Park Hoppers - Yes or No

[fire616]

DH and I will be at the parks 10/17-10/22/17. We are trying to decide if we should get park hoppers or not. What's your thoughts.

And if you got park hoppers what are your suggestions for each day. TIA

 

[Lesley Wake]

We originally weren't going to because of the wasted time going between parks. But now the express bus is an option so that will cut down on time.

For us, it will give more flexibility. That helped for ADRs and FPs (i.e. We have morning FPs in park 1, and evening ADRs in park 2). We also plan to hit Magic Kingdom in the morning on a party day, so hopefully there will be low crowds. Because you are going in October, that may also be a strategy to use. But I think it's up to each person. My sister has gone without hoppers and had a great time.

 

[Gophers]

Great question. Really depends if you feel that you might hop from one park to another. When we go on our trips with a big group (15 or more) we've never used the hopper even though we had them. Now this trip it's just DW and me and we think we are going to hop on a couple of nights.

 

[hakepb]

If you take a mid-day break at the resort, it's easy, and takes no more time, to go to a different park in the evening.

I also enjoy having more dinners in Epcot than full days. (you might want to do the opposite and do F&W until 5pm when it gets busier)

You can always add hoppers at a park if you decide to use them (same price, there's no early or late upgrade benefit)

 

[hauntedcowboy]

Heck yes!

We loved the flexibility. For example, EPCOT just wasn't the same this year as it has been in the past. We quickly jumped on Soarin', cancelled the rest of our FP's and went back to Animal Kingdom and had a great time riding several things early. We would've been stuck at EPCOT without the Park Hopper. Also, I love being able to jump into a park to grab something to eat and then head to another park for more activities.

 

[mamamelody2]

DH and I are going in November and have hoppers. It's only, what, $150 for two people? We've only been to WDW twice and had hoppers both time. The flexibility is really nice. This trip I am not going to plan nearly as much. Second half of the week for sure will be more deciding on what we still want to hit or want to hit again. We only have ADRs for one breakfast and one lunch so we can easily hop most days. I'm looking forward to being able to check wait times at the other parks and just hop to the one that looks best.

 

[Delirium]

We would never do without hoppers. And, they are even more valuable during party season at MK and Food & Wine at Epcot. You have both of those in play.

 

[Superchikk]

We've done it both ways. We love having the flexibility of hoppers. If one park feels too crowded, it's easy to just go to a different park.

 

[melana]

Well we had hoppers on our last trip and did not use them one time. We had plans to do two parks a day but for some reason once we got back to our rooms to "freshen" up between parks..we either ended up staying at the resort or going back to where we visited earlier.

Now for my solo trip for my birthday at the end of October, I have hoppers again and I fully plan on using them. One park in the AM and hitting Epcot at least 2 or 3 evenings for F&W.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

It depends on your touring style. You could easily spend one full day at each park (except for maybe DHS) and not use any hoppers, and save the money to spend on a party or something. Or, you could hop around and take advantage of low crowds at MK on MNSSHP days, and hop to another park before the party starts, to take in an evening show you missed, or have a good dinner at Epcot WS. I'm going in early Dec, and that's what I'll be doing. On MVMCP days, we'll RD MK and before the party starts, hop to another park. I had to purchase the hoppers to get my FD package, but I probably would'nt have spent the $500 on them if I didn't have to.

 

[Off to Neverland 7]

DH and I ALWAYS visit WDW with hoppers. We love having the flexibility and like others said, if one park feels crowded we move to another. I will comment that we do not have kids. If we did have kids and strollers, I don't think we would do hoppers.

 

[FelisLachesis]

My family didn't have hoppers on our trip, and I kinda regretted it. There were times that we were reriding attractions solely because there was nothing else to do, especially at HS and AK. We're not big on shows, and the number of attractions is rather limited at both of those parks. We also have this nagging feeling that AK is an overglorified zoo. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of people that love that about AK, we just didn't care for it.

I would've rather gone back to Epcot or MK to dig into those parks a little more. I don't feel like I saw everything I wanted at MK, I didn't get to dig into World Showcase nearly as much as I wanted. So after we're done at AK and HS, we're going to hop to one of the "original two" to spend the rest of the day.

 

[McNs]

It's our first visit to WDW tough have been to DLR three times, so used to hopping. We have gone for hoppers for our WDW visit just to give more flexibility, especially in the evenings. It does help we are at BC for 5 nights so that makes EPCOT a dinner option regardless of the park we have been in during the day.

 

[Klayfish]

DH and I will be at the parks 10/17-10/22/17. We are trying to decide if we should get park hoppers or not. What's your thoughts.

And if you got park hoppers what are your suggestions for each day. TIA

The answers you get here will be very much dependent on a persons' individual style. We would never do WDW without hoppers, but that's just us. We're not really "planning" type people like a lot of members of this board. We "wing it" much more often than not. Having the hop allows us to do that. For a hard core planner who won't deviate from it, they may not need it.

As for suggestions each day, that's nearly impossible to say as it depends on what you want to do.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

DH and I will be at the parks 10/17-10/22/17. We are trying to decide if we should get park hoppers or not. What's your thoughts.

And if you got park hoppers what are your suggestions for each day. TIA

If you are unsure, I would stick with base tickets and wait until you get there. If you feel like hopping, you can simply visit guest services in any park or your resort and upgrade the tickets. There is no point to spend money now for something you may not use.

 

[Beer Me]

Park hoppers make planning a lot easier. We pick a park to start each day and dinner can be somewhere else. In between we can hang out at the resort or otherwise wing it. Hopping also makes it easier to see all of the nighttime shows.

 

[Praying Colonel]

If you are unsure, I would stick with base tickets and wait until you get there. If you feel like hopping, you can simply visit guest services in any park or your resort and upgrade the tickets. There is no point to spend money now for something you may not use.

Agreed 100%. It's an easy add, and if you find you don't need them you've saved the money by not pre-purchasing.

 

[RangerPooh]

We always do park hoppers for the flexibility that they provide us. We are not locked into one park and can bounce between parks based on crowd numbers and line waits.

 

[BeachPrincess]

For us it's a YES! We often do more than one park in a day but also the value for us is when things don't go exactly as planned. Example if the park we are in is crazy crowded, and we have had enough, we just hop over to another park and enjoy the rest of the day. Another is if the weather doesn't cooperate and you need to change plans. You just never know.

 

[richmo]

It all depends on what you want to do. Personally, I always like having a hopper, especially with shorter trips. One thing you could do is start without hoppers, then upgrade to hoppers onsite if you think you'll need them. The price would be the same as if you started with hoppers (unless there is a price increase), but there is one drawback: the cost to upgrade to a hopper is the same on the last day of your ticket as the first day, so if you're going to upgrade, it makes the most sense to do it early.