Park hopping pros, your help is needed!!!

[mom22boys]

We have purchased 4 day park hopper passes, and I am wondering "how do you park hop?" Do you visit one park in the morning, rest for a little in the afternoon, and then head to another park? How do you decide which park to visit when? How do you know how much time to allow for each park? Do you ever visit one park and then hop right over to another? What works for your family? As you can see I have lots of questions. Please feel free to send any tips and advice my way! I have been checking the best days guide and am trying to consider EMH and it just feels so overwhelming!

Much thanks!

 

[oogieboogie]

HI!

The way we hop - we go to one park until lunch, then lunch at either the park or a resort, back to hotel for swim/nap, another park in the afternoon or dinner then park.

Sometimes, when we go to a park in the morning then we don't feel like staying there, we'll just hop on to another park.

We go to the morning EMH at MK always, the morning Epcot sometimes, and the morning EMH at MGM and AK rarely. We went to the evening EMH at MK, evening at Epcot, and evening MGM rarely, never went to evening AK yet.

We love park hopping.

 

[Grumpy_Disney_Dad]

My Family loves the park hooper and use it almost everyday on our trip. We usually spend the first whole day in MK . Then on the second day we do MGM inthe morning (emh) and leave about noon to spend the rest of the day at EPCOT. The 3rd day we either hit a water park or DTD until 2ish then go to the park of our choice (usually MK for emh) then on the fourth day we hit AK until 5 or so (after stars and motorcars parade) then jump to another park(usually WS @ Epcot. On the5th day we let each person pick 2 rides they want to go on before we leave that night, and hop around between parks riding those rides. I know that the 3rd day technically isnt "park hopping" but with the reduced price per day of the MYW tickets, i dont feel so bad about only spending a 1/2 day in the parks. Hope this helps you out

 

[DisneyCP2002]

For me, I stay in the park until I've done all the rides/shows I want. Then I catch a bus/monorail and begin to explore the other park. I always allow 1 full day for MK and Epcot. THose are the two parks with the most to see.

 

[PCFriar80]

We generally hit a park for it's early EMH, stay 2 - 3 hours and hit the key attractions....ex. AK; Safari, It's Tough to be a Bug, Festival of the Lion King, and Dinosaur. With an 8:00 AM start you can generally hit those in 2 - 3 hours, plus some walking time on the trails in Africa/Asia. If the weather's nice, we'll head back to the resort for lunch and pool time until late afternoon. We generally go to Epcot at night since we stay at the BCV's . They have a lot of entertainment and dining options. Another thought is MGM for late afternoon/evening attractions, capped off by Fantasmic. If the weather is not pool worthy, then we'll hop between a couple of parks just to keep it interesting! Hope that helps. Any questions, please ask!

 

[imfortune8]

We always have the park hopper, but rarely use it. The reason being is all the time and effort it takes to move from park to park with little kids. Even though Disney makes this as simple as possible, it is still quite a process. We really only park hop when we finish with AK and head to MK for something special - like Spectromagic. This works well because Spectro is not shown every night and is a must see in our opinion. Or if we have had a couple days in MK and want to see fantasmic, or eat at one of the amazing places in Epcot, we hop. Other than that, we try to stay put in the park we chose that AM. We really try to plan around the crowds, plus we go in "off season" so the parks have shorter hours, so the hopping wastes a couple hours in all ready limited time. To leave a park, return a stroller, get the bus to the next park, load the kids, travel to the next park, make it to the gates, go through security, go through the turnstiles, get a new stroller and decide where you are headed I just think is too much. I once timed what it took for us to get to MK after a day at AK (remember you bus to the TTC, catch the monorail or ferry and then enter MK), it was just under 2 hours from the time we decided to head out of AK to our first thing in MK. It just takes time, so don't under estimate it! Plus, that is going directly from park to park. Oh, I should give one more exception. We always hop between Epcot and MK - with both on the monorail, it isn't a big deal. Plus, the air conditioned ride is a nice heat break!

I am a real advocate of not taking an afternoon break (unless you are staying at a resort on the monorail), but only going to the parks every other day. Let the kids swim, nap, and get to bed early on the day between the parks, then hit the parks and spend the whole day there! We have always used this and find it is the best plan for our little family! Have a great time!

 

[Merriwind]

We always park hop--almost everyday at WDW. We usually do the morning park until lunchtime (either lunch in or out of the park) then leave. We are big advocates of the midday break. After our break, we return to another park for dinner and evening activities. We spend the majority of our evenings in Epcot, taking advantage of the variety of dining choices, evening attractions and Illuminations.

 

[mjmcca]

A great way to park hop without goign back tot he hotel is to go from MGM to Epcot using the launches. It gives you a noce way to unwind and then you wan take a stroll around WS.

