Park Hopper with Infant (How long to get into parks?)

[CanadaDisney05]

Trying to decide if a park hopper is worth it. How long does it take generally to get into the parks?

Will be travelling late August with my wife and infant son (will be 10 months at time of travel). My thought process is, we may go to a park in the morning (eg. Magic Kingdom), and then head back to the hotel (Caribbean Beach) in the afternoon. We will have a rental car. If we want to head back to the park in the evening, is it worth it to get a park hopper so that we don't have to go back to Magic Kingdom (from my understanding requires a lot more travel time). How long does it usually take between driving, parking, going through security, to get into the parks?

 

[Spork24]

I would say 30ish min depending on the park (excluding MK).

One problem in the afternoon is that you will usually have to park further back and ride the tram.

Security rarely takes more than 5 min or so in the afternoon.

 

[tlmadden73]

It's hard to say without knowing your overall plan. But, I wouldn't bother with Park Hoppers with little kids (unless you already have them banked into your tickets (old non-expiration tickets - like I do). They are expensive and every park has MORE than enough to spend a full day doing .. especially with an infant (which just slows you down).

My method with my little ones (even a preschooler) has been:
- Go early .. nap in the park .. don't stay late (leave after dinner, before night shows).
Bouncing around is just a waste of time generally .. especially when you consider the speed you can move with young children.
- Also - if staying onsite, I choose to take the busses. It saves a lot of time just being deposited right at the entrance rather than having to unpack the car, walk or get on the tram (and then take the monorail).


If you DO choose to get a park hopper though .. spend a little more and get the Express Bus service to use to bounce between the parks (but that only works if you don't go back to a hotel for an afternoon rest)

I went to WDW with my 5 month old (and 4yo) and we had an EMH morning planned at DHS. Since not a lot to do there (after the Star Wars stuff) for little kids, AND because my son had to go on Buzz Lightyear, I opted for the Express bus pass service for a morning at DHS and afternoon at MK.
It was quick and easy . .and so nice for my family of four to just pop on a bus and be deposited right inside Tomorrowland. Less than 20 minutes and we went from inside DHS to inside MK. We had to wait maybe 20 minutes for the bus to leave, but that was a good break time anyway. But again . .that only worked because we didn't go back to our hotel. We napped the baby in the stroller in the park (easy to do .. I would recommend getting some giant ear covers to help block out noise to aid in sleeping).
The time savings and avoiding the hassle of security again was WELL worth the cost.