Short Tripping Hopping Strategy Thoughts

[firefly_ris]

Hi all. My husband and I are taking a brief trip to WDW this October to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It looks like we will be able to afford 2 day hopper passes. We'll be staying on-site at POFQ and will not have a vehicle. No kids, just the two of us for this trip. I realize that Food & Wine and MNSSHP will both be going on during this time, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilize the hoppers. My main idea is to do MK, Epcot and AK, and skip DHS this time (even though I love it).

- Arrive Tuesday October 10th at around 3:30pm. Won't be using park tickets this night... by the time we get off the plane, on the express, to the resort, eat something, etc, we'll just putter around the resort or maybe take the boat to Disney Springs or something.

- Wednesday morning. Magic Kingdom right now says opens at 9am, and has evening EMH until 11pm. I'm unsure if we should start here, or instead, rope drop Epcot, do stuff there without any FP+, and save all of our FP+ for evening/night time stuff at MK and hop over there in the afternoon and close out the park.

- Thursday -- MK closes at 7pm for MNSSHP. So, was possibly thinking rope drop MK, stay until late afternoon, then hop over to AK.... right now AK is listed as closing at 7pm also.... but my ultimate hope is that they start extending evening hours there since Pandora will be open, Rivers of Light, ToL awakenings and all that goes on at night....

- If they don't extend AK hours, then I guess we would miss AK altogether this way and do Epcot instead. Or, do I do AK/MK the first day and then MK/Epcot the 2nd day?

- Friday, no park tickets, but we don't fly out until I think 8pm, so I was thinking, check out and go to Disney Springs for lunch, hang there for a bit, then come back to catch the express bus. Will there be somewhere to keep our luggage during this time? And will we still be able to take the boat to DS even though we'll be checked out of the room at 11am?

Any thoughts welcome. We had hoppers last time too, but we were also hauling 3 small children plus my parents, and we had our own vehicles and didn't have to adhere to Disney transport timelines. We were also off-site. So I'm just kind of thinking out loud here because we won't be there long, but would like to maximize our time during the 2 park days. We are the kind of people that will rope drop to close, especially with no kids with us. We don't need to "see it all", but I'd like to mostly grab FP+ for some of the headliners that we couldn't do last time because the kids were too small. We'll be planning another family trip within the next 2 years, so we'll be back for a longer trip later.

 

[Sandi]

I like the idea of rope drop at one park and then use FP+s at a second park. We often do that.

I would recommend purchasing the Express Transportation to get between the various parks. It saves a TON of time. For two days, it's not as economical as when you get it for up to 7 days, but I still think it is worth the buy.

 

[Traver Freeman]

Surprising on the AK hours. We are going next week and it's open till 9 PM. I don't think Rivers of Light even starts until 9:15 PM.

I, personally, would get some extra tickets, but your trip is so short it would cost more because the tickets don't get cheap until after 5 days. We go into the park the last day even though we have to leave by 3-4 PM. That's just what we do though. I hate leaving on a day I can't go to the parks, again, just what we do.

To maximize your time, you definitely want to go to MK for the EME. Rope dropping another park in the morning sounds like a great idea, if you are worried about AK closing early, do AK that morning and MK that night. Next day rode drop EPCOT and go back to MK to finish up even if it closes early. Then you can go back to EPCOT if you like. The monorail makes it easy to hop between those two. Or you get the express bus like @Sandi said. I've never used it, but it sounds nice. You don't have to go through security or ticketing if you use it.

 

[Mickey & Minnie Mom]

I would forgo the hoppers & get 3-day base tickets for about the same price ($30 more total). And for a 10th anniversary trip, I would figure out a way to have an additional $150 total and get 4-day base tickets. These amounts are based on ticket prices from touringplans ticket calculator.

