Will I Hate Life w/o Hoppers?

[Jiminy'sGirl]

As I was about to pull the trigger on 3 day park hoppers for an upcoming trip March 4-9, I realized I could get 4 day 1-park tickets for less. This got me thinking. I know hopping at DLR is a breeze, which is why I was going for it (we don't like hopping at WDW at all). But wouldn't one entire day be even more beneficial? Best of all, it gives me a 2nd shot to see WOC in case it doesn't reopen as planned. Plus, money saved. Feels like a no brainer.

Heck just realized I can even get 5 day tickets for less than 3 day park hoppers. I'm looking at LMT club.

Thoughts?

 

[ddwlms]

We used to always get the hopper, and we used it, but I don't think I had put enough thought into the extra cost. Or maybe the cost has just gone up so much in the last few years. Our last two trips we did not get the hopper and we didn't really miss it much at all. The one thing that was a little bit annoying was that we would start in the park with early entry (staying on site) and then that would be our park for the day.

 

[llump41]

The only time I think hopping is really beneficial is if you have late park hours and your going to do the 8-midnight day. With Easter late this year I think your looking at 10-8 hours during the week. Maybe even less in DCA.

 

[GatorChris]

I've always been a one-park-per-day kinda guy. Once you're in, you can really work the FP system by hitting one ride and grabbing a FP for the next. When you switch parks, you kill the momentum. You end up having to start all over, and that's no fun. Sure, there are times when I've used the park hopping ability to run over to the other park to catch a soft opening of a ride (Hyperspace Mountain), or meet up with some friends. But if you're touring by yourself, one park a day should work just fine.

 

[bumbershoot]

I wouldn't love the lack of freedom.

The one thing that was a little bit annoying was that we would start in the park with early entry (staying on site) and then that would be our park for the day.

In that situation I would go to the park withOUT early entry.

 

[Jedi Mouse]

We were one park per day people for all our trips prior to this year when we got AP's. We had younger kids, so bouncing back and forth took more effort and we were happy to save a few bucks and just focus on one park at a time.

With the kids a few years older now and the cost no longer an issue we still found that we still didn't hop much at all. In fact we only did so once or twice. Maybe we're still stuck in our ways, but like Chris mentioned above, even with it only being a quick walk, it kind of kills momentum.

 

[ddwlms]

In that situation I would go to the park withOUT early entry.

We thought about doing that, but didn't. And then on early morning, we rode RSR, TSM x2, Screaming, and we're sitting down eating breakfast when the park opened.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

I think if you are looking at 4 days plus you'll be fine without hoppers.
It makes me nervous to do 2 days without hoppers because you get one shot at all the parades, night shows, fireworks. When you have spent SO MUCH on flights, hotels and tickets to risk that one night the crowds, weather, etc will work out seems too risky to me. The extra day gives you assurance you'll get your money's worth.
I have notice the same thing about the price on 5 days...if days off isn't an issue, GO FOR IT!!!!

 

[Nevada Jen]

We do hop a lot. I would say an average of 1.5 times per day. I just can't see doing it without the hopper. IMHO there isn't enough to do at DCA to fill a whole day unless you see frozen, turtle talk and the Disney Junior show. And we only need those once or twice a year. Also, I almost always leave DL when it gets crowded and move to DCA. And if you are staying onsite, I think you will want the option even more. You can literally make it through all the big ticket rides in DCA in and hour and half with EMH. THen you are stuck there for the rest of the day. If you only go every few years, perhaps you don't need hoppers but I still think you are going to want that ability. Another thing is thatif rides are down on the days you choose for the park, you can't quick ride it another day. RSR had tons of closures the first two days we were there last week. The fastpass line was over an hour during the rare times it was open. Without hoppers, we would have missed it entirely. Indiana Jones was down for a good portion of our planned DL day. We ended up getting it on a half day. We went in the morning to DL, did space, star tours, buzz, and Indy and were at our lunch reservation in DCA by 11 and then spent the rest of the day there. We are ride and food people. That kind of requires hopping. If you are shows and wandering people, you may not need to hop. I guess.

 

[cruisehopeful]

It's going to depend on how you like to spend your days. I normally visit both parks twice in a day. I usually feel trapped without a park hopper, especially in DL when there is nowhere to escape from wall to wall people. Others enjoy spending an entire day in just one park. For me, it's easier to spend a full day in DCA because there it's easier to find good food, get a drink or find a place to be leisure. I get claustrophobia and I seem to only visit DL on the most crowded days.

