Park Hopper

[PollyannaMom]

DH and I had hoppers on a packaged trip years ago, and we never actually used them. - Once we were in the park, we didn't want to leave!

Then there were a couple of trips when DS was little. - We knew we wouldn't be doing late nights, so we figured it would be a waste of money.

Then there were a few trips where budget was more of a consideration, and we knew we didn't need them.

We're finally at the point where I'm thinking about them again - but that's mostly because we know our way around, have favorites attractions, and tour differently than we did then.

I think my advice would be to tentatively plan for the expense, but only add it there if needed.

(The exception would be if you decide to book dinner ADRs in different parks than you plan to start out in each day. Then you do need them.)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I always recommend first trippers do not get park hopping. It’s just one more thing on top of a million to think about and experience on your first trip. Yet you can always add it at a ticket window if you change your mind. I understand you plan to leave and return, but by then you will have just figured out the layout and gotten your bearings on that park, so I would think returning to the same one is less overwhelming for the evening. I can’t imagine not spending a full day at Epcot, unless you don’t want to experience the World Showcase at all. One full day is never enough for us at Epcot. The only reason I’d ever recommend a family get park hopping on their first trip is if they are staying at a monorail resort or a walk away from Epcot for the sole purpose of going into one of those parks as a second park that day to eat dinner or see a night show.

What we did in September is break up our days with 2 parks per day. 1 park in the morning and another in the evening. Then we would flip and experience that same park we did in the evening again sometime in the morning.

We had 5-day park hoppers. So here's how our plan worked back in September 2017:

~9/9: AK (we didn't get there in time but there was EMH from 8am-9am) and MK (parks closed early due to Irma but there was supposed to be EMH at MK from 9pm-11pm it was cancelled however, MK did close at 9pm though)

~9/12 MK (EMH from 8am-9am--this was a bonus EMH as it was supposed to be EMM but Disney cancelled that due to Irma then gave the hours back at EMH) and Epcot (EMH from 9pm-11pm)

~9/13 DHS and MK (EMH from 9pm-11pm)

~9/14 Epcot (EMH from 8am-9am) we were a bit lazy and didn't actually get to Epcot until 10am thus missing the morning EMH and DHS

~9/15: MK (EMH from 8am-9am) we were a bit lazy and didn't actually get to MK until after 10am thus missing the morning EMH and AK

Now for us the crowds were insanely low so that's why we took our time getting to the parks more than I had originally planned. We just didn't need as much MK time because of the crowds. Now for us I planned to go against the grain from the Boards and incorporate EMH into our plans. As the OP is staying offsite they won't get usage of EMH but that could be just a tiny bit more push to get park hopper since they can hop on over to another park and get just a wee bit more park time once one park closes especially if that one park closed but had EMH going on that evening.

So my point being---just because you have park hopper doesn't mean you're not actually spending a full day in a specific park. You could if you wanted that to be your plan end up spending 1 full day just the day broken up.

My plan is just that, my plan. So it doesn't mean that for someone who is going for the first time should use my plan and run with it if they think it would be too overwhelming.

 

[JerseyJanice]

My second post on this thread is to say that there are specific instances where hopping may be worth it even for newbs, but I don’t think they apply in the OP’s situation.

Circumstances that make hopping more valuable could include traveling with AP holders, or party season (as I mentioned above), or staying at one of the Crescent Lake hotels. If that’s where you’re staying, the convenience of being able to walk between the two parks makes hopping much more feasible.

For a six day trip, OP, I would look for a buy-4-get-5 offer from a discounter like Undercover Tourist or Park Savers. You have to use all ticket entitlements within 14 days so you can’t save unused days for your next trip.

If you want one more day, you can add another for $11.50ish plus tax for each person. You have until the end of the day that you use your last entitlement to do that.

Once you buy a day, there are no refunds. I’d go with 4 or 5 days first and see if you want to take a pool break one day. For that matter, things may happen out of your control where you can’t go the whole 6 days.

 

[3gr8boys]

It also seems like it harder to plan with Park Hopper.

I think that is true, especially if you are trying to plan a full day and can't really be sure how everyone will feel. We don't actually plan our hopping. We plan in which park to start the day and hopping comes in, with the exception of one or two planned evening events, when the kids want to do different things and we split up to follow everyone's whims.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

. I will say that, occasionally, we plan to hit up a park in the evening but I'm too worn out so I blow it off. That's the kind of flexibility I'm talking about.

And THIS is exactly why we don't do mid-day breaks. I know I would have a hard time getting my family back to the parks after taking a few hours off. For us it's easier to stay until we are tired, then leave for the day.

 

[disneyvoice]

We have APs now but when we were still buying tickets we always got Park Hoppers. The added price is not substantial and we liked knowing that we could decide to leave one park and head to another, whatever the reason. I always did a lot of pre-planning but the rule on all of our trips has always that plans are never more important than people - meaning that if the plans for the day aren't working for us (could just be the park is so crowded it is affecting our enjoyment, someone gets tired before we were planning to leave, we don't feel like eating at the place we had planned etc) we change the plan. There have been many times that we have gone to a park in the morning and gotten a whole lot more accomplished than we expected so we decided to head to another park. Or we decided to see if there were any last minute cancellations for ADRs and someplace we really wanted was suddenly available for dinner at another park. There were times that we didn't really ended up using the Park Hoppers but we never disappointed that we had purchased them - a lot of it was just peace of mind knowing that we COULD go to another park at a moment's notice.

