To Hop or Not

[StitchyPoo81]

We bought a 7 day park hopper but I'm wondering is it a waste of money

 

[Freezing Maine Mama]

I love park hopping. Worth every penny to us.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

We always hop. At least two parks a day. I hear it work well with FP+ by making ressies for the afternoon at your second park.

 

[flutterby3744]

If you are staying onsite then it's perfect. Totally worth the money. Park in the morning, resort in the afternoon, different park at night. Or even one park, resort, dinner in another, yet another park after that!

Now if you are staying offsite maybe not so much. We stayed offsite on our last trip, and it was a waste. By the time we got back to our condo, driving back etc wasn't all that appealing. We ending up spending more time outside of Disney than in...consequently we said we'll never stay offsite again!

 

[Mousemommy1]

We love hopping!

We typically do one park in the morning, go back to the resort for pool and naps in the middle of the day, and then back out to a different park at night. Perfection!

On our last day, we'll usually get the last flight out and hit all four parks and ride our favorites in one day. That's always fun.

 

[disneybliss2]

We think it's worth it. We enjoy having the option to leave a park if it's overly crowded. We like spending the day at one park and hopping over to Epcot to eat at WS. We also like being able to be at one park and use it to see a light show at a different park. To us, it's worth having it for the flexibility.

 

[IsThatYouTigger]

I think the benefit to the park hopper option is the flexibility. You can change plans if you need to and aren't chained to a park that may in the end be a lot more crowded that anticipated. DH and I have had times where we get to a park and see how long the lines are, say no way and hop on a bus, monorail, or boat to another park!

 

[DRDISNEYMD]

We bought a 7 day park hopper but I'm wondering is it a waste of money

~If you don't park hop at all -- then it is a total waste. We wasted hundreds of dollars for several years buying park hoppers. If you are not positively sure that you will use the park hoppers -- you can wait to add them at the last minute. If you find yourself hopping to another park -- you can purchase the hoppers at the guest services ticket window right before entering the park. Have fun!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I'll go against the grain here...

We bought them on our first trip, convinced by everyone that you NEEDED them if you were going to see anything at all. Never used them! Total waste of about $200. We've been three times since (and planning trip #5) and never bought them, never missed them, never felt we didn't do what we wanted because we didn't have them.

We plan our ADRs around the park we'll be in that day. We sometimes take a break mid-day, but then just head back to the same park. We find there's MORE than enough in each park to keep us there all day. And if we finish early for the day, it's to DTD or back to the pool! I'd rather save the $200 and use it for something else.

And as a PP mentioned, unless you're 100% sure you need the hoppers, don't get them ahead of time. You can always add them while you're down there if you decide to go to another park. But they won't refund the $$$ if you don't use them! That's been our plan for all other trips and never bought them.

And honestly, you need to hop more than a day or two to make it worth spending the money for the hopper. You can't just buy a hopper for one day at a time. So it's $50+ for each ticket for length of stay. That's a lot to spend if you only use it once or twice.

 

[chrismb22]

I have always had this fear of NOT having hoppers although last trip I don't think I used them at all.

For me it's the "what if" factor "what if we decide to do something last minute or what if my son really likes x park and is bored at y park - I know it's silly.

One thing I have never gotten though is the water parks and more option, that seems like a waste for my family and touring style.

 

[andreajanowiak]

When we stay offsite, we'll go to a park in the morning and stay throughout the day, then leave and get dinner offsite. We'd go back to our resort for a while to relax, then usually go back into Epcot until closing for food& wine.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I have always had this fear of NOT having hoppers although last trip I don't think I used them at all.

For me it's the "what if" factor "what if we decide to do something last minute or what if my son really likes x park and is bored at y park - I know it's silly.

One thing I have never gotten though is the water parks and more option, that seems like a waste for my family and touring style.

That's the perfect example, though, of just adding it on afterwards! You can buy the base ticket and then if "what if" happens, you just add the park hopper. But you haven't spent the money until you needed to! I seriously suggest to anyone who's on the fence to wait until you're down there. You can add the hopper at any point in your stay. Some people KNOW they're going to use them and that's fine--do it ahead of time and save time down there. But it's a lot to spend for "what if" when there's an easy solution of just adding when the time arises.

 

[chrismb22]

That's the perfect example, though, of just adding it on afterwards! You can buy the base ticket and then if "what if" happens, you just add the park hopper. But you haven't spent the money until you needed to! I seriously suggest to anyone who's on the fence to wait until you're down there. You can add the hopper at any point in your stay. Some people KNOW they're going to use them and that's fine--do it ahead of time and save time down there. But it's a lot to spend for "what if" when there's an easy solution of just adding when the time arises.

I never knew you could do that. I thought once you started using them, you were stuck. I am going to make some changes now!! Thank you

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

I never knew you could do that. I thought once you started using them, you were stuck. I am going to make some changes now!! Thank you

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Yes, as long as you still have at least one day left on your tickets, you just go to the ticket window at any park and they can upgrade a base ticket to a park hopper. Of course, you still pay the full park hopper price no matter how many days are left on your ticket.

 

[wiigirl]

I love park hopping. Worth every penny to us.

 

[MrInfinity]

Personally I think they're a waste. More time switching parks, less time enjoying the park you're at. I actually like when other ppl get them cuz I know those ppl will be on busses mid-day instead of in my park.

The one exception I see is if you're staying in an Epcot resort, then yes, it would be nice since you have walking/boat distance to two parks, and you can headline rides at those easily in the evening (thanks to FP+) after hitting other parks for the morning.

If you are staying in an MK resort then your focus will be on the MK with whole days at the far parks. And if you're staying in a value, then it's busing everywhere with longer walks to the bus stops.

So my advice is generally.... if you are wondering if you need Park Hoppers, then you probably don't.

 

[kathie859]

I think it depends on your group. In January we did not hop since there were 7 of us from age 6-72 and it just was too much of an effort; however, my DSis and I have a girls' trip later this month and we're hopping. Having used to FP+ system and the MDE in January, I'm confident we can hop to our advantage.

 

[Moonwolf]

For your to hop or not to hop question. I'm with others that are saying if your not sure of using it just don't include it and get it if you need it.

Normally my family just does one park one day and that's it.

On my last trip with just my friend we got hoppers because we were only on a 4 day trip and we wanted to hit all 4 parks plus we had a brief interlude to WWoHP. This allowed us to do AK and WWoHP in the mornings (for the shorter waits and the fact that both closed earlier so we couldn't do them on the same day) Then we hit EPCOT in the afternoon for what amounts to a full day of touring. The hopper also allowed us to run over to MK to catch the second parade after EPCOT closed so that we could use that time on our official MK day to do more rides.

On my next trip I'm planning on hoppers to split a day between MK and EPCOT so we have a day and a half at both since we never get through them in one day. And to take advantage of MK EMH on our AK day.

 

[herb102211]

We always hop, too! We'll usually hop between MK and Epcot or Epcot and DHS. It really depends on your schedule and what you plan on seeing/doing. We have AP's now so park hopping is included in those, but even prior to getting AP's, I thought the park hopper was well worth it for us!

 

[Meetmeinmontauk]

We love hopping! DBF & I will do rope drop, then head back to the resort for a midday break, and then back to another park