Saving money on a park hopper

[AudreysMom]

We (me, DH, DD1) are meeting my parents and brother at WDW soon. I know I will not be able to see or do as much, even with grandparents helping with DD. My brother is set on park hopping with his AP. I will be buying a MYW ticket and would prefer not to pay for park hopping since I doubt we'll be out late and I don't want to dump my child on my parents all of the time (I want to hang out with her too!)

Can I buy the 4 or 5 day one park per day MYW and then upgrade to a hopper if the need arises or do I have to buy the hopper option up front?

Thanks!

 

[Justsyd2]

You can add it on if you need to, but the price is the same if you add it your first day, or the last day.

 

[a1tinkfans]

You can add it on if you need to, but the price is the same if you add it your first day, or the last day.

YUP, you'll pay either way, so if you even THINK you'll want it, may as well get it up front so at least you can use it...even if its to stop in to grab a snack at a park...

 

[BrettS]

YUP, you'll pay either way, so if you even THINK you'll want it, may as well get it up front so at least you can use it...even if its to stop in to grab a snack at a park...

Actually, I would say exactly the opposite. Since the price is the same whether you buy it with your ticket or add it later, then unless you're absolutely certain you need it don't get it with your ticket. If you do need it during your trip spend the 5 minutes at a ticket window to get it added. If you don't wind up using it then you'll have saved the money (around $150 for three people is a pretty decent amount too)

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Actually, I would say exactly the opposite. Since the price is the same whether you buy it with your ticket or add it later, then unless you're absolutely certain you need it don't get it with your ticket. If you do need it during your trip spend the 5 minutes at a ticket window to get it added. If you don't wind up using it then you'll have saved the money (around $150 for three people is a pretty decent amount too)

 

[andrews_dad]

With older folks and younger kids, I have never really been into park hopping. One day, one park.

 

[tzolkin]

Actually, I would say exactly the opposite. Since the price is the same whether you buy it with your ticket or add it later, then unless you're absolutely certain you need it don't get it with your ticket. If you do need it during your trip spend the 5 minutes at a ticket window to get it added. If you don't wind up using it then you'll have saved the money (around $150 for three people is a pretty decent amount too)

I understand the logic of this, but like the other poster I would also rather get it the first day or two of the trip. If I decided that I needed to hop on my last day, I'd be annoyed with myself for spending $50 to hop once when I could have added it on at the beginning of the trip and got more use out of it.

 

[DVCBELLE]

I used to think that but then I would have a park hopper and be annoyed that I bought it and never used it.

Also - it makes you think twice about how important it is to hop - standing there wanting to go in a park - I ask myself is this worth $200 for 4 of us - oddly - I have never once added it on.

We get APs a lot and I love having the hopper as a bonus but I have found that it isn't worth the extra money.

 

[andrews_dad]

I understand the logic of this, but like the other poster I would also rather get it the first day or two of the trip. If I decided that I needed to hop on my last day, I'd be annoyed with myself for spending $50 to hop once when I could have added it on at the beginning of the trip and got more use out of it.

Wow. Disney must love you if you think that way. You rather just give them $150 extra for hoppers in case you want them, rather then pony up the money the last day if you actually USE them. Notice the key work: IF. There is a good chance you'd spend that $$ and not use it.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I'd wait to see if you need them (and want them badly enough to pay the $53 each).

We always get hoppers, but we go in Sept when everything closes early and like to use morning and PM extra magic hours. My daughter loves getting to ride a few rides in Fantasyland each night if we get tossed out of another park in time to get to MK and ride more. We also stay 10 days, so the per day price isn't as bad (it's an extra $5 a day per person to hop).

I would point out to your travel companion that hoppers add several hundred dollars to your trip and you'd like to plan not to hop if at all possible.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

YUP, you'll pay either way, so if you even THINK you'll want it, may as well get it up front so at least you can use it...even if its to stop in to grab a snack at a park...

That's a pretty pricey snack!

 

[tzolkin]

Wow. Disney must love you if you think that way. You rather just give them $150 extra for hoppers in case you want them, rather then pony up the money the last day if you actually USE them. Notice the key work: IF. There is a good chance you'd spend that $$ and not use it.

That's a bit harsh

I'm not an idiot and I wouldn't buy something simply because I might use it.


I said if I'm going to spend the money to hop I would rather have it be for the entire trip and not just one day. I did not say I'd buy it at the beginning of the trip "just in case" I decided I want to use it later. I wouldn't purchase the hopper unless I knew I would use it.

I am cheap and calculate every little decision. Even if I really wanted to hop the last day, I would probably decide that it wasn't worth the price of the hoppers to just hop once. That's why I would rather just decide at the beginning of the trip if we were going to hop or not, so we could get the most out of the cost of the hoppers. Like DVCBelle, I would almost definitely decide that it wasn't worth the $50 to hop once, but to me it's worth $5 to hop each day.


I know hoppers don't work with everyone's vacation style. I was just giving my opinion about why I would rather have them for the whole trip instead of waiting until the end. We always buy the hoppers before the trip because we know we are going to use them all 10 days (often more than once per day) because that's how our family likes to tour the parks.

 

[AudreysMom]

Thanks everyone. In the past, I've usually had an AP, so I didn't have to think about each little feature.

We are trying to plan hopping into the schedule, but I can only see 2-3 possible nights when we might. If I pay for the hopper, you can bet we'll use it. I was wanting to postpone the upgrade until one of those chances in case we don't end up wanting to hop. If it came down to wanting to hop on the last day, I just wouldn't pay for it for one day only.

If we were all footloose and fancy free like in previous trips, I'd have no qualms about buying it up front. However, this will be DDs first trip and since she's so little, I can do some planning, but mostly, I'll just have to see how she does.

BTW, I was trying to plan for one park per day, but my brother is set on hopping for some reason. Oh, the things we do for little brothers.