Is Park Hopper Worth the Extra Cost?

[Littleclown]

I would have to say IMO a Park Hopper is a must. If you are not staying on property you would park at one park and be stuck there till you went back to hotel. If you fly in, it is a must have, so you can enjoy the parks the day you arrive and the day you leave if have a park hopper. We have caught an early morning flight, got to the hotel at 9, gave our luggage to concierge, and went to a park or two of choice. On our last day with PH you can catch a later flight home an go ride or see a favorite part or two or three parks. Having your choice of where you eat is another plus. If you are there during the Christmas season it is a must to enjoy MK without being chased out for MVMCP 3 nights of your 5 day stay. If you go during POP Warner football they close HS one night that week so there you are back at the hotel if you don't have a PH. So many reasons to have one. If you were to look at buying a 10 day pass with and a 10 days without the difference isn't that much for the freedom it gives to enjoy the place WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Something else to consider...

We try to stay at the Swalphin (because Epcot), but obviously we hit other parks. When DD crashes early in the evening, I often head back out to whatever's open late. When she doesn't, we often hit up Epcot because it's right there - and why not? "Dinner in Japan tonight?" PH gives you that flexibility.

 

[Doug Means]

we always get the hopper because there seems to always be a night or two where we go ride towwer of terror like 7 times because the lines are really low before closing...Throw in a few RR too.

 

[Patcheslee]

For us it's really only worth it because it allows me freedom. FP and any TS reservations are always late morning or early afternoon. We take a break midday because of a kid then decide if we want to go back to the same park that night. We ended up using the hopping to Epcot for 3 out of 7 days last visit. Apparently World Showcase is the best place on earth according to my 10yo lol

 

[JillC LI]

You can only use FP+ at one park in a day, so that's a big knife in the heart of hopping.

Actually that's not true. You can only book your FP+s in advance for one park. But after you use all three, you can book your next one in any park so you can book it in a park you intend to hop to later (if any are available, of course).

 

[Trackmaster]

Actually that's not true. You can only book your FP+s in advance for one park. But after you use all three, you can book your next one in any park so you can book it in a park you intend to hop to later (if any are available, of course).

Oh OK, so the tabbing technique works for park hopping too, that's pretty nifty then. Although if the park is crowded enough that stuff becomes unavailable then it won't really help anyway.

 

[Whippet Mom]

Short and simple; seeing that the parks are open for only 11 - 12 hours a day, if you're trying to maximize your time is it worth the extra cost to buy a park hopper ticket(s)? What do you normally do when you visit?

We have always done parkhoppers but this year we just got one park a day tickets.. We decided it wasn't worth the extra money. Spending the whole day at one park is fine. Gives us a full day to do everything we want at one park.. The only drawback is deciding what park to do twice with the 5 day of our tickets

 

[Shouldigo12]

I would have to say IMO a Park Hopper is a must. If you are not staying on property you would park at one park and be stuck there till you went back to hotel. If you fly in, it is a must have, so you can enjoy the parks the day you arrive and the day you leave if have a park hopper. We have caught an early morning flight, got to the hotel at 9, gave our luggage to concierge, and went to a park or two of choice. On our last day with PH you can catch a later flight home an go ride or see a favorite part or two or three parks. Having your choice of where you eat is another plus. If you are there during the Christmas season it is a must to enjoy MK without being chased out for MVMCP 3 nights of your 5 day stay. If you go during POP Warner football they close HS one night that week so there you are back at the hotel if you don't have a PH. So many reasons to have one. If you were to look at buying a 10 day pass with and a 10 days without the difference isn't that much for the freedom it gives to enjoy the place WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE.

I'm not really sure how flying and having a park hopper relate to each other.

 

[FCivish3]

One example of a scenario where park hopping can be useful is if you're staying on site and want to make the best use of Extra Magic Hours.

Park hoppers allow spontaneity in your choices, and that works well for me. I only go to WDW once a year. There's a bunch of my favorite attractions, but not all are in just one park. So depending upon crowd levels, weather, EMH, etc., park hoppers work best for me.

Another value of Park Hoppers is if you are in one park during the day, but then you have a dinner reservation at a different park. It IS possible to schedule around this, but we generally do not know which parks we will be in, on which days. So we try to get the dinner reservations we want, but we might go to a different park, if crowds, performances, or other things make the other park more desirable. Park Hopper solves this.

Of course, the best solution, if you are going to make 2 or more trips to Disney World each year, or one very long trip, is to get Annual Passes. Unlike Disneyland, where Annual Passes are now over $1000, with no DVC Member Discount, Disney World has Annual Passes which are still relatively reasonable in price.

