Park Hoppers?

[NokOnHarts]

Considering not getting the Park Hoppers this time. What are your thoughts/experiences? I have gone twice before with my husband and young daughter. Our strategy has always been to go at park opening, come back to resort for a nap, then go back out to a new park in the evening. However, we will have the QSDP this time so dining reservations won't affect park hopping like they did for us last time. I enjoy the flexibility of park hoppers but would like to cut costs where we can. We will also have a 1 year old son this time too so two kids in tow. Seems an easy way to cut costs but don't want to regret it, especially on nights when parks like AK close early. Any thoughts/advice??

[DizneyRox]

I have never gone without park hopping (usually an AP holder), and can't imagine not having it. Its really nie to be able to pick the nighttime show you want to see, it's nice to be able to leave MK when it gets too crazy to bear, or as you mention, have something else to do after AK. We spend days at AK, and after it closes, we need to he somewhere else usually, especially now that they have axe the nighttime extra hours.

[Strmchsr]

I agree with the PP, but with children that young you might not want late evenings in a different park. If you're at DAK that day, when it closes go back to your resort and swim. Or use that for a night at DTD. I do like the park-hopping, but I'm finding myself doing it less and less. On our 7 day vacation in December I think we only hopped 2 days. You can also leave and return to the same park on the same day, so if you did want an evening you could take an afternoon break and bring the kids back for the evening to the same park.

[Trev&Ev Mom]

We've always had park hoppers and can't imagine doing it without. We almost always end up at EPCOT for dinner. This way we hit whatever park we want during the day and then head to EPCOT for dinner.

[Dream'nDisney]

We too have always purchased the park hoppers. It is nice to have the freedom to go to another park in the evening than the one you went to in the morning. Like you mentioned, AK closes early. We usually are only there for 3-4 hours and have done everything we want to do. It seems that we too end up at EPCOT alot in the evenings for dinner no matter what park we were visiting during the day. We were trying to save money on our last trip too and were considering not purchasing the park hoppers, but for us, we realized we just wouldn't be happy not having the option to do different things in the evening.

[VWL Mom]

Originally Posted by Strmchsr

I agree with the PP, but with children that young you might not want late evenings in a different park. If you're at DAK that day, when it closes go back to your resort and swim. Or use that for a night at DTD. I do like the park-hopping, but I'm finding myself doing it less and less. On our 7 day vacation in December I think we only hopped 2 days. You can also leave and return to the same park on the same day, so if you did want an evening you could take an afternoon break and bring the kids back for the evening to the same park.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you could buy your tickets as non-PH and could always upgrade them later if you feel the need.

[Katzateer]

I always get the non- expiring park hoppers for as many days as I can afford from the sponsor here on Intercot.

That way we can park hop. I use the tickets over several trips/years. For a week trip we usually go to the parks 3 days and do other activities on non park days.

If you get the10 day ones I think it breaks down to about$50 a day. I used to have it spaced out so each year I got one for a different family member so that made it a little less expensive. But this year I got 3 10 -day non-expiring passes so that was a lot of $$ all at once.

I made one trip in Sept and will make 2 trips this year and will still have a few days left for 2013 or whenever we go back.

[Buttercup]

I've done it both ways, and really, it's not that horrible not having a park hopper. It just means you've got to plan your ADR's around the park you'll be at that day. That's about it.
On the nights when you've been at AK all day, and you still want to go out in the evening, use those days to go to Downtown Disney or something else!

[NJGIRL]

We used to get them years ago, but found that park hopping for us wasted too much time. We get to the parks early and stay all day until we are done. There is enough to do at each park for us that we don't need to leave and go to another park. When my son was young we didn't even leave for naps, we let him sleep in the stroller and he was fine. We stopped getting park hopper tickets over 10 years ago and haven't missed them at all.

[wickedgin]

Originally Posted by VWL Mom

Another thing to keep in mind is that you could buy your tickets as non-PH and could always upgrade them later if you feel the need.

We did just that over this past Christmas/New Year's. I thought for sure we would "need" to upgrade while we were there, but we never did. I don't think I'll ever pre-buy hoppers again. We were content to go near open, go back to our resort mid-day, and return to the same park in the evening.

[WDWCrazyKaren]

As with many others, we've never NOT had hoppers, so I can't say much about staying in one park all day. All I know is that we have NEVER, in all of our trips, stayed in the same park for an entire day. Every time, we've gone to at least two parks a day. Start the day with the EMH parks and knock everything off there, then switched to a park that wasn't as busy later in the day.

I guess this post is just meant to say that I have no answer for you!

[sixshot19]

When it was just me and the DW, we Hopped as much as 4 times some days. Now with 2 small boys, our last trip we found we didn't hop much if at all.

We did the morning at a park, then would go for "The Nap" and either stay at the resort and swim or hit downtown Disney. Or reverse stay "home" in the morning and then hit a park for lunch and fireworks.

Although the thought of having the chance to hop still is a hard thing for me to give up.

[wdwfamilyof4]

We have never had the park hopper. The reason being we've only been to WDW 3 times each time for approx. 7 days. We still haven't done everything in any of the parks. I don't see the point of wasting time to travel to other parks when we always have a great time in the park we choose that day. You just need to plan ahead a bit by deciding what parks on what days. Especially if you're staying on property and want to take advantage of EMH.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I love the freedom of having hoppers. But then again, I like to hop to whichever park as night time EMHs.

[brivers222]

Originally Posted by PAYROLL PRINCESS

I love the freedom of having hoppers. But then again, I like to hop to whichever park as night time EMHs.

I think thats a pretty good summation for me.

If i was onsite i would probably say get ph's for the EMH's


but offsite, i am only getting the length of stay non-ph's and if we absolutely needed to ph you can upgrade

[minnie-mouse]

We have young children and feel that park hopping is way too much for them. Plus, it wastes a lot of time traveling to and from. We prefer to stay at one park for the day, sometimes leave after parade, take a break at resort and head back to that park again!

[MstngDrvnDsnyLvr]

I can't imagine not having park hoppers. We make our ADRs based on where we want to eat, not where we'll be spending the day.

[KatrinaJ91]

We have done both and quite honestly, I don't like park hopping. It feels too rushed then. We like to go to one park, stay as long as we want, maybe go back to the resort for a nap or swim and then, if we want to go back to a park...we go back to the same park.

We are not early morning people, so we normally take our time getting to the parks and then just stay there until close!

For us, it's a total waste of money. But you need to decide if it's worth it for you.

[Altair]

We went without hoppers this time and did not regret it. You may have to plan a little more to adjust for changing park hours and event schedules. If the parks are open later, the need for a park hopper goes down.