Park Hoppers vs. just doing one park at day?

[CamiCan]

What's the best option for an energetic 20 something couple? Park Hoppers cost a little more and we want to know if its worth it or will there be enough to see in each individual park to keep us busy most of the day. We plan to wake up around 9ish, eat breakfast at the hotel, get on the busses afterwards and stay til closing time. We might come back to the hotel for lunch around 2PM and then go back to the parks afterwards if we think the hotel restaurants have better food.

 

[sshindel]

What's the best option for an energetic 20 something couple? Park Hoppers cost a little more and we want to know if its worth it or will there be enough to see in each individual park to keep us busy most of the day. We plan to wake up around 9ish, eat breakfast at the hotel, get on the busses afterwards and stay til closing time. We might come back to the hotel for lunch around 2PM and then go back to the parks afterwards if we think the hotel restaurants have better food.

IMO, for a young couple, the park hoppers are worth the money. It's easy to decide to hop over to Epcot because you can't find what you want for dinner at Magic Kingdom. Or finding out that one park is unexpectedly busy and making the decision to head to another.

Once we had kids, it became a TON of work to hop parks, so we don't do it anymore, but would do it on a no kids trip (like the one I'm on in a couple months).
You are young and unencumbered by strollers and all the things that come with kids. I think you will find the flexibility well worth the money.

 

[sshindel]

And to follow up, in nearly all cases (Epcot, and a couple in Animal Kingdom) the resorts have the better restaraunts.

 

[Monty]

I rarely park hop but always like having the option [APs make it a moot point].

If you're not sure, go without the Hopper option. If you get to the point that you've done all you want in a particular park, it costs the same amount [$60 no matter how many days your tickets are] to add it at any point during your visit as it does to add it in advance. It doesn't take very long at all at GR or a ticket booth to upgrade the tickets and you're good to go!

EDIT to add: It also depends whether you like to only do everything once or like to repeat things that are fun...

 

[epcotisbest]

We quit hopping years ago. Realized we enjoy a slower pace and can take it all in, not just rushing from ride to ride. We like to see shows, try different restaurants and snacks, enjoy the details and little things. We realized we did not care to waste part of our day going from one park to another.

 

[belledream]

We are a young 20 something couple and we never park hop. We like to stay in the moment and plan a full day at every park. Obviously MK and EPCOT can be a long, perfect day for you. For days that AK closes early, we will go spend time at DTD or go to a resort and enjoy a nice dinner. Fantasmic is always fun to catch at the end of a HS day.

To us, it's not worth the time to travel between the parks. And it gives you something brand new to look forward to the next day!

 

[Monkee Girl]

From the way you sound like you are planning your trip, you may not need the park hopper. I like it for the 'what if' convenience. I go with family but usually head off by myself to do what I want. But if you are a couple and plan on being together the whole time, then 1 park a day may work for you. It would also help with the budget if you need to.

For parks you may find out to be 'half day' then it just gives you more time to spend at the pool or shopping at Down Town Disney.

Good luck!

 

[jencor]

It depends really on what you want. Sometimes we enjoy park hopping and just constantly doing things or if we are only there for just a couple of days and sometimes we just do one park a day and relax and enjoy. There really are so many variables and it depends on what you want to get out of it all and how much time you have at DW. Either way enjoy it.

 

[stevehousse]

Have u ever been to wdw before? If u r a "vet" and know ur way around, park hoppers could be fun to use. The big downside to hoppers is travel times between parks can be timely...

For me personally I don't get hoppers. I have in the past when I didn't have kids. But now We like to be in one park all day and take our time seeing everything. We usually always work our ADRs around our park schedule as well, which is useful for any type of planning.

 

[habuma]

The biggest downside to Park Hopper is the travel time between parks. When we go to Disneyland, we get Park Hopper because the travel time is negligible. But in WDW gate to gate could be over an hour (walking to the bus stop, waiting for a bus, riding the bus, walking thru security at the 2nd park, etc). That's an hour we could be doing something fun.

Where Park Hoppers do come in handy is for whatever day you plan around Animal Kingdom...especially if your trip is in the off-season. AK closes at 5pm, so what are you gonna do for the rest of the day? If MK is open late, you can hop over there to finish out the day. As for *our* next trip, we've planned our AK day such that we will just head over to POR and see Yehaa Bob to end the day. No need for PH to do that.