 

[ashleyr409]

I love park hopping. But I usually also enjoy leaving the parks in the mid-afternoon, and leaving the evening to mostly spontaneous activity. Park Hoppers also help extend the amount of park time, because it is possible to leave a park that's closing early and switch to one with evening EMH or a later close time.

I do like @luvallprincess' idea about getting hoppers if you're in a monorail or Epcot resort. My first visit was my first visit was during the Food & Wine Festival, and ended up going back to Epcot most nights to sample more of the fantastic dishes.

Evening EMH wouldn't benefit us since we are staying offsite right?

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Evening EMH wouldn't benefit us since we are staying offsite right?

Correct. You can stay in the parks, but won't be able to enter any rides/attractions.

 

[ashleyr409]

Our first 2-3 trips, we didn`t add park hopper but I knew that I could add it at anytime if we needed it. I was glad I didn`t add it in advance, we would not have used it those trips and this way, I did not end up paying that amount for something we would have ended up not using. I prefer keeping that $ in our pocket unless I am sure we will use the hoppers. Our 4th trip just recently, it was a short visit, this time we added it knowing we would use it. Like others have mentioned, I don`t usually recommend it for a 1st trip unless it`s a very short one which yours isn`t. For a first time planner with so many things to learn and figure out, I always preferred concentrating on the one park a day. If we did book dining reservations, we tried to make them for breakfast or brunch that way we weren`t attached to any plans later in the day and felt that offered us more flexibility especially when taking afternoon breaks, then there`s no set time to return to the park.

Not sure what happen here.....

 

[ashleyr409]

Correct. You can stay in the parks, but won't be able to enter any rides/attractions.

Do you think having Park Hopper is worth it not staying onsite? Meaning we cant use EMH morning or evening.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Do you think having Park Hopper is worth it not staying onsite? Meaning we cant use EMH morning or evening.

I'm not the poster you quoted but we used park hoppers back in 2011 everyday for the 5 days we had WDW tickets and we were offsite.

 

[ashleyr409]

I'm not the poster you quoted but we used park hoppers back in 2011 everyday for the 5 days we had WDW tickets and we were offsite.

How did it work out? Would you do it again?

 

[FastPass Dad]

We have always gotten it and probably always will. But we stay on property and I think that makes a huge difference. We go once a year for 7 or 8 days and always stay at either the Polynesian or the Beach club. Those might be the 2 resorts with the easiest access to multiple parks which adds a ton of value to the park hopper option. A typical day for us is to hit a park in the morning and then leave mid afternoon. We will sometimes go right to another park or, more often than not we will go back to the resort and relax by the pool for a bit. There have been times when we probably weren't in the mood to make a big production out of heading back to a park for the evening but maybe we wanted a pizza from Via Napoli for dinner. From the Beach Club, we are able to just walk over there. Once dinner is done, we are already in the park so maybe we grab a FP for something and ride a few attractions. I'm not sure we would have done that if travelling back from an off property resort. I remember one time we were staying at the Poly and while we were eating dinner at O'Hana, I was scrolling the app just out of curiosity and I found a FP for Test Track. My kids (7 & 9 at the time) begged me to go ride it. I snagged it and after dinner we took the 8 minute monorail ride to Epcot, rode TT, ended up grabbing 2 FP's for Soarin right after that and then came home. Stuff like that isn't as convenient when staying off property so that's something to consider.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

How did it work out? Would you do it again?

Just fine really.

Yes we would do it again

This past trip was onsite because it was my dream to stay onsite so it was the first time I had used EMH (and we didn't use all the ones available to us as you can see from my previous comment). Our next trip (several years down the road) we don't have a requirement of staying onsite.

The only thing for you is you have a 6 year old-your child may be the "go all day" type child or the "tires out half-way through" type child. So I think with that you'll have to sorta figure out how your family would handle it. The older children *may* like the option of being able to go to another park. I think according to your ticker you're going in a year so maybe take some time to think it over as your kids will be a tad older then. New things will be opened up for you including Toy Story land (which opens at the end of June this year). EMH is a benefit that has spread out to certain Disney Springs area hotels too so while they are technically onsite they do not have Disney transit from their hotels like Disney-owned onsite hotels do. Next year that benefit may not be there for those Disney Spring hotels or Disney adjusts EMH for their onsite guests--who knows YKWIM? I did greatly enjoy EMH but we were fine without it back in 2011.

I will say I find my area has an advantage because we have a local amusement and water park in our metro so it makes us easier to do practice runs if you will in the future. Have you gone yet to an amusement park with your children?-just as a random thought.

 

[ashleyr409]

Just fine really.

