Who does NOT park hop?

[HeadintoWDW]

I'm trying to figure out which days we want to spend where, according to the old and new EMH schedules. We have 5 day PH's and AP's so we can get in and out. My plan had been to do one park in the morning, take a break and go to another park in the evening. But I'm having trouble with a day or two.

Does anyone ever go to a park (specifically, I'm thinking MGM), take a break and return to that park in the evening? Or is that too much of a park in one day? I could definitely do it for MK, but what about the other parks? I know it's more of a personal preference, I'm just looking to see what others do.

Thanks!

 

[daisylove]

We don't really park hop. It just has not been sucessful getting my 5yr old out of one park until the last fireworks shoots off.
Also, I think the legth of your stay should influence you as well as when your next trip may be. We live in Fla so we go often but usually only for 2 days tops. So every trip is like "oh we have to see this and this and this..." for my 5 yr old and then we stay all day and still don't make it all the way to adventureland. Bad planning letting a 5 yr old pick the rides and the order of rides. you zig zag the park and lose time.

Bottom line. You are the final judge of what is best for your family. Plan a break and then when it is time, ask them what they feel like and what they want to do. In summer it is a huge draw to go swinning in the hotteset hours and I have heard this works the best. Good luck!

 

[Minky]

I used to be a strict 1 park a day person...I liked to go into the parks in the morning and take my time with each ride and stay till the fireworks went off...that wasy I felt like I really got my fill of that park, BUT since weve become addicted and bought APs I now hop like a maniac...and I LOV IT, wouldnt go back now (except for MK) But I like jumping into MGM for TOT and RnR then off to Epcot for Mission Space, then over to Animal Kingdom....then BACK to MGM

 

[Celestine]

I think it also depends on the time of year you are visiting. Generally we go late Jan/ early Feb when crowd levels are quite low. For MGM we lie in, getting to the park late morning & can comfortably complete everything & see Fantasmic with good seats. Again, we have DD4 who doesn't understand the concept of hopping.

 

[pjlla]

We had not "hopped" previously as I felt it took too much time out of the day during the value season (short park hours).... but we hopped one day during our trip this past January in order to catch SpectroMagic. We did AK all day, almost until it closed at 5pm....then we hopped over to MK (with our own car), did Buzz Lightyear a few times, got a parade spot and had snacks/dinner while waiting for the parade (which was, as usual SPECTACULAR). We were going to leave after the parade and catch Wishes another night, but decided "what the heck, we are already here...!" So we caught Buzz Lightyear a few more times and then watched Wishes from the Tomorrowland bridge. Not the perfect spot, but we knew we would be watching it again in a few days. That was almost the most perfect day of the entire trip!!!! So we will plan to park hop in the future if we so desire. It worked better than expected!.....................P

 

[dmonroe]

Sometimes we hop, sometimes we don't! We go in December when park hours are usually shorter. Our usual hopping is from one park to Epcot for IllumiNations. This year we will most likely hop from MK to Epcot one day, and from AK to MK for MVMCP. Other than that, we probably won't do much park hopping!

 

[monarchsfan16]

We pretty much stay in one park. But then again, we've mainly stayed off site over the years. Now that we're DVC members and will be staying onsite, things might change. But they may not. One day is not too much for MGM. In fact, since there are a lot of scheduled things there, instead of just rides, we didn't have time to do everything in one day. Granted, the park was only open until 7 and we didn't get there until 10:30, so our time was sort of cut down. But I don't think going back would be a bad thing. We've only park hopped once, and that was from AK to MK, after we had spent half a day in AK. We went and spent the rest of the day at MK because we had finished everything we wanted to do.

 

[wannabee princess]

We do a combo of sometimes hopping, sometimes not. One factor is our length of stay! For us entering the parks at least 5 days is almost a must!

Typically we spend the first day completely at MK so we see Wishes that first day. We also have to spend a complete day in Epcot the first day we go there. We also will stay at MGM for the day to watch Fantasmic at least one day. However when we go to AK we return to Epcot to hit a few rides and maybe catch the fireworks again. We find that Epcot is a more than one day park though. Also, because we have MAJOR animal lover in family we spend the 5th day splitting between AK early and heading over to MK in the afternoon.

 

[renniks]

sorry, posted reply on wrong thread