Why do you like to park hop?

[808blessing]

We have never park hopped. Not even a little interest. We also go to sleep early and wake up early.

I mainly think all that travel time is inefficient but regardless, we like to completely focus in on one park a day even if we leave midday. We go back to the same park.

Tell me what you love about park hopping. I just feel like it’s not for me but want to hear why it makes sense for your family/trips?

 

[Sandisw]

I like having the ability to move around if crowds are not what we want. We also have parks we enjoy going to a lot and park hopping made sense,

When our kids were little, we could do a different park each morning, rest during the afternoon and go to MK most nights.

Now, Epcot ends up being the one we visit more at night, but still add in MK. We were never open to close park goers either.

There have been times where we did 3 parks in a day… morning in one, a second one for dinner, and then ended the day at a 3rd.

 

[ftbaker1313]

Park hopping started for me back during early magic hours at a single park. I would be there early and hit that park till noon or so. Then it would be a hop to whichever park I though was least crowded that day. Same for EMH, we would never start at the park with the EMH. We also had a tradition of on our last day we would try to hit our favorite ride in each park. Not sure how well that will work now under current rules. Lastly I get my dinner reservation based on what my party wants to eat not what park we are starting at that day.

 

[808blessing]

I love EP and MK at night. How do you figure out which is less crowded? The main reason I would park hop is bc I love to do ALL the things. Hehe especially bc EP closes later. More freedom. But my rational analytical brain (who uses that?) when I’m buying tickets months in advance says be efficient with your time. but we always go back to the hotel midday anyway!

 

[DonMacGregor]

Growing up in Anaheim, I think we got the rope drop to close thing out of our system at an earlier age. Now, we go do the things we like to do when we want to do them, sort of like Disney a' la carte.

 

[pixieprincess925]

I used to do as @ftbaker313 stated above - use park hopping mostly for EMH. I've gotten DVC and AP since then. Now I mostly use park hopping for a few specific reasons:
1) I'm there for only a couple days and I really wanted to get a ride in for a park that's not my park reservation
2) I have a hankering for something specific to eat that is only sold at a park I'm not currently in (think cheeseburger egg rolls or something from a festival booth at Epcot)
3) The park I picked for the day is WAY too crowded and I just want to escape to somewhere else.

Are park hoppers necessary? no. I've done the parks plenty of time without hopping. but I do like knowing I'm not stuck at the same park if I want to go somewhere else.

 

[ftbaker1313]

I use TP estimated versus posted times to choose which is less crowded normally.

 

[gillep]

We are pretty lazy when we do WDW, we don't really care if we miss something as we go quite often but I love being able to do a late night at MK when AK closes early, or hit some food booths at Epcot for dinner after a few hours at the studios. It is especially nice when staying at an Epcot resort, I have definitely gone to the bakery in France to bring back delicious goodies to the Beach Club pool after a morning in MK.

 

[808blessing]

Ah I see. So now I figure the more crowded it is, if you wait it out, PH will leave, thus reducing the crowds. lol

 

[808blessing]

Ooh I hear all of that Gillep!

 

[SheSingsAlong]

I wasn't a hopper before (DH is still young and it didn't make sense), but now that DH will be 6 for our next trip and I've had a chance to try hopping with G+ LL, we will definitely be park hopping on our next trip. It's much less stressful to stack LL for the park you are hopping to than to try to get LL with morning return times. Plus there is 1 ride in each park that DH could ride over and over and it made me sad last time to have to say "I know you want to ride Test Track again today, but yesterday was our Epcot day, today we are going to Animal Kingdom and we can't go to Epcot."

 

[808blessing]

Wow your DH is young. Lol assuming it is DD or DS!

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

Our biggest reasons to hop is usually dining reservations or a few cocktails around world showcase. We like to stay at BWV and do a park in the morning, come back and nap/swim in mid afternoon, then end at Epcot for a stroll around WS and have some drinks. Since the walk from IG is short, travel time back to the resort at the end of the night is quick.

 

[808blessing]

Ahhhhhhh!!! @SheSingsAlong
You helped me see Genie plus can go parkhopping. That is huge!!!!! I will definitely strategize that in someday!!

 

[igrsod]

We are not park hoppers either. We had park hoppers once because they were included with a package that we purchased. And even after having them, we decided it wasn't necessary for the way we do Disney. We just focus all our attention on one park per day. The inconvenience of bus travel times and the extra walking just made us all more tired when we park hopped.
Now I have an annual pass and could park hop, but I still don't.
I could see back in the day when there were more extra magic hours, that hopping could make more sense.

 

[jo-jo]

I think it depends on where we are staying. If I go to AK until 2 ish, go back to BLT for a rest. It's only a 15 min walk to MK. No buses, no waiting going back and forth. I may think twice if I was planning a AK/ HS day. Probably not do the rest in between and just do 3 or 4 hours at HS.
But more likely figure AK until 4 ish and call it a day.

 

[Pooh12863]

I don't like to park bash but for me Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom just aren't full day parks, even more so now the FP+ is gone. I enjoy the EPCOT festivals and you can't try all the booths in 1 or 2 days so we usually hop to EPCOT at night after visit another park in the morning.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

We used to be single park people, but decided to spring for them on our trip last summer because many restaurants were still closed and we wanted more options. Staying at BLT meant we could easily walk to MK if we didn't want to go far. It also gave us a chance to swing back by for something we missed on a previous day, like fireworks at EPCOT. We'll most likely get them from now on, especially if we're at a resort that's very close to a park.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Tbh? EPCOT/restaurant reservations. Also sometimes we just don’t want to be in one place all day.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I don't like to park bash but for me Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom just aren't full day parks, even more so now the FP+ is gone. I enjoy the EPCOT festivals and you can't try all the booths in 1 or 2 days so we usually hop to EPCOT at night after visit another park in the morning.

This right here. We have made HS our park visit on our last day before we head to MCO on several occasions.