Park Hopper Question

[Dpint43]

My wife and I are going to Disney this December...we are getting 5 days worth of Disney Park tickets and we're contemplating getting the Park Hopper option, but I had a few questions...

Is it really worth it? How much time do you lose traveling between the parks? We are going to be staying on property and are opting to not rent a car so we will be traveling via Disney Transportation. For a 5day ticket the added price for the Park Hopper is only 60 bucks a ticket (120 total for both of us) so it's not a big deal for us to add that on, but I just wanted a few opinions if people think it is worth it? We'd like the option to be a little spontaneous while on our trip. I just wondered what the average time was to get from park to park and whether there are certain parks that work better switching between (i.e: is it better to stick with Hollywood Studios and Epcot in one day? Is Animal Kingdom too far away from Magic Kingdom, blah blah).

Sorry for all of the overthinking! Let me know what you guys think, thanks!

 

[erwinalber4]

I'd go for it because it'll add a lot of flexibility. Also since you're staying onsite you can use extra magic hours. One thing to think about what if you're at AK which usually closes pretty early and MK may be open to 2-3am with emh. Check the times and decide but do it before using any days because it'll cost the same either way.

 

[Lucky]

Our most common park hop is from MK to Epcot. Since the monorail is basically a ride we don't consider the transit time a loss.

The other common one is from AK to parks that stay open later. It will be interesting to see what happens to hopper sales when AK starts staying open later.

 

[sxeensweet]

Also if it's in December besides AK closing earlier HS closes sometimes at 7-8pm etc and Epcot or MK could be open later. For example Epcot EMH will go until 11pm and MK even in December has been open some nights until 1Am etc. We love going in December but the hours are shorter in some parks so for that reason alone the park hopper is worth it. We also love it because if we want to eat for say at Epcot and we were at another park all day we can do that to go eat.
Also for such a short trip 5 days you want to cram in as much Magic in the world as you can. We never go without the park hopper!

 

[aeillill]

My family has always found the park hopper to be worth the additional cost. We tend to go during less busy times so DHS and AK always seem to close earlier so it's nice to be able to go to a different park later on or to take advantage of EMHs. Also certain parks have food offerings that don't really appeal to us so we always seem to be travelling to a different park for our meals. One trip we joked that all roads lead to EPCOT since we ended up there almost every single day of our 2 week trip, haha.

 

[Rob562]

One option is to not get it for your tickets and then upgrade them ifwhen you decide you need the Hopper option.

-Rob

 

[MickeyMomV]

My DH and I went without the kid 2 years ago and got it. Even without our son we still took a break mid afternoon and kicked back at the hotel then would go to a different park at night.

 

[PAW PAW 70]

Park Hopper defiantly worth it. When one park gets crowded you can try another. The transportation system is good and you won't loose much time switching.

 

[JasonDeyoung]

I love park hopping, can go to one park in the morning and a different one in the evening if you like.

 

[dreamfinder]

You can end up spending an hour or so transferring between parks. Figure a 10-15 min walk from the park you are in to transportation, a 10-20 min wait for the next bus, and then a 10-20 min bus ride. It's usefulness really depends on your touring style. With a proper touring plan, you can easily crank out most of a park in a single day, so hopping doesn't buy you much. If you only want to do certain rides, then hopping would be helpful so you can do Soarin' and Test Track, and then hop to MK for BTMRR and Splash. Or if you go during the time of year where AK closes at 5, you could then hop to Epcot for dinner.

If you feel that MK is too crowded will Epcot really be any less so? Hard to say as there is no published hard and fast metric for crowds at any given park. Yeah, you can estimate off of wait times in MDE, but that's about it. And keep in mind with the advent of FP+, it's much harder to hop on a whim if you want to make good use of the FastPass system.

 

[jcrosby4]

We always buy the park hopper. There are a variety of reasons to do so:

1. We typically stay at a Disney resort near EPCOT, which is the BEST place to go in the evenings for dinner. Plenty of options there, and the stroll around the various countries is great at dusk. Doing this nightly -- or even just one or two nights -- requires a park hopper if you are going to spend the day at MK, AK, or DHS.
2. The evening shows/fireworks at the various parks may or may not jive with our park schedule during the day. For example, morning Extra Magic Hours at MK are awesome for getting onto great rides multiple times. But then we might go to DHS that night for the Fantasmic dinner package.
3. During a 5 night stay -- which is our typical timeline -- you will probably have a night where MK is open until Midnight or later. This allows you go squeeze two park visits into one day, if you are bold enough to go for it.

It's a small price to pay for this kind of flexibility. But that also depends on your budget. If you are looking to clamp down on costs, then you simply need to arrange your schedule properly and be disciplined about deploying it.

 

[JIMINYCR]

Well worth it. We always make it an add onto our tickets. It frees you up to change parks when like others have said if you encounter a busier park than you were expecting. We've also gotten the last minute urge to switch things up and to eat somewhere else or take in the evening fireworks. Or sometimes its just exciting to split the day up and visit 2 parks in one day.

 

[Joseph Szarmach]

Don't think it is worth it with one exception... In the winter, Animal Kingdom closes early and we decided to go to Hollywood Studios to see Fantasmic. Time passes so quickly, we always find ourselves not having enough time in the park we are in. Don't think I would get the park hopper passes again.

 

[LAKid53]

I would get it. Remember, Mickey's Christmas party will be several nights a week during December (up until a few days before Christmas), so the Magic Kingdom will close at 7PM on those days. We have annual passes, which come with park hopping, which is nice because we typically visit Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios the same day. Plus, you won't have to worry about making sure ADRs coincide with the park you plan on visiting that day, if you are like us and take a mid-day break from the parks and go back to our resort.

 

[allgiggles]

Even though we have 5 kids and adding park hopping to our tickets costs a little chunk of money, we still find it worth the cost just simply because it provides us with flexibility in our days. We don't park hop every day and we don't specifically plan to park hop, but it's nice to be able to do that when we want or need to. We go in June so MK is open late every night so we typically end up there a few nights during our stay. For us, AK & DHS are short days (meaning we're usually finished touring those parks by late afternoon) so we'll either hop to EP for dinner and then head back to the resort for the night or we'll head back to the resort for dinner and maybe a quick swim and then go to MK for several hours. We've also had a few times that MK felt overly crowded, so we just hop on the monorail and go to Epcot for a few hours and then head back to MK in the evening. And our last day is usually spent going to 2 or 3 parks to hit an attraction that we missed the first time. Unless I was staying for 10+ days, I can't imagine not having park hoppers -- our family definitely get's our money's worth out of them.