I agree that if one park is packed they all are but disagree in that not all parks are packed equally, certain parks definitely have busier days and slower days. Disney used to make that info available on their website but took it down a number of years ago. Touringplans, dads guide etc all offer predictions on which park is busiest on which day. It is also the case IMO that some parks are more fun when it is crowded than others
Again I will repeat... they don't have to include PH before hand. They can add it on at anytime after they have arrived. Why spend the money if they don't know if they need it or not. They will find out quickly whether they think it would be a good thing and do it then. Why do it now when they don't know? Many people have gone for years without park hopping, so it really isn't the end of the world. Unless they go to, for example, MK in the morning and have made an ADR in Epcot at night only to find out that they need to buy one at that time. As long as it is done before attempting to enter a park there will be no real hassle.
You make a good point. However, it may save them money to get them ahead of time if they are getting tickets from their employer/corporate discount. Otherwise, I agree, a lot of times first-timers often times spend a lot more time in one park than those of us who have--forgive me--lost our appreciation for the details and rush through the parks. My family could easily spend a a good amount of time at HS with kids the OP's age. If we felt we ran out of stuff to do in the evening, there is always Disney Springs to explore that evening. I just wanted to make sure that if the OP is getting discount tickets, it may be less expensive to get the PH upfront.
You can, but, it would not just be for the one day. If you had a 5 day ticket it would cost the same 5 day rate even if you didn't do it until the last day. It is a pretty reasonable rate anyway when compared to the rest of Disney up-charges. However, in your case it cost the same for one day as five days. So if you think you might use it other times during your trip you might as well get it now. If you're not sure then wait. You won't save anything unless you don't really need to hop then you have saved that fee.
Yep... I think the equally packed only applies during peak times. Our last trip we hit multiple parks on several days and the crowds were noticeably different about half the time. The other half it seemed to be the same. Not sure if it was because it wasn't a high peak time of the year or simply because some of the parks don't seem as popular as others right now because of construction and lack of rides (like Studios).
