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?

 

[Ex-Floridian]

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.

I don't use Hoppers - save $$$ - and I never run into issues. We split the day at same park with breaks to hotel.

 

[Mawg]

I think park Hopper should be free for resort guests.

 

[ShookieJones]

I don't use Hoppers - save $$$ - and I never run into issues. We split the day at same park with breaks to hotel.

I guess this would work if food and dining at our favorite restaurants wasn't important to us.
But my family loves the whole dining experience and hitting our favorite Table Serice meals and a couple of new ones.
One year all it worked out between our favorite return meals and new ones that we wanted to try our ADRs were almost exclusively at Epcot restaurants. I love Epcot but certainly wouldn't want to spend my entire WDW vacation there.

I'm guessing most folks that don't do the hopper aren't real 'foodies' and eat mostly at QS meals. Is that true?

Otherwise you'd be serverly limited as to either where you could eat or what parks you could enjoy based on where and when your ressies are.

 

[Ex-Floridian]

I guess this would work if food and dining at our favorite restaurants wasn't important to us.
But my family loves the whole dining experience and hitting our favorite Table Serice meals and a couple of new ones.
One year all it worked out between our favorite return meals and new ones that we wanted to try our ADRs were almost exclusively at Epcot restaurants. I love Epcot but certainly wouldn't want to spend my entire WDW vacation there.

I'm guessing most folks that don't do the hopper aren't real 'foodies' and eat mostly at QS meals. Is that true?

Otherwise you'd be serverly limited as to either where you could eat or what parks you could enjoy based on where and when your ressies are.

Gotcha!

Funny thing is Hoppers for us this go around are actually cheaper!

 

[fosse76]

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?

Nope. I just go wherever I feel in the mood to go. Sometimes I have a plan, but 9 times out of 10 I change my mind.

 

[midwest_mice]

Nope. I just go wherever I feel in the mood to go. Sometimes I have a plan, but 9 times out of 10 I change my mind.

Same here. While we were there this past week we park hopped everyday. Two days we did 3 different parks in one day. Studios in the morning, Animal Kingdom in the afternoon, then Epcot for supper and Illuminations.

 

[cornandacobb]

Being that I've only stayed/will stay (???? TBD) at Epcot resorts, a park hopper is a must. We'll do table service for basically every dinner, and having Epcot a 5 minute walk away means numerous trips there during the week. Even on non-park days.
Plus, I don't particularly care for MK and AK table service options. That means dinner elsewhere.

 

[minnielaw]

I guess this would work if food and dining at our favorite restaurants wasn't important to us.
But my family loves the whole dining experience and hitting our favorite Table Serice meals and a couple of new ones.
One year all it worked out between our favorite return meals and new ones that we wanted to try our ADRs were almost exclusively at Epcot restaurants. I love Epcot but certainly wouldn't want to spend my entire WDW vacation there.

I'm guessing most folks that don't do the hopper aren't real 'foodies' and eat mostly at QS meals. Is that true?

Otherwise you'd be serverly limited as to either where you could eat or what parks you could enjoy based on where and when your ressies are.

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.

Couldn't agree more with these sentiments and EXACTLY why we Park Hop too! This year we are staying at BWV's and we have 3 ADR's at Epcot. We also plan to go to Epcot nearly every evening since we can simply walk there from our hotel...aww, heaven!!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

It is nice to hop from a park about a hour before closing to the park that has the EME. You will beat the crowd leaving the first park, and somewhat beat the crowd going to EME. And we also seem to end up at Epcot for an evening adr more often than not!

 

[quirkle]

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.

When are emh released? I can book my ADRs on June 23 ( not on my calendar or anything. Lol).

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

When are emh released? I can book my ADRs on June 23 ( not on my calendar or anything. Lol).

Looks like about 200 days out...WDW is currently showing through March 31st...

 

[quirkle]

Looks like about 200 days out...WDW is currently showing through March 31st...

Figures - lol I take my chances and park hopper will let me do it!

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Figures - lol I take my chances and park hopper will let me do it!

Keep in mind they update occasionally! During our trip 12/17-12/24, not one EME in DHS!! I'd be amazed if one or maybe two were not added!!

 

[sandy1]

I think park Hopper should be free for resort guests.

I couldn't agree more.

Last winter we stayed at the Grand Floridian for a week. Went to MK the first day, and decided to go to Epcot at night. Imagine our surprise when we were refused entry at Epcot. We had never heard of Park Hopper. The whole idea seemed ludicrous. We already had passes that were good for a week. Why would Disney care how we split up our day? We could certainly afford the upgrade, but it seemed so much like blackmail that we decided to limit ourselves to one park per day. Eight months later, I still find Park Hopper very annoying.

 

[luv]

I used the hopping to get out of EMH parks once they filled.

I'd go to on park in the morning, take a break and go somewhere else in the evening. It helped with scheduling meals to not tie us into one park a day.

But I do think people can skip the hopping and still have an excellent time.