Tickets here or there plus park hopper? Help!

[mebmama]

I have Disney Dollars to use on tickets for our very first trip to DW. Is it better to order tickets online, in advance or just get the tickets there?

We will have 5 full days and maybe 1 half day in the parks... should we get a park hopper option for our 3 adults and 3 children - 10yo, 7yo, 5yo? So many questions and so little time! We're going in late October! Thanks for your help!

 

[Desnik]

Here's a link that should help:
http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/ticket.htm
http://www.allearsnet.com/pl/ticketchart.htm#MYW1

Personally we love to park hop and always get hoppers! When we don't have AP's I will usually buy the tickets at The Disney Store in our mall because you do get a slight discount. Also if you are a AAA member you can get your tickets discounted through them. I don't think I would chance ordering them and having them shipped because they might not get to you in time if your trip is this Oct.

 

[autumnbaby9]

I ordered tickets from undercover tourist and they were at my door 2 days later so shipping shouldn't be a problem. However if you are worried about that then I would buy them at the gate, just make sure you show up early so you don't have to stand in line and waste your vacation time.

I never used the park hopping option after the first day when we went to WDW for the first time, it just wasted too much time going from one park to the next. I would just buy a base ticket and then upgrade it to a parkhopper if you decide you need it after getting there. No need spending the extra money unless you need to.

 

[badblackpug]

I always buy everything ahead of time, but that is mainly because I like to have all the details settled so I can just relax and enjoy my vacation. We always park hop. We enjoy going to different parks on different days. For instance, we may visit one park during the day, have dinner at a hotel, and then skip over to another park to ride something we really enjoyed one more time, or see a show we missed.

 

[mom2aredhead]

MK may close early (7:00) on a few of the days you're there because of MNSSHP. AK usually closes around 5 or 6 on days without EMH. Based on the hours (and the ADR's I hope you already have), think about if all 6 of you you can realistically hop from 1 place to another enough to make it worth it.

We've done both. Our first trip, we did not have hoppers and it was fine. We went to whichever park had evening EMH in the morning, went back to the hotel in the afternoon, then back to that same park at night for eve EMH. We didn't find it to be unbearably crowded during the pm EMH as some here will have you believe. And we were there in the end of the October too. It was fine.

We had hoppers during our May trip and used them a few times - after we went to Mickey's Backyard BBQ we ran over to MK to catch Spectro. We also missed the Stunt Show at MGM so went over there for another 1/2 day, then took the boat to Epcot. I think that's about it...I guess it was worth it, but I don't think our trip was better because we had them. We're only a family of 3, so it was not nearly as much of an expense as it would be for you.