 

[FCivish3]

We always use them and are a two-park per day family for the most part. Even if we weren't it's a nice release valve when the park you are in is just getting too crowded for your liking. Our normal schedule is like this:

1. Get into the first park for rope drop. Usually not the EMH park for weekdays, and go to the EMH park for weekends.
2. Go fast and get on rides (no fast passes), hitting the most popular ones first.
3. Eat an early lunch in the parks, quick service
4. Go to progressively less popular rides/attractions as the crowd builds
5. Head back to resort for a brief break
6. Head back to the second park or dinner (some days early dinner, some days late dinner)
7. Use fastpasses for the afternoon/early evening
8. Enjoy late EMH if you've got the energy to

This is the pattern my family tends to follow. Of course, as we get a bit older we find that we no longer make it for Rope Drop as often as we like. I certainly advocate for it. I am habitually an early riser anyway, but some of our party find that sleeping in is one of the best parts of a vacation.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

It all depends on your family and their preferences. We always get park hoppers, but it is very unusual for my family to stay at one park all day. I also like the park hoppers because making ADR's is much easier with park hopper.

 

[disneyfireman]

If you have money you want to throw away...get the hopper. If you want the most for your money and see the most any given day. Do one park per day. The reason Disney invented the hopper was to get you out of the park and waste time in between and charge you for it....Which is so smart on Disneys part. Whoever came up with the idea got a huge bonus that year!!

 

[danyoung56]

Wow! Talk about your overbearing opinion! You can feel that way all you want, as long as you make room for folks like me who don't think a hopper is throwing away money.

 

[WDWJeffC37]

We always get Park Hoppers. We like the freedom it gives us to rope drop in the morning then hop to a less crowded park in the afternoon then maybe fireworks at MK or dinner at EPCOT or Pandora at night. We sometimes take a midday break at the resort and decide where to go after swimming and naps. When Disney had the Express Transportation it was really great to hop because no extra security at the other parks. But that is gone now .

 

[SAV]

Hoppers are not worth it for us. DW and I got them our first 2 trips and never hopped. So we stopped getting them.

We almost always do 6-7 park days. 1 at each park and then an extra full day at MK, EP and AK(if 7 days). We are commando's from RD to close.

We have never run out of things to do at any park. Yes, we slow down at DHS and AK, but are never bored where we wish we could leave and go to a different park.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

If you have money you want to throw away...get the hopper. If you want the most for your money and see the most any given day. Do one park per day. The reason Disney invented the hopper was to get you out of the park and waste time in between and charge you for it....Which is so smart on Disneys part. Whoever came up with the idea got a huge bonus that year!!

Here’s an example scenario. I go to Hollywood Studios and see everything I want to see before noon. Not an unrealistic scenario at that park.

If I don’t have a park hopper, the rest of my day is wasted because I can’t walk over to Epcot or go to another park.

It’s an individual decision. I’m currently on day 4 of 5 without a park hopper and it’s worked out fine for me.

That doesn’t mean it’s a waste of money for others, or in general.

 

[danyoung56]

Another scenario is when the MK closes at 5pm. Plenty of park time left if you can hop to another park that's open till 9 or 10.

 

[Trackmaster]

If you have money you want to throw away...get the hopper. If you want the most for your money and see the most any given day. Do one park per day. The reason Disney invented the hopper was to get you out of the park and waste time in between and charge you for it....Which is so smart on Disneys part. Whoever came up with the idea got a huge bonus that year!!

It all depends on the situation. There are strategic advantages to be able to hop.

For example: you go to Disney once a every few years, and you're staying one full week (6 available park days in this case). Disney crowds can drastically fluctuate on a day to day basis. If you get absolutely mobbed with crowds at one park and your sources are indicating that another park is a ghost town, it might be nice to jump ship. If one or two days are mobbed at all four parks, you might be SOL if that was only day to get to a park. If its a ghost town at all four parks, you might want to hop around to spread the love and get the production in everywhere.

If you're a local, or an addict who comes from out of state but goes every year for long stays, it might not matter, and you can still get everything in with quick visits. If the day is a dud, you'll always have another one.

But to your point about wasting time... maybe have plan. Group MK and EPCOT together. You can hop back and forth using the monorail, and while its really hard to get food at MK due to the crowds, EPCOT makes it really easy and has a lot of great options. HS and AK get grouped together by process of elimination, and they're pretty easy to get in and out of. You're really only taking one trip if you do two parks in a day, and you can make that trip at the peak crowd times.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

I'll read all your responses when I get back home but overall, we used park hopper 3 out of the 5 days. Even as newbies, there wasn't enough in all the parks to keep us there (generally).

 

[jimbojones]

I'll read all your responses when I get back home but overall, we used park hopper 3 out of the 5 days. Even as newbies, there wasn't enough in all the parks to keep us there (generally).

I find that with the lines these days no park is an all day park unless you are willing to spend 6 or more hours in lines.