Park hopping: better to drive or take Disney transportation?

[Miss Frankie J]

Hello!

I'm traveling to WDW in august and I am an Annual passholder and my sister has a 7 day park hopper ticket. Right now I'm going through my head some strategies for hopping.

Last year we simply went back to parking and drove to the next park since we didn't hop often.
But this year we are hopping often so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this efficiently.

my main concern is hopping from epcot to HS. I know there is a boat transportation from international gateway, but if we park at epcot, take the boat to HS till close how would we get back to our car in epcot?? would we be able to still take a bus back to epcot? will it be packed??

 

[bumbershoot]

We just drive.

ETA: and we stay on property when doing the wdw part of our trip. Driving is good for us. We even drive to MK.

 

[NH-to-FL]

I think you would be best to drive to HS. Depending on the HS closing time the boat might not get you back to the International Gateway entrance of Epcot before it closes at 9pm.

 

[sam_gordon]

Are you staying on the grounds? If so, I would use Disney transportation. If not, drive.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I always decide based on how much I'm drinking. If I'm drinking alot in Epcot, I won't drive to the park that day.

If you aren't drinking much, and are driving to Epcot and then planning on going to DHS - I'd drive because the boats take 45 minutes to get between the parks and you could drive quicker.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I think you would be best to drive to HS. Depending on the HS closing time the boat might not get you back to the International Gateway entrance of Epcot before it closes at 9pm.

They wouldn't take the boat, though. They'd use the bus that goes from DHS to the front of Epcot - where the car will be parked.

There's another option if you're planning to hop a lot, the Express buses between parks. See the thread pinned to the top of this forum for more information.

 

[jdisnut]

I prefer to drive my own car over using Disney's inept transportation in most circumstance. If mitigating time spent in transit is your primary concern, there's really no other option.

 

[georgina]

We usually drive when hopping also. If you are hopping late afternoon, there is a good chance you can get a close up parking space at the 2nd park if they have stopped directing parking and just let you pick your own row.

 

[Spunky946]

One day we went to magic kingdom during the day and then took a break. We went to Hollywood afterwards and drove. We had planned to leave the park before closing and hop to Epcot for extra magic hours. We were going to take the boat, but knew that we might have to walk back because the boat wouldn't be running and then walk to the car instead of the tram. We ended up leaving right at park closing and missed the boat, so we ended up driving and parking at Epcot which was much faster. Dh and ds ended up leaving before dd and I and took the car back and dd and I took the bus back. I think overall having done both, driving is usually faster.