Park Hopping Help

[pudinhd]

I am hoping for some tips and suggestions for the best way to park hop. There are normally just 2 of us, but we are going with a larger group of adults in late June. We will have park hoppers, but I have never actually done a trip with a lot of back & forth and Fast Passes from both parks. I would appreciate anything you can share! Thanks!!

 

[ashley0139]

What sort of help are you looking for in regards to it? I can't think of anything someone who's been there before wouldn't already know. You can send a runner to the other park you are not in to get fastpasses for something over there, as long as everyone has entered into one of the parks. Other than that, walk back and forth as you see fit?

 

[pudinhd]

I think I'm looking for any tips about planning the order of rides and Fast Passes between the two parks. Thanks!

 

[RE1333]

I would just add that I found park hoping to be super convenient and easy on my recent (and first) trip. I ended up running back and fourth quite a bit to double up on fast passes. Just check the app to see which fast pass times are being distributed and sort of plan out when to grab each set to get th most bang for your buck with the least hoping back and fourth. Radiator Springs is a good one to take advantage of because they end up distributing later fast passes relatively early in the day because it's so popular. When I was in Disneyland, I would watch Radiator Springs in the app until the times got to the evening and then run over to grab fast passes for that night. And if your return time is far off like that, you can get more fast passes before those ones are even ready to use. A few times I had so many fast passes, it was hard just keeping the papers sorted.

 

[RE1333]

I just remembered that MaxPass may be up and running by late June. That could change everything.

 

[pudinhd]

I just remembered that MaxPass may be up and running by late June. That could change everything.

I've been wondering about that!!!

 

[branv]

Hoping you don't mind my adding a follow up question about FPs and hopping:

If you can hold FPs to both parks, does this mean they don't "talk" to each other? As in, can we spend the morning at DL, but send a runner over midmorning to get evening FPs for Racers, or will pulling that FP at DCA put is into a 2- hour waiting period for another FP over at DL?

Oh wait. Can one person even take our tickets over to DCA to get FPs, or do we all need to enter the park too? (Realizing I don't even know if they do biometrics for tickets like at WDW!)

 

[Xenorye]

Hoping you don't mind my adding a follow up question about FPs and hopping:

If you can hold FPs to both parks, does this mean they don't "talk" to each other? As in, can we spend the morning at DL, but send a runner over midmorning to get evening FPs for Racers, or will pulling that FP at DCA put is into a 2- hour waiting period for another FP over at DL?

Oh wait. Can one person even take our tickets over to DCA to get FPs, or do we all need to enter the park too? (Realizing I don't even know if they do biometrics for tickets like at WDW!)

You are correct -- the two parks don't "talk" to each other regarding FPs. You can hold a FP for Disneyland and DCA at the same time. (I'm 99% sure -- someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong.)

And yes, one person can take everyone's tickets to the other park to get FPs. The only requirement is that the tickets being used for FPs have been activated at one of the parks that day (doesn't matter which one) -- they have to be "active" on that day.

 

[stubby]

I just remembered that MaxPass may be up and running by late June. That could change everything.

I know a lot of people are against it but I think I am kind of looking forward to it. We are all day Disney people. We get there at opening and stay til 10 at least. So our legs by day 3 are feeling rough and by day 5 are just done. So having this option would eliminate some walking for us. Not to mention that on crazy days(we are going 4th of July) we will leave Disneyland for DCA and we could potentially (we will see how it works) now get fps for a later return to Disneyland that night. I know only time will tell and I don't think we would do it every day we are there but it sure might be nice for day 5.

 

[figment_jii]

I don't really have any advice on the order of rides or use of FP for park hopping with a large group, but I will say, allow more time than you normally need to "hop". I went with a large group a several years ago (9 adults and 2 kids, I think) and it took quite a while to get everyone moving in the same direction and to keep them moving together. I think by the end of the trip, we had begun allowing anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to "hop" between the parks.