Park Hopper question

[princesseng]

Does anyone know if you can use two days worth of tickets instead of purchasing the park hopper option? It is cheaper to purchase more days than the flat park hopper option. If I go to MK in the morning and try to go to Epcot in the afternoon, will I be turned away, or will it just use up another day's entrance?:veryconfu

 

[cblodg]

I guess waiting might be the best idea, since there's no discount on the option. I think I would be more reluctant to pay out $45 once I was there though. We do have 6 full days to enjoy the parks, but if we had the hopper option, we could see more than one park in a day and leave days open in case of bad weather or to do other activities.

Anyone like to weigh in on this? Is it worth $200 to have this flexibility?

Probably dragging this up again, but I'm new here so I'll weigh in. It is indeed a personal decision. I have seen first hand how easy it can be to go through a park like Hollywood studios and then be done shortly after lunch (done with what we wanted to do that is). We had a person in our group who didn't purchase the park hopper option. His day was done around 2PM as he didn't want to spend the $45 just to go to another park for a couple of hours. This happened a few times on this trip and even he said that he should have upgraded in hind sight.

Here are my keyes to this great option:

1) Travelling with kids? If you are, then park hopping may not really be in the mix if they are young ones. The option is much better if you are travelling with older children and adults.

2) Do you want to try the "Challenge."- Do you want to brave the weather, crowds, and transportation and do all Four Parks in one day?! If yes, then get the park hopper option. You don't even have to do the "challenge," you may just want to go to dinner at Tony's or see the fireworks at a different park.

The Park Hopper option is a great tool to have, and I always get it.

 

[RiversideBunny]

Yeah, the Park Hopper option only works for one park a day. ....

With the Park Hopper option you can go to all four parks in one day if you want to, and bounce (hop) back and forth.

 

[tigsmom]

Yeah, the Park Hopper option only works for one park a day. We're leaving there in just a couple of weeks and staying there for 6 days. We're going to all the parks!

PLEASE NOTE: Water parks on not included on the park hopper option.

No, you can go to all four parks in one day if you wish, that is what you are paying extra for.

and I like that the water parks are a separate thing because we don't ever use them.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

Does anyone know if you can use two days worth of tickets instead of purchasing the park hopper option? It is cheaper to purchase more days than the flat park hopper option. If I go to MK in the morning and try to go to Epcot in the afternoon, will I be turned away, or will it just use up another day's entrance?:veryconfu

Absolutely. It has something to do with the fingerprint scan I think.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

We buy the hopper. It is pricey, but we like it. Sometimes plans don't always work out and you need to go to a different park because of crowds and other factors.

 

[ilovejr71292]

We love PH. My family and I only like to stay at one park for about seven hours then we will go to another park and explore. And we have a five day park hopper so we can go back multiple times.

 

[ilovejr71292]

We buy the hopper. It is pricey, but we like it. Sometimes plans don't always work out and you need to go to a different park because of crowds and other factors.

By the way, I agree with you!!!

 

[CleveRocks]

Absolutely. It has something to do with the fingerprint scan I think.

Just for clarification ....

Has nothing to do with the biometric finger scan. Has everything to do with the magnetic strip on the ticket. ALl the finger scan does is assure that you don't sell or give away partially-used tickets.

But every time you put your ticket through a turnstile (whether or not the finger scan is working), a notation is made in the database of your entrance. If you try to enter a DIFFERENT park on that same day, the turnstil will not unlock. The display will say something like "crossover not permitted," or something like that. Guests have a 1-line alphanumeric display to read, and the greeter CMs have a 2-line display. The CM will know exactly why the turnstil will not unlock, and will advise the person of their options: buy the park hopper option; go back to the park they were at earlier in the day; just go away (well, maybe not in those words, but you get the idea!).

 

[CleveRocks]

1) Travelling with kids? If you are, then park hopping may not really be in the mix if they are young ones. The option is much better if you are travelling with older children and adults.

As a blanket statement, I disagree.

It all depends how you travel with young children.

If you like to go back to the resort in the middle of the day (pool, rest, etc.) and then go out again in the evening, then the park hopper feature is especially attractive. Think about it ... it's 4 or 5 p.m. and you're once again leaving your resort to go to a park ... it's not a useless option to have a choice of where to go instead of having to go to the same place you were already at earlier.

For me, the PH is attractive for 2 reasons:

1) We travel with young kids (see paragraph above).
2) In the final few days of our week there, it's nice to be able to go to more than one park in a day, so that we can do a "greatest hits tour" -- catch what we missed earlier in the week, and/or have one more time to do the stuff we already loved. In other words, let's say during our Animal Kingdom day we didn't want to wait 2 hours to ride Expedition Everest and FASTPASSes were sold out. On a later day, we can go to AK first thing in the morning specifically to ride Expedition Everest, and then maybe grab FASTPASSes for it as well, go over to Dinosaur and enjoy that, then grab a snack, go back to Expedition Everest with our FPs, ride that, then leave. Catch the bus to TTC and then the monorail to Magic Kingdom, or catch the bus directly to Disney's Hollywood Studios for more Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, or whatever.

No, I don't think the park hopper is a MUST, but it makes things easier for us.