How do you utilize park hopper?

[Did Knee]

I was just wondering how others utilize this popular option. My DW and I, for instance, like to start at least one day at DHS and have lunch there. Then at some point in the early afternoon we ride the boat past all the Epcot area resorts and spend our afternoon/evening at EPCOT. We have also spent a morning at EPCOT before, then taken the monorail to MK for the afternoon.

Does anybody have a specific mix of parks or experiences they do utilizing park hopper? If so why? How do you use park hopper to kick up your WDW experience?

 

[real mad hatter]

Well as our vacation is 14 days & nights,we just hop when we feel like it.I suppose it all depends on your stay at WDW.

 

[plaz10]

We start our mornings at whatever park has EMH (unless it's AK), then we will usually eat lunch there (unless its DHS - we usually head to EPCOT or a resort) then we go to whatever park is closest to the ones we have ADRs at.

We try to make our ADRs coincide with whatever parks have EMH or don't have special events (if we're not attending)

The most park hopping we usually do it TO Epcot. We hop from DHS (boat) or MK (monorail) to eat at EPCOT. It's my favorite park so I'd say we spend the most time there.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

We always go during F&W and it seems no matter what park we start at, we wind up back at Epcot. We normally plan our days based on our ADRs (MAJOR foodie here, and a jr. food critic, food is a very important part of our Disney trips) ... But between the parks, water parks and Disney Quest (yep DS STILL has to go once every trip and show up Mom LOL) we have always gotten the park hopper option. I like to *wing it* as much as possible so we can experience Disney's best in a leisurely fashion.

 

[ShookieJones]

To be honest I don't know how people do it with out the Park Hopper. In the morning it's rope drop at at a park that's almost always NOT where our dinner ADRs are, then the park where the ADR for the evening after we eat.
We've hit 3 parks in one day sometimes or a couple of parks and a water park.

One year we went at the same time as my SIL and her family. My brother in law was too cheap to get the Park hopper (no matter how much we insisted) and it was almost impossible to hang out with them because they had to be at the park they were eating at that evening. We barely saw them the entire vacation.

 

[maryszhi]

i use it to to visit atleast two or more parks a day. like every day of a trip we park hop. its so much fun because we get to do what ever we feel like when ever we feel like it

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

To be honest I don't know how people do it with out the Park Hopper. In the morning it's rope drop at at a park that's almost always NOT where our dinner ADRs are, then the park where the ADR for the evening after we eat.
We've hit 3 parks in one day sometimes or a couple of parks and a water park.

One year we went at the same time as my SIL and her family. My brother in law was too cheap to get the Park hopper (no matter how much we insisted) and it was almost impossible to hang out with them because they had to be at the park they were eating at that evening. We barely saw them the entire vacation.

see thats just it Shookie, we feel that by not having a park hopper option AND having ADRs puts too many restraints on the day

 

[disneygirl76]

I was just wondering how others utilize this popular option. My DW and I, for instance, like to start at least one day at DHS and have lunch there. Then at some point in the early afternoon we ride the boat past all the Epcot area resorts and spend our afternoon/evening at EPCOT. We have also spent a morning at EPCOT before, then taken the monorail to MK for the afternoon.

Does anybody have a specific mix of parks or experiences they do utilizing park hopper? If so why? How do you use park hopper to kick up your WDW experience?

We do two parks each day max. We usually go to a park in the a.m. and then dinner is usually at Epcot so we head there. That is what we normally do.

 

[Susan Savia]

We sometimes drive to Epcot and park and monorail over to MK and spend most of the day then monorail back to Epcot and finish out the day. Or start out at HS and about noon hop over to MK. The days that we visit HS and AK we usually always hop somewhere else.

