Do you park hop?

[CarolS]

We've gone many times over the years and have always purchased park hopper tickets. In the past I could never imagine not getting them and having the flexibilty to go wherever, whenever. But looking back (being that I'm such a planner with dining reservations) we probably only "hopped" 2-3 days out of our usual 8 day vacations. I'm on a stricter budget this year and I'm probably not going to add on the hopper option so it's got me wondering how many people actually buy that (especially Disney World veterans). So do you hop or not?

Thanks for the responses! :mickey:

[Belle of the Ball 051411]

We always hop! We like the flexibility of it (for dining purposes, if one park is crowded you can go to another...).

[Nascfan]

We always hop also, usually taking advantage of it a little more than half of our days. We always take a midday break and our family has found we enjoy going to a different park in the evening than the one we started at in the morning. We also like the flexibility of leaving a more crowded park for a hopefully less crowded one.

It all boils down to personal preference though, and if money is tight, you have to take that into consideration. Just plan well and you'll probably be o.k.

[Itchy]

I think other than the first time we went to WDW in 1989 we have always gotten the park hopper.

We not may hit 2 or 3 parks a day depending on whether we have dining reservations in one of the parks.

I think that it is the only way to go. If you get tired of one park you can go to another without buying another ticket for that park. Well worth the extra money in my opinion.

Hope this helps...:mickey:

[disneymom15]

We always hop, love the flexability. But I think with proper planning it could be done.

[MOJoe]

I always buy hoppers. And normally we hop every day, except our arrival and departure days. If there was no such thing as EMH, then i might not need to hop. But to take advantage of the extra hours, hopping is nearly mandatory.

[honeybear]

We do NOT hop! We prefer to enjoy the 1 park per day. Hopping is too much fuss for us!

[AllDisney]

We always buy the hoppers. We like the option to move about the parks. We might only use it 2 or 3 days out of a 7 day vacation but we like to know we have it if we want to use it:blush:

[Tekneek]

We almost always do on each day of our trips. It makes me scared to not get them, actually, because we lose our ability to adapt to unexpected changes. One time we left Epcot for MK, in a torrential downpour, and arrived to a mostly empty MK and had a great evening walking onto all attractions.

[retiredfigment]

I love to be able to hop. As mentioned, if one park is crowded, we hope to another. Also, never feel that AK is an all day park. And our last day, we like the flexibility of going wherever we want to get everything in. Most parks visited in one day - three.:secret:

[MargaretMessler]

I would never do WDW without it. It's the ultimate in flexibility and well worth the money for me. My last trip, I think there was maybe one day out of a week plus that we didn't hop, if only for dinner. I'm a big fan of walking EPCOT at night, and we would also sometimes spend the day at a park, rest up at the resort, and then check out another park's nighttime show. It's dirt cheap to add to your tickets, if you're staying a week it's maybe $10 a day.

[JRocker]

Not hopping would totally mess up our very well organized machine. ;)

When we get up in the morning, it is typical that we go to the bus stop and get on the first bus that pulls up.

After our mid-day break back at the resort, we go to the bus stop and get on the first bus that pulls up.

Wow. Without a hopper, we would have to actually plan our days :sick:

[faline]

Sometimes, yes; sometimes; no. There are days we've gone to only one park and not to any other and there are days when we've gone to 2-3 parks in the same day. Our last several ticket purchases have been annual passes - love the ability to pop into a park for dinner even if we don't plan to spend much time in a park and/or hop from park to park as we choose.

[SBETigg]

Always hop. There are days when I have the hopper and don't hop, but they are few. I would rather pay the money for hopper and know that I can than fear that I would want to hop and couldn't.

[Awesome_guy]

Aside from one trip, getting into MK only... and dinner out at the Contemporary... I always park hop.

I think it would be very possible to not park hop and have a fully enjoyable, jam packed trip. Time is certainly lost on getting to and from each park and not being able to collect Fast Passes beyond a certain point. I could see putting the costs of hopping into saving for other aspects of the trip, for sure. You can still get to nearby resorts and back to the original resort-of-the-day without hopping at all.

So far the benefit has been meal planning, and night shows, and feeling like there's an "out" if one park feels overloaded (or less matched to weather conditions). The other benefit of hopping is knowing you can get favourites in if any blips are encountered (with attractions being down or 90 min. plus, etc.). Our last visit was to Dolphin so it was nice knowing regardless of other park visits we could slip into International Gateway at Epcot. None of those reasons have really been must-haves though.