Yes we would do it again

This past trip was onsite because it was my dream to stay onsite so it was the first time I had used EMH (and we didn't use all the ones available to us as you can see from my previous comment). Our next trip (several years down the road) we don't have a requirement of staying onsite.

The only thing for you is you have a 6 year old-your child may be the "go all day" type child or the "tires out half-way through" type child. So I think with that you'll have to sorta figure out how your family would handle it. The older children *may* like the option of being able to go to another park. I think according to your ticker you're going in a year so maybe take some time to think it over as your kids will be a tad older then. New things will be opened up for you including Toy Story land (which opens at the end of June this year). EMH is a benefit that has spread out to certain Disney Springs area hotels too so while they are technically onsite they do not have Disney transit from their hotels like Disney-owned onsite hotels do. Next year that benefit may not be there for those Disney Spring hotels or Disney adjusts EMH for their onsite guests--who knows YKWIM? I did greatly enjoy EMH but we were fine without it back in 2011.

I will say I find my area has an advantage because we have a local amusement and water park in our metro so it makes us easier to do practice runs if you will in the future. Have you gone yet to an amusement park with your children?-just as a random thought.

We go to the state fair every year, but its nothing like Disney. My little one is an all day kid. He will keep going, but once you stop its a wrap. lol
I am afraid that I am overthinking this and doing way more than we need to. I am thinking that maybe this first trip we will focus on one park at a time.

On another note, we plan on having daily walks closer to our trip to help us out.( Basically help me out )

 

[bryanb]

Do you think having Park Hopper is worth it not staying onsite? Meaning we cant use EMH morning or evening.

Park Hoppers are not essential for a first visit, in my opinion, but I made good use of them my first time. I was staying off-site. I also vacationed with an extremely flexible schedule, without any advance planning.

Even without park hoppers, there should be enough to do in each park that you can spend a whole day on your first visit. If you're on the fence, you can always buy a non-hopper ticket and then upgrade at any ticket booth once you change your mind.

Here's how I would make the decision:
1. Assuming you don't have hoppers, list which park would you want to visit on each day. Since you're there for six days, which ones will you visit twice during your stay? Which ones would you visit only once? Are you okay with that?
2. Make a list of must-dos (any particular shows, fireworks, attractions, dining). If you don't know WDW yet and don't have must-dos, no need to stress about this. It's all new to you anyway! You might find some new and interesting things to add to your list in the run-up to your trip, and incorporate them into your list. If your list of must-dos starts to overlap, then you might want hoppers.
3. Wait until you can book FP+ reservations (30 days prior to your offsite stay). Maybe you can only get your favorites at Hollywood Studios on two different mornings, for example, but you don't want to spend two whole days there. Then park hoppers start coming in handy.

 

[ashleyr409]

.

 

[ashleyr409]

Park Hoppers are not essential for a first visit, in my opinion, but I made good use of them my first time. I was staying off-site. I also vacationed with an extremely flexible schedule, without any advance planning.

Even without park hoppers, there should be enough to do in each park that you can spend a whole day on your first visit. If you're on the fence, you can always buy a non-hopper ticket and then upgrade at any ticket booth once you change your mind.

Here's how I would make the decision:
1. Assuming you don't have hoppers, list which park would you want to visit on each day. Since you're there for six days, which ones will you visit twice during your stay? Which ones would you visit only once? Are you okay with that?
2. Make a list of must-dos (any particular shows, fireworks, attractions, dining). If you don't know WDW yet and don't have must-dos, no need to stress about this. It's all new to you anyway! You might find some new and interesting things to add to your list in the run-up to your trip, and incorporate them into your list. If your list of must-dos starts to overlap, then you might want hoppers.
3. Wait until you can book FP+ reservations (30 days prior to your offsite stay). Maybe you can only get your favorites at Hollywood Studios on two different mornings, for example, but you don't want to spend two whole days there. Then park hoppers start coming in handy.

Great idea....

 

[Gehrig1B]

We too are park hoppers. There are days we will visit 3 parks. We generally stay 8-10 days. We also enjoy table service in the evenings so the park hopper allows the flexibility to choose our ADRs at 180 days but not be tied into that park for the entire day when planning.

I have never understood why people argue that you waste too much time when hopping from one park to another but have no problem queueing for an hour or more. The bus, walk, boat, monorail ride from one park to another can be a nice way to have a relaxing break as you hop in my opinion.

Hopping does work best methinks when staying on site though. One other advantage already mentioned is the ability to finish the evening at MK as it often is the one park to stay open the latest.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We go to the state fair every year, but its nothing like Disney. My little one is an all day kid. He will keep going, but once you stop its a wrap. lol
I am afraid that I am overthinking this and doing way more than we need to. I am thinking that maybe this first trip we will focus on one park at a time.

An all-day kid is nice.

I can totally understand not getting park hoppers. For us personally it's the one expense I think we'll stick with so long as they sell them and just budget it in because we love the option for flexibility and that's important to us personally.

You do whatever you think is best for your traveling party. It is after all your trip

On another note, we plan on having daily walks closer to our trip to help us out.( Basically help me out )

I know how that goes