Park hopping

[tgrunewald]

Hi all,

We only have 3 days available to visit WDW the last week of August, but want to visit all 4 parks since we have not seen the new Pandora or Toy Story land. As such, I bought the Park Hopper tix (3 day) for the 1st time ever.

I have read all the various threads and even 'googled' the topic, but since I have to book my FP+ on Monday, I was hoping for some final clarity

1) Is it better to use FP+ in 1st park before hopping or do rope drop at 1st park then use FP+ early afternoon in 2nd park?

It looks like MK and EP are open 9-9 the 3 days we are there while AK and DHS are basically same except they both have EMH all 3 mornings. Any thoughts on strategy?

2) Is it quicker to drive between parks or take WDW transportation?

Thansk you so much in advance.

 

[luvmy2boyzz]

When we hop we rope drop and schedule fast passes at the park we will be at in the evening. We've always been able to ride everything we've wanted. I don't know about driving as opposed to WDW transportation because we've always used the buses. I've never felt like traveling between parks took terribly long by bus. Enjoy your trip!

 

[rdaky]

Personally, I think PH can be very stressful if you're on limited time. For example, last week we did EMH at AK then park hopped over to MK. Between walking to the bus, waiting for the bus, riding to MK, then going through security again, we lost about 2 hours.

My advice is that you could rope drop during EMH at AK for sure. We did that, and we were able to squeeze in both Pandora rides without fast passes. Definitely do FOP first, though. The line was 45 minutes long by 8:05 and the park opened at 8:00.

We saved our Fast Passes for the second park if we rope dropped the first park.

Whether it's quicker to drive or take the bus depends on where you're going. I don't necessarily think it's faster to drive, especially when traveling to MK because you have to park and take the boat or monorail, vs taking the bus that drops you off at the entrance. Either way is a time suck.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’d maybe do EMH at AK one day and DHS another then hop to MK or Epcot around 11. Then maybe split the third day between HS and AK. Figure out priorities for FPs(FoP, Slinky dog,7DMT,etc.) and let that determine when you use them.

 

[slpeters]

We opened and closed a different park each day and did our FPs in the first park some days and in the second park some days--it really depended on where they would be the most beneficial. We didn't really plan around extra FPs, because we left the parks in the afternoons for a nap I didn't really find them necessary. As far as the transportation, we always used Disney transit, but we don't have a car when we're in Florida. I tend to think using your own car might be a bit faster, but I still probably wouldn't do it--I really liked having that sense that everything was taken care of and we could just go with it. I feel like part of that was not driving for the week. We found Disney transit to be pretty good.

 

[Iowamomof4]

If I were in your shoes, I would plan to do MK on day 1, then rope drop Epcot on days 2 and 3 and use fastpasses at Ak and DHS in the afternoon/evening on those days. FOP and SDD are both going to be high fastpass priorities and neither Epcot nor MK have any rides that approach FOP in popularity right now. We obviously don't know what wait times will be like for the Toy Story Land rides, but we can assume they will be quite long for the first few months after opening. There just isn't anything new and shiny at MK or Epcot to draw folks the way there is at the other two parks.

 

[Mome Rath]

We only have 3 days available to visit WDW the last week of August, but want to visit all 4 parks since we have not seen the new Pandora or Toy Story land. As such, I bought the Park Hopper tix (3 day) for the 1st time ever.

Love it, my kind of trip!

1) Is it better to use FP+ in 1st park before hopping or do rope drop at 1st park then use FP+ early afternoon in 2nd park?

It looks like MK and EP are open 9-9 the 3 days we are there while AK and DHS are basically same except they both have EMH all 3 mornings. Any thoughts on strategy?

I hate to add to the wishy-washy, but it is indeed all about priority. Sometimes I do FP's for park 1, sometimes for park 2, it usually depends on what rides I want in which parks, the demand for those rides, and my chances of rope dropping successfully. Rope dropping Pandora is do-able if you plan it out and get up and there on time (which means at least an hour early) If you do get there early and do FoP and RJ, then I would try to grab FP's for Toy Story Land, or whichever park you are going to hop to. The biggest downside to that is you can't utilize 4th fp's til you have used up your first 3.

I don't usually worry about my 4th/5th/etc... fp's and rather focus on 2 must do rides at rope drop and then fp a must-do ride for later in the day. As an example, on my upcoming trip we will rope drop Pandora, and then we have fp's for Slinky dog in the evening. Conversely the next day I don't want to rope-drop Pandora again, but do want to ride FoP, so I got an early afternoon FP for FoP, and will rope drop MK.

We don't know how nuts rope-drop will be for Toy Story Land yet, that's the wild card, nor how the opening of TSL will have an effect on the mob over at Pandora.

2) Is it quicker to drive between parks or take WDW transportation?