[Capt_redshirt]

I do park hop I find that going to certain parks (AK and HS) doesn't always reward a full day. so i end up heading over to Epcot or MK but that's my personal preference..

[tjstrike]

Hop - fer sure !! We've been so many times that one park a day isn't enough for us.

[c&d]

Hopper, I don't know if I would survive not being able to hop. We're usually one park in the morning, another in the afternoon and if there's EMH we're heading there at night. Unless we have a meal planned we're the first bus that shows up group.

[BuddyL4]

We hop to. With the family going in different directions during the day we all meet up for dinner together at night.:beer:

[KiNg4aDaY]

I always hop. Honestly being a single traveler its a great option. I go to the parks I want to and hit the attractions I want to hit and move on. I've even done ONE day at WDW and hit all four theme parks! I wouldn't reccommend doing this with a family, but it does work. It makes you completely exausted though.

[bruin1344]

Hop is a must for me because I enjoy dining at Epcot World Showcase most nights. Also, as Capt_redshirt says, AK and HS dont reward a full day and end heading to Epcot or MK.

[TheHD]

We have hopped on each of our previous 5 trips, but like you, we are considering NOT hopping on our upcoming trip, because of money and also because on our last trip, we didn't hop on a few different days and kind of enjoyed staying at one park the entire time. We liked the idea of having Fast Passes available for the evening.

I think we'll try not hopping on this trip and see how it goes. The hardest part would be not hopping on our final day. On our last trip, we had to take Magic Express by 2 PM and so we hit all four parks on our final day riding our favorite rides at each park. Of course, we had to start with HS first due to Toy Story having the worst wait time. It was crazy, but fun and would like to make it a tradition.

[retiredfigment]

JRocker - I have found a kindred Disney fan! Exactly what we do.

[ANG]

We've hopped every time. It allows us to dine at Epcot more (or any other park) and gives us more wiggle room for planning around bad weather days.

[snowflakegirl]

I've always gotten the hoppers but did not often use them more than once or twice. On my last trip I think we hopped on all but one or two days. Although I think we're in the minority and can happily make a full day out of AK, it closes fairly early compared to other parks, so we left around dinner time and went to Epcot and then went back to AK another day. DHS is a half day park for me at this point, and we liked that when we decided that halfway through our day we could just leave and go somewhere else (Epcot). Basically we found ourselves at Epcot a lot this last trip, and we loved the flexibility of being able to wrap up our days with a nighttime stroll around the showcase. That said, with planning, I think I'd be perfectly able to plan a trip without hoppers as well. I'd miss the flexibility, but I'd be in Disney, I'm sure I'd still have fun!

[JenniferP]

I always hop! I find it very convenient and hopping offers a lot of flexibility. Most of the time I make dining reservations at Epcot and I wouldn't want to spend every single day there (although I love Epcot). I like to go to a park in the morning/afternoon, take a rest break at the hotel in the late afternoon, and then go to another park in the evening.

[JesGettingStarted]

We always buy the hopper even if we have no intention during planning to actually hop. It is nice to have the option if you want to. There were a few times on our last trip that we hopped back to a park especially to MK because it was supposed to be crowded during the day but at night they were doing the Electrical Parade and we didn't want to miss it.

[CuteAsMinnie]

We park hop every day of our trip. I think this is the main reason why we have never had to wait more than 20 minutes in a line. We usually arrive pretty early, especially at MK and DHS. At MK we are always able to get a huge chunk accomplished w/o FP and get FP for what we like. When crowds get too big, we leave knowing we can return another day/time and experience what we missed. There is NO pressure.

Too bad Fastpass+ will likely ruin all this but hopefully not till our summer trip is over. (When choosing WDW as our vac, it has always been in the summer)

[PirateLover]

I think you really have to assess what is best for you, but no matter how tight money is I think we will always choose to hop. On our most recent trips, we have hopped almost every single day. But then again, there's only two of us. If I was planning for a big family trip and really needed to pinch a few pennies, I could maybe forgo hopping...maybe :secret:

[Disney_pups2]

We have purchased park hopper tickets in the past but mainly if we may want to go back somewhere on the last day to pick up a last minute shopping item or something. I hate to go from park to park, it messes with my OCD...lol.

[k10]

always, yes!

it's a great way to take advantage of the daily EMHs. hit one part for EMHs in the morning, then another for EMHs at night.

