Will I Hate Life w/o Hoppers?

[sheetz]

We usually only do nonhoppers so we make our DCA days lower stress days. We can spend more time to browse the shops, have a leisurely meal, visit Downtown Disney, or even have a meal offsite. We can also choose get up later and/or go to bed earlier. The result is that we'll have enough eergy to go from open to close on the DL days.

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

We usually only do nonhoppers so we make our DCA days lower stress days. We can spend more time to browse the shops, have a leisurely meal, visit Downtown Disney, or even have a meal offsite. We can also choose get up later and/or go to bed earlier. The result is that we'll have enough eergy to go from open to close on the DL days.

I like this idea.... Thanks!

 

[MacMama0930]

While it's nice to hop (and I definitely do!), if it's between 3 day park hoppers or 5 day non hoppers - it's a no brained - MORE days (my husband would beg to differ though!). You don't have to park hop. Just plan your days out so you're too busy or occupied to even think about the other park!

 

[disneychrista]

My first thought was, will I would hate life if I didn't have hoppers but then reading your reasoning. If you have the time more days in the parks is so worth more than hopping.

 

[mom2rtk]

My first thought was, will I would hate life if I didn't have hoppers but then reading your reasoning. If you have the time more days in the parks is so worth more than hopping.

I agree. We always buy hoppers at DLR (even though we never do at WDW). But if it came down to hoppers or an extra day, I'm all over that extra day.

 

[minnieralyks]

Of all the times we've been at Disneyland, we rarely park hop. I was actually a little surprised to find so many on here hop back and forth, seems like a hassle.

The only time we park hop is to do DCA in the morning and come back to Disneyland in the afternoon. Once we're in a park, we usually stay there. Do a 5 day pass!

Plus, honestly if you're at Disneyland under any circumstances, you'll more than likely love life - not hate it!

 

[Butterfly123]

More days beat out hoppers for sure...and I love hoppers!

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

I bought the 5 day tix.... Yay! My 7 year old was happy. She said she just likes to "concentrate on the feel of one park" at a time. . This from a kid who has never hopped because she's only been to WDW and her mama just doesn't want to spend that kind of time on a bus!

 

[tzeitel]

I was coming to offer my opinion that you will find tons of stuff to do at both parks to fill your day. We love DCA and can find stuff to do from open to close. We take our time and do not rush to do rides just to get them out of the way. Lunch is not rushed either - Cove Bar, Carthay, even at Cozy Cones we take our time and enjoy our surroundings.

Hoppers are nice but not necessary - especially if this is your first time and you have 5 days

 

[Frozen2014]

Great thread. This is our first trip so I can't comment from experience. But for us, if it was 3 day with hopper vs 4 day without, then I'd get the additional day. We were debating between 4 day no-hopper vs paying an additional $160 CAD for 4 day with-hopper. We chose the latter for the flexibility. In the scheme of things, $160 didn't seem like too much extra. We figure, the hopper will let us switch parks if one is too busy, or if we want to try a specific ride at one park vs another. Also if we want to see entertainment in the evening, we don't need to base our whole day on it. We'll see how much we actually hop.

PS - At WDW, we did not bother with park hoppers. The parks are so far it seemed not worth it.

 

[tammytam]

I just made the same decision. We're going this summer and it will be the first time at Disneyland for my youngest (who is 5 and has a physical disability).. when I realized that the 4 day single park/day tickets were cheaper than the 3 day hoppers (which I was all set to buy!), I started really thinking about whether we would take advantage of the hopping very much.. we'll be going at a slower pace with my son, so I went with the 4 day non-hoppers! Yay for an extra day!!!

 

[ParksPixar&Pizza]

I'm going for the first time in May (only for 2 days too) and we decided to not park hop. One reason was to save money, another was because since we've never been, we just want to explore the shops and actual park. Also to us, hopping seems exhausting.. so much extra walking back and forth. But then again, we are more leisurely people. I don't think you can go wrong with both decisions. Maybe buy a 3 day no hopper and then add a 1 day hopper to see if you like it?

 

[mom2rtk]

Maybe buy a 3 day no hopper and then add a 1 day hopper to see if you like it?

Do you mean buy an extra one day hopper ticket in addition to the 3 day base ticket? If so, it would be cheaper to just buy the 4 day hopper from the get go.

OP, start with the base ticket. If you decide you want to hop, or add an extra day, you can do that.

