News Park hopping to return January 1st 2021

[RememberWhen]

I had expected that when they opened up park hopping it would include the ability to make a second park reservation on the fly. So start at MK, check for availability for the evening at Epcot, make your hop reservation and then you’re all set. It’s not too long until January. We’ll have to see how it works. I’m pleased that there should be some form of park hopping for our October trip. We stay at Boardwalk (DVC) and being able to pop into Epcot to grab dinner is a lovely perk. I suppose it won’t do a lot of good if Epcot reaches capacity, but I suspect by next fall capacity will be way up if not back to “normal.”

 

[nickys]

I had expected that when they opened up park hopping it would include the ability to make a second park reservation on the fly. So start at MK, check for availability for the evening at Epcot, make your hop reservation and then you’re all set. It’s not too long until January. We’ll have to see how it works. I’m pleased that there should be some form of park hopping for our October trip. We stay at Boardwalk (DVC) and being able to pop into Epcot to grab dinner is a lovely perk. I suppose it won’t do a lot of good if Epcot reaches capacity, but I suspect by next fall capacity will be way up if not back to “normal.”

I wonder if the app hasn’t yet been updated to allow the second park reservations.

I agree though, I think I would feel more confident in planning to park hop if you could reserve park #2 in advance, even if that’s only on the day itself before you actually leave the first one.

 

[SugarMagnolia75]

Interesting that you don't need to make a second reservation at the park, but also limited to the current capacities. I wonder if they will have anything in the app saying if each of the parks are full or not. Something like green there is plenty of capacity, yellow means little capacity left and you may not get in depending on how many others get there before you, and red meaning already reached capacity.

Wondering the same thing. Also wondering how that would work with ADRs. If I can't hop to a park, will you waive my ADR cancellation fee?

 

[Horizons '83]

With the hours pretty minimal, not sure there is much value of the park hopper in the modern world. When parks were open for 12 - 15 hours, then yes.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

In other words - "I want you to be upset and find an issue, you aren't, so you aren't worth talking to."

Got it.

It slipped through your grasp

Yes. I have zero common sense.

Yeesh! Curmudgeons....

No...I wouldn’t say that. But travel/themeparks Are not advisable now...

When was that trip again?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Wondering the same thing. Also wondering how that would work with ADRs. If I can't hop to a park, will you waive my ADR cancellation fee?

The adr system has been off or in “test” mode since March

 

[dreday3]

It slipped through your grasp



No...I wouldn’t say that. But travel/themeparks Are not advisable now...

When was that trip again?

Spring.

You can shade me all day, it's Friday and a good day.

 

[dreday3]

With the hours pretty minimal, not sure there is much value of the park hopper in the modern world. When parks were open for 12 - 15 hours, then yes.

I think this will be especially true in Jan/Feb, but hopefully starting with spring break and on, at least two of parks have later hrs.

Even an 8 pm close would be worth it for us. We hopped from 4 until 7pm at AK one trip and it worked out great!

 

[Horizons '83]

I think this will be especially true in Jan/Feb, but hopefully starting with spring break and on, at least two of parks have later hrs.

Even an 8 pm close would be worth it for us. We hopped from 4 until 7pm at AK one trip and it worked out great!

Exactly. We are going for a few days the first week of February. DHS is open 10 to 7, Epcot 11 to 7. Those are the 2 parks we want to hit, but I guess it might be worth it to do Magic Kingdom for half a day, then Epcot from say 2 to 7. The 9PM close time was obviously more ideal but I suppose if you're looking to maximize your ticket, you could figure out a way to hop and enjoy it.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

While it would certainly be tempting to make an ADR at a second park one day, I would be worried about not being able to get in! We don't love a ton of the table service dining at MK or DHS and like to hop to Epcot to eat with ADRs. We certainly will see how this goes once it's implemented but it looks like on our MK and DHS days we will resort to heading to Springs and trying out some new restaurants there.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Spring.

You can shade me all day, it's Friday and a good day.