 

[jcarwash]

I would much rather have the 4 or 5 days vs. the hopping ability. Last year's visit, I had five day base tickets because the incremental cost between four and five days was like $50 total for three people. Five days at DLR (three at Disneyland, two at DCA) was so wonderful.

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

These are all really really good points. My biggest fear is wanting to escape a crowded park and being unable to do so. That's the instance in which I see us being most likely to hop.

That said, we have the time so I think I'm going to go for the 5 day base. That will allow us a shorter day in DL on arrival day - we land at noon. It'll be a Saturday so we won't accomplish much arriving late, but the thrill of seeing DL for the first time right when we arrive instead of waiting until the next morning will be awesome for my kiddos.

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

I would much rather have the 4 or 5 days vs. the hopping ability. Last year's visit, I had five day base tickets because the incremental cost between four and five days was like $50 total for three people. Five days at DLR (three at Disneyland, two at DCA) was so wonderful.

This is exactly what I plan to do! On LMT club the difference for adding a 5th day for the 5 of us was $29!!! You can't not do it!

 

[dshimel]

I have AP, but go with my kids and got them 2-day, 1-per-day tickets. It was fine.

If the choice is 3-day hoppers or 4-day-1-per, I think I'd go the 4-day-1-per.... Or 5-day.

 

[maltdizzy]

My family finds it hard to do more than 1/2 day at DCA. We prefer the bounce back and worth.

I don't even know how we would schedule 4 non-hopper days, we can't see dedicating 2 whole days to DCA, and we would be stretching to occupy 3 days at DL by itself. I think we were spoiled being locals with AP's for so long.

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

My family finds it hard to do more than 1/2 day at DCA. We prefer the bounce back and worth.

I don't even know how we would schedule 4 non-hopper days, we can't see dedicating 2 whole days to DCA, and we would be stretching to occupy 3 days at DL by itself. I think we were spoiled being locals with AP's for so long.

I can understand this. If it wasn't our first ever visit I wouldn't consider it. We were beginning to feel this way about WDW to some degree.

 

[maltdizzy]

I can understand this. If it wasn't our first ever visit I wouldn't consider it. We were beginning to feel this way about WDW to some degree.

At WDW (we greatly prefer DL), we can always find something to do for a non-park half day. Having living in LA/OC, we can find plenty to do there as well, just not at the resort, though we have spent a lot of midday time around the DLH pool.

 

[Winnowill]

We did a four-day non-hopper our first trip and, while we enjoyed it, we only got one day at DCA. And, since we planned badly, we didn't know FPs for RSR ran out so quickly, and we didn't want to stand in line for 70+ minutes our only day at DCA, so we didn't ride it at all. If we'd had five-day passes, not having hoppers would have been easier to handle.

 

[dshimel]

My family finds it hard to do more than 1/2 day at DCA. We prefer the bounce back and (f)orth.

I think we were spoiled being locals with AP's for so long.

The latter effects the former. As a local AP holder, you probably don't try to do everything in the park. I'd guess on most visits you don't do ITTBAB or WoC or Turtle Talk or find your Disney Character in Beast's Library or Challenge Trail ...

We went with a first-time DLer last month.... wait, it is the 31st...

We went with a first-time DLRer earlier this month, and we failed to get everything done in a single day at DCA.

My wife and I went last weekend, and were done with everything we wanted to do in half-a-day.

When answering questions here, it is helpful to try to walk in the shoes of a stranger.

 

[flyingjay]

For us, getting hoppers is a must. We had three day hoppers last year (just DW and I). We hopped every day. Our first day, we found ourselves spending the day in DL then heading over to WoC for the evening and shutting the park down. Another day, WoC was cancelled while we were at DCA and we ran back to DL for fireworks. If we didn't have hoppers, we would've found it quite frustrating.

As already mentioned, the other thing is ride closures. If RSR is unexpectedly closed for one of the days you're there, it's super frustrating not to be able to head back to Cars Land on another DL day just to spend a few hours there. This year, we are taking our DD6 and DS4 on five day hoppers. One of the main rides they're looking forward to is undoubtedly RSR. I'm planning on running to DCA around lunch time on two of our DL days just to grab FP's for RSR at nighttime. Certainly, it's extra cost...but for us it's completely worth it and we are budgeting it into our trip.