To Hop or Not! That is the question!

[ChrystalUnicorn]

Hi all!!
We are going on our first Disney trip in Sept. We have 7 day Magic Your Way tickets with dining and Water Parks fun and more. Do we need the Park Hopper?
We have picked the must sees that we all want and have tried to planned ARDs to coincide with the park we will be at that day.
Will we be able to see the things we must want without park Hopper?
Thanks!!


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[Robo]

We are going on our first Disney trip in Sept. We have 7 day Magic Your Way tickets with dining and Water Parks fun and more. Do we need the Park Hopper?

We always park-hop... every single day.

But YOU may not NEED to.
How do you know?
What should you do?

Simple:
You don't need to buy the "Hopper Option" UNLESS and UNTIL you need it.

If you are already at one park and decide that you'd like to "hop" to another... right then,
just walk up to a ticket window and pay the $52 (plus tax) per tix (its the same price whenever you choose to do it) and you're ready to hop (that day, and any others, for the rest of your trip.) You must make this and all other upgrade choices within the first 14 day of when the ticket was first used.

If you go and NEVER need to hop, don't buy the upgrade, and you can then spend all those "extra" bucks on more WDW souvenirs!

 

[JPGonzales]

Ever since our first trip, we have park hopped. We have started out one day at one park and finished up at another. Example, we usually start early at Animal Kingdom. By late afternoon, we go back to the room and freshen up or swim and then hit dinner at a different park.

Since we usually have DH and DD get tired, we will finish up at one park and my teen DD and I had the EMH at another park.

I love having the flexiblity. Plus, I highly suggest checking out Blizzard Beach!! It's a must and we will swim until the afternoon, and hit a park in the afternoon.

 

[doggydoc]

I love having the flexiblity. Plus, I highly suggest checking out Blizzard Beach!! It's a must and we will swim until the afternoon, and hit a park in the afternoon.

This is exactly why DD and I DON'T get the hopper. You don't need hopper tickets to go to the waterparks and then a main park. DD likes to go to either BB, TL or DTD everyday. By the time we do one of those there is very little chance we will have time or energy to go to more than one main park. Also as ROBO said you can always add it it if you find a need.

 

[mrbghd]

I don't think you need to have the hoopers. I know that we prefer to hop. We typically start and end the day in different parks. It also gives you options if you are in a park and it is WAY to crowded. Have a great trip either way

 

[khertz]

We always park hop! But if you have the water park option added and plan to maximize the use of your BB/TL/DQ entries, you probably don't need the hoppers. But if you get there and decide that you would like the ability to hop, you can just add it right then. It will cost the same, no matter when you decide to add that feature.

 

[Steamboat Girlie]

We never hop. Have not done it since we had the kids. It's just easier to plan a day around 1 theme park. So we save the money. That being said, when we were just a couple w/o kids, we ALWAYS hopped. We loved being free and easy. Now with the kids in tow, and all the gear, we keep it to one park a day!

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

You need to decide if you want to park hop.

We always go to different parks in the morning and at night. We always go back to the hotel in the afternoon for a rest and a swim and we like that we are going to a different park in the evening. Just our personal preference though.

 

[3smithboys]

We don't hop because we collect FP in the morning and save the ones that we don't use and use them in the evening. If you hop then you don't have any FP from the morning to use in the evening. We plan all of our ADR's around the park that we are going to be in that day.

Most of the time we still go back for a swim and a rest - we are at the park for RD, leave when the parks are getting crowded at lunchtime, and come back with a bunch of FP's in the evening! We have gone for the past 3 years for Christmas week and it has worked great - hardly waited in lines and the crowds have not been that bad...We are going to follow the same plan for our August trip except for our waterpark days....

 

[happycamps]

We always park hop - I would rather go less days and park hop than more days w/o the option. IMO, weather can cause some parks to be more attractive than others as well, so we hop if it is too much of a damper.

 

[cbg1027]

I hardly ever hop. It was never worth the $50 bucks to me. I have a pass now, and have used the hopper capabilities...once for sure, maybe it was twice during 13 park days.

 

[francie57]

We are definitely park hoppers. I don't want to have to plan every aspect of my trip - which park and ADR to go with it. We make our ADRs at the 180 day mark and then just go from there. We usually go to a park for the morning (usually do early hours for MK and AK), go back to the Boardwalk for a swim, and then to dinner. We have so many favorite restaurants at Epcot that most of our meals are there so hopping is a must. After dinner we either stay at Epcot or go to another park if we want. We have been so many times that we don't rush around all day and actually have turned Disney into a relaxing vacation for the whole family.

 

[brymolmom]

We like to stick with the same park in morning and evening, even if we go back to the room for a rest/swim. The MAIN reason - Fastpasses. We go at rope drop and collect lots of them, but rarely need them so early. Head back to the room for a swim, then return to walk past everyone in the long lines at that time using up all our FP's accumulated earlier.

Park Hoppers are not NECESSARY for a 7 day trip to see what you want to see...but for some they are a very nice to have. Personally, I don't really even like hopping as it cuts down on above plan. And for early-closing AK...we like some swim time and always hit DTD at least once - we just do it on AK night.

 

[saraalison]

We posed the same question. But as others pointed out, you can add the hopper option later. So we are going to wait until we actually NEED them before we purchase them.

 

[Mom2PrincessK]

We prefer not to hop - we like to get our FP's early and come back to the park later in the day to use them. If we were only there a few days we would consider it - but with 7 days we have plenty of time to do everything and just don't feel the need.

 

[adam0418]

We prefer to park hop. We don't make plans ahead of time besides the ads so we plan the dinner park but the beginning of the day we just pick at random.

 

[qanita92]

We never hop but that's because we take long vacations so there is no reason for us to try to cram in 2+ parks a day

 

[POB14]

WE never park-hop because we take SHORT vacations and the ~$50 isn't worth it on a 2-day ticket, in my opinion.

The only time I've ever even wanted to hop is on a Fantasmic! day, because we aren't otherwise interested in going back to the Studios, but I'd like to see Fantasmic! some day.

 

[earthfaries]

Before we moved here ~ when we used to vacation here ~ we NEVER hopped. We still don't ~ we pick a park and make it a day. We plan everything around that park so we don't need to leave.
I would just wait until you get there and upgrade if you need to ~ have fun!

 

[kaligal]

If you avoid EMH days, there really is no big reason to hop.

I was once a hopper, back when Disney had all morning EMHs. I'd stay in their hotels and do the a.m. EMH, then hop to a different park. But I no longer feel any need to hop.

If I'm with someone who has to buy tickets, we just skip the hopping. Even when I'm with a friend and we both have APs, we don't always hop.

It's a nice option to have, but in no way necessary. You can have an excellent trip without ever hopping.