to hop or not to hop

[sleepymouse]

I posted this same question on another forum so I apologize if you encounter it twice ...

I am trying to figure out which parks to do on what days and am having a hard time figuring it out. There are several days that we are considering hopping, but I am not sure if this is the best plan with FP+. I feel like I have to make all my FP+ reservations for the second park and just wing it at the first park in the morning since crowds will be lower. However, if I want to hit headliners in the morning, lines start forming really quick after rope drop, at least at HS. For example, I started a personalized TP for HS from 9am-noon and threw in a bunch of big rides to see what happened. I had RnR, TSMM, ST and ToT. The plan suggested riding RnR with rider swap first, then ST. I could get through these rides quickly but then ToT and RnR were up to 45/50 minute waits already. Maybe this just happens at this specific park? So, I am wondering if we should just book our first 3 FP+ for morning and then grab 4th FP+ before leaving park for break. Then return to same park later and have at least 1 good FP+ for evening.

Do you find different strategies to be better for different parks? Do you hop or not?

As a frame of reference, we usually do rope drop at DLR and hit the parks hard in the morning. We love and do a lot of rides and never spend more than 20 minutes in line.

 

[cakebaker]

We find going to different parks for morning and afternoon works best with hopping with fps for the afternoon park. For example- we do epcot in the morning riding at least tot standby and whatever else has short lines. On another day epcot will be an evening park where we'll have fps for TT. Same sort of thing with HS.

At the mk, when it's a morning park we do mostly secondary rides that are almost always walkons early, then do the headliners on an evening trip.

With hopping, we make multiple visits to each park and at some point will get all the headliners in with little or no wait.

 

[Mikie]

I do think DHS is one of the harder ones with hopping. I'd go to AK in the morning and then go to DHS in the afternoon with FPs. Since DHS is tiered, I might do it in the morning with a FP for Toy Story and ride Rockin Roller coaster early without FP, hop to AK in the afternoon (as long as it's open until at least 7) and do that park without FPs. Finish off the day at the pool, or back at DHS for late Fantasmic, or Epcot for Illumunations.

 

[sleepymouse]

Thanks cakebaker and mikie! Both of your suggestions make complete sense. We have 8 days so should definitely have enough time to hit everything we want. I just know that my kids love repeating favorite rides over and over again. Are the lines at AK okay if planning to do rides from approximately 4pm-7pm? We are going in mid/late-August so want to avoid afternoons in parks if possible.

 

[lovndisney12]

This past November I had a one day post conference trip with my DS13 and it was our first time with FP+. We did RD at DHS and rode Rock n Roller Coaster probably 2-3 times then had fast passes for Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and Muppets (didn't need it or want it but when booked my son didn't want to do ToT) At the park my son changed mind and we did ToT without FP and probably waited only 15 minutes. We also got in a couple of other attractions between fast passes (Great Movie ride was probably longest wait at 30 minutes). We had everything done we wanted to do by 12 PM ish and hopped over to MK. Without fast passes we waited in some long lines (I liked old FP system better as I found this trip we waited in more lines than normal but also in part to planning on our part since we had one day and couldn't necessarily pick and choose parks based on best day).

Lesson learned - After trip I said I would not buy park hopper again because of new FP+ system - BUT because of FD promo, we did end up for our trip in December. Not sure if we will use it but like the ability to - especially during peak crowds. If I were to park hop now, I would do RD with EMH and then park hop to second park where I had FP+. I think this would alleviate a lot of the line waiting we had to do.

Hope that helps!

 

[DrivenByDisney]

My favourite is to do the Studios in the morning with early FP's for Tower, Coaster & Star Tours (usually). Have lunch there at 50's or Sci Fi. Walk to EPCOT, single ride Test Track, usually near walk on at this point for Mission:Space. Hit Soarin' if we can or Spaceship Earth. Grab a chair next to the Rose & Crown patio area, along with a few pints and a portion of fish & chips from the outside counter and watch Illuminations.

This is easily done with good early FP's at the Studios. And if we are feeling froggy and Wishes is at 10:00, try and make it to Magic and catch that show as well. However that hardly ever works out the way we want it But the top portion of this is pretty routine and easy to do.

 

[PeasandCarrots]

We hop only because we have APs. Also, we like to stay at an Epcot resort, go to a food festival, and end every day at Epcot for a grazing style dinner around the world (Flower and Garden or Food and Wine). However, with FP+ if I did not have an AP and wasn't staying at an Epcot resort I would not pay for park hopping. FP+ doesn't make it impossible, but it makes it harder. I find by the time I get to the second park usually all of the attractions that have a line are already out of FPs. I just wouldn't pay to upgrade to parkhopper with FP+. I'm taking some family and paying for them next year and I fully intend to only buy 1 park per day tickets for that trip.

Ironically before FP+ I wouldn't have gone to Disney without parkhopper. It's odd to me that Disney's own system discourages parkhopping.

 

[Flipper]

We plan on doing AK in the morning without FP, hitting the headliners early. Then we will have FP for DHS when we go in the evening (will need to wait in line for RnR and GMR because of tiered system (Will have TSM FP). I think AK is the most doable park without FP.

 

[cakebaker]

Park hopping doesn't work well for us if we chose fps for the morning park. In the past,by the time we got to our 2nd park paper Fp was gone, lines were long.

For us,early morning fps are a waste so it works perfect to do afternoon fp.

Our trip is 8 days as well- we expect to hit each park several times- we've got 4 fps for SDMT alone and that doesn't include evening magic hour rides!