Park Hoppers or Not

[rsagusti]

From a Loyal Park Hopper user (we always have them and love them). This will be our 5th trip with the kids, now ages 5 and 8. We always use park hoppers and like the flexibility. Plus with AK being more of a half day place and Epcot being more half day for us in the past it made sense. We liked taking afternoon breaks I would take the youngest back to the hotel for a nap, and DH would take the oldest to a different park for a favorite ride. It was more for flexibility and having the ability to go where we wanted when we wanted. We never go during peak times.

Anyway this trip, I'm thinking Epcot and AK might be more full day parks. So I'm debating dropping the Park hoppers.

Initially my plan was:
day 1: HS - RD till 3:30 boat to Epcot stay till close
day 2: MK - afternoon break, but ADR at MK in the evening.
day 3: AK - boma dinner ADR, then MK in the evening (EMH till 1am) <---- this would change for RoL
day 4: MK - all day, ADR lunch and dinner
day 5: HS - RD till close ADR dinner (EMH midnight)

but now with RoL I'm thinking AK might be all day for us. We could also increase our D1: Epcot day for all day, the F&G will be going on (mid-late may) so we could do that more this trip.

Ditching Park hoppers would save us $365 is it worth it to be able to park hop 1 or 2 days possibly? I don't think we'd use it more than that...

 

[Robo]

You can certainly WAIT to add the the Hoppers if you decide you NEED them.

Same price, whenever you decide.

 

[supersnoop]

Ditching Park hoppers would save us $365

How did you come up with that number? It shouldn't be near that much for four of you.

 

[HM]

My family were loyal Hoppers too for many many many years. My last trip, we got Base tickets. We found it worked for us just fine. We planned a bit differently since we couldn't just hop to Epcot for dinner or over to MK for late hours, but we had a fine time just doing a park a day. (We did keep the option of adding hoppers in our heads, but we never felt we needed to).

 

[RedStars]

We're not a hopper family (my kids are 4 and 7). Unless I'm hopping every day, I can't justify the cost. We did it one year and we were all exhausted by day 4.

But we're also not RD or late night people either.

When my kids are a little older, I would consider it.

 

[Livvie]

From a Loyal Park Hopper user (we always have them and love them). This will be our 5th trip with the kids, now ages 5 and 8. We always use park hoppers and like the flexibility. Plus with AK being more of a half day place and Epcot being more half day for us in the past it made sense. We liked taking afternoon breaks I would take the youngest back to the hotel for a nap, and DH would take the oldest to a different park for a favorite ride. It was more for flexibility and having the ability to go where we wanted when we wanted. We never go during peak times.

Anyway this trip, I'm thinking Epcot and AK might be more full day parks. So I'm debating dropping the Park hoppers.

Initially my plan was:
day 1: HS - RD till 3:30 boat to Epcot stay till close
day 2: MK - afternoon break, but ADR at MK in the evening.
day 3: AK - boma dinner ADR, then MK in the evening (EMH till 1am) <---- this would change for RoL
day 4: MK - all day, ADR lunch and dinner
day 5: HS - RD till close ADR dinner (EMH midnight)

but now with RoL I'm thinking AK might be all day for us. We could also increase our D1: Epcot day for all day, the F&G will be going on (mid-late may) so we could do that more this trip.

Ditching Park hoppers would save us $365 is it worth it to be able to park hop 1 or 2 days possibly? I don't think we'd use it more than that...

I wouldn't pay $365 to hop for one or two days. I've found hopping to not be as useful as it used to be. With little kids, it wouldn't be worth the time or effort.

 

[HM]

How did you come up with that number? It shouldn't be near that much for four of you.

Yeah, wouldn't be more like $240?

 

[Livvie]

How did you come up with that number? It shouldn't be near that much for four of you.

Park hopping is over $73 a ticket for any 4 day or longer ticket.

 

[rsagusti]

I was wrong its only $276 for some reason my browser is extremely slow on the Disney site and added 3 adults instead of 2.

 

[Livvie]

Yeah, wouldn't be more like $240?

$293.XX

 

[rsagusti]

How did you come up with that number? It shouldn't be near that much for four of you.

I was wrong its only $276 for some reason my browser is extremely slow on the Disney site and added 3 adults instead of 2.

