Park Hopper

[Cooz14]

My husband and I are currently working on our itinerary for our November 28 - December 9th trip. We have always gotten park hopper passes for the convenience of being able to go to the differentl parks anytime we want. However, it looks like we would be able to everything we want without the park hoppers this year because we are staying a bit longer. We are a family of four and it would save us $200 if we dropped the park hopper. I can't really think of a good reason to keep the hoppers. We do have a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old. If (for example) we go to MK in the morning and need to go back to the room for a rest, we can still go to MK in the evening without the park hopper right?

Has anyone not gotten hoppers, but when the vacation was over had wished that they had?

I would appreciate any feedback on keeping them vs not.

Thanks

 

[verygfy]

DH and I had park hoppers when our DS (now 11) was much younger. Since then we have not done the hoppers and haven't regreted it. We will get them again when DD (3) gets older and we don't have to lug bags and work in naps and downtime. Hope this helps.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

we too used to hop.. but since they started charging we never get them (we often go every yr)and simply plan better so u eat in the park u go to, its easy anda HUGE time/stress saver, we dont miss it at all.

 

[SandrA9810]

With kids that young, it's going to take you a whole day to do one park, if not more. Park hoppers are great for adults or with older kids, like teens, that don't mind the bus/car ride between parks. And doing a lot more. Most little ones get on the bus and it puts them out in two minutes, then when they get to the next park they're grumpy and tired.

Save the 200$. You won't miss it.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

You can do same-day re-entry the park park you were at in the morining without having the hopper feature on your passes.

We have always used hopping but my family likes to switch parks to take advantage of EMHs, catch Fantasmic! on the nights that it is running or to just avoid a crowded park. On AK days, were usually hop over to catch Illuminations at EPCOT because AK closes earlier than the other parks.

But if you don't think that you will use hopping, then go ahead and drop it from your tickets. You can always add it at WDW at any time if you find that it's not working for your to stay at one park each day.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Oh, I just noticed your dates! Pay careful attention to the MK park hours during your stay. MVMCP will be held on several nights during your visit - November 29 and December: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8. The MK will close early (7 pm) on those dates. If you had plans to be at the MK on any of those days, you might want to redo your schedule or buy the hopping option.

They will also be filming the Christmas parade on 12/4 & 12/5 (12/6 is the raindate). On those days, the MK will be very crowded on Main Street which makes it hard to get anywhere when you enter the park. Most DISers recommend avoiding the MK on those days. The parade does not run through completely. There is a lot of start, stop, restart. So it's not like you see on TV.

 

[SandrA9810]

Did you know they edit the sky to be a nice sunny day. Last year's filming was a miserable cloudy day... but of course it's always sunshine on tv... LOL.

It's a sorta quiet time in the parks, because most kids are only off for the week of Thanksgiving. But yeah, be careful of the park hours when making your plans. You might thank the early park closing cause you can run yourself ragged in the parks.

 

[DVCBELLE]

WE used to always get the hopper option. For me, there was never a question. But this year, I decided not to knowing that we could always add it on if we wanted to.

We LOVED not having it. It stopped us from saying - oh AK closed early - let's go to MK. We felt our trip was a little less hectic than when we had hoppers!

One night we wanted to eat in Epcot but had been in MK - so we talked about it - how bad did we want to eat there - were we willing to pay $200 to go in? That was an easy decision. We instead tried a new restaurant we had not eaten at before and loved it!

I say don't buy the option. Then when you are there - if you REALLY hate not having it - add it on. But I bet when faced with the decision to pay $200 extra on the spot - you will not really care about going in the other park and find some other way to enjoy your day!

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

We've never park hopped. I find it makes the day more enjoyable, you aren't thinking "boy I could be squeezing in xyz at other parks too"!!! We take our time at the park, enjoy breaks, try new foods, it's very relaxing. I don't think you'll miss it a bit, esp with that age, my boys are 3 and 6, we let them ride the rides over and over, whatever they want!!! Only thing I've ever thought it would be good for is to go eat somewhere else but I like PP's "is it worth $200?", excellent point!

 

[Disney-Bride2010]

Tell me if this is a way to get around the park hoppers:

If we only want to park hop on 1 or 2 days, can we just add 1 or 2 extra days to our tickets and use them? For example, we go to AK in the morning and use 1 day from our ticket. Then we go to MK in the evening and use another 1 day from our ticket. Is this allowed?

For a family of 4 it's only $25 to add 2 extra days on to our tickets.

Sorry to hijack the thread, I've just been wondering about this.

