Do You Think Park Hopper Is Necessary Or Just A Way To Spend More Money?

[bkfree]

We used to get them all the time and after a few years we realized we just didn't utilize them that much. We just started staying a couple of extra days and the days we leave a park early we go to DTD or enjoy the pool. This also kind of forces us to have a couple of shorter days for R and R. It is a nice option but we always save the money and stay an extra day or two.

Our first two trips with our kids, we got the PH options and it was the right decision. Our kids were young and this gave us the choice to change parks if one was too crowded etc.
Second trip, we had the Dining Plan and enjoyed eating many meals in World Showcase, so the PH was necessary for this.
We are now planning our third trip and have decided to not purchase PH or the Dining plan this time.
We now know the parks well enough and when to go and what rides we want to do. We also know that down time at the resort and at DTD is something we tend to not do with PH's. My kids also want to go back to Sea World and also spend a day at Universal Studios, which we have never done before.
I think PH's have a time and place and are a good fit for certain families and certain WDW trip adventures.
This time we are choosing to go a little differently and do some other things.

[kadesha]

We had it on our last trip and I don't think we used it enough for what we paid to have it added to the ticket. We get to the parks around 10 AM and stay at that park for evening EMH, so it's not really necessary for us. The only time I think it'd be useful is for days we go to Animal Kingdom because it closes so early. However, Magic Kingdom has so many nighttime parties now, I think we'd be ok having a party night on the day we spend at AK.

[mouseketeer mom]

Yes, yes, yes. Worth the money for us. I love to have choices. I hate to feel locked in to something on our vacation, I like to move where the wind blows me. So, yep, worth it to us. Also, we usually don't end up dining in our daytime park. We usually go to our room, get spiffied up, then head out to whatever park or resort holds our ADR for the evening.

[SpaceMtn101]

EMH is for if you are on disney property only. that has not changed

park hoppers are good if you are going during a busy time of year or when they have a hard ticket event at MK or another party type thing going on at HS. Usually the park will close at 7. And in MK hard ticket events are at least 3 or 4 times a week. If its a busier time when a park can get closed for capacity issues or you dont have enough time to see everything you want one day but have extra time another day because of the crowds then it comes in handy too.
Other than for those reasons then its a personal descion

[Momof2boys]

We have always purchased the hoppers, however last year we didn't use that option at all. We had best plans to change parks, but was having so much fun/low crowds/back for a swim that it went unused. So for this year we've planned only 1 park per day. We might end up adding the hopper option on, but we'll see how things go. We always hit Downtown Disney after the day at AK since they close earlier.

[grwoolf]

He have always used hoppers. When the kids were young, we always did mid-day naps to re-charge. We would wake them up and sometimes they thought it was a new day. They would talk about what happed the day before at MK, etc., but it was actually that morning. We would laugh about it, but it was like getting 2 days every day.

[RAIDER]

I think its a brilliant idea the hopper ...
However i do wish they would bring out a 3 or 4 day hopper or just pass for people who come on vacation from abroad to which as a whole explore other parks in Florida and dont want to be tied down to WDW in general .