Park hoppers worth it?

[EveDallas]

I'm hoping to surprise DS with a short trip for his birthday. If it works out, we'll be there for 4-5 days at the beginning of August and staying at POP. The major thing I'm stuck on is whether or not to get park hoppers. If I don't get them, I'll be saving about $120, which could be a large chunk of our food budget. I'm just wondering if I'll regret being stuck in one park each day. Thoughts?

 

[mrsklamc]

We didn't get them two trips ago, and had them last time. Honestly, it worked better for us not to have the hoppers. We wasted time going from one park to another.

 

[mm1971]

I'm hoping to surprise DS with a short trip for his birthday. If it works out, we'll be there for 4-5 days at the beginning of August and staying at POP. The major thing I'm stuck on is whether or not to get park hoppers. If I don't get them, I'll be saving about $120, which could be a large chunk of our food budget. I'm just wondering if I'll regret being stuck in one park each day. Thoughts?

It's worth it for us. We tend to leave a park if it gets really busy and head somewhere else or back to the pool. We will do AK one day and then as it closes, have dinner and then head over to EPCOT or MK for EMH's if available. We have also been know to do rope drop at HS for TSM and RnR (two of our favorites) and then heading to another park.

It really depends on your family and how you like to tour the parks. We really don't like being stuck in any one place (call me type A ). We also rent a car and head to Dunkin Donuts right off the property some mornings for a quick breakfast, try US/IOA and SeaWorld some trips and like to be able to get where we want quickly without waiting or transferring from one bus to another. Some days we go all day at one park, others we hop. Last time we saw Illuminations in EPCOT and then monorailed over to MK for the castle show and Wishes.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm hoping to surprise DS with a short trip for his birthday. If it works out, we'll be there for 4-5 days at the beginning of August and staying at POP. The major thing I'm stuck on is whether or not to get park hoppers. If I don't get them, I'll be saving about $120, which could be a large chunk of our food budget. I'm just wondering if I'll regret being stuck in one park each day. Thoughts?

I would not get them for a 4-5 day trip. If you were staying longer, then the cost gets spread out over more days and you're more likely to want to hop over to a second park after you've done all you want at one park. Just plan your days around whichever parks will be open the longest and when the nighttime parades/shows/fireworks will be available. You should be fine without hoppers.

 

[eliza61]

Just got back from a trip to wdw last week.

Wednesday morning we went to MK. got there around 9:30. no weather issues.

the following rides were down.
1) space mountain
2) dumbo (both of them)
3) pirates of the carribean
4) splash mountain (scheduled).

So pretty much 4 out of the 5 top headliners were out of commission. we waited an hour and they still were not running.

We bailed and took the monorail over to Epcot. easy breezy. I would have been seriously pissed if this was my only mk day and we were stuck. You could still get fast passes.

 

[LilMrsSunshine]

We have always purchased Park Hoppers. They especially come in handy when the parks aren't busy and you are done riding all of the rides before dinner, which has happened to us a couple of times. We then hop to the next park and start on those.

 

[wiigirl]

We didn't get them two trips ago, and had them last time. Honestly, it worked better for us not to have the hoppers. We wasted time going from one park to another.

Agreed....for longer trips I don't, bt for short trips I do.

 

[Disworldluv]

My wife and I always get park hoppers with non-expiration. We know we will be back to Disney at least yearly and we are Disney veterans. We have our favorite rides for each park and plan our park attendance around crowd
estimates for each day.

 

[elcodfish]

If you aren't sure, you can always add the hoppers once you get there. It costs the same amount if you add it on the first day or the last.

 

[Pigeon]

Totally not worth it for us. We don't go often and there is way more than enough to do in one park per day that I would waste time going to a different park. We got them once and I don't think we park hopped once all week.

 

[disney1990]

We always have hoppers. I can't stand the thought of going to a park and not being able to go back to that same park to do something we might have missed or wanted to do again. Especially doing Food and Wine or Flower and Garden, when we are likely to go to one park during the morning and then to Epcot in the afternoon/evening.

 

[geckodani]

If you aren't sure, you can always add the hoppers once you get there. It costs the same amount if you add it on the first day or the last.

This is what I've done on the last two trips I took. We ended up adding hoppers one one trip so we could change plans and avoid some rain, and left them off on the second.

I'd set the money aside but wait until you are there to decide. If you need/want them, it doesn't take long to have them added.

 

[Darcy03231]

I don't get them for short trips. If you only have 4-5 days I think there's enough to see/do in each park to spend the day there. As a PP pointed out, if you decide you want to hop then you can always add it.

 

[bigmamimia]

I apologize if you have seen me post this already. It seemed to be such a good deal that I have been telling everyone about it. A few weeks ago the website ebates.com ran a special where you could get 10.5% cash back on an "activity" transaction from orbitz. Orbitz was offering a 5day base ticket for the price of a 3 day ticket. We saved $50 per ticket. Ebates normally offers 5.25% cash on orbitz activities which would have you saving about $37 per ticket, or wait for the 10.5% deal to come back (they've had it available twice in the last month). We could have saved a few dollars extra if we added the park hoppers at that time but we aren't sure if we will need them. We will upgrade at the park if we want to use them while there. You could essentially save enough money for another night hotel stay, or another day in the park, or the park hoppers.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Well you are going in August and it will be boiling hot in Aug. So you will probably go to a park in the morning and then leave in the afternoon around 11:00 or noon when it gets too hot. Then you can go back in the evening after 5p.m when it cools off. So no don't park hop

 

[rlduvall]

We always get Park Hoppers [except for now we usually have an AP] because we like to go back to the room around 2:00 to swim and relax. I always find it more fun to go back to a different park in the evening. Plus, Illuminations is my favorite nighttime show and I could watch it every night.

 

[ironpig70]

I was thinking about them and started looking at schedules and one day I was looking at AK closed at 7pm and MK had EMH till 1am. For me this would be worth it. Especially when fireworks would be at 9/10 and the park empties out. An extra 5 hours in a park and 3 where crowds would be low.

 

[Sagginit]

it really depends on your touring style. we always get them because we like the freedom. AK is not our favorite but we like to go so we typically go there for the AM and don't go back after our mid day break. we prefer restaurants in epcot so often go there at night just to do a ride or two and eat.

if you are going commando style and want to hit every ride on a touring plan you would probably be fine with no park hoppers. or if you have small children and move slower so you need more time in the parks each day.

don't just look at the money because this will really affect your experience.

 

[Southernmiss]

We love EMH and hoppers. We may visit one park in the morning, one in the afternoon/evening and one for EMH. Would not do Disney without staying onsite and having hoppers. Heck, we have closed down a park and then hopped over to MK for late 3 a.m. EMH. Great memories!

We tour commando and if we found that a park was too crowded we would hop over to another park in a heartbeat.

 

[sarah4770]

I would say it depends on your sons age and stamina. If he is 5 years old, then no.... I don't think its worth it. Myself and grown children, yes, it is worth it because we usually only go to the parks for a couple of days, and just do our favorites, or what is new since last time, and then head out at night to see wishes, fantasmic, have dinner, etc. I think it depends on his age, and how much you have already seen.