Park Hopping Worth It? Pros/Cons

[My3Princez]

Last I knew, you could upgrade to hoppers while you're there, meaning you don't have to make up your mind until you're there, and then only get it if you're going to use it. Has that changed?

Absolutely. I don't add Park hoppers before the trip. Once I'm there, it's easy enough to add it then if I reach a point where I feel it is worth it. There's no cost difference between doing it before and doing it while there.

 

[tcherjen]

I agree! See if you need it when you get there. We have always been park hoppers. We go quite a bit and we love visiting several parks in a day.

 

[ewerstruly]

Family of 5, we have never gotten our monies worth out of it. It is really exhausting to park hop, I think. And for a family of 5, expensive. I usually pick a park a day and plan that way.

 

[DisneyFive]

Well just a minor point, but if you buy them now, you'll be paying the current price of $60 + tax. In December, most likely ticket prices will have gone up. Not sure if the PH option will go up too. If you wait to upgrade until you are there, the PH option might cost more than they do now. I can't imagine it going up much though. Maybe a few bucks at most is my guess.

If you're not sure you would use the park hopper, I would wait until you've used your first day's ticket while you're there and then decide if you want to upgrade.

Our first four trips didn't include the PH, and we never felt like we wanted them. However we don't go during a very busy time like the OP. We are getting them for our trip this year. Actually, the water parks is our primary reason to upgrade (trying the water parks for the first time). The PH was only about $30 + tax additional per ticket when you buy both together. We added PH because we've been to the parks enough that we might be done with what we want to do in a park by early afternoon, and be ready for a different one. Plus it's something new and different.

Dan

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

We've always gotten park hoppers. We use disney transportation (buses, etc), and never felt like it was that much of a bother to hop.

Granted, we haven't been to WDW since FP+ was rolled out, but we like hoppers because they allow us to be somewhat spontaneous. We can spend the morning at MK, etc, and then hop to EPCOT for dinner (which is particularly nice if we're at HS, since the food there doesn't usually appeal to us). If it starts raining, we can leave AK and head to HS or MK where more of the rides we want to do are indoors. We can spontaneously decide that we've ridden everything we want to at one park and head to another, and still know that we have the option to backtrack on subsequent days (there isn't a need to get everything done on one or two days that we've set aside for a particular park).

 

[shalom]

Family of 5, we have never gotten our monies worth out of it. It is really exhausting to park hop, I think. And for a family of 5, expensive. I usually pick a park a day and plan that way.

We haven't park hopped partly because it's more expensive but mostly because it would be a challenge to coordinate; some family members go all day, some take a break, and we love to get together at the end of the day and hang out somewhere while the leaving crowds die down. Plus some of the "all dayers" are opposed to hopping, because it cuts into their park time and is generally disruptive. It "interrupts the flow," kind of like staying offsite "breaks the bubble" for some people, and can be a big deal for those who react that way.

But for most of those who like to take a break in the middle of the day anyhow (or who have to for their kid's nap or something), it's just as easy to go back to a different park as to the same one.

 

[GillianP1301]

We got hoppers for the first time last year. Before having had them, I never saw the need. After using them one trip, I don't think I would ever not get them again. I love being able to go to more than one park a day. Most days we would do one park in the morning through lunch and then go to a 2nd park for afternoon/evening. We drive around WDW, and that does make a difference to me because I'm not sure I would bother hopping if I was relying on Disney transportation. It took very little time out of our day to drive from park to park and the few minutes that it did take, were a nice little break from the heat (we go in August) and bit of a recharge for us.

I think the hoppers are particularly valuable if dining is a big/important part of your vacation. We do a lot of TS restaurants and our upcoming trip 4 of those are in EP, so hopping there for the evening is perfect for us.

 

[cakebaker]

Family of 5, we have never gotten our monies worth out of it. It is really exhausting to park hop, I think. And for a family of 5, expensive. I usually pick a park a day and plan that way.

