Park Hopping - Observations + Thoughts 2021

[DisneyCoach13]

I think it will be interesting to see how park hopping will work with an ADR in a 2nd park that might reach capacity and what happens to my reservation.

I'm taking my adult cousin in Feb for her first trip since she was an infant and she wants to eat in all the castles which we can do on our MK days but if 220 is open I'd love to take her there - but for our plans, we would need to hop to Epcot hat night after spending the day in AK or HS....

AND, in 3 weeks when I can book ADRs for that trip, do I play it safe and only book dining for same-day parks or do I risk it??

makes me nervous for this pre-planner!

from what I’ve heard/read. If you have an ADR and you’re unable to park hop due to capacity Disney will either not charge you/ or refund you the money. Disney is not in the business of trying to get you.
My personal opinion is I’d risk that I can park hop to Epcot.

 

[Naomeri]

Don't forget the return of parkhoppIng could bring announcement of APs returning just in time for all that money Santa put in your holiday stocking.

From your lips to Mickey’s ears! I‘ve got a 9 day/8 night trip starting exactly 1 year from today (omg!) and an AP would be great for tickets and discounts. Plus I’d be tempted to randomly pop down for short trips before then if I catch a deal.

 

[Avery&Todd]

from what I’ve heard/read. If you have an ADR and you’re unable to park hop due to capacity Disney will either not charge you/ or refund you the money. Disney is not in the business of trying to get you.
My personal opinion is I’d risk that I can park hop to Epcot.

I agree that Disney is not in the business to get me and I wouldn't expect them to charge me the No-show fee, but if I can't get into the park then I'm out of dinner plans....

Since we don't know when 220 will open, I will probably books something for our Epcot night that I know we can drop and pick it up if it opens....

 

[scrappinginontario]

Looking forward to hopping being available again!

I look at it as much the same in general as it was in the past. People will want to leave their original park and hop to a different park which will mean in most cases there will be availability to do so. Since a BG is taken out of the equation for DHS I think it will be an option most days to hop there too.

 

[heresabe]

Its a good option for those who are staying next to Epcot as an example for dinner after a day in another park.

From my perspective, I don't think I would want to spend the park-hopping fee solely to have dinner @ Epcot (and spend more $$$).

 

[Avery&Todd]

and looking at the park hour calendar that is posted so far, it won't be very advantageous to park hop from lets say, HS to MK at 2pm since MK closes at 6pm...

during "normal times" MK would have closed at what time? 8pm, or maybe 9pm??

 

[VandVsmama]

My expectations re: ADRs at a park which you're hopping to is that I'd be gambling. I fully expect that Disney will follow through and enforce their existing ADR cancellation policy. For this reason, I've got mostly lunch time ADRs for our upcoming trip in January, whereas before they announced that park hopping would resume, I had a couple of dinner time ADRs planned instead.

I think the odds of anyone park hopping to HS are pretty low at the moment, since that park is the one that "sells out" the most often on park reservations.

We are hoping to park hop to Epcot one evening during our trip, but we'd be doing QS food for dinner in that situation.

 

[loves to dive]

I love that it's going to be back because that was a game changer for us, I wasn't going without it. The 2:00 is a little late for me since we rarely spend that much time in one park before hopping but we can make it work. I hope to be going around late March early to mid-April.

We (or I going solo) will probably start a day at MK and try to make it til 2 then hop over to Epcot for the F&G booths for lunch and/or supper. I know we will end every day at either Epcot or HS no matter where we start. RoTR is not a must do for us, we did it in Jan. and as far as we were concerned we were o.k. with not doing it again. We actually didn't do FOP that trip at all and that is my son's favorite ride in all the parks. We are not ride centric, we just enjoy walking around the parks and enjoying the place. We ride some rides if we want to, which is why park hopping is important to us. I can see spending the morning at AK, eating lunch there then hopping over MK if it's not full for a few hours if it closes early. I'm assuming with the new system you can still do more than 2 hops if the parks are available. In that case, I could see doing AK til 2, hopping to MK for a couple of hours then hopping to Epcot for F&G booths for supper. We always stay in an Epcot resort so hopping between Epcot and HS is always easy.

 

[sethschroeder]

From my perspective, I don't think I would want to spend the park-hopping fee solely to have dinner @ Epcot (and spend more $$$).

Except Park Hoppers are good for you know Park Hopping. You are literally next to two parks. Its super easy to jump in to Epcot for the afternoon/evening to do rides, shows, entertainment, festival booths, World Showcase shops, or grabbing dinner.

I know some people go to the park at opening and leave at closing but that is not my idea of a vacation. Its great to go to the normal park in the morning, leave when it gets hot/crowded, and then just jump in to Epcot/HS in the evening. (have to see how HS is in January to hop there in the evening).

Last trip it was great as it was easy to go in to Epcot eat some F+W booth food and then jump to HS to grab FP+ at TT or RR in the evening and get a couple rides in as well.

I fully expect that Disney will follow through and enforce their existing ADR cancellation policy.

They are not charging for ADRs right now though. That could change with return of Park Hopping but I would expect an either or. Either I can get in to the park or they cancel the ADR for free.

I am banking on getting in to Epcot most evenings. I would suspect having an ADR allows you in since ADRs are limited and would mean they do have space in the park for you.

Not sure how the system is setup but I would expect it to know that x number of people have ADRs through the end of the day and have not entered the park yet so they leave that number of spots open and turn away people without ADRs. Thats how it worked for Star Wars Land when it opened with Oga's. Also in normal times outside of Phase 4 closing I believe an ADR gets you in the park as well.