 

[LSUfan4444]

From a Loyal Park Hopper user (we always have them and love them). This will be our 5th trip with the kids, now ages 5 and 8. We always use park hoppers and like the flexibility. Plus with AK being more of a half day place and Epcot being more half day for us in the past it made sense. We liked taking afternoon breaks I would take the youngest back to the hotel for a nap, and DH would take the oldest to a different park for a favorite ride. It was more for flexibility and having the ability to go where we wanted when we wanted. We never go during peak times.

Anyway this trip, I'm thinking Epcot and AK might be more full day parks. So I'm debating dropping the Park hoppers.

Initially my plan was:
day 1: HS - RD till 3:30 boat to Epcot stay till close
day 2: MK - afternoon break, but ADR at MK in the evening.
day 3: AK - boma dinner ADR, then MK in the evening (EMH till 1am) <---- this would change for RoL
day 4: MK - all day, ADR lunch and dinner
day 5: HS - RD till close ADR dinner (EMH midnight)

but now with RoL I'm thinking AK might be all day for us. We could also increase our D1: Epcot day for all day, the F&G will be going on (mid-late may) so we could do that more this trip.

Ditching Park hoppers would save us $365 is it worth it to be able to park hop 1 or 2 days possibly? I don't think we'd use it more than that...

Success for me is largely based on efficiency and hoppers allows for almost more flexibility and efficiency. To me, it's as much as the overall cost as food. There are other ways I can cut back and save with much less impact my overall vacation.

 

[Disneynov2015]

Would it make sense to buy an additional park day (assuming you are getting a package thru disney)? I think adding an additional day onto a package cost you less than the PH and gives you a little built in flexibility.

 

[rajak73]

How did you come up with that number? It shouldn't be near that much for four of you.

I wondered the same thing, 5 day hoppers on Disney site are $69 higher than regular price. $365 adds up to $91 per ticket for 4. OP, we always get hoppers, usually we have 6-8 day passes so there are some times that we see things in one park we want and end up going to different parks that last couple of days, for us, it's just convenience, but there are only 2 of us too.

 

[Robo]

Would it make sense to buy an additional park day (assuming you are getting a package thru disney)? I think adding an additional day onto a package cost you less than the PH and gives you a little built in flexibility.

But, not if the group is not going to be at WDW for an extra day.

Also, guests do not need to have a resort package to add a day (or other upgrades) to a ticket.

 

[siskaren]

Would it make sense to buy an additional park day (assuming you are getting a package thru disney)? I think adding an additional day onto a package cost you less than the PH and gives you a little built in flexibility.

It sounds like you think that you can buy an extra day in order to park hop for one day, but it doesn't work that way.

 

[DSLRuser]

We have not had them the last few times and dont miss them. Especially in the FP+ era.

 

[sharadoc]

We use hoppers in the summer and go to MK since it's usually open until 11. We get there during the first parade and can do a heck of a lot while everyone is watching the parade and Wishes. So our schedule is to pick a park during the morning and lunch in the park; back to the resort for pool, relaxing time; dinner at the resort (kitchen or grill); then MK. We find we rarely go to MK during the day any more.

 

[rsagusti]

We use hoppers in the summer and go to MK since it's usually open until 11. We get there during the first parade and can do a heck of a lot while everyone is watching the parade and Wishes. So our schedule is to pick a park during the morning and lunch in the park; back to the resort for pool, relaxing time; dinner at the resort (kitchen or grill); then MK. We find we rarely go to MK during the day any more.

That's it, I'd like to keep our options open for the morning, we do our ADRs for dinner so if the kids really want to go somewhere else first thing in the morning we can park hop. hmm maybe i'll just keep them and see if we use them this year, if not i'll remind myself to wait on getting them next time?

 

[velvetsqueeze]

I'd rather spend $300 on something else. Honestly, I think there's plenty to do in every park for a day (even AK if you walk slow enough and watch a surgery on Rafiki's Island LOL). Look for hidden Mickeys, watch a show you haven't seen in a while, stand in line for a character meet and greet, walk behind a parade and wave to people as if you're in the parade. There's so much to absorb at every park, but you'll miss most of the little things if you're rushing around between parks.