually MK), just go somewhere else...

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I use park hoppers on nights when a park closes early (AK night or a night of a party, for instance) or when the things we want to do in a park that day don't take the whole day. We might take a break and go back to a different park in the evening. We have also been able to book events (dessert party, for instance) in a park that wasn't our chosen park for the day, so PHs make that possible without changing other plans.