To hop or not to hop ... that's the question?

[aussiemouse]

As a first timer to WDW with DH, DS(7), and DD(4) we have decided to stay 6 nts at CBR and get a 4 day pass. I figured the basic pass would be fine because we could easily fill in a full day at each park. Now that I've been reading these boards and book, books, books ... I'm having doubts about my master plan. Should we get a Park Hopper? What did you do with small kids ... your first or second time? I hate to pay the extra if the kids are too wiped out to move from place to place, BUT I hate the thought of being there and missing out on something because we don't have flexible tickets.
I don't know ..... I'm so confused.

 

[agotta]

With small kids I would say park hopping may not be necessary. For those of us traveling with kids, everything gets done a lot quicker You will be able to renenter the park though. So get there early, go back to the hotel for naps, and then return to that same park in the afternoon. You should be fine, especially on your first trip. Have fun!!

 

[F1Julie]

I'd say go for the hopper. It gives you a lot more flexibility. I wouldn't want to devote a whole day to AK. I'd spend morning to late afternoon there, and then want to head to another park for dinner and evening activities. MGM is another park I only spend about half a day at. It's also nice to park hop for meals. There are so many great places to eat at Epcot that I like to be able to spend the day at another park and then have a good meal at Epcot. Also, it's good to have the option to park hop in case a park gets really crowded. I planned on spending a whole Saturday at MK in December. By lunchtime, it was so busy that we left and went to MGM instead.

 

[CEDmom]

I'd definitely go for the park hopper passes because it gives you so much flexibility. I'm almost embarassed to admit this, but the 1st time we took DD into MK (she was 3 at the time) she HATED it. We got through some of Toon Town w/o any problems but after that she didn't want any part of it. Had it not been for our park hoppers we would have been out a full days admission since I had no interest in staying so she could have a complete meltdown. Instead, we headed over to Epcot which amazingly she loved. She then she's been fine with MK but I think that 1st visit was just completely overwhelming.

Also, I don't know about the interested of your family but I know ours can't do a full day in MGM because there just isn't enough there for us. The same can be said for Animal Kingdom.

 

[goofybabe2001]

If it is in your budget go for the hopper .It was a life saver for us when our dd got bored at one park and wanted something else to do.

 

[disneychrista]

I would not go without parkhoppers. It gives a great chance to pick and choose. You may find that you have done all that you care to do at one park, this gives you the option of going to another one for the remainder of the day. Or that you want to spend the evening at World Showcase while the day at Animal Kingdom. Hopping gives you this flexibility.

 

[aussiemouse]

Thanks. I think we will do the hopper. Would kick myself if we were down there and wanted to hop but couldn't! If we don't use it .. oh well.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

We almost never parkhopped. But i am willing to do a ride 2 or 3 times in a row if my daughter enjoyed it. Transportation even using our own car took up too much time to change parks midday.

 

[disnutt]

I agree with I Wish I Lived in FL. I think parkhopping is too difficult with children. If it is your first time I think it would be even worse because you haven't mastered the transportation system or the driving around the parks which can minimize the time lost running between parks.

We also re-ride the kids favorites rides/re-watch their favorite shows at each park to maximize our daily visit. I've seen the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast shows at MGM enought to qualify as an understudy for any role. I get bored but the kids seem to love it.

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

I love the parkhopper option. I did it with three children easily. Especially on MGM & AK days. We did those parks early and then went to Epcot to eat and see the countries a little at a time. The flexibility is a real plus.

 

[Mama Twinkles]

Hopping would allow you to take advantage of EMH (evening or morning) before or after you visit another park. Don't know when you're going and therefore whther evening EMH would be too late for your kids, but picture a nice, early resort dinner followed by a few rides at an EMH park.

 

[princessknb]

 

[golfgal]

Another thing to look into if you don't want to park hop is to get a 5,6,ot 7 day park pass. It might be less expensive to do that then get the park hopping option. That way, if a park is really busy and you want to go to your hotel, you have an extra day on your ticket to go back to that park. For us, we were going to buy a 6 day pass and when I saw that the 7 day pass was only $6 more, total for the 5 of us, we decided on that. We will have an extra day to go to the parks if we want, if not, we are only out $6.

 

[crisi]

We found hopping with our chidren to be wonderful....they weren't hotel room nappers, but did sleep on any transportation we stuck them on. So the "hop" was a short nap.

 

[matdamom]

We "hopped" every day with our kids. We did AK then hopped over to MK for the fireworks. The day before we did MGM and then hopped over to MK for the evening. My girls loved ending the day at MK. Our next trip - we'll probably split up each day between two parks and end each day at MK or Epcot. We used buses or the monorail to do most of our park hopping. We always parked our car at MK, and took a bus over to MGM or AK or the monorail to Epcot.

 

[pplasky]

A park hopper is worth the splurge, it is not that much more and gives you more flexibility. We like to do a park in the morning, spend time at the resorts in the afternoon, kids are to old to nap, and then go to a different park at night. We could go back to the same park, but it the kids seem to enjoy it more if we change venues.

 

[SCOTTOHIOCPA]

We love to hop! Sometimes we will do MK for the entire day since it takes so long to get there and then to leave again, but at the other three parks we hop all the time. My dw loves to eat in EPCOT, so we do AK or MGM in the morning, and then hop over to the countries for some dinner.

Last April we were in town for just 1 day and we wanted to do MK. McDonald's had rented out all of MK for the evening, so the park closed to the general public at 6:00. What a bummer...no wishes....no spectromagic....just GO HOME! we rented the place to someone else so you'll have to leave! We were glad we had park hoppers so we could at least go over to MGM and see Fantasmic. This was one case where hoppers were great to have.

Another tip for hopping: We always fill a cooler with some ice and healthy snacks when we plan to hop. That way, when we get to our car, we all have an afternoon snack and a coke that didn't cost an arm and a leg. We also put some water bottles in there and we hit our second park of the day with some fresh water in hand.

 

[fanningIII]

We love the hopper option as well. Not only did we get to change parks, when DS(8) got bored. We made sure we saw the fireworks and illumination multiple nights from different locations. DS was less than impressed with epcot at the time, but loved the show.

 

[Local_Girl]

We also like to have a cooler in the car on park hopping days. We can have a quick lunch and save $$ too.

 

[henrylovespooh]

We go with small kids and we always park hop. I don't think we've ever spent one whole day in any park. The hopper is especially good on MGM, AK and EPCOT days. We usually go to MGM and AK for half days and spend the other afternoons at EPCOT.

I would definitely get the hopper.