Park Hopping When Parks Close @ 7pm

[3CindersMom]

Hi, I know that park hopping is often mentioned in threads here, but I'd like to ask if people hopped on days when the parks close at 7pm. We are going the first week in March, when MK and MGM close at 7, AK at 5 and Epcot at 9. We were leaning toward not getting the park hopper since the parks don't have very long hours. Any thoughts?

 

[ksoehrlein]

I love to hop over to Epcot on those days with short hours elsewhere. It's nice to end the day with a late dinner in World Showcase and to perhaps even catch Illuminations.

Keep in mind that 9 is when the front gates close to new people coming in, but that is when Illuminations begins. So you won't be "kicked out" of the park for quite a while after 9. Likewise, on days when the Disney-MGM Studios shows Fantasmic, the gates close at 7, but that is when Fantasmic will start.

Will you be staying at a WDW Resort? If so, be on the lookout for Evening Magic Hours, when one of the parks stays open 3 hours after posted closing times.

 

[kathmzh]

We just got back from a week with short hours, and didn't hop, but we were hitting everything in each park, not just favorites. EMH in the evenings didn't work into our schedule, but that may have been a situation where we may have park hopped.

 

[Corryn]

We also make EPCOT our destination when the other parks close early. It's not crowded, especially Future World, and you get to see all the beautiful light displays that you cannot see at night.
Test Track also supposedly closes at 10:00, which I didn't know and I'm going to really see if it does on our next trip. There's also that beautiful fountain show that goes on in Future World every twenty minutes, but it's just so pretty at night with all the colored lights. And I also LOVE the music that's piped in Future World while you're walking around.
Definitely one of our favorite "late night" destinations.

 

[noladave]

we love to hop, as it gives us the ability to find the park with the smallest crowd. Also, you can start with early opening at one park, go to another park midday, and then hit late EMH at another park. Believe it, or not, we found that doing this worked well. Transportation time can be an issue, so we took our own car to the parks on a couple of days, and that minimized travel time between parks.

I really think it's a personal preference, so good luck on your decision.

 

[3CindersMom]

Transportation time can be an issue, so we took our own car to the parks on a couple of days, and that minimized travel time between parks.

Thanks to all for your advice. I forgot to mention that we are staying offsite and we will have our own car. DH is concerned that we will use up too much time getting from one park to another. With our own car, how long does it take to get to MK and to Epcot from the other parks?

 

[Corryn]

We also take our own car whenever we go. We usually stay off-site also. While park hopping, we just leave our car in whichever lot we park in in the morning.
We have gone to AK in the morning, parked our car, left in the late morning, drove our car to MK or MGM and parked there. But the Disney Transportation is Free and available.
The choice is yours.

Say we do MK during the morning. We park in MK parking lot. The park closes early so we head on over to EPCOT via monorail. When EPCOT closes, we hop on the monorail back over to MK, and then pick up our car.
If you do MGM, there is no monorail service to/from that park. You just take one of the specially marked buses that say Magic Kingdom (or whichever park you're parked at). It will bring you back over to that park and then you pick up your car.
Also, if you know which park you want to be in during the evening, you can park in That parking lot & take transportation over to the park you want to spend the morning in and vise-versa.

Of course, Disney transportation (buses) are not the quickest way. If you spend money for parking in one park for the day, and you choose to drive over to another park in the afternoon, you do not have to pay for additional parking. You pay for the day no matter where you want to park. You have your parking ticket from the last park and the next parking attendant will honor it, as long as it is the Same Day.

 

[DavidNYC]

My DW and I always go during the off season when the parks close and 7 and there is rarely a day that we don't hop. Last trip we even did 3 parks in one day (although one of them was the EHM evening park). Our typical schedule looks like this.

Day 1: Morning in AK / later afternoon in MGM (Fantasmic)
Day 2: morning in MGM / afternoon evening in MK or EPCOT
Day 3: MK / EPCOT depending on mood.

Certain things affect our plans such as making sure to avoid MK on Saturday for example. But hopping is really no problem.