:mickey:

[BuffaloJason]

Travelling with little kids, we always head back to the hotel for nap / swimming shortly after lunch, then back to a park in the late afternoon. I guess we could go to the same park morning and evening. In principle I guess there's no reason we couldn't go back to the same park in the evening that we had visited that morning, but in practice we always mix it up and see two parks per day.

[SandmanGStefani24]

not since 95...



i prefer to spend each day fully immersed in a park. i havent had any issues. i just tend to go hardcore lol

[MarkC]

In 25 trips, I can't remember even one day where we didn't park hop. And as much as we love the restaurants at World Showcase, it doesn't matter where we start the day. We tend to end up at Epcot at night for the food, music and atmosphere at least 3-4 nights each trip. Devoted park hopper here.

[AgentC]

I have annual passes so I don't have to make that decision but when we stay onsite we always hop. My children are still younger and we do usually take a break in the afternoon. Sometimes we go back to the same park.

If you like to stay at the same park most of the day, I think you can be successful without hopping. When I we do a day trip to WDW and I have my family with me, we tend to stay in the same park for the whole day. It's just easier. By myself it varies.

[JerseyDad]

....we couldn't survive without the "hopper" option. Our days are broken into a "morning session" at one park or another ....break time (at the resort mid-late afternoon) ...and then an 'evening session' which includes dinner ...and that's usually at EPCOT. So, we'd be lost without the ability to move from one park to another.

[BriarRose0708]

I like to hop when I'm there for a short trip, like 3 to 4 days, so I can maximize my time, but on longer trips I don't use it. I like dedicating full days to one park, it helps me plan, and I don't have to worry about racing through traffic and transportation delays to get to another park for an ADR time. There's so much to do and see in the MK and EPCOT I can go from rope drop to Kiss Goodnight and still leave attractions and rides on the table.

[PopPhan]

I always hop. 3 reasons: 1) AK closes early in the Fall months (my normal visiting time is Sept/Oct); 2) I spend a lot of evenings in World Showcase for the atmosphere and Illuminations; 3) Crowds - if the park I want to begin my day at gets too busy, I just bug out and head for another.

Used to have a 4th - dining. Recent trips have changed that somewhat in that I really enjoy the restaurants in the Resorts themselves and rarely book any meals that are actually inside a park.

Have to do Wishes and Fantasmic at least once per trip.

[BigB]

We love to hop!! We go to one park during the day and take a mid day swim break. Then, we end up at EPCOT to eat dinner. We mostly eat in EPCOT because of all the choices.

[DANAM]

We are hoppers! Can't even imagine not hopping but if something has to give I could see why you chose that. I would definitely do somemresearch on what park to go to each day. But I'm planner by nature and thats what works for my family. Have fun on your trip. Make sure you let all us hoppers know how it went.

[Metalfan]

Really depends. When I used to live down by Disney I would go a lot for day trips and just spend the day at a park. If I go for a week I usually do like 2 days when I hop parks depending on what I really want to ride that day or experience.

[joonyer]

We've always hopped. We like to go back to MK to see Wishes several times during a week-long stay. And going back to a different park late nights after a break at out hotel.

[mainemajor]

Always buy and use it. It allows so much more flexability

[KODABEAR]

:knit::old:
We always HOP but it comes with our seasonal pass. Don't know if I'd spend extra unless we would only be able to visit WDW once or twice/year. :mickey:

[SBETigg]

After this last trip (for the past week I was in the World), I would never plan to not hop. Planning guide times were way off and crowds were heavy toward the end of the week going into the week preceding Easter. We would show up at one park, be discouraged by the crowds, and leave to try another park, which really worked out for us. The second park we tried was inevitably less chaotic every time. So glad we had the hoppers, or we would have just ended up back at our resort relaxing instead of fighting crowds. Instead, we were able to rethink, change parks, and get a lot done.

[Tekneek]

From my reading of the My Disney Experience TOS, it seems to limit FP+ scheduling to one park per day. Also, once you're on paperless tickets, you are no longer going to be able to participate in standard FP (per that same TOS).

This could, potentially, decrease the value of having a Park Hopper add-on for some. I know I've park hopped in the past and used FP at 3 different parks on the same day. That looks to soon be a relic of the past.

[Davy Crockett]

Always! at $6 a day on a 10 day trip it is well worth the money. Especially on that "kids night out" when DD & DM get to go and ride a few of the more adventurous rides at HS & MK then scoot over the Epcot for a couple of adult beverages a quite dinner and a stroll around the avenue :thumbsup: