Tell me WHY you park hop!

[WonderWoman28]

Hi all. We’re planning our 4th family trip (my 8th) for December 2021. I’ve only ever had the park hopper once when I went in 2019 with work colleagues for a conference. We went park open to park close for 2 days and hit all 4 parks, it was a blast!

When we’ve gone in the past we’ve never gotten the park hopper. We mainly didn’t knowing our kids were small and we were good staying at one park, going back to rest, then returning to the same park. This time our kids are going to be 12, 7 and a few weeks shy of 6. We’re also staying off site at Bonnet Creek.

Additionally, my husband hit a huge sales goal at work where they’re normally rewarded with a trip. Because of COVID they’ve done a list of prize packages, one including a $3,000 Disney voucher (which he picked, my dream guy). So I’m considering park hopping this year since we’ll have our tickets covered, but I’m having a difficult time coming up with ways to park hop? Or reasons? Plans? All of the above.

I’d love to hear how and why people park hop to utilize it best and really make it worth the money. Thank you!

 

[VandVsmama]

DH & I went to WDW just this past week. We had park hoppers and definitely used them. For example, one day, we started at MK and then hopped to AK after 2 pm. Went on FOP a couple of times and then Dinosaur. Another day, we hopped between HS and MK. It was nice to be able to change our plans on the fly.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We always used to pick a park we could get decent FPs in, but now we just plan to hop over to Epcot or HS since we will be staying in that area.

We used to hop to the MK if it was open late, or just to see the fireworks, but I doubt those options will be available this year.

 

[Farro]

We go for longer than average, 9 nights and I think with longer trips, park hopping is a must.

We love to start at one park in the morning, go back to hotel for pool/wine time, go to another park at night.

Or go to a park during day and have dinner at Epcot. (happens a lot)

Sometimes I wanted a food item I could only get at a certain park, would go there, then hop somewhere else!

It's freedom.

 

[AllisonLB1994]

Our family never typically did PHs but I did them for a couples trip in 2019. It came in handy especially with Epcot being so limited.

On our HS day, we got there at rope drop (at the time so we could get ROTR). We hit up a few rides and as lines got longer, we just took the skyline over to Epcot and got there right as it opened! Being said that, our next trip we will be staying at Boardwalk and I'm more inclined to get PH because we will be so close to parks, for dinner or fireworks. With the 2 pm restrictions, it means you'll basically just spend the evenings somewhere else.

 

[terri33inne]

We've always gotten them. It creates more flexibility... starting our day in one park, and then finishing off with dinner in another, or vice versa, starting the day with breakfast in one park, and then heading to another for the day. If we start the day in one park, and find it's too crowded we just switch to another park. We also typically stay in the Epcot resorts so being able to go to HS or EP at night after the day in another park was always nice.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I only ever park hop if my trip is less than 4 days, that way I can go to all 4 parks. Otherwise, I don't see the need. Even when I had my AP and was there for a week I never hopped.

 

[gatorlisa]

Why? On a short trip, so we can do all of our favorites at all of the parks, when we don't necessarily have 3 or 4 full days. On trips that involve busy times or weekends, so that we can hop to a less busy park when the park we are in gets busier than we want. So that when we've done everything in one park multiple times and it's only 3:00 we can go play in another park for a few hours. All of these applied for our recent long weekend. Because of some self imposed limitations based on our comfort level given current conditions, HS only had about 6 attractions on our to-do list. Easy to do all of them multiple times (other than Rise which we can only do once) all by about 2:00 in the afternoon. So we did our park reservations at HS for a couple of days, with the intent to hit all the stuff on our list at least once or twice, ride Rise, then hop somewhere else for a few hours. Our MK day, things got a little crazy around 2, so we hopped to AK where it was much less busy.

On longer trips, so that we are encouraged to take a bit of a break in the afternoon and go somewhere different for the late afternoon/evening (we are not the type to go to a park, leave to take a break, and return to the same park...we are either going to hop or we are going to stay until we are ready to call it quits for the day).

Pre-COVID, we would often plan to begin at Epcot, with no FP+ there, since it's very easy to do without them if you arrive there at rope drop, then plan to hop to MK or HS with our FPs at the afternoon park.

Those are just a few of the reasons why and how.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

My family only started park hopping in 2019 after going to WDW for years - it was the year we bought annual passes.

For us, we'd go to whichever primary park in the morning, do a bunch of rides, get lunch in the park, do a couple more rides, head back to the resort for pool time. Then we'd head to a different park for dinner, a few more rides, etc. MK, Epcot and HS are all really nice at night. MK has all the rides, or Epcot for dinner and drinks.

