What tickets should I get with a toddler?

[Noel04]

I have searched the board and I haven't seen a recent post on this subject:

We are going to travel with a 3 year old and are trying to decide whether a park hopper is worth the extra cost. Have any of you had experience park-hopping with a 3 year old? Should we just stay with a base ticket and go to one park a day since we have to figure in naps, etc.??

On the same note, is it possible to use the base ticket for a day or two and then upgrade to a hopper for the rest of the trip?

Any advice would be appreciated! :mickey:

[Pirate Granny]

I just returned with DD and DGD...we just got the base ticket...but that said...we did go home each day for naps...so if you wanted you could go back to a different park rather than the morning one it would require a park hopper...but if you do upgrade during the trip, they will charge you the upgrade for the entire ticket...so decide and make whichever ticket you purchase go with your plans.
:pirate:

[DizneyRox]

The park hopping is the same cost regardless of the number of days you buy, but yes, you can upgrade to a park hopper at any point (up to 14 days from the first use).

Personally, I can't think of not having park hopping. Too many times I have to get out of a park for a little change of pace.

[Disney Doll]

I like the park hopper for the flexibility and with a toddler in tow flexibility will be key. We spend considerably more time in MK now that we have a toddler because there's just more for kids to do there. It's nice to be able to hop back to MK in the evenings if we have done everything we want to do at one of the other parks.

[wire0monkey]

Park hoppers are critical for little kids.

We usually do one park in the morning and early afternoon, take a break and nap, and then hit a different park in the evening.

[CleveRocks]

I'm not going to say anything different from what you've already read ... I'm just gonna word it differently.

You can upgrade your ticket to a park hopper at any time during your trip. It will cost exactly the same whether you order the ticet that way as part of your package, or yoy pay to upgrade it in the middle of your trip. The cost (at ANY time) is a flat rate of $50 + 6.5% sales tax no matter when you do it and no matter how "big" your ticket is.

If you'll be going back to the resort for a mid-day rest, it's a nice luxury to be able to head to ANY theme park afterwards rather than having no choice but to go back to the park you were at earlier that day.

This may work out especially nicely with little ones. If you/your child really like Wishes, the nightly fireworks show, or you/your child really like Spectromagic (the night-time parade), then it's nice to be able to go to MK just for that. HOWEVER, in my opinion it may be even BETTER if you DON'T care for those things. WHY??? Because people gather and "hold" their viewing spots for parades and fireworks, meaning there are fewer people in lines for rides and attractions. In the maybe hour or so leading up to Wishes, you might finding non-existent lines for some very favorite kiddie rides/attractions that normally have pretty large lines at other times of the day. Knowing this, you might choose to go to MK EVERY NIGHT or so, in order to sneak in some extra on your child's favorites without having to commit to MK as much.

My advice is DON'T buy the park hopper option until you are in Disney World and you decide it's worth it for you. I can't imagine any down-side to doing it that way.