I had to smile when I read your post- it just shows how everyone is so different in how they tour the parks. For us, not park hopping is exhausting. I just can't imagine being in the parks all day without a break and if we're going to leave a park, why not do a different one in the afternoon or evening is how we look at it.

We can schedule afternoon fp+'s, tour the morning parks and ride when it's less crowded and then reverse the parks the next day. The plusses are we get all the headliners in with fp+, we get out of the parks when they're most crowded and hot and we get some resort/pool time along with a nap for the little one.

While I've never actually done it, I don't think we'd probably hop if we were off site. I'm sure there are those that do it successfully, but it does seem it would take a lot more effort if we weren't on site.

 

[mggeary]

For us its too expensive and not that useful with young kids. If I were considering it, I'd hold off and purchase them during our trip if needed. Only time we did it was with a large family trip in which we met up for dinners in Epcot WS several times, and to be honest was more trouble than it was worth.

 

[tlmadden73]

I've always got park hoppers .. I just like the option when you go to AK or DHS to hop over to another park for the evening. Also gives you a fun reason to try the different modes of transportation (like taking that boat ride from DHS to Epcot) ... Really sometimes just use it to see a different night show.

Really I think the longer your stay .. the more you'd want to hop.

Though my last trip .. only two park days .. we still hopped on one of them. AK during the day and zipped over to DHS after dinner to catch the last Frozen Sing-Along Show at DHS .. on the way out we hit Star Tours two times and watched the last Jedi Training of the day. Besides . .DHS just looks awesome at night with all the neon. On the way out we saw the fireworks from Fantasmic .. a long day .. but totally worth it.

 

[shalom]

While I've never actually done it, I don't think we'd probably hop if we were off site. I'm sure there are those that do it successfully, but it does seem it would take a lot more effort if we weren't on site.

Depends on where you're staying and whether you drive while onsite. Very few offsite options even offer reasonable morning and evening transportation, and those that do are still pretty poor when it comes to the middle of the day, so for someone who loves onsite transporation, offsite is definitely going to take more effort. OTOH, if you mostly drive anyhow, it's just as easy to drive to many offsite locations as it is to onsite ones. Obviously no offsite matches the Contemporary in terms of getting to the MK, but if you go to all four parks, or depending on which parks you're likely to spend the most time in, offsite distances can be about the same as, or even better than, onsite. It's a big complex, and the parks are spread out enough that only a few onsite resorts are central enough to have a serious advantage.

OTOH, if you spend most of your time at the MK, the disadvantage of offsite resorts is having to take the boat or monorail ride back to the parking lot. Of course, some of us who leave in the middle of the day consider that an advantage. I enjoy driving, but I also like that nice restful ride to make the mental transition from "in the park" to "hitting the road."

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We've done park touring both ways many times. On the one hand-if by hopping you mean going directly park to park via bus, then hopping costs time. Much lower time cost if you usually take breaks.

IMO, the short answer is that your value is proportional to how late you stay in MK. Stay (very) late = worth doing. If not, then maybe not.

Under old FP, hopping wasn't generally worth the cost, IMO. New FP= new strategies. Armed with AP's we have now tried hopping several times, with FP+ in flux. Every time FP+changes, the game changes.

SOoooo, last spring we hopped Epcot to HS, with 3FP in HS. At RD, we made a beeline for TT. This was the tail end of paper FP. We nabbed our last paper FP, plus one standby run. We were just outside the pre-ride design room when our FP+ window opened for TSM. We made it to TSM just before our FP+ window ended- BUT- the long walk/jog kind of wiped us out, at least compared to our norm. TT to TSM is a LONG walk! Taking the boat is fine, but adds time we didn't have. SO what I thought would be new + of FP+, wasn't so great.

Hopping via car/foot is better than by bus/monorail, but still costs quite still costs quite a bit of time.

The best time/combo to take advantage of hopping is yours: busy week+ MK late night+ CR, or maybe hopping for meals. (always our two best hops) Still, if you only want to hop once, it is $$$. Under new FP, hopping means limited ability to use FP in your second park. We had AP's so hopping was included. Still not sure I'd pay w/reg tickets.