Park Hopper OR Not

tterrag24

tterrag24

Member
Hello
Im going to Disney world for 8days, right now im booked without a park hopper option but i have the water parks options. i was wondering is it worth it to get the hopper option if im going to try new resturants and things and plan on returning to the parks after dinner???

Any help is appreciated.
 
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FBullock

New Member
We have AP but last Oct. took my sister & her 2 Kids for 4 days. Didn't get them Hoppers but did the Halloween Party. So we went to AK on the day of the party and then MK. Before we got our AP we always got the hoppers
 
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Pooh Lover

Pooh Lover

Well-Known Member
Unless your money could be better spent elsewhere, I would get the hopper. If you decide it wasn't worth it, you'll know for your next trip. I like being able to leave a park and go to another for any reason or have dinner in a different park later that evening.
 
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Shere_Khan

Shere_Khan

Well-Known Member
I gotta have the park hopper.
We don't always use it everyday but enough to make it worth it. I would feel restricted if I didn't have it.
Especially for AK. I agree that 5 or 6 pm is not when I want to call it a night. But I don't have children either. We always go somewhere else for dinner after that.
I think for the length of your trip you will find it very useful. If it were a 3 or 4 day trip maybe not since you could go to all four parks and see them in one day each. But with more days, I think you will find you want to be other places at different times of the day.
 
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lbrad

lbrad

Well-Known Member
DABIGCHEEZ said:
I agree with ThinkTink. We go for 10-11 days each year and get 7-8 day passes W/O park hopper. We used to get the hoppers but found that we end up spending too much time traveling between the parks. We are not WDW "commandos" as are other that try to hit 2-3 parks in a day. We just pick what park we are going to each day plan our meals around that and stay at that park all day and take our time. If we do find that we want to go back/missed something we will hit it on one of the other days. We have been doing this for the last 5 years and it has worked well for us too.

Plus the $50/ticket savings comes in handy for this family of 5($250) elsewhere during vacation.
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I agree with dabigcheez & Think tink. We too are a family of five. So we save alot of $$$ without the hopper. And my kids and DH HATE to travel from park to park in the same day.
You really don't need a hopper for an 8 day stay...you'll have 2 days in each park (or however you divie it out). Save the $$$ for something else...good luck
 
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I_heart_Tigger

I_heart_Tigger

Well-Known Member
DABIGCHEEZ said:
I agree with ThinkTink. We go for 10-11 days each year and get 7-8 day passes W/O park hopper. We used to get the hoppers but found that we end up spending too much time traveling between the parks. We are not WDW "commandos" as are other that try to hit 2-3 parks in a day.
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I would hardly call my family "commandos" for going to two parks in a day :lol: I swear sometimes we're the most relaxed family at all of wdw...just take it slow, we'll eventually see everything, eat at some point, go where we feel as we feel and that means park hoppers are a must have for us.

Having the park hopper actually gives you a bit a of mini-break in the day rather than the families who try to cram every single attraction in one park in a day. The trip on the monorail from MK to Epcot is relaxing, a chance to chill out a bit and decide what we would like to do next.

The boat ride from Epcot to DHS is a nice relaxing ride as well and we get to save up some energy that other families waste running around the parks at full tilt. Besides, at the end of one parks day, if you still have energy and wish to go to a later park you can instead of being disappointed knowing the Epcot is open late but you can't go.

Traveling from park to park is relatively easy, not the hassle that some people make it out to be and before you say "But I have kids!!!!!" My last trip was with a group of 11 people with kids aged 11 months, 3 years, 5 years, 9 years, 10 years and 12 years and we park hopped 5 out of 8 days there.

It's definately worth the money to avoid the disappointment of not being able to do what you want to do in a day because of the limitations of one park. Unless you're on a super strict budget and simply can't afford it (which is understandable) I would get the park hopper.