 

[CamiCan]

Have u ever been to wdw before? If u r a "vet" and know ur way around, park hoppers could be fun to use. The big downside to hoppers is travel times between parks can be timely...

First trip to WDW. We are from Southern California and I go to Disneyland about 10 times a year and my bf will go once or twice a year.

 

[allgiggles]

We always get them just for the flexibility -- we're never quite sure what the kids (or DH & I for that matter) are going to want to do on any given day. We often take a break back at our resort in the afternoon to get away from the crowds and escape the heat (we're usually there in late June). We'll swim and/or take a little nap (well, DH & I will take a nap, the kids will watch TV or use their electronics) and then head back to a park around dinner time and stay until closing. Since we take the break mid-day, park hopping doesn't really cost us any time. We almost always hop on our DHS & AK days because we're usually finished with those parks by 4 or 5:00 in the afternoon. We usually spend a full day plus 1 or 2 partial days at both MK & EP -- it's very easy to hop between those two parks (and hopping between DHS & EP is pretty easy too since you can walk). On our last trip, we park hopped 5 out of 7 days -- not so much because we planned to, but because that's how things worked out those days.

That being said, the first time DH & I took our oldest boys to Disney World (they were 12 & 14 at the time), we didn't park hop at all because we were content to just be in one park for the entire day (DH & I hadn't been there in over 20 years and the boys had never been there). But on the next trip we discovered how much we liked the flexibility of hopping and now we can't imagine not getting park hoppers. Like others have said, you can always add hopping to your tickets when you're there if you decide you want to use it.

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

When are you going? In the fall/winter the parks are not open as late as the summer when more time to hop from park to park. If you go around hard ticket party like Christmas you may want to do that instead of hop.

 

[CamiCan]

When are you going? In the fall/winter the parks are not open as late as the summer when more time to hop from park to park. If you go around hard ticket party like Christmas you may want to do that instead of hop.

September 7-21; lowest crowd time of the year.

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

Two week trip that time of year I would hop. MK closes early some nights for party and the food & wine will be going on in Epcot. Like someone said wait until you want to hop then upgrade your ticket

 

[CamiCan]

Thanks for the advice; we will be doing that. I didn't realize you could upgrade after the initial purchase.

 

[stevehousse]

I will say that the busses really depend on what resort u r at. People will always go back and forth between them being good and bad experiences, either low wait or extremely long waits. Some resorts share busses so there r a lot of factors to weigh in whether the busses will be ok or not. I that with driving, it never takes more than 15 minutes to get anywhere inside WDW, especially at the low crowd time u r going. Remember that if u drive and stay onsite, u get free parking. If u stay offsite and drive it is $15 a day...

 

[CamiCan]

I will say that the busses really depend on what resort u r at. People will always go back and forth between them being good and bad experiences, either low wait or extremely long waits. Some resorts share busses so there r a lot of factors to weigh in whether the busses will be ok or not. I that with driving, it never takes more than 15 minutes to get anywhere inside WDW, especially at the low crowd time u r going. Remember that if u drive and stay onsite, u get free parking. If u stay offsite and drive it is $15 a day...

We are probably going for All Stars Music just because it's the cheapest on-property site. We are going to make the reservations tomorrow night. We will definitely need the car rental the second week since we plan on exploring off site but think we will be okay taking the bus for the first days at WDW.

 

[stevehousse]

We stayed at all star movies last year and I stayed at sports years and years ago once. I would suggest a preferred room for closeness to the food court, main pool and busses...we had a pleasant time at movies and would recommend it.

 

[copcarguyp71]

When staying onsite we (me, wife and daughter of 12) would not be without park hoppers. It all depends on your touring style. We are freestylers and tend to go on instinct. We usually start a day out with a clear plan of where we begin and at what time but from there the day goes more free-form. Depending on moods, crowds, weather or just plain "hey, lets head over to (insert park) and do (insert ride or attraction). Probably four days out of six or seven we end up or start out at EPCOT. Again, it really depends on what you want to get out of the parks and now with MM+ (or - depending on your views) and the whole FP+ program changing you are tied to all of your pre-booked FP's in one park only...one of the reasons we are not heading back anytime soon as it really impacts our style of touring.

No matter what have a great trip!