If you are talking buses, I'm sure it is a bit of a gamble. If you walk right up and a bus is sitting there, then buses would be faster, but if you have to wait awhile, driving would be faster. We don't ever drive on our own, but rather take the buses, monorail, boats everywhere.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Just an FYI, using Disney transportation to get to MK is much faster then driving, since you bypass the TTC. Driving will usually be quicker then busses to the other parks, but it’s a little more walking. We always stay on site but drive to the parks, except MK.

 

[loves to dive]

There are so many factors to take into account it's impossible to really say for sure. It really depends on what you want to ride and what your tolerance level is for waiting in line. We have done 4 parks in a day (not on purpose it just worked out that day) without a single FP and ridden FoP and TSMM but that was before the new Toy Story Land opened. We don't mind waiting in line and a hour wait is no big deal to us since we have been going before any kind of FP system and waiting in line was what you did if you wanted to ride. It's easy to do AK without a FP all except for Pandora so rope dropping that and riding Pandora first thing would get you on most of the rides there pretty fast, especially if you are staying on site and they have morning EMH. The only FP we have ever used at Epcot was for Frozen, otherwise we have had no problems riding all the rides there without a FP, we don't ride Mission Space so that might have something to do with it and we don't mind riding single rider at TT. If you have PHs you can also do your must do FPs for one park and easily go back to that same park on another day to knock out more rides.

As far as driving vs. riding the bus, we always have a car with us and the only park we have ever driven to was AK and that was just because we were doing a split stay and it was the morning of move day, we were up early and figured what the heck we would rope drop AK. Otherwise, we ride the buses all the time and have no problems with it. The traffic is the traffic and if you are going to get stuck in it in a bus, you are going to get stuck in it in a car. If you miss a bus, you are going to have to wait for the next one but if you PHs, just hop on the next park bus to arrive and have fun at that park. That's one of the reasons we don't book FPs in advance, we can go where we want and not be tied down to a schedule, I just book FPs while on the bus or in line.

 

[gharter]

I think a lot of it depends on what rides and attractions you want to do in each park.
Either way, I would RD the first park and try to do the rides you are most interested/most popular first. Some will add FPs at this park. After using these FPs, they will book FPs at the new park. It can be more difficult to get the FPs you want at the second park. Outside of FoP, its usually not too difficult to get several rides done quickly at RD.
Most will RD the first park and have their FPs set for the second park. Once those are gone, then start the process of adding more FPs.

 

[Shanti]

If you want top-tier FPs at the second park, then set your FP+ for those.

 

[maryj11]

If I were in your shoes, I would plan to do MK on day 1, then rope drop Epcot on days 2 and 3 and use fastpasses at Ak and DHS in the afternoon/evening on those days. FOP and SDD are both going to be high fastpass priorities and neither Epcot nor MK have any rides that approach FOP in popularity right now. We obviously don't know what wait times will be like for the Toy Story Land rides, but we can assume they will be quite long for the first few months after opening. There just isn't anything new and shiny at MK or Epcot to draw folks the way there is at the other two parks.

We are going the end of July and right now there are no Slink Dog fastpasses left. There are plenty of the Alien ride and TSM fastpasses. So yes I would definitely go for FOP and Slink Dog fastpass on 2 of your days.

 

[OSUZorba]

Just an FYI, using Disney transportation to get to MK is much faster then driving, since you bypass the TTC. Driving will usually be quicker then busses to the other parks, but it’s a little more walking. We always stay on site but drive to the parks, except MK.

I definitely think the buses are the best for hopping to MK. We stay off site and drive into the parks, some days we'll park at DHS and take the bus to MK, because it is a lot quicker. The only problem with doing that is it can be pretty slow getting back after the fireworks.

Between DHS and Epcot, I think it is best to walk if you are able, it's pleasant and faster than the boats.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

We don't know how nuts rope-drop will be for Toy Story Land yet, that's the wild card, nor how the opening of TSL will have an effect on the mob over at Pandora.

I'm really curious to see how this goes. With RnR and ToT being tier 2, nearly everyone who rope drops is going to TSL to do whichever of the two rides they couldn't fastpass. I'm booking two days of HS specifically for FPs and we'll still plan to RD the third ride. That single pathway into and out of TSL is going to be one heck of a bottleneck!

 

[maryj11]

I'm really curious to see how this goes. With RnR and ToT being tier 2, nearly everyone who rope drops is going to TSL to do whichever of the two rides they couldn't fastpass. I'm booking two days of HS specifically for FPs and we'll still plan to RD the third ride. That single pathway into and out of TSL is going to be one heck of a bottleneck!

Our plan is to FP Slink Dog and take advantage of all the attention being off of RNRC and Tower of Terror with hopefully all the crowds being focused on TSL.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Our plan is to FP Slink Dog and take advantage of all the attention being off of RNRC and Tower of Terror with hopefully all the crowds being focused on TSL.

My kiddos are too short for RnR and too scared for ToT, so it's TSL or bust. Maybe if we're hanging around late on the night we're doing Fantasmic, we'll try RS RnR.