 

[goofy4tink]

We hop all the time. But, when we hop depends on the time of year. During the summer months..hot and humid...we get to the park when it opens. Then we stay until lunchtime. Then we go back to our resort, eat and swim for a few hours. Then off to a different park for the evening. When it's cooler, and the parks close earlier, we still hop but we don't usually go back to the resort to swim and eat. If we are at MK, for example, we walk over to the Contemp. and hop on a bus to whatever park we want to go to. Or take the monorail to Epcot.
If it's EMH that morning, we get there for the early opening and stay until about 10:30-11:00, then head out since that particular park can get really crowded by then.

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

Love the hopper!!! Especially useful on MGM and AK days -- Can finish at one of these parks, head back to hotel, and either pop back to MK in the PM to see Wishes and Spectro plus ride some favorite rides again or have a nice meal and stroll around Epcot. Just think it offers such flexibility.

Here's how we used our 4 day hopper on this past 7 day Easter/Spring Break '05 trip (MK was open at 7 AM all week):

Day 1: Arrival, non-park day
Day 2: MK (got to go there 1st) 7 AM-12 PM. Back to Poly. for a few hrs. Hopped over to MGM 3-10 PM including dinner and Fantasmic
Day 3: MK 7-12, Poly. break, then Epcot FW PM
Day 4: AK AM 8-1, Poly. break, then Epcot WS PM
Day 5: Non-hopper Day: DTD and hotel
Day 6: Revisited Epcot AM and MK PM, including Wishes and Spectro
Day 7: Packed (sad sad sad), enjoyed Poly. and flew home

 

[bubba73]

I love the flexibility that comes along with the park hopper. I would recommend looking at how close the parks are to each other. If you take Disney Transportation, it is easy to go from MK and EPCOT but everyone knows that. But if you want to go to MGM from either one of those 2 parks, you will have to drive or take about an hour on the bus. Now, if you want to hop from MGM to AK or vice versa, they are pretty close together so there should be a direct bus from one to another. I am not positive about that but it should be. Otherwise, if you are driving from park to park, you really won't have any problems (depending on traffic).


Counting down the days to WDW!!!
37 days and counting

 

[mom22boys]

Thanks to everyone! Reading all of your strategies really helps me think about what might work best for us. PolyHereWeCome your sample itinerary was very helpful, and Grumpy Disney Dad I love your Day 5 plan when each person gets to pick out the two rides they want to ride. What a fun tradition! I bet that gets a little time consuming, but I think a fun family tradition is well worth it!

Please feel free to continue to share your advice. The one thing I think I need to come to terms with is there is no way to "see and do it all" in one vacation (unless you are one of the lucky ones who gets to stay for two weeks!)

Thanks again!

 

[lfama]

Usually, we visit atleast two parks a day. We get breakfast, and if we have PS for a restaurant in a park, we plan the day at that park, until usually mid-afternoon sometime (or really whenever we feel like leaving) then we go back to the hotel and do whatever is neccessary i.e. bathroom visit, drop off bags, change clothes, etc. Then we catch a bus to another park (we usually have dinner at the parks so it's wherever our PS is). We usually stay at that park until park closing, unless we want to see something at another park (for example, one day we had gone to MK in the morning, then Epcot, and then MGM since it was an EMH night). In between parks, though, we usually drop by the hotel room for a few minutes. It's good because then we can shop in the morning, take lots of photos, and then at night we can drop off all of our stuff and not have to lug around bags and cameras, etc.

 

[EthansMom]

We usually do the nap/swim break in the afternoon and use the hopping feature to head back to the parks in the evening (often a different park than in the morning). On our recent trip, we also hopped from MGM to MK when we had quickly exhausted the attractions that our young kids were interested in -- really not much there for the toddler set. Also, one weekend day we started out at MK and when it became unbearably packed, we hopped over to Epcot where there were no crowds.

I do have to agree that you will never see and do everything in one trip. The best thing to do is decide ahead of time which things are the highest priority for your family and try to do them.

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

Thanks to everyone! Reading all of your strategies really helps me think about what might work best for us. PolyHereWeCome your sample itinerary was very helpful, and Grumpy Disney Dad I love your Day 5 plan when each person gets to pick out the two rides they want to ride. What a fun tradition! I bet that gets a little time consuming, but I think a fun family tradition is well worth it!

mom22boys - You're welcome! Have a magical time!

 

[Grumpy_Disney_Dad]

YW , I hope you have a great trip and remember .RELAX let Disney workits magic

 

[ricktib]

We usually go to one park in the morning, either till or after lunch, then go to Epcot for the afternoon and dinner. Sometimes we'll hop back over to MK for Wishes, but we love Illuminations.

We always drive to the parks whether we stay onsite or not, and hop between MK & Epcot via monorail.