Park Hopping Returns on January 1st!

[Jonathan Friedman]

Parks closing at 7pm in January limits this tremendously

 

[Katie1174]

Yes!! So happy to see even modified park hopping back. We love to hop and will happily jump to whichever park has availability (if any) if we feel like doing so.

 

[skeeter31]

Parks closing at 7pm in January limits this tremendously

That could change. They increase hours about a month out from the date. Now, January normally has shorter hours because it’s a slower time, but I could see them extending EPCOT to 9pm on weekends and maybe even weekdays in January now.

 

[Tormania]

That was most likely on purpose. No way they were going to test this out during a busy season like Christmas. January is the perfect time to work out the kinks as it’s usually a slower time.

Oh I realize that, but since it will be another 4+ YEARS before we go back this stings a bit. We usually utilized PH for jumping over to EPCOT at night for dining options and such, and of course we have tried to work around that limitation this trip. Glad it is coming back, and how they are implementing it is a good compromise IMHO, just wish they would have done this from Day 1 in July cause I think it could have easily worked this whole time.

 

[Heather07438]

Parks closing at 7pm in January limits this tremendously

EP & HS are open to 8pm the week of Jan 8 for our visit. Wouldn't surprise me to see EP move to 9pm because Art Fest starts Jan 8 and it's great motivation for guests to park hop for evening food, and it's a money maker.

 

[subtchr]

Parks closing at 7pm in January limits this tremendously

Eh, 4-5 hours available in the park before hopping, 4-5 hours available in a different park after hopping. I don't see that being tremendously limited.

 

[PCFriar80]

Wonder if they'll start up the TTC/Epcot monorail loop after 2:00 PM to facilitate hopping between MK/EC? Or just provide bus service?

 

[frannn]

I hope this is one step closer to them re-offering new APs. Only thing that stinks is since it's not guaranteed entry to another park, I wouldn't make dining reservations to a park I was hoping to hop to.

 

[Heather07438]

I'm psyched!

One thing that could get rough... ADRs. Can we make them with the intention of hopping, which was normal procedure before this year. Personally I won't make any at HS with the intent to hop over, but it'll probably turn out OK in the other parks for dinner slots.

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

I'm psyched!

One thing that could get rough... ADRs. Can we make them with the intention of hopping, which was normal procedure before this year. Personally I won't make any at HS with the intent to hop over, but it'll probably turn out OK in the other parks for dinner slots.

I was thinking about what I'll do with ADR's too. I may just make them for lunch at the park we have reservations at.

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

Woo Hoo!! This made my morning!

 

[VandVsmama]

It will be interesting to see how many people make an AK res and walk in and right back out around 2 pm just to go to MK or HS if they couldn't get a res at those parks originally.

We're going to do the reverse. For example, on our 2nd HS day, we'll start out at HS and then hop to AK. I think that the popular park hopping parks will be HS, Epcot, and MK.

 

[WNYDisneyDad]

This is really awesome news!

My guess is that Disney has collected enough data from the last several months to be able to guess that ___% of people leave the parks by ____ time, that they think that they will be able to successfully allow park hopping. One thing to keep in mind is how much data Disney collects on their guests. I work in the intelligence/security industry and MANY companies consider themselves cutting edge in using data analysis in business decisions and predictive intelligence. However, almost across the board, I hear from companies that they view Disney as bleeding-edge. That they only wish they could be where Disney is at. That Disney is so far more advanced that it's not even a competition. I'm willing to guess that a lot went into this decision and making sure they could do it safely.

Also, although there is currently a large rise in COVID cases, a lot of the companies I deal with are preparing for return to some normalcy. Many are doing things like starting to set dates for on-site meetings and are opening up business travel once again. These are not things that can easily be spun up at the drop of a hat, and perhaps Disney is anticipating that vaccine news is looking promising and want to start to add in some of the "pre-COVID" things that had to stop this past spring. Again, because it's not easy to just one day turn these thing "on." My guess is more and more will begin to return (hopefully things like parades, Fastpass, etc.) through spring and beyond.

But then again, I am by no means an expert but I do see some things "on the inside" at times.

 

[VandVsmama]

I was thinking about what I'll do with ADR's too. I may just make them for lunch at the park we have reservations at.

That's what I think we'll do as well!

 

[Heather07438]

This is really awesome news!

My guess is that Disney has collected enough data from the last several months to be able to guess that ___% of people leave the parks by ____ time, that they think that they will be able to successfully allow park hopping. One thing to keep in mind is how much data Disney collects on their guests. I work in the intelligence/security industry and MANY companies consider themselves cutting edge in using data analysis in business decisions and predictive intelligence. However, almost across the board, I hear from companies that they view Disney as bleeding-edge. That they only wish they could be where Disney is at. That Disney is so far more advanced that it's not even a competition. I'm willing to guess that a lot went into this decision and making sure they could do it safely.

Also, although there is currently a large rise in COVID cases, a lot of the companies I deal with are preparing for return to some normalcy. Many are doing things like starting to set dates for on-site meetings and are opening up business travel once again. These are not things that can easily be spun up at the drop of a hat, and perhaps Disney is anticipating that vaccine news is looking promising and want to start to add in some of the "pre-COVID" things that had to stop this past spring. Again, because it's not easy to just one day turn these thing "on." My guess is more and more will begin to return (hopefully things like parades, Fastpass, etc.) through spring and beyond.

But then again, I am by no means an expert but I do see some things "on the inside" at times.

Yeah, I think WDW's data collection is next level crazy advanced. They can predict my next visit habits sooner and better than I even know myself, lol.

And on top of the data they've already gathered under capacity limits, they'll continue building on previous park hopping data to estimate those flows. I'd suspect EP & MK to be the most popular hopping destinations. Having the largest cap's and the highest number of different things to do helps absorb guests.

 

[frannn]

Yeah, I think WDW's data collection is next level crazy advanced. They can predict my next visit habits sooner and better than I even know myself, lol.

And on top of the data they've already gathered under capacity limits, they'll continue building on previous park hopping data to estimate those flows. I'd suspect EP & MK to be the most popular hopping destinations. Having the largest cap's and the highest number of different things to do helps absorb guests.

How is it that they can be so successful at this analysis but the IT Dept (or just the systems themselves) is so completely lacking????

 

[SaintsManiac]

How is it that they can be so successful at this analysis but the IT Dept (or just the systems themselves) is so completely lacking????

It's an unpopular opinion around here, but I think they do a pretty decent job. I know we all get frustrated with the app and site, but the amount of things we can do on them is pretty unreal.

 

[sponica]

It's an unpopular opinion around here, but I think they do a pretty decent job. I know we all get frustrated with the app and site, but the amount of things we can do on them is pretty unreal.

The utility is phenomenal, the bandwidth and execution (totally different departments) probably leave a lot to be desired.

 

[KGolf31]

This is a thing to note, but I think the 2pm hop time coincides beautifully with the 2pm distribution for ROTR at HS.

AKA, avoid a mad rush over to HS after people complete a morning park and attempt to secure boarding passes later in the day

 

[WNYDisneyDad]

This is a thing to note, but I think the 2pm hop time coincides beautifully with the 2pm distribution for ROTR at HS.

AKA, avoid a mad rush over to HS after people complete a morning park and attempt to secure boarding passes later in the day

That's a good point. You can't enter another park until 2 but don't you have to be tapped in to DHS in order to get a BG?