 

[DisneyAubs]

I try to balance out my mornings evenly between the four parks, so etimes based on morning meh and sometimes not....depends on who I am traveling with. Seems like we always end up hopping to Epcot for food LOL. I'm sure I will be hopping to MK a lotmorethis upcoming trip with my DD

 

[scheat]

We park hop as we feel like it, but we do have a tradition on our final day. We hit all of our favorite attractions in each park. We start at AK, then bus our way back to DHS, then boat to EPCOT, and monorail to MK finishing the night in tears with Wishes. It's just DW and I though, so this might be a little hectic with little ones.

 

[rob0519]

I was just wondering how others utilize this popular option. My DW and I, for instance, like to start at least one day at DHS and have lunch there. Then at some point in the early afternoon we ride the boat past all the Epcot area resorts and spend our afternoon/evening at EPCOT. We have also spent a morning at EPCOT before, then taken the monorail to MK for the afternoon.

Does anybody have a specific mix of parks or experiences they do utilizing park hopper? If so why? How do you use park hopper to kick up your WDW experience?

We generally stay at either the CR or Polynesian for 5, 6 of 7 days when we visit and because we're on the monorail I guarantee you we spend part of every day in the MK no matter where we spend the rest of the day.

 

[DanielPreciado]

I suppose it all depends on your stay at WDW.

 

[real mad hatter]

Yep,Agree with Shookie.The hopper is the way to gn our first trip in 2004 we done a two centre vacation and our first week we just had a 5 day hopper.So on our last day we hopped to all 4 parks doing our favourite attractions.

 

[Did Knee]

To me I guess the park hopper is my ticket to riding the DHS / Epcot boat and the Epcot /MK monorail. Those are two experiences that are tough to justify without a park hopper. I think of them as rides I guess, and enjoy them as much as some rides within the actual parks. Is there perhaps another experience similar to these two that is easier (or more justifiable) to do if you have a park hopper?

 

[wiigirl]

Well as our vacation is 14 days & nights,we just hop when we feel like it.I suppose it all depends on your stay at WDW.

This...just hop when you feel like it. I love it since you don't have to plan so much.

 

[Weather_Lady]

If our vacation were longer, we might not use it. However, we want to make the most of our 5 1/2 days in the parks and like the flexibility of park hopping. We love to use the monorail between MK and Epcot, and also enjoy running over to Epcot for dinner, even if we're done touring that park. Because our visit is fairly condensed, we make AK a 1/2 day park and HS a 2/3 day park, and parkhopping prevents us from "losing" parts of days here and there.

So for us, combining the 1/2 day at AK with a 1/2 day at Epcot makes thematic and planning sense. Throwing in an Epcot-MK-Epcot day allows us to finish up Epcot, tackle one of the lands in the MK, and enjoy the monorail on our way to dinner back at Epcot. Parkhopping doesn't add much extra "running around" for us, since we head back to the resort for a 2-3 hour nap break every afternoon anyway.

 

[jim1051]

We usually go to one park at or soon after opening, stay and enjoy QS lunch. We then go back to resort for nap/swim relax before we head out late afternoon for another park or dinner, catching fireworks etc.

 

[Mawg]

I love park hopper and always do a different park in the morning and evening. This past summer we went to Disneyland and Park Hopper had a whole new meaning. The two parks were so close to one another that I could leave one with all the families’ tickets, go to the other and start collecting fast passes for the evening at the other park and then return within 15 minutes to meet back up with my family. My family around 2 pm would go back to the resort for a few hours and I could continue to build up fast passes while they rested. When they were done and ready to visit the second park that evening we would already have 3 to 4 fast passes to enjoy during the evening crowds at the other park. Remember the return time is still not enforced at Disneyland. I would hop parks 3 to 5 times in a day, while my family only hopped once. I'm hoping this is the idea behind fast pass plus; be able to get fast passes for a second park while still at another, or just get them all ahead of time. I'm skeptic right now though that they are not designing this properly with features like this that will make it useful.

 

[Mr.Skunkape]

We just go with the flow of the day. Sometimes we don't hop at all other days we may start of with breakfast in one park do a few rides,check touringplans line app then hop to least busy park and then makebe another at the end of the day for fireworks or EMH. Never any real plan but it is nice to have the flexability in your day.