Park Hopping

[tabithamarie4]

Give me your best park hopping tips!

We are planning a trip with 8 park days. Without park hopping I probably would have done 2 AK, 1 Epcot, 1-2 HS and 3-4 MK.

I've never planned a trip with park hopping before We will have a 7 and 10 year old. Both pretty adventurous as a far as rides. There are only a few things the 7 year old won't ride (EE, RNR ToT, etc)

I don't think either of them will really be into meeting characters this trip (which bums me out!)

 

[ThistleMae]

I go to one park in the a.m. and sometimes a break at the room in the afternoon, then to another park around 5ish. On some days, I will go to Extra Magic Hours in the a.m. leave shortly thereafter to go to another park, then the same plan, room in late afternoon for a break, then back to another third park. Have fun!

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

I have never gone on a trip without hopping. To me, it truly enhances the Disney experience. We generally get the park around opening time, go back around 1:00 for a mid-afternoon swim/rest, then head back out around 4. On days we don't do this, we will schedule a Chef Mickey's lunch at the Contemporary for around 1, then hop the monorail to Epcot for the rest of the day. We generally stay at the BWV, BCV or S/D, so we also like to do hopping that doesn't require bus rides. Have fun with it!

 

[DisLiss]

We like to hit the Magic Kingdom on the mornings of party days. One park ticket holders who are NOT attending the party will often opt out of the MK those days since it closes early, so I find the crowds can be less those days up until the point when both day guests and party guests start to overlap. That's when we leave!

We also like to split our Animal Kingdom "day" into two different days. We rope drop one day and then go in the early evening another. This lets animal lovers in our family see the animals during the cooler (somewhat) parts of the day when they may be more active. Also, it lets *us* avoid being there in the hottest part of the day, because we find AK often seems extra hot to us.

Splitting parks up also gives you opportunities to rope drop a popular ride one day and try hitting it last thing at night another (or during a nightly show if you're not looking to watch), while also having 2 possible days to obtain a fast pass for it.

 

[tabithamarie4]

Do you park hop every day or just some days?

I go to one park in the a.m. and sometimes a break at the room in the afternoon, then to another park around 5ish. On some days, I will go to Extra Magic Hours in the a.m. leave shortly thereafter to go to another park, then the same plan, room in late afternoon for a break, then back to another third park. Have fun!

 

[CastAStone]

Remember that you can walk from Epcot to DHS!

If they are still doing ROTR boarding groups when you go, I’d suggest that you get your BG and head to Epcot; mornings are DHS are very crowded right now and evenings are pretty quiet, Epcot is usually the opposite!

 

[DisLiss]

We generally get the park around opening time, go back around 1:00 for a mid-afternoon swim/rest, then head back out around 4. On days we don't do this, we will schedule a Chef Mickey's lunch at the Contemporary for around 1, then hop the monorail to Epcot for the rest of the day.

We find that now that our kids are older we really like the idea of hitting a resort other than our own as a break--check out a new restaurant, see what activities they have available, or just chill in one of their seating areas.
Now that the skyliner is up it gives us even more options for this.

 

[tabithamarie4]

Ooh! I hadn't thought of that.

Getting a BG and then going to Epcot is a great idea!

Remember that you can walk from Epcot to DHS!

If they are still doing ROTR boarding groups when you go, I’d suggest that you get your BG and head to Epcot; mornings are DHS are very crowded right now and evenings are pretty quiet, Epcot is usually the opposite!

 

[skippytx]

We always park hop as we like to do 1 park in the morning and get there right at opening, take an afternoon siesta, and then finish the day at another park. Usually we finish each night at MK, but I try to see the Epcot show and Star Wars fireworks at least once while I'm there.

A mid day nap, rest, or swim can really make the trip better for us.

 

[DisLiss]

Do you park hop every day or just some days?

We hop almost every day. For our upcoming trip we do have one full day at MK planned, because we will be attending the party that night, so it just made sense for us since we like party mornings at MK anyway. We may still leave MK for a break, but we'll be coming back to MK for the party that day instead of going elsewhere after our break.

 

[deedubb]

Park hopping is a must because we can't spend an entire day at HS, but now that so many rides are Tier 1, we like to spend at least a couple of partial days there. We love fireworks, so almost every night ends at MK or EPCOT for fireworks, regardless of where we are during the day. It's nice to stay at an EPCOT resort or Contemporary/BLT so we can just walk back after fireworks.

