To hop or not that is the question

[java]

So we are avid Disney goers. We always stay onsite rope drop and hop all day now that kids are all teens and up.
Until this trip.
we are staying offsite. (Irrational pool concerns)
We will rope drop
We don’t have hoppers right now.

reasons: not until 2
Travel time waste of time
I think it will stressful as is without the added hop stress.

opinions?

 

[Robo]

We don’t have hoppers right now.

reasons: not until 2
Travel time waste of time
I think it will stressful as is without the added hop stress.

You didn't mention the extra cost.

 

[java]

You didn't mention the extra cost.

Oh yes and there are 5 of us so that’s about $500 for this trip length(7days)

 

[SoCalDisneyFan2708]

IMO you need park hoppers for every park except for MK and maybe HS. This is especially the case with certain entertainment still missing. You said you’d be rope dropping so that is a major factor in your decision as well.

For example, I was at AK this Tues 7/20. Was there right when they opened at 7. By the time it was 12:30 I had already done the following: FoP, Safari, EE 3x, FotLK, walked the gorilla trail, ate at flame tree bbq, went on the train to Rafikis. So all there was left to do is Dinosaur, kali rapids, Navi river and bugs life. You’d be done with those by 2 or 3. Now if your wanting to do other things on your vacation outside the parks then you’d be fine w/out hoppers. But if your main goal is maximizing park time then hoppers are a must. Epcot is similar to this and HS is debatable.

MK is different cause there are still so many rides and lines have been pretty long except the first and last hr of the day

 

[cakebaker]

Our reason for getting hoppers this time when I think the value isn't near what it was- 1) We want multiple opportunities to try and get in the VQ for ROTR. We don't want several full days at HS so we can go there, try for the VQ, hop out at 2 and over the course of 3 days, we should be able to get most rides in. 2) We aren't interested much in Epcot this trip, but do want to see EE so we'll hop over there once or twice in the evening. Right now, I can't imagine making a full day out of Epcot. We also like to take resort breaks in the afternoon so we don't hop directly. We do a morning park, resort bread then evening park.

Ride waits are horrendous so we want to be fluid and have as much flexibility as possible this trip so hoppers are still a must for us.

 

[LSUfan4444]

So we are avid Disney goers. We always stay onsite rope drop and hop all day now that kids are all teens and up.
Until this trip.
we are staying offsite. (Irrational pool concerns)
We will rope drop
We don’t have hoppers right now.

reasons: not until 2
Travel time waste of time
I think it will stressful as is without the added hop stress.

opinions?

Not sure really what to add other than I do think the cost is worth it, I don't add it to my existing cost but factor it in and reduce that money spent in another area, I don't think the time is wastes but rather invested to pay off later, especially with the epcot monorail running now it makes it easier to hope between Ep and MK, hopping allows me to skip (what I consider) over costly table service options and dine at some of our favorite quick service locations that give us a better value, epcot almost always has a festival now so you aren't forced to make the decision to see it all in one day or make multiple park reservations for that park, baseline taphouse in the evening might be the most underrated thing in all of Hollywood Studios, attraction closures arent as big of a deal and I like to see each park in the morning and at night but I do not want to do full days so hopping helps add variety to our day.

 

[boop0524]

We got a hopper for our AK day even though I totally agree with all the things you stated above. I am glad we did because there wasn’t as much to do in AK, it was by far the most crowded park on our trip, and it allowed us to go back to HS (actually we ended up going to MK and Epcot as well that day lol). So the flexibility was worth it for us. I would not have used it on our MK or HS days though

 

[chris benton]

So we are avid Disney goers. We always stay onsite rope drop and hop all day now that kids are all teens and up.
Until this trip.
we are staying offsite. (Irrational pool concerns)
We will rope drop
We don’t have hoppers right now.

reasons: not until 2
Travel time waste of time
I think it will stressful as is without the added hop stress.

opinions?

So, you've already got the completely rational reasons why your group shouldn't get hoppers this trip. We always get hoppers too, but definitely would not if it was not rational. It's pretty cut and dried, and simple to figure out for our group, imo.

Ok, so 'nuff of that. Let's get into the good stuff...

What are these "irrational pool concerns???" Can't leave me hangin' like that.

 

[PaladinButters]

So we are avid Disney goers. We always stay onsite rope drop and hop all day now that kids are all teens and up.
Until this trip.
we are staying offsite. (Irrational pool concerns)
We will rope drop
We don’t have hoppers right now.

reasons: not until 2
Travel time waste of time
I think it will stressful as is without the added hop stress.

opinions?

Unpopular opinion I guess but you don't need the hoppers. We used to always get them too until this last trip when we couldn't. Without fast pass we spent a ton more time standing in lines so even the 'half day parks' took longer than expected to do everything we wanted. Save yourself a ton of time and stress and use the $500 bucks saved to buy dole whips. You could probably get 3 or 4 at Disney prices with that much money!

 

[missyp]

so many pluses to hopping, if money isn't the issue, I would absolutely add the hop! So much better!!!!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Given the reports we're hearing of crowded parks, hopping offers the option to move to a different park if you find the crowds too much at your reserved park. Also then gives you the option to hop back there another day if you want to finish things up.

For me, hoppers are a great option these days.

 

[DisLiss]

I'm pretty sure my DH wouldn't even go to WDW if we didn't have hoppers.

For our upcoming trip we're using them pretty much exclusively for Epcot. Because we have to make park reservations, we gave Epcot one reserved day, then left 2 days for each of the other parks, and figure we'll hop to Epcot nearly every afternoon or night. We like a break at the hottest part of the afternoon, so either we'll break at a resort and then go to Epcot, or we'll let the transportation time be our break.

 

[julie-o]

We had hoppers for many trips, but the last few times I’ve gone, we haven’t had them and not only did I not miss them, I was glad we didn’t have them. It narrowed down our options and helped keep things simple. I liked that. I don’t know if we’ll ever hop again. (But never say never)

 

[leeniewdw]

This is such a personal decision (and financial!). Once we started hopping, we've never not hopped. Now we go with just us (empty nesters), but we love to go to one park in the morning (RD or close to it), back to hotel for rest/pool time, then back out to another park for the late afternoon/evening. We are never "go all day" people as we know we are better off getting off our feet midday. We did the same thing with our kids since they loved the pool time.

I'm sure we'd survive if we just went back to the original park after our break, but we also tend to only do 3 park days, so we need to hop to hit them all.

 

[Koda]

Just got back yesterday. We had 4 day hoppers. Rope dropped MK and HS 2 days each, and hopped to Epcot and AK on multiple days. For our trip, the only way we were going to get on the headliners that we wanted was to have 2 days of rope drop at both HS and MK. We had done FOP on a previous trip, and it wasn't a priority for us. Even if it was, we would have gotten in line for it right before park close at AK. MK and HS lines get so crazy long by mid-morning that hopping to Epcot or AK is a refreshing change.