It also helps when you're on your last day and there's two or more attrcations that you just HAVE to do again before you go. that way you don't have to say "Well, I wish I could do Soarin' AND PotC one more time but I guess I'll have to choose" :(
 
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S

Susan Savia

Well-Known Member
By all means, get the Hopper. The flexibility to come and go is great. We find that AK and HS parks can be done for the most part in less then a day and so we always hop over to the other. We use our own car and it takes just minutes. Also, we find towards the end of our vacation we want to do just our favorites and so we will park at Epcot and monorail to MK for a few hours and then back to Epcot later. We enjoy the ferry and monorail transportation and do not find that it is wasting our time to do this.
 
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Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
Best approach I can think of is don't get it unless you find you need it. I always get it and use it, but if you don't find it necessary you can save yourselves $50/each. It only takes a few minutes at a ticket booth or Guest Relations to add it to all your tickets if you decide to. It costs the same amount to add it whether you add it before you go or halfway through your trip.

I find it handy if the park we're in has a bunch of rides 101 or is just ridiculously crowded because of something special going on that I hadn't been aware of when I made my plans. Also nice to be able to go to another park when AK closes at 5PM.
 
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DisneyPrincess5

DisneyPrincess5

Well-Known Member
We absolutely park hop!
It's more fun for us to visit 2 parks in one day...plus we love to ride the monorail and other Disney transportation.
This gives us the full Disney experience!
 
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bgraham34

bgraham34

Well-Known Member
L Fisher said:
It's only hard if you make it hard...
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I don't think that its necessarily true. In most cases yes but some kids its best to stay in one park per day. I have seen kids freak when parents were leaving the MK to goto Epcot. But heck the same thing can happen if you were going back to the hotel too. I think alot depends on the child.
 
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NewfieFan

NewfieFan

Well-Known Member
bgraham34 said:
I don't think that its necessarily true. In most cases yes but some kids its best to stay in one park per day. I have seen kids freak when parents were leaving the MK to goto Epcot. But heck the same thing can happen if you were going back to the hotel too. I think alot depends on the child.
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My kids freak if we leave Epcot to go to the MK (true story)! Seriously though, my kids don't mind leaving one park and going to the next - it has never been an issue with us and my kids are still pretty young (they will be 6 and 3 on our upcoming trip).

We usually go back to the hotel anyway in the middle of the day so it's no more work to go to another park or the same park we were at that morning!

For us the Park Hopper is necessary - but to each his own! We wouldn't be able to tour WDW without it. We like the freedom, we like being able to split up the days, we like being able to eat in Epcot (it has most of our favorite restaurants), etc.

I'm happy for those who can go without it (you get to save yourselves some money) but I just can't do it!!!
 
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Beccone

Beccone

New Member
I am in the minority here, we do not park hop. This will be our first year taking breaks at our hotel so yes we'll be leaving the parks anyway but I have no problem going back to the same park. I plan accordingly, taking into effect EMH's, Sectro and Fantasmic shows and make our ADR's at restaurants in the park we will be in And with AK closing at 7pm, instead of going to another park, we make ADR's at a resort and have dinner, for instance this year we are eating at 1900 Park Fare and then are hoping to catch the Electrical Parade at the GF. I also like having an extra $250 to spend on my children while in the parks. With 8 days, you should have plenty of time to see what you want to see. I do think the Waterparks and More option is good though, if my kids didn't have to get back home to start school I would have extended our vacation to add in a couple extra days for that.
 
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durangojim

durangojim

Well-Known Member
We have APs which automatically give us the ability to park hop. That being said, we proabably park hop about 70% of the days we're at WDW, so to us it's worth it. We like being able to spend the morning at one park and then the evening at another. Also comes in handy if there are "hard ticket" events like MNSSHP and MVMCP, that way your ticket isn't only good until 7pm if you wanted to go to the MK that day.
 
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Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
We have AP's as well, and our "hopping percentage" is in the %80 range. (Strat-o-matic WDW anyone ?)

If I had to pay extra for the hopping ability, I am not sure if I would hop that much. It does make for a lot more flexibility, especialy on AK days. I am also a I:RoE junkie, so I will make trips at night to EPCOT from other parks just to see that.

-dave
 
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