Park Hopper worth it??

[canadaman]

My wife and i are debateing over this. We plan on staying for 4 nights and 5 days. We will get there in the afternoon of the first day. I figureed we could go to one park the afternoon and evening. Then over the next 3 full days go to one park a day. On the last day we will probably just hang around the resort since we would be leaving late in the morning. We have never been to WDW before so i figured we could easily use a full day at each park and have no need to "hop" around. Does this make sense or is there another reason to go with the park hopper option.

One more question. If i don't have park hopper. Can I go to a park in the moring say Epcot, then go back to the resort at around lunchtime. Then later on that afternoon go back to Epcot? Or would i need a park hopper to do that??

Thanks

 

[dancin Disney style]

You can enter and exit the same park on the same day as many times as you wish. Park hoppers are not needed for that.

Since this is your first trip I would say that the hoppers are not needed. There is more than enough to see and do in each park per day. If you intend on doing any of the table service restaurants, inside the parks, you will need to decide in advance which day you will go to each park. That way you can book your ADR's.

 

[CanadianGuy]

This comes up over on the ThemePark boards all the time and the advice is always the same..

If you're not sure about ParkHoppers - don't get 'em. You can always add them at ANY point during your trip and the price is exactly the same.. roughly 45$ plus tax per ticket.

But if you buy them and don't use them.. you're out the money.

Hope this helps,

Knox

 

[CrazyDisneyMommy1]

I agree with the above posts. On our three trips that we have had, we only had the hopper once. When we had it we only used it on one day. We did not even have them during Christmas week. I find it is easy to use fast passes if you stay in the same park all day. You can go in the morning get as many fast passes as you can and do and ride as much as you want, leave, relax, eat, swim and go back and use the fast passes. We did this at Christmas and sometimes left with 4 sets of fast passes and rode all night. It was terrific!!!

 

[nonzerosum]

We had Parkhoppers for our trip last week. In 6 park days we didn't use them once. Our kids are small so our agenda wasn't to extreme on any day. Probably wouldn't get them again.

 

[ChisJo]

In the 6 times I have been, I think we had used our Park Hoppers once, and that was strictly to cut through Epcot after getting off the monorail to get to the International Gateway to go to Beaches and Cream in the Beach Resort. We didn't even go into the park and look around.

I personally believe that the parks are designed to entertain you for the day. Enjoy the one park, and don't overwhelm or exhaust yourself with trying to get into 2-4 parks on the same day.

 

[Ham Ham]

My DW is an excellent planner and we used the DDP so the park hopper option was quite handy.

But I do agree with the above posts if it is your first visit and do not have dining reservations at different parks, pass on the hoppers.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

HamHam same with us.

We have always had PH's and always use them.

One of the reasons is we like the Epcot restaurants and find that we dine over there a lot.

 

[laura001]

My take would be the same as Ham Ham....if using the DDP, I would get a Hopper, that way you could plan your meals anywhere (specifically table service). If not, you end up being limited as to where you are going to eat!

 

[brighteyes]

I went to Disney last August for the first time and was on the DDP. We had hoppers and used them everyday. They were great when the park we were at was too busy, we just skipped to another park.

Mostly we did one park the first part of the day, and another one in the evening.

But like Canadian Guy said, if you are not sure, upgrade if you feel the need to hop. I just loved the freedom.

Stephanie

 

[hockey mom]

We never get park hoppers, even when using the DDP. There is always a restaurant in each park that we want to try so no need to go to another park.

Doing one park at a time is exhausting without jumping over to another park. Spend the cash on something else.

 

[SandraC]

We love park hoppers and use them all the time. We have been to WDW many times, so we can zig when everyone else zags and park hopping works into that plan beautifully.

We head to a park early in the morning and leave before lunch. Have lunch in another park and do the "must do's", then rest in the afternoon and swim or nap and then to a 3rd park for evening parades or shows.

We work around extra hours too. We like morning extra hours in the morning, but avoid the EE at night.

S

 

[MinnieMommy]

I think it's an individual thing. I don't think we could do without our hoppers now. BUT, we have had previous trips where we didn't really need them. There are a lot of factors to consider... such as time of year (some parks close quite early depending on the time of year) etc.

I completely agree with some previous posts... if you're not certain, don't get it... but know that you can upgrade your tickets to hoppers at any point during your trip.

 

[trivial]

I didn't use park hoppers on our trip, as we planned to do just one park each day. That worked out great, and I think park hopping would've only eaten up valuable time. I can see getting park hoppers if you absolutely HAVE to eat at certain park restaurants (typically in Epcot) on days when you're planning on being in another park, but if that's the only reason for getting them, that effectively jacks up the price of meals. That may be worth it to some, but we just planned around which days we'll be at the parks, and it worked out well for us.

 

[Hodder]

We use the park hoppers but we have gone for 10-12 days and even though we had DDP and planned to be in the park we had our ADR in, we would sometimes decide to change. We figured that for the extra $$ we have freedom to do what we want. I would always get them, but since your trip is shorter and first time you would have more than enough to keep you busy in one park for the day.

Have a good time...I am sooooo jealous.

 

[joech]

We always get our tickets with the park hopper options so we can try out all the restaurants in Epcot with DDP.

 

[usetheforceluke]

A park hopper is a waste of $$$ for a first-time short-term trip.

We have annual passes, which is the ultimate park hopper ticket, and we've been there frequently enough to not have to do the entire park, so we've done stuff like go to the AK for ribs at the Flame Tree barbecue, over to the Studios to ride the Great Movie Ride, over to MK to ride the TTA, then over to Epcot for supper. Although come to think of it, we were on the bus a lot that day.

Jim.

 

[xipetotec]

My wife and i are debateing over this. We plan on staying for 4 nights and 5 days. We will get there in the afternoon of the first day. I figureed we could go to one park the afternoon and evening. Then over the next 3 full days go to one park a day. On the last day we will probably just hang around the resort since we would be leaving late in the morning. We have never been to WDW before so i figured we could easily use a full day at each park and have no need to "hop" around. Does this make sense or is there another reason to go with the park hopper option.

One more question. If i don't have park hopper. Can I go to a park in the moring say Epcot, then go back to the resort at around lunchtime. Then later on that afternoon go back to Epcot? Or would i need a park hopper to do that??

Thanks

Being someone who would happily take any park, any pass, any day, I wouldn't say that I would never go to Disney without a Park Hopper. But it sure would take away from our experience.

I won't say that we FREQUENTLY hop. I do find that switching parks does take away from our park time as whole. However, as you say, after spending a day in each park, it's nice to be able to hop and revisit favorites at different parks in a same day.

Another bonus and must have, for us, is that we go in a fairly large group. But we always get back together for dinner. AND we tend to eat dinner in the parks more often than not ( most notably EPCOT ). A park hopper means people can go wherever they feel like during the day, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what park we're eating at. We can all meet up and eat together.

 

[The Shamus]

Although Florida does not get too much rain most months ... rain does happen. If you want to see the Illuminations, Wishes, Spectromagic or Fantasmic night time spectacles, you may find yourself missing some of these in the case of inclimate weather. With a park hopper, you can still get back to the park to see one of these great shows.