To hop or not to hop

[Mister Skellington]

That is the question...
So I see most folks on the board here seem to be fans of park hopping between DL and DCA. I have always found touring plans one day strategy to be great (several WDW trips and one DL trip previously).They have not let me down in the past but neither have you guys! Are touring plans strategies catching on?
I am confused...should I hop or not!
Thanks,
Nate

FYI we are early to park, all day, commando types and our trip is the end of March. We will be at the parks for 3 days...

 

[c&m]

I say HOP!!! I don't think you'd regret it.

This is how we HOP: When DL gets packed with people mid-afternoon, my family likes to HOP to CA, where it seems a bit better. When DL seems to clear out some of the crowds later in the evening (maybe the families of toddlers and preschoolers head back to their hotels???), we're right back inside DL till closing time.

 

[skiingfast]

For three days, no question hop. Because the parks are so close it so easy.

You can collect FP's in both parks because they are not connected, so getting one on Space doesn't exclude you from getting one on ToT.

So those are really the best two advantages to hopping.

3rd advantage make the 3 day a Ph and getting a morning magic too.

 

[silmarg]

At WDW I always say forget about hopping as the parks are so far apart.

At DLR I think buying a hopper makes much more sense.

We just got back from DLR and bought 6 day hoppers. I think we hopped on 4 of the days.

We stayed at the Grand Cal (DVC) and the hoppers were especially useful there as we could enter DCA from the private entrance, pick up a fast pass or two and run over to DL.

 

[HydroGuy]

Some questions people ask here are hard to answer. This is not one of them. Parkhopping is a no brainer for anything 2 days or more.

 

[Dobie]

Hop, hop, hop I say!

 

[Sherry E]

I am pro-hopping even for a one-day trip, so for a multi-day trip I say there is no good reason to NOT hop.

Hop, hop, hop to your heart's content!!

 

[Mugglemama]

If you're commando types, then there's no question - you should definitely hop.

Otherwise, you're wasting valuable time standing in lines or doing nothing at all, when you could actually be on rides or in shows, etc.

It takes 90 seconds to hop from one park to the other. So, ride morning rides at DL, collect all applicable FP's, then hop over to DCA, collect more FP's, ride rides until your FP's at DL are good, go use them (and collect any more DL FP's you might use later that night), then hop back over to DCA to use the FP's you collected earlier, and when DCA closes, go use your 2nd set of FP's at DL.

 

[miss.potatohead]

We bought a three day park hopper pass, with the idea to spend our first day at Disneyland, second day at California Adventure and the third day doing the rides at either park which we missed out on on the original day. Well we were shocked that we managed to do EVERY RIDE at Disneyland on the first day and EVERY RIDE at DCA on the second day so we spent our last day just having fun at both parks, doing our favourite rides. Mind you we went in mid January so it was very quiet and we had never been to Disneyland before, probably won't be there again for a while (I'm from overseas) but hop was the way to go.

 

[Peace.love.mickey]

Hop hop....hippity hop

 

[danceanddisney2010]

Most definitely hop! It's a lot of fun and like everyone has said previously the parks are so close so it's really worth it. I saw that someone said they leave DL and head over to DCA when it gets a little too crowded in the afternoon...I absolutely agree. We do the same thing. Both parks have a lot of offer.

 

[Mister Skellington]

Thanks for the advice everyone...it looks unanimouse (sorry, bad joke )
It looks like for the first time in a lot of trips I will be putting down the touringplans guide. I need to sit down and do a touring plan for two parks. I found Hydroguys "FP during high season" and I will use that as a guideline. Of course with Buzz not having a FP and SM being closed, it will change things a little. I will try to update this thread when I get back. Thanks a bunch everyone, I appreciate how much the info here helps us!

 

[granismith]

Thanks for the advice everyone...it looks unanimouse (sorry, bad joke )
It looks like for the first time in a lot of trips I will be putting down the touringplans guide. I need to sit down and do a touring plan for two parks. I found Hydroguys "FP during high season" and I will use that as a guideline. Of course with Buzz not having a FP and SM being closed, it will change things a little. I will try to update this thread when I get back. Thanks a bunch everyone, I appreciate how much the info here helps us!

Could you link me that thread please?

 

[Mister Skellington]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

Great thread BTW Hydroguy!

 

[Boo Bear]

Definitely hop. The lines in DL are NOTHING like WDW. I was at DL on the 4th of July on 2009 and the lines were nowhere near the lines for WDW in August of 2008. There are certain times of the day where I prefer to go to DCA, which is just steps across the way, during some crowded afternoons at DL.

 

[Karpkg]

We did 2 days, didn't PH the 1st day and PH like crazy the 2nd day. It was also due to the park's schedules; we wanted to see WoC one the 2nd day but had ADR's at the BB in DL that we couldn't get over the weekend, which was the 1st day, and only Fantasmic was shown during the wknds.

Some shows/events are only done during the wknds (Fantasmic, fireworks), others, like for my family, the Princess Faire was only during the weekdays so if we didn't PH we would have lessened our chances of seeing what we could.

PH'ing for one day was sooo worth it.

 

[silmarg]

We did 2 days, didn't PH the 1st day and PH like crazy the 2nd day. It was also due to the park's schedules; we wanted to see WoC one the 2nd day but had ADR's at the BB in DL that we couldn't get over the weekend, which was the 1st day, and only Fantasmic was shown during the wknds.

Some shows/events are only done during the wknds (Fantasmic, fireworks), others, like for my family, the Princess Faire was only during the weekdays so if we didn't PH we would have lessened our chances of seeing what we could.

PH'ing for one day was sooo worth it.

Ditto. We did DCA rides one day then watched the fireworks and fantastic that night at DLP. The next day we did the rides at DLP and saw WOC that night at DCA. You have to map out the show schedules to see what makes sence.

 

[Hound 109]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

Great thread BTW Hydroguy!

Yep....this was the thread that opened my eyes to the joys of FP collecting & park hopping. The rest of HG's FP threads are esential reading as well.

Here's another thread discussing parkhopping:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1491961

Bottom line: Cool Dis'ers start virtually every day at DL (unless it's a "sleep in" day) & definitely Park Hop each day.