Questions on Hopper upgrade from newbie

[FamilyMan1426]

Hi all, i'm kinda new to the boards. I just bought into the DVC. I'm taking my family down in September. It will be our first family vacation since child #3. We're going to be staying at Bay Lake Tower.

How important is the Hopper upgrade? I've never spent a week in Disney but can't imagine jumping from one park to another. i think one park would wipe me out for the day.

Also any ideas on getting discount theme park tix or maybe something with combined airfare? I'll be going in early September.

Thanks!
Ted

 

[lovetoscrap]

It is tiring to go from one park to another and can take a good chunk of time. The good reasons for hopping as far as I see them are
1. If you are on the Dining Plan or just want to try a variety of the sit down restaurants you may need to hop to go to dinner at a location at a different park.
2. If you want to try to hit all the highlights, particularly the evening events like Wishes at MK, Illuminations at Epcot and Fantasmic at DHS you may need to hop to that park if you end up not at that park the day it is showing or it is rained out.

However there are plenty of restaurant at the resorts so you could work around the first one. You don't need to add the hoppers ahead of time, and can actually add it when you are there so if you get rained out you could add it then.

As for discount tickets you would need to get them from an authorized reseller. The 2 most recommended around here are undercovertourist and mapleleaf tickets. There really aren't many options for discounts otherwise. Disney keeps their discounts fairly uniform so you won't find any price differences from one website or TA to another. They do offer packages with air fare but I would certainly do my homework and know what airfare prices are available because they may not be able to offer the best deal.

 

[Goofy4]

Welcome to the boards!

There really aren't any little-known secrets for discounts on the tickets. Also, you can wait until you actually have the need/desire to hop to upgrade your tickets (while at the parks). I've only done it once (and then only for a really good reason).

If you would like to know more on hopping, you can read (ad-nauseum) this recent thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2634093

 

[Metro West]