Park Hopping vs One Park a day

[joejccva71]

Hello again everyone. I wasn't sure which section this kind of topic should be at but I'm trying to do some planning so I figured "Trip Planning" would be a good spot.

I went ahead and got the 5 park day with the park hopper as part of my package, but I'm curious. What do you believe is the best and most efficient way to visit the parks? Do you just give one full day to each park and stay there all day? Or do you park hop in a way where you would visit Epcot in the AM, and then go to MK in the PM one day, and then vice versa on a different day (MK in AM, Epcot PM)?

Just curious how you guys plan your trips? And with that being said, the only reason why I'm asking is my 10 year old has never been to Disney so I don't want her to be worn out by the 2nd or 3rd day of our trip.

Any tips/advice?

Thanks again guys!

 

[lunchbox1175]

We always park hop, very rarely do we ever spend and entire day at one park, mostly because we don't like most of the restaurants in the parks, so we usually end up leaving a park to eat at a resort or DTD, and then end up going to another park. We also usually do and AK(am)/MK(pm) day and an HS(am)/Epcot(pm) day, because we typically don't go to every attraction at AK and HS.

 

[rnese]

Uhh...hey boss! I use park hopper because of the length of my stay. Day 1, Magic Kingdom. Day 2, EPCOT. Day 3, DHS. Day 4, AK. Day 5, swim and dine at Ohana. Day 6 EPCOT morning/DHS evening. Day 7 MK. Day 8, depart. Day 9, plan the next trip!

 

[ratherbeinwdw]

We always hop. We have gone in May many times as we are this year. The problem is that you never know if it's going to rain or not. When we've gone the first week of May, we've never had more than a sprinkle, but when we starting going for SW weekends, we had rain every time. It was never the whole week or anything, but we got at least one good day of rain and the usual afternoon showers. With little ones, that may make it so you want to change to a more rain-friendly park. AK is almost all outdoor stuff. You need to be able to hop if need be. Also, as others have said, if you get to a park and find it just too crowded to be fun, then you can hop. If you don't have a hopper, then you are basically stuck. Hopping from MK to EP is really easy by monorail and doesn't take much of your time. Hopping from EP to DHS is easy on the launch and gives the kids a time to relax. It takes about 30 minutes with the stops at the EP resorts. It's a nice peaceful ride.

 

[luv]

I've always had the hopping option, but I haven't always hopped. I did one entire trip without hopping.

It's nice to have the option, but you can easily do without it if you want to save some cash.

 

[DizneyPryncess]

I think it depends on if u have any little kids traveling with you??? When I didn't have kids, we loved to park hop! But now that our boys are 2 and 5, it's easier to stay in one park all day, especially when they were younger. We usually go to the park early, take an afternoon break, and head back later. We always schedule a day to take a break with no parks in the middle of our vacation so we do not get worn out! We will not park hop again until the boys get older.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel too. Before DD was born, we park hopped. But with her now, we like to stay in one park. For our upcoming trip, we had a 5 day hopper. When we discovered that a 7 day non hopper was cheaper, we switched. We figured on the 2 days we weren't going to do parks, we can just go in for a few hours and hit the things we would have hit when we park hopped. That way it's not full days in the parks for DD, but some half days w/pool time.

 

[ginadee]

Ive always been a one park a day girl. I usually take my time going in. No crowds. Except for opening ceremony at MK. Spend the whole day at the park and have dinner at whatever park Im at. If Im at the park early I can leave and get refreashed for dinner or if Im staying late for a show Ill sleep just a little longer or have a breakfast adr and go into the park later. Im really lookin forward to your Trip report. Hope you post one.

 

[hoppesj2]

Next week's trip for us will be the first that we will not park hop. Given the fastpass plus reservations keep you in one park, for now, we are going to try one park per day and AK is open til 8pm the day we are going there. Hoping that I will not be kicking myself but I set aside 2 days for Epcot, 2 for MK, 1 for HS, and 1 for AK which is open late until 8pm that night...another way I could have gone was to start in one park that has early EMH and hop to the park with my fastpass reservations. But this time it's one park per day. I will see how it goes.

 

[stevehousse]

One park per day I find it to be nice and relaxing, plus u aren't rushing around and wasting time sitting on a bus running from here to there! U will be able to take it all in at a nice pace considering how u have your park days plans! We love doing one pak per day! Hope u do too!