There is 12 restaurants with ADRs in EPCOT, maybe 100-200 guests/hr, between 4PM-8PM thats 4,800-9,600 guests. Most will likely already be in the park and 30% of EPCOT would roughly be 35k people. Doesn't seem out of the question to allow ADR holders to enter we will see I guess in January. Good thing is that Epcot should be easy to get for a Park Reservation and I can just drop a HS/MK day or two.

 

[lanejudy]

I would suspect having an ADR allows you in since ADRs are limited and would mean they do have space in the park for you.

I would not count on that. The website current specifically states "Dining reservations do not guarantee admission to the park." I would take that to mean it won't guarantee access via hopping, either.

 

[sethschroeder]

I would not count on that. The website current specifically states "Dining reservations do not guarantee admission to the park." I would take that to mean it won't guarantee access via hopping, either.

Nothing I am talking about applies until January 1st when hopping opens. You also would need to enter your first park of the day before being allowed to hop as well.

Also going off the Park Hopper blog it seems its just open hopping typically starting around 2PM each day. So seems like they expect a fairly easy time to hop otherwise I would think they would already have stronger verbiage about needing to reserve the parking hopping park.

 

[VandVsmama]

I would not count on that. The website current specifically states "Dining reservations do not guarantee admission to the park." I would take that to mean it won't guarantee access via hopping, either.

I agree.

 

[LSUfan4444]

and looking at the park hour calendar that is posted so far, it won't be very advantageous to park hop from lets say, HS to MK at 2pm since MK closes at 6pm...

during "normal times" MK would have closed at what time? 8pm, or maybe 9pm??

I think it's going to be advantageous for those people who plan a mid day break anyway. Lets say you arent even going to try to get a boarding group and no plans to go to GE on that day. You can knock out M&MRR and Sunset Blvd and pretty much be done with the park in less than an hour and a half. It's going to be huge because if there are no GE plans you can leave Hollywood Studios much earlier, get lunch, go back and swim or nap and be at MK when park hopping begins at 2pm.

 

[Avery&Todd]

I think it's going to be advantageous for those people who plan a mid day break anyway. Lets say you arent even going to try to get a boarding group and no plans to go to GE on that day. You can knock out M&MRR and Sunset Blvd and pretty much be done with the park in less than an hour and a half. It's going to be huge because if there are no GE plans you can leave Hollywood Studios much earlier, get lunch, go back and swim or nap and be at MK when park hopping begins at 2pm.

Hmmmm....now, that I hadn't pondered but it's a good idea that I'll go with - we will rope drop HS and we should be done by 2 or 3 and could then make our way over to MK for some rides and dinner - and maybe they'll have some ADRs up to 6pm so we can walk out of dinner to an empty part!

 

[Lanie]

I feel like last trip we had (Dec. 2018) was rushed, park hopping to make all our ADR and FPs and rope drops and parades... When they said that they were reinstating Park hopping, a part of me actually thought that we might actually forgo park hopping to make us slow down a bit...

 

[LSUfan4444]

I feel like last trip we had (Dec. 2018) was rushed, park hopping to make all our ADR and FPs and rope drops and parades... When they said that they were reinstating Park hopping, a part of me actually thought that we might actually forgo park hopping to make us slow down a bit...

Was it the park hopping that made you feel rushed or the ADRs and FPs?

I said in another thread, my trip last week was the most enjoyable in years in terms of flow, spontaneity, and ability to ride anything we wanted (RotR excluded, although we did get a boarding group). I enjoyed the non existence of FP+ wayyyy more than I thought I would.

 

[Lanie]

Was it the park hopping that made you feel rushed or the ADRs and FPs?

I said in another thread, my trip last week was the most enjoyable in years in terms of flow, spontaneity, and ability to ride anything we wanted (RotR excluded, although we did get a boarding group). I enjoyed the non existence of FP+ wayyyy more than I thought I would.

I think it was everything together... Park hopping enabled me to make dining reservations at different parks, and then I scheduled seeing all of the nightime shows, and then with all the FP+, it was just too much... One of my favorite parts is walking (and eating!) around World Showcase, and while we did that one evening, we had to hurry because we were seeing the MK fireworks...

I'm hoping we go in December 2021 (we're Canadians, so that further complicates the trip this year), and I am trying to talk myself out of trying to park commando everything again!

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I skimmed through the posts and still wondering if this is "true" park-hopping (we can go to any park whenever) or a COVID-limited park-hopping that still requires reservations and limitations? We are itching to visit Disney again, but since the prices seem to be the same (or even higher) than pre-COVID, want to wait until we can get the full experience for the money. Thanks everyone.

 

[Naomeri]

I skimmed through the posts and still wondering if this is "true" park-hopping (we can go to any park whenever) or a COVID-limited park-hopping that still requires reservations and limitations? We are itching to visit Disney again, but since the prices seem to be the same (or even higher) than pre-COVID, want to wait until we can get the full experience for the money. Thanks everyone.

You reserve your first park of the day, go to that park, and then after 2pm, you can go to a different park without a reservation. As far as I understand, it’s just 2 parks per day to start with, your morning reserved park and your afternoon hop park.

 

[cjlong88]

Disney has also said they have reserved the right to change the 2pm park hopping time, which means we might see them allowing guests to park hop earlier OR later. I'm interested to see the experiences people have with PH in January.