To park hop or not?

[Nana2Callie]

How do you decide? Two adults and one teen - coming mid June. We usually don't, but considering the option with higher crowds (usually come in May) and warmer weather. Thoughts?

 

[pitpat]

With two adults and a teen it's probably worth it. You can chase the longer hours. If you had young kids, you can be fine with one park a day.

 

[brertoad]

If we are driving, I'd be more inclined to do so. If not, then it depends, taking WDW transportation can be time consuming.
Getting from park to park can be a chore, it is easier to get between HS and Epcot, and the Epcot and MK. Animal Kingdom being the furthest. But again, if you were staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, then AK is the closest.

We usually don't park hop unless one park is closing a bit early, or there are extra magic hours in the evening and we're going to a different park for that.

There has been a few occasions where a park has been massively crowded (like getting to maximum capacity) and we left, like on Thanksgiving Day, on the Leap Year event when they were staying open 24 hours, we left early because it was so crowded we couldn't do anything. On those rare occasions, we left and didn't go to another park.

Mid-June, there isn't any actual holiday or event so it shouldn't be that terribly bad. School is going to be out sure, so expect the regular summer crowds.

I think there may be online crowd calendars, if someone may be able to recommend a good one for you.

 

[Pmlocke]

My wife and I go every year (we are in our mid-60's) and we always get the hopper. We do 2 parks every day. It breaks up the day where we are not in the same park for 12 hours. We also take a swim break every afternoon to cool off and get a little rest before the nights activities. Last trip we actually did three parks in a day twice.

 

[brianerickson]

I, honestly, couldn't go to Walt Disney World without park hopping; I'm not one to really be sedentary much while I'm down there, so a typical day for me while at the resort usually consists easily of 2, maybe even 3 parks without even trying

 

[dachsie]

I have never gotten a hopper. I go RD to close in the same park. There is plenty for me to do in one park at a time. I don't see the extra expense as worth it.

 

[FCDub]

There's no need to decide in advance if you're unsure. You can add it at any time. If you decide you want to hop, go to a ticket window and add the option.

 

[Oneanne]

I always hop. I take mid-day resort breaks and then always go to a different park than where I started the day... more often than not I spend the evenings at EPCOT, as there's nothing quite like a leisurely stroll around WS to wrap up a fun-filled day.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

I, honestly, couldn't go to Walt Disney World without park hopping; I'm not one to really be sedentary much while I'm down there, so a typical day for me while at the resort usually consists easily of 2, maybe even 3 parks without even trying

Us too. Hopping is just too convenient.

 

[Hopefully]

We don’t go without hoppers. We too take a mid day break and go to a different park, often Epcot, in the evening

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

We have had hoppers before but only ended up using them once. I find there is enough to do in each park to devote a whole day (or even two days) to it. I did wish for one a little bit last week, on Wednesday, when we finished the day at Epcot and then MK had evening EMH. We probably would have hopped over there that night, but I didn't feel it was worth the expense to upgrade to hoppers for.

 

[StacyStrong]

I always always always get hoppers.

It's not "necessary" but there's nothing more satisfying than checking your MDX account, seeing low wait times and hopping over or grabbing FP.

I also like not having to worry about ADRs if park hours change and I need to change my park plan.

 

[DSLRuser]

we always did park hoppers back in the 90's.....as we had kids, and as ticketing changed, we did not do hoppers in the 00's and early 10's........now that our kids are older (11 and 17) we find park hopping a must.

We do one park in the morning, hit the resort pool in the afternoon, and choose a new park at night.

Having gone so many times over the years, we can only tak 4-5 hours of a park at a time....and almost never repeat the same park after out break.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I parked hopped last time I went. Did two parks each day for 2 days. And 1 dedicated magic kingdom day.

This time I booked enough days to do 1 park a day. While I feel I didn’t miss much doing it that way, I just don’t want to move around as much this time.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We’ve never park hopped at WDW. Never saw a need since there’s so much to do at each park and its not all that convenient to do (we don’t rent a car). At Universal we always have them but usually feel like we’re hopping just for the sake of doing it (and riding Hogwarts Exp) not because we otherwise want or need to.

Oh, and how i decide is that there’s very little value to spending that money at Disney for our family of five. We spend the money on things that are more fun/useful for us. YMMV.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

Park hoppers are a must for us and always have been. We love the flexibility of being able to leave a park if it get too crowded. We almost always end the evening at EPCOT or the Magic Kingdom, our favorite night time parks. However, since we went to Pandora last year we did go back to Animal Kingdom for Pandora a couple of time to experience it at night. Cheers!!!!!

 

[rexmism]

I can see how it might be a bit of a luxury if it weren't so expensive to add the option, but it's just a waste of too much money in my opinion. Unless you're trying to get more done in a short amount of time, I don't see a real advantage for the cost. Just enjoy one park a day.

 

[gharter]

We do both. Most of the time we don't park hop as it takes too much time to get from one park to another. However, it can be a nice break. Often if we start in one park early to avoid bad crowds. If it becomes really crowded, we will go to another park.

 

[elgerber]

I always hop. I take mid-day resort breaks and always go to a different park than where I started the day... more often than not I spend the evenings at EPCOT... there's nothing quite like a leisurely stroll around WS to wrap up a fun-filled day.

Agreed, this is what we do as well. Especially since we always stay at the Boardwalk.

 

[DBDiz]

We've always gotten them. They've certainly gotten their use. One year we visited during Star Wars Weekends and made the mistake of attempting to navigate DHS. We walked into wall-to-wall, elbow-to-elbow people, took a lap around the lake, and walked right back out and picked another park.

They came in especially handy our last trip. We went in September, so we had to deal with some parks closing earlier than we were used to, MNVSHP nights in MK, the tail end of Star Wars Summer Spectacular, the last leg of the Electric Parade, and the desire on more than one night to eat dinner and meet up with friends at Disney Springs but do something afterwards. We never finished the day in the same park we started with.

Obviously, YMMV. But do what feels right to you.