Then the conditions closer to that time will determine whether it’s sensible or not.

You know what opinions are like?...everybody has got one

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I would like to see a reservation system in place for the park hopping. Ideally, making a second day ressie right after arriving at the first park would be ideal, but I guess I understand not doing it that way. I would just be really mad if I left a park, took a bus to another park only to be told there isn't any room. That would be a lot of wasted time trying to park hop when the park hours are already short. Hopefully they implement SOMETHING so people aren't just blindly heading to a park and hoping they can get in.

 

[dreday3]

Then the conditions closer to that time will determine whether it’s sensible or not.

You know what opinions are like?...everybody has got one

What is sensible? Park hopping? Because that's what the thread is about.

Your response to me seemed tried to imply I was lacking common sense in traveling right now (I'm not). Which actually had nothing to do with what I was posting about.
I was happy about parking hopping, teased you guys for being cranky about it and then you guys turned it into something weird.

Just another day on the internet!

 

[YankeeMouse]

I wonder if they’ll have dedicated tapstyles for hoppers.

Guessing it is after 2 p.m. because of the DHS RoR 2 p.m. time slot.

 

[UNCgolf]

With the hours pretty minimal, not sure there is much value of the park hopper in the modern world. When parks were open for 12 - 15 hours, then yes.

It's still useful if you're there for more than a few days. I don't think I can spend even a single full day at DHS without running out of things to do, and it's always nice to be able to go to EPCOT at night for dinner. If you've already been to each park once, it can be really nice to go to MK for this specific ride/attraction, then head over to AK for something else, etc.

 

[techgeek]

Guessing it is after 2 p.m. because of the DHS RoR 2 p.m. time slot.

Technically, I believe the boarding group process is still checking for a valid park pass reservation... so no Rise option for people hopping into DHS even if they could make the 2pm drop.

 

[YankeeMouse]

Wondering the same thing. Also wondering how that would work with ADRs. If I can't hop to a park, will you waive my ADR cancellation fee?

I asked this on online chat on Disney and the answer was they would "work with you with waiving your cancellation fee" if you could not get into that second park due to capacity issues.

 

[nickys]

Technically, I believe the boarding group process is still checking for a valid park pass reservation... so no Rise option for people hopping into DHS even if they could make the 2pm drop.

Disney have confirmed that people hopping to DHS will not be eligible to ride Rise.

I asked this on online chat on Disney and the answer was they would "work with you with waiving your cancellation fee" if you could not get into that second park due to capacity issues.

Yeah, but then you’d have to queue in order to speak to GS to get it waived / refunded, wasting more time before heading back to your first park or resort.

And if the first park was now full because of people hopping to it you might not get back in even though you have a park reservation, so yet more time queueing to complain to GS.

 

[Horizons '83]

It's still useful if you're there for more than a few days. I don't think I can spend even a single full day at DHS without running out of things to do, and it's always nice to be able to go to EPCOT at night for dinner. And if you've already been to each park once, it can be really nice to go to MK for this specific ride/attraction, then head over to AK for something else, etc.

Yeah, I understand. That is the way I used to do it all the time. It was Park Hopper or bust for us . Recently (pre-covid too) we rather enjoy taking our time in the parks, strolling through areas we would otherwise rush past to hit ADR's/fastpasses/etc. So the value didn't really exist anymore for us, so we just do one a day now.

 

[danv3]

When I hear about something like this, I immediately get worried that they're going to eventually make this the standard process going forward even once Covid is over for operational efficiency reasons (although the free for all after 2 isn't exactly efficient, so they'd probably make changes there). Leave the park reservation system in place and then also allow you to hop to one other park in the afternoon, and that's the limit of a park hopper.

While it's of course better than not having the ability to park hop at all, if this type of reservation and park hopper system becomes permanent, it's going to really dampen my enthusiasm about ever returning to WDW. I want more freedom than that for the amount of money it costs.

I have the same concern. I think the reservation system gives them data and control they only hoped FP+ would give them.