 

[ktlm]

We are WDW vets and if it was WDW, I would tell you that park hoppers are not that big a deal- we usually get them there, but we don't use them every day, although it is nice to have some flexibility and we do use them here and there (especially our last trip when we were trying to get as much done before a hurricane as we could). However, I would go nuts without park hoppers at DL/CA. We usually are in the parks around 4 to 4 1/2 days and we hop every day at DL/CA, sometimes several times a day. To us, being WDW vets, it is like one big park. It literally takes 5 minutes to get out of one park and into the other and you do not have to go through bag check between parks (the parks are connected by a plaza and you go through bag check on the outskirts to get into the plaza). We have been from the back corner of DL to the back corner of CA in 10 minutes. It is an entirely different experience than hopping at WDW. We hop if the lines at one park are getting long and the app shows them shorter at the other. We hop if DD suddenly wants to go get in another ride on RSR with us all using the single rider line. DH has been known to hop for the sole purpose of going to the Karl Strauss beer truck on the pier at California adventure- he will disappear from DL for 20 or 30 minutes (usually while DD and I ride Small World for the 2nd or 3rd time) and then reappear. Literally, we can get in a 10 or 15 minute line for Small World, ride the ride, and then walk to Main Street and meet him inside DL after he has already been to CA, had a beer and walked back. Often DL stays open later than CA, and we almost always hop over when CA closes to get more DL time. I think they usually open at the same time now, but a few years back, CA used to open a little later most days, so we would go to DL for the first hour, and then hop to CA when it opened. We stay at DLH and last summer with the new security we wound up in line for 30 minutes our first day to try to get through the metal detectors. The rest of our trip, we just went to the parks about 10 or 15 minutes after they opened, used the GCH CA park entry and then if we wanted to start at DL, we just immediately hopped out of CA to DL. Even in mid July, just waiting a couple of minutes past the morning rush, we never waited more than 5 minutes at the GCH gate. So- at least for us- hoppers are important and a big deal at DL/CA and it would drive me crazy not to have them, while I could easily forego them at WDW and probably not feel it too much.

NOW--- all that said--- if the only way I could get 2 more days in the parks was to forego hoppers--- I think I would take the 2 extra days hands down. It would drive me crazy to be restricted to one park or the other- but 2 more days at Disney seems like a no-brainer. So, I do think from that aspect if you can not do both you made the right decision. Now, if you can do both, you may still want to consider it. Even though you have bought the single day- you can always add hoppers if you get there and decide you would actually use them.

 

[ParksPixar&Pizza]

Do you mean buy an extra one day hopper ticket in addition to the 3 day base ticket? If so, it would be cheaper to just buy the 4 day hopper from the get go.

OP, start with the base ticket. If you decide you want to hop, or add an extra day, you can do that.

Oh that's very true...my bad!

 

[wildflower329]

We have always bought park hoppers. Our first two trips with the kids, we used them but probably would have been fine without them. This last trip in October, I would have gone crazy without them! The parks were much more crowded and we were able to go back and forth between the parks to the less crowded areas. There were also ride closures with the rain, and having the ability to move back and forth helped as well.

 

[Disn3yVision]

We ALWAYS park hop and love stacking 2 fast passes at both parks but all the walking back and forth does become tiresome. Honestly if I didn't have an AP I would much rather have the extra day than the ability to park hop so I vote for the extra day

 

[egritz]

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.

2 things:
1) On your arrival day, plan for DCA,it should be less crowded. We arrived much earlier than we expected (driving) so we spent a couple hours in DCA and had a blast, I think more so that we would have had we gone into DL.
2) Something to keep in mind is if you really want to, you can always add the park hopping ability at the ticket booth. We usually park hop, that's just how we tour (i.e. on a busy day we'll start in DL and then hop to DCA in the afternoon for lower crowds or dinner at Ariel's Grotto....which a side note, we've had lackluster experience's at Ariel's the last couple trips so we are going to skip it next time). But I digress.

I've never gone without park hoppers and only 1 time did we not park hop until the last day...but that trip happened to be the one we purchased our first AP's so it didn't really matter. But I definitely think you can easily do without the PH option, especially to save $40/ticket....which with a party of 4, should be able to pay for an additional night in a hotel to cover that extra day (or 2) in the parks!

 

[agamble]

Several years ago we made the decision to buy 4-day non hoppers for the same reason. We decided 4 days was better than three. Other trips we've had APs. They give you the ability to hop, but with our young kids we don't always take advantage of hopping. Generally if we visit both parks in a day it's one in the morning and a different one after napping/resting in the afternoon.