Park Hopper

[Binglis9]

Trying to decide if park hopper is worth it — do most people actually use it a lot?

 

[Binglis9]

Family of 4 probably staying for 4 days so I’m thinking it may be worth it. We might not last all day at some parks and want to bounce back to MK.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Is this your first trip to WDW? Which parks do you want to visit?

 

[lanejudy]

My family rarely uses hoppers, we get base tickets (1 park per day). Traveling back-and-forth to parks takes time. Once we are done, we are done and head back to the resort.

ETA: If you are staying in the Epcot area and might want to hop into that park for dinner, that might be something to consider.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Family of 4 probably staying for 4 days so I’m thinking it may be worth it. We might not last all day at some parks and want to bounce back to MK.

You don’t need a park hopper to leave and go back to the same park in one day.

 

[BrianL]

Personally, I use them a lot, but I tend to do shorter trips and may be fitting in two parks in one day. Travelling between Epcot and HS is so easy, and I have been known to do that - maybe even more than once! It just depends on your touring style though.

 

[HeiHei2018]

When DD was little, we just did rope drop until afternoon and were done for the day, so no hoppers. We tried hoppers for the first time when staying at an Epcot area resort, and now I am a big fan. We go four days during party season, so we start or end at MK on different days. We do a shorter trip, so 15 hour days (with a break in the middle) are doable. We get a lot more value out of LL with hoppers since we can ride our favorites at two (once three) different parks each day. I will caution that we had our longest bus trip ever trying to hop directly from MK to HS.

 

[WLWildlife]

We always do park hoppers and we hop everyday. We like doing 2 parks a day. We like options, especially if one park is crowded.

 

[msmayor]

I will always have park hoppers. It makes it so much easier to pivot plans if needed.

 

[MPD]

We always get park hoppers. Our touring style is early morning to early afternoon, take a break at the hotel, back to the parks late afternoon to close. And we like the flexibility of being able to go to a different park in the evening. But it is absolutely doable without hoppers.

 

[tzolkin]

We have always used them and find them absolutely essential to the way our family likes to vacation at Disney. That said, I don't think they are for everyone and may be a waste of money depending on the type of trip you are planning.

If you have not done other Disney trips, two considerations that may sway you one way or the other would be:
1. Where are you staying? Ex. If you're staying in the Epcot resort area, you may be more likely to use the park hopper to go to Epcot or Hollywood Studios multiple times during your trip since they are just a quick walk or boat ride away.
2. How much advance planning are you doing? If you're booking dining reservations, lightning lanes, etc and are going to have all your days planned out, you're probably less likely to have the "free time" to park hop randomly on a whim.

 

[Disneylover99]

If you’re undecided about parkhoppers, don’t buy them now. You can always add them on at some point during your trip if you feel the desire to hop.

 

[ThreeKMom]

We always park hop. We like to experience each park in the day and at night - its such a different vibe, but we always take a break around lunch time. We go back to our resort and either take a nap or relax at the pool then shower and go back to a park for dinner and nighttime adventures. That being said we usually stay in an epcot resort, however we have done the same routine at Coronado Springs and at Port Orleans Riverside, it just makes the break a little shorter. We tend to do 4-5 hours at each park then a break then another 3-5 hours in the evening giving us plenty of park time,

 

[Sweettears]

Personally, I use them a lot, but I tend to do shorter trips and may be fitting in two parks in one day. Travelling between Epcot and HS is so easy, and I have been known to do that - maybe even more than once! It just depends on your touring style though.

I’m with Brian. I wouldn’t go without one. Between expanded dining options and flexibility to catch the nightly shows the PH enhances my trip

 

[BrianL]

I’m with Brian. I wouldn’t go without one. Between expanded dining options and flexibility to catch the nightly shows the PH enhances my trip

Not to mention things like AK not being open that late or party days at MK (when you are not attending the party) - both are reasons I love to be able to hop.

 

[scrappinginontario]

For a first trip you can fill your days without adding park hopping as everything will be fresh and new to you. Park hopping takes time you may not wish to give up in the park you start in. Friends visited with their teen boys for the first time last month and they were busy park open to close in each of the parks. PH were not needed for their first trip. Next time, I believe they will consider them. They found budgeting or LLMP to be a better use of the funds they would otherwise have used for PH.

The only thing giving me pause is you may want to PH if you visit AK one day but even then, it's a lot of money to spend if you only hop once.

As shared by @Disneylover99, you can add them once you are there if you find you want to hop. The cost is the same now or later. One note is, adding a PH to a ticket is the same price regardless if you have 1 day or many days left on your ticket.

 

[Disneylover99]

We generally always get hoppers when we buy 10 day tickets. The longer we’re there, the looser our plans get and the more we hop.

For shorter trips, we get 4 day tickets. That’s when we go to one park a day and don’t hop. We just don’t want to waste time with transportation. Although we love hoppers, we generally don’t miss them on our short trips.

 

[Miffy]

Family of 4 probably staying for 4 days so I’m thinking it may be worth it. We might not last all day at some parks and want to bounce back to MK.

As other posters have noted, you can always add hopping to your tickets but you can't take it away if you don't use it. Since you haven't been before, you can't really know just how vast all the parks are. I've been to WDW a lot and I could easily still spend an entire day at DAK, which is the park many people think is a half-day park. But if you walk all the trails, do all the rides (even now that the dino area is closed), and see all the shows--and there are things you want to do more than once (like the safari, which is different every time)--you can easily spend an entire day there or be so exhausted after spending most of the day there that the last thing you'd want to do would be to go to another park.

That being said, I have an annual pass, so I am free to park hop, and I do it nearly every day. Maybe I spent the day at DAK and I want fireworks, so I go to MK that evening. And if I was going to be here for only 4 days (yes, that's hardly enough time to scratch the surface of WDW) I would want a park hopper.

You don't say what the makeup of your family of 4 is. Are there very young children? Do they need a lot of sleep? Do they get overstimulated and cranky? There are so many variables. For some people, park hopping isn't even an option. And you also don't say where you're staying--on-site or off-site. That could make a difference as well.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We love park hoppers. Always have them and the one trip we didn't, we wished we had. We love going to a park in the morning and switching up to a different park at night. It is great having the option on a given day... If we feel like hopping we can, if we don't, we don't have to. We are also big Epcot people - we love being able to visit there as much as we can each trip. So it really depends on your family.