With 5 days in the WDW, is park hopper really worth it?

[cgcruz]

I definately want to get the magic plus option, but it seems with me being there 5 days (not counting departure date) it would be cheaper to just spend the day in each park and just get a hand stamp to do something else. Although I was thinking about making it 7 days and add no expiration and park hopper for later use. but this goes up a lot!!!


so is there a big difference in money between a 5 days magic plus and a 5 day magic plus/park hopper?

 

[aubriee]

I definately want to get the magic plus option, but it seems with me being there 5 days (not counting departure date) it would be cheaper to just spend the day in each park and just get a hand stamp to do something else. Although I was thinking about making it 7 days and add no expiration and park hopper for later use. but this goes up a lot!!!


so is there a big difference in money between a 5 days magic plus and a 5 day magic plus/park hopper?

If you buy your tickets ahead of time from the Disney web site you save about $5.00-$7.00/ticket over the gate price. With tax an adult 5 day hopper will be $235.37, a 5 day with pluses will be $246.04, a 5 day hopper with pluses will be $283.31. Again this is purchased ahead of time from the WDW web site. If you don't need a pkg to get the free dining you can also get them at Ticket Mania, which may be a little cheaper.

If you have only five days and plan to do Disney Quest, the water parks, and Pleasure Island will you have time to hop? I'll be there in Sept with my son and D-I-L for seven nights. They also want to do PI, DQ, and both water parks. We decided to get 7 day tickets with the pluses, but not to hop. We all got 7 day tickets with pluses in order to get the free dining, but I'll be saving my 7 day ticket for next year and using my AP once I get down there, so could hop into another park to pick up a forgotten souveneir or something, if I needed to. We figure we can find enough in each park to keep us busy every day and if not we'll just use one of the pluses and go to DTD (for DQ, PI, or shopping) or a water park.

 

[Hugpug]

With only five days I would not do the hopper part if you plan on going to the water parks and PI and DQ. But give carefull thought about the expiration clause.With no expiration option the tickets expire in 14 days from date first used. The no expiration option adds cost. Think if you will use all 5 days plus the pluses. It is a hard decision to make. I will be down for 8 days at Christmas time and I pondered a long time before I decided it was better for me to get a AP with hopes of coming back next year before it expires. This way I will get a discount on my resort room and for my meals. Am also considering the DDE card for better discount on meals and drinks. It is very hard to decide on all the options you are given. Either way you decide HAVE A GREAT TRIP.

 

[MickeyMacks]

You should be fine without hoppers if you plan your day to catch shows, etc. that you may want to see in the park of the day. The hopper is useful for changing parks when the one you're in seems too crowded, but if you plan well and get there early, avoiding mid-day crowds shouldn't be a problem. As you said, you can leave and get your hand stamped for re-admission. If you change your mind when you get down there, you can always upgrade to hopper at your resort or at a ticket centre, but I agree it may not be worth the $35 if you would only potentially use it once. Have fun!

 

[pamouselover]

I think paying for the hopper is well worth it.
If you are going in the off season. Most of theparks close ealry, and you could hop to a differnet park that is open later. We like to hop, so I guess it is up to you. I am going for 6 nights and got a 7 day hopper passes. I only wanted five days because we plan on going to a water park too, but with the package we got it came out cheaper then me doing five day hopper online for five days. Just rember if you dont get to do something you wanted to do in that park you will not be able to return and do it!

 

[michiele]

We bought the hopper, thinking we would hop. We just got back 2 weeks ago. We never did hop. I wasted all that money. What you can do, and I should have done is by the standard ticket. Then you can always add hopping on if you end up wanting to do it. YOu can just add it that day. That way, you have the choice.

 

[HaleyB]

It is $35 to add park hopping, regardless of the length of the ticket.

Park hopping is really great if you plan to use EMH at all.

Off season I like to hop into EPCOT after the other parks close (they close early off season), so hopping adds a lot of value because it extends my park time by several hours a day.

On the hand, you only have 5 days and want to do Disney Quest and the water parks. Those days you will not need to hop parks. So really you only have 2 days you might want to hop...

Plan your trip out a little more, read up on the boards and in some tour books-
The Unofficial Guide to WDW is great- it will become clear to you if you need/want to hop.

And remember you can ALWAYS upgrade after you get there...

 

[ElizaB39]

If you have only five days and plan to do Disney Quest, the water parks, and Pleasure Island will you have time to hop? I'll be there in Sept with my son and D-I-L for seven nights. They also want to do PI, DQ, and both water parks. We decided to get 7 day tickets with the pluses, but not to hop. We all got 7 day tickets with pluses in order to get the free dining, but I'll be saving my 7 day ticket for next year and using my AP once I get down there, so could hop into another park to pick up a forgotten souveneir or something, if I needed to. We figure we can find enough in each park to keep us busy every day and if not we'll just use one of the pluses and go to DTD (for DQ, PI, or shopping) or a water park.

I am a newbie. I noticed you said that you got the 7 day PH option in order to get the free dining. This has totally intrigued me. I haven't yet figured out how to make the dining option worthwhile, but it sounds like you have it all figured out. Can you tell me more about this option? I have yet to find out about it searching the WDW website and/or mousesavers (unless I was looking in all the wrong places).

Thanks!

 

[HaleyB]

I am a newbie. I noticed you said that you got the 7 day PH option in order to get the free dining. This has totally intrigued me. I haven't yet figured out how to make the dining option worthwhile, but it sounds like you have it all figured out. Can you tell me more about this option? I have yet to find out about it searching the WDW website and/or mousesavers (unless I was looking in all the wrong places).

Thanks!

Here is the link to all the info- good for stays with check in dates between 8-21 and 10-4. You need to book a package which is 3 to 10 nights and tickets for everyone in the room for 1 or more days. Everyone in the room gets the dining package for free (but you are paying full price for the tickets and room). It is a fantastic deal.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/discounts/discounts-current.htm#package

 

[ElizaB39]

Thank you Haley. I didn't realize Aubriee was talking about certain dates. We are leaving in 3 weeks, 7/2-8/05 so I guess that won't work for us. I do plan on buying the one day dining plan at AK described at mousesavers. Thanks for the quick replay. I am adding this site to my favorites!

 

[seashoreCM]

If you really must economize you can do without hopping. Usually I have stayed in one park all day, except for the last day or two when I want to go back to different parks and see the few things I overlooked. Since hopping costs $37. (including tax) you can think of it as a little more than $7. per day for a 5 day pass.

A 10 day non-expiring pass with plus pack looks like it costs a lot now ($415 with hopping also) but you may find it has enough for two whole vacations. It has 5 plusses so you can do something on as many as 15 different days.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/dispass.htm

 

[VickiVM]

We didn't purchase hopping privileges for my family of 5 - too much money in my opinion. We planned out each day in advance, didn't do any of the EMH and didn't feel like we needed to change parks. I did, however, have one day leftover from previous park hoppers that we used, but only because we had that option - not out of necessity to change parks due to crowds.

We were there 7 days and had passes for 6 days total. We used one of our plusses (leftovers from previous passes) for Blizzard Beach and were in a park for each of the other days. I don't think I would consider purchasing hopping extras in the future.