Then I would hit either DHS or AK on first and last day. See MK on Wed with extended hours & Epcot on Thurs. This gives you ability to make FP+ in each park to improve touring in order to see your "must do" and opens up possibility of 4th FP+ and beyond which will be easier for just the 2 of you vs larger family unit. It may seem like a lot in short time, but you can travel at your own pace, stop and enjoy snacks/drinks, you def won't feel you need to rush from one attraction to the next and there will be some things you will pass on all together without the kids there.

If the extra $150 just isn't doable, I would then stay at resort/DS first night, MK on Wed, Epcot Thurs and AK before leaving on Fri. I feel this plane would maximize time in each park by eliminating hopping time and opening up another day all for practically the same price as you were already committed to spending on tickets. MK will be crowded on a non-party day but you already know that going in and plan to use EMH to make the most of it. A full day at Epcot gives you plenty of time to enjoy all the booths/drinks/eats at the F&W Festival as well. Having third day to go to AK allows you to make a Pandora FP+ without having to choose between that or making FP+ at another park.

Congrats on the 10 years, enjoy spending at WDW!

 

[firefly_ris]

Thanks all, very helpful tips. There are a lot of projects going on at home this year plus a few other summer excursions, so that all makes this trip a little tight because I don't want to remove funds from those things. But, it IS possible that I could do 3 day base tickets instead, I could scrounge up a few more things to sell on eBay and craigslist to cover the difference over the summer. It does stink that we can't a huge savings on the tickets since it's a short trip, but I know we will enjoy it either way. I would definitely rather be at a park instead of DS, but I was just trying to fill the time with a 2 day ticket. If I do 3 days, then I could devote Wed to MK and Thurs to Epcot as suggested above, and either do night time AK the day we get in (assuming it's open later) or scrap the whole night time idea for that and do morning AK for a bit before we head home.

I'm not buying the tickets until closer to the end of summer, so I will keep both the 2 and 3 day strategies in mind, then see how I've done with the spending money throughout the summer and then bite the bullet and figure out the ticket purchasing then. 3 Day Hopper seems to be the most viable.... looking at UT, a 2 day hopper is $281.54, a 3 day base is $326.54, and a 3 day hopper is $361.95... so there's only a $45 difference between the 2 day hopper and the 3 day base... and only an $80 difference between the 2 day hopper and the 3 day hopper.

 

[Flynnismine]

I'm not sure what your must do's are at each park but with a good touring plan, I think all 4 parks are definitely doable in 2 days if you don't need to ride and see everything. DD(8) and I are doing a quick 2 day trip in a few weeks, not sure if it will help or not but I can share what our planned itinerary is.

Our flight lands at 7:30am which, after taking ME and checking in at POFQ, should put us in EPCOT around 11am. Ride standby at Soarin, grab a bite to eat at SS, use the single rider line for TT, catch a few more things in FW and work our way around WS towards the IG and boat to HS at 4:30. Our FP's for the day are booked at HS at 5:00, 6:00, & 7:00pm. We check in for the Star Wars dessert party at 8:00. Saturday morning we have a PPO ADR at BOG at 8:15, which will put us ahead of the RD crowd and help out tremendously with morning touring at MK and getting our must do's in. We'll leave MK around 11:30 and head to AK for our FP's at 12:00, 1:00, & 2-:00, we also have a 3-5pm time slot for the AP Pandora preview. After they boot us from Pandora at 5:00, we'll head back to MK for the Happily Ever After dessert party at 8:00. We fly back home early the next morning. We're hoping all the sugar from the 2 dessert parties will get us through the 2 days of busy park hopping, LOL

On a side note, we are planning to utilize the express bus service on the 2nd day because Saturdays are always busy everywhere and I don't want to run the risk of us missing the Pandora preview or dessert party check- in at MK.

In October, MK will probably be less crowded on the day of MNSSHP so you could probably get more done in a shorter amount of time, especially if you book a PPO ADR at BOG. RD whichever park and book your FP's for another park in the afternoon. On check out day, bell services will keep your luggage until it's time to board ME. Yep, you can catch the boat to DS after you check out. HTH.
DH and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary in October as well. Congrats and I hope you guys have a magical trip