We have a spring break trip coming up in less than 2 months, we were going to stay at Boardwalk, do whatever park we had a reservation for in the morning and then head over to Epcot for dinner most nights. But now my plans have changed, DH just bought us a new RV (the old one was too unreliable), so my Dreams Unlimited travel agent just switched things up for us and we're staying at Fort Wilderness now. So happy!

Anyway, my new park hopping plan is to do the reservation park in the morning and have lunch there, head back to FW for mid afternoon pool time and then head over to MK for dinner and more rides each night (if they increase the hours for spring break crowds).

 

[Evita_W]

In the past we did it to maximize park hours, for example, if AK was open from 8 AM to 5 PM and MK from 10 AM to 10 PM with evening EMH until 1 AM (back when it was 3 hours in the evening), we would go to AK in the morning, maybe take a quick nap back at the room and head over to MK in the evening.

With current park hours, I just don't see the value in park hopping unless you have an AP.

 

[cjlong88]

Love park hopping.

1) Your days can be longer. It's wonderful to start at a park that has an early opening time, head back to the hotel for a nap, then go somewhere totally different in the evening that has a later closing time. It extends our day and allows us time to chill. That's a win for us.

2) Before COVID, we would use our first three FP's in our initial park and then we were free to park hop to whichever one gave us the best options for additional FP's OR had the lowest standby waits. Nothing was worse than being at MK when it's shoulder to shoulder humans and seeing low waits at another park on the MDE app. So if things get hairy at one park, we can just bounce and go to another.

3) We do a lot of weekend trips, so PH allows us to visit all 4 parks during such a short stay.


With the way things are now, PH was an easy pick for our upcoming trip. I want more flexibility and freedom to move between the parks during the current state of affairs.

 

[Timandalicia]

Let me be brief:
1. idk what’s happening with covid but we sometimes wait until we are there and make a decision to add park hopper as we go.
2. We will use park hopper to avoid crowds.
3. We will use park hopper if our resort is close to one of the parks.
4. We will use park hopper sometimes because we don’t need a full day to get through Animal Kingdom.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We park hop for the flexibility. We have attempted to go without hoppers twice and added up adding hoppers after the first day both times.

Bottom line, we just love the flexibility. When we get to the end of the trip we can go back and repeat the things we love but not commit to one park for the whole day. We love hopping between Hollywood Studios and Epcot on the same day. We also may change our park plans based on the weather - leave a park and head to another if it’s raining (we like MK and Epcot in the rain more than HS and AK.)

We also especially love it if we are staying at a resort within walking distance to a park.

 

[gharter]

Pre-Covid, we would park hop for different restaurants, if the park we were in was too crowded after using our FPs.
We also frequently would park hop to watch one of the nighttime firework shows.
Most of those reasons don't work so well currently.

 

[angelmav]

Twice I’ve had it on my tickets and never used it. I just like planning a full park day with whatever is on that days agenda.

 

[NashvilleMama]

We hop when it's a short trip (which is what we mostly do.) For a week or longer, we wouldn't need it.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

For us, the great advantage is being able to eat multiple dinners in the World Showcase --- often timed to catch Illuminations right after. We can spend the day at one of the other parks, and then head to EPCOT for dinner. We love the World Showcase, and the sit down restaurants there are our favorites in the World. It's great to be able to do 4 or 5 of them in one trip.

 

[bakerworld]

We like to end the evening at WS so PH-ing.

 

[WonderWoman28]

For us, the great advantage is being able to eat multiple dinners in the World Showcase --- often timed to catch Illuminations right after. We can spend the day at one of the other parks, and then head to EPCOT for dinner. We love the World Showcase, and the sit down restaurants there are our favorites in the World. It's great to be able to do 4 or 5 of them in one trip.

Ok, so far this has to be my #1 reason to park hop! There are always so many restaurants I want to eat at in Epcot but we only usually go once a trip!

 

[WonderWoman28]

Thank you for all of the replies!

We usually do longer trips, so it never made sense to park hop. We spent one day in each park, usually 2 days in MK. We don’t usually stay on site so never can take advantage of EMH. Also with younger kids we don’t usually end up closing parks down anyway. Last time we went we were out of AK, Epcot and HS by dinner time and with cranky kids couldn’t fathom going back. Even if we tried to take an afternoon rest, no one ever seems to rest. Hoping this is the year we can have longer park days