 

[Laura@Wanderkeep]

With an 8 day trip, I would save the money and stick to a single-park ticket. For me, the real benefit of a hopper comes in when you're there for a shorter time period.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I only hop because of parties at MK. If it weren’t for those, I wouldn’t hop at all. Not worth the extra expense for me and there’s plenty enough to do in each park to stay there a whole day.

 

[Bjkandma]

We always park hopper. We enjoy going to the World Showcase for dinner reservations!

 

[ThistleMae]

Do you park hop every day or just some days?

Every day for me. It's just the way I always tour. I can't imagine being in one park all day long. The break in between lets you rest up and go in the pool. Then you have a whole other experience in a different park later in the day.

 

[DisLiss]

If there's a particular nighttime atmosphere/show you really love, the hoppers allow you to experience it over and over again, which is why we tend to end several nights per trip at Epcot.

As for the cost, we figure that the cost per day to hop is so low that it's worth having just in case you want it. Our next trip is 8 ticket days, and it's $80 per person more to hop, which works out to $10 more per person, per day.

But because our kids want to hit the water parks, we actually go with the Hopper Plus tickets, because it's cheaper to buy the Hopper Plus tickets than to buy tickets to each water park. So for $12.50 per person per day we can hop and visit the water parks and even go play mini golf if want. And for us, the water parks can be all the break we need some days. If we go to AK in the morning, we might go to a water park for a few hours after that, and be back at Epcot in the evening. We don't plan a whole lot of ADRs & fast passes ahead of time, so for us hopping just adds such flexibility and spontaneity to the trip.

 

[ThistleMae]

If there's a particular nighttime atmosphere/show you really love, the hoppers allow you to experience it over and over again, which is why we tend to end several nights per trip at Epcot.

As for the cost, we figure that the cost per day to hop is so low that it's worth having just in case you want it. Our next trip is 8 ticket days, and it's $80 per person more to hop, which works out to $10 more per person, per day.

But because our kids want to hit the water parks, we actually go with the Hopper Plus tickets, because it's cheaper to buy the Hopper Plus tickets than to buy tickets to each water park. So for $12.50 per person per day we can hop and visit the water parks and even go play mini golf if want. And for us, the water parks can be all the break we need some days. If we go to AK in the morning, we might go to a water park for a few hours after that, and be back at Epcot in the evening. We don't plan a whole lot of ADRs & fast passes ahead of time, so for us hopping just adds such flexibility and spontaneity to the trip.

Yes, I hear you. We dropped all the planning and reservation the last two years, so much better. I also love the parks at nights and go back and forth between our favorites. For me MK gets a few extra nights.

 

[Katie1174]

We get park hoppers every trip, usually 8-9 nights, 9-10 park days. They are an absolute must for us. We don’t like being tied to a single park all day. We super enjoy the flexibility and we hop at least once, even twice every day. We always open one park and either go back to the room for a couple hours around 1 and then go to another park around 3 and close out that park or we also open one park, hop to another around 12-1, then hop to another from 5-6 to close. We love the world showcase and when we stay at an Epcot resort, as we are again this May, the ability to easily walk, boat or skyliner from Epcot to DHS is a big hopping bonus. We will also walk thru Epcot to get to the monorail for MK rather than take the bus So we need hoppers for that as well. Another hopping plus is being able to go to whatever park we want when we pull a 4th, 5th etc fastpass for whatever ride we love we can get the pass for. Some say the travel time is prohibitive, we have always had great luck catching a bus right away and if we dont we immediately uber or taxi to our next destination. And we love to walk, so hopping between Epcot and DHS is super easy for us.

 

[tabithamarie4]

We got park hoppers so we could get free dining

With an 8 day trip, I would save the money and stick to a single-park ticket. For me, the real benefit of a hopper comes in when you're there for a shorter time period.

 

[dbb727]

Park hopping is a must because we can't spend an entire day at HS, but now that so many rides are Tier 1, we like to spend at least a couple of partial days there. We love fireworks, so almost every night ends at MK or EPCOT for fireworks, regardless of where we are during the day. It's nice to stay at an EPCOT resort or Contemporary/BLT so we can just walk back after fireworks.

It was just released this morning that HS tiers are changing again, effective 2/19 the only Tier 1 rides are SDD and MFSR (and presumably Runaway Railroad will end up here too) and then everything else back to Tier 2.

Even with that change, HS is a definite a hopping park for me, especially with ROTR causing such an influx for “everyone” to be at park early and in general it seems very popular throughout the entire day right now with not enough walkways/rides to handle the crowds. We recently did one afternoon/evening with FP and Oga’s Cantina reservation, then went another morning specifically for ROtR, also rode MFSR, TOT, character photos and got everything we wanted completed by 10am so we could hop to AK