 

[DVCBELLE]

Tell me if this is a way to get around the park hoppers:

If we only want to park hop on 1 or 2 days, can we just add 1 or 2 extra days to our tickets and use them? For example, we go to AK in the morning and use 1 day from our ticket. Then we go to MK in the evening and use another 1 day from our ticket. Is this allowed?

For a family of 4 it's only $25 to add 2 extra days on to our tickets.

Sorry to hijack the thread, I've just been wondering about this.

No - this is a pretty common question but you can only use a ticket for a entry once a day. Since it only costs about $5 a day to add on extra days they would lose money as compared to the $50 for park hopping.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

A base ticket is one major (theme) park per day. You are allowed to re-enter the same park if you leave it on one day, but it can only be used at the one park.

Note that the ticket will state on it either "Not Valid For Park Hopping" or "One Theme Park Per Day". That should be a hint.

If you put the ticket in the turnstile of another park the display on the Guest side of the turnstile will be "ACCESS DENIED". The top line of the display on the Greeter side will give information about the ticket, and the second line of the display will say "CROSSOVER NOT PERMITTED". The turnstile will not unlock.

This is because Disney charges $3.00 per day over four days on a ticket, but charges $52 to allow hopping. It does not make economic sense for Disney to allow this.

If you actually have multiple tickets (more than one physical ticket per person) as opposed to multiple day tickets, you can use these tickets for multiple entries. But it makes absolutely no economic sense as a separate ticket costs a lot more than adding hopping to a ticket.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

It used to be that just about any multi-day ticket automatically was a hopper and also had no expiration. When Disney went to the base plus options concept in 2005 they actually lowered the price of the base tickets. At that time if you bought a base ticket or even a hopper you paid less than the previous year tickets; however adding NE to the hopper did show a price increase.

However, now that there have been several price increases over the years now pay more, but still have the choice of the base only or any or all of the three options.

 

[SandrA9810]

Leave it to Cheshire to talk all the mumble jumble... I guess you've got it down to a T now?

 

[Lisa_M]

We've had park hoppers when DH and I went for our honeymoon and they were really useful, but we also were staying at Beach Club Villas so we would walk over to Epcot each night or morning.

This last trip we didnt' get them because we were staying off site, the expense and we weren't really sure we would get a good value with trekking around with a toddler. I'm really glad we didn't. We wouldn't have had an opportunity to use them. One park per day was more than enough. This trip was a very leisurely slow trip compared to our honeymoon. It was wonderful, but alot different with a toddler.

I don't think we'll go back to park hoppers unless we're staying at beach club or boardwalk. The proximity is just too much to not enjoy.

 

[MAGGIED]

We always used to get the park hoppers but the last few trips did not... to save the extra couple of hundred $$$$ and we didn't miss it....and I have teenagers..... for us the money we saved paid for a couple more rounds of golf....

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I have an old 10 day hopper pass I use in conjunction with one day passes. On the day I want to hop I use the hopper otherwise I use whatever I bought for the trip. When it runs out I'll probably buy the longest pass I can afford as a hopper and start all over again. With any luck maybe there will be a sale the year I plan to buy a new pass.

 

[amwhitaker]

We never get park hoppers. When I'm at a park, I stay there. Too much time wasted traveling to the next park. If I were to be at WDW only say 2 days, I might consider it, otherwise, no way. The cost isn't worth it.

 

[pigletto]

I am glad someone asked this. We are so on the fence about this one. We really did take adavtage of the hoppers the last time we were there, but our next trip is going to be a budget trip and I would like to save the 200 dollars.
I am thinking if I planned carefully it might not be so bad.
Last year I booked our dinner reservations wherever we wanted because we had the hoppers but it really wasn't necessary. I can always make reservations at the park we are in or at other resorts and come back to the park we were in.
200 dollars in almost all our tips on the DDP. When I look at it that way it seems to be a no brainer.
I know for certain I won't be purchasing them ahead of time.. if I get down there and feel compelled to add them I will.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I have an old 10 day hopper pass I use in conjunction with one day passes. On the day I want to hop I use the hopper otherwise I use whatever I bought for the trip. When it runs out I'll probably buy the longest pass I can afford as a hopper and start all over again. With any luck maybe there will be a sale the year I plan to buy a new pass.

I've thought about doing this but I thought it would be too much bother to keep the different passes straight. Plus we often "hop" without planning it ahead of time. So, I decided against it. But it's a good idea and I'm glad to see that it actually works for someone.