Does park hopping really wipe you out?

[Kristin0713]

We got park hopper tickets for the first time for our upcoming trip. I was hoping this would make the trip less crazy, giving more flexibility less stress to max out each park each day. But in my scramble to reserve what we want, our plans are all over the place. Everything is doable, but it means park hopping for dinners and shows, and some later than preferred FP times that we will need to do right before leaving the park and hopping to another for dinner. (I'll try to modify them earlier but of course no guarantee.) I just hope I am not setting us up to be running around like crazy. We are not planning to rope drop anything so the mornings will be relaxing. How is the transportation between parks? Does park hopping or one-park-per-day tend to wipe you out more?

 

[Klayfish]

Park hopping only wipes you out if you plan it that way. We're not rope droppers either. We're also not planners. We have our 3 pre-planned FP+, but that's it. Even those get changed the morning we're supposed to use them fairly often. Then, we use park hopping more spur of the moment than planned. If we want to go somewhere else, we do. If we're tired and we're done, we don't hop. Sometimes we'll go back to the condo and chill then hop. But if you have plans all over the place all day, yes, I can see where that would make you tired.

Can't comment on transportation between the parks. We have our car with us, so transportation is awesome.

 

[mom2rtk]

When is your trip? How long is your trip? Are you the sort to go back to your room for a mid-day break? Have you been to the parks before? That all makes a difference. If you're the sort to escape the heat with a mid-day break anyway, hopping to a different park is no harder then going back to the same park.

Plenty of people love hopping. But plenty of people over plan and end up spending too much time on buses going between parks to fully enjoy themselves.

We almost never hop at WDW. I prefer to pick a park and do it thoroughly rather than spend a moment of time traveling between parks. It would drive me nuts to leave a park with things left undone that I wanted to still do.

It's one thing to be spontaneous and decide where you want to go and what you want to do. But if you have ADRs, you'll pay a high penalty for not showing up. That removes a lot of spontaneity. I would rethink those ADRs you will have hop for.

 

[buzzrelly]

We park hop all the time, but typical only two parks per day with some kind of a break in-between. We are early risers so rope-drop works well for us. After lunch is usually when we like to head back to the resort for a break and head back to the parks for the evening. I find it very relaxing.

 

[Kristin0713]

When is your trip? How long is your trip? Are you the sort to go back to your room for a mid-day break? Have you been to the parks before?

Our trip is November 11-19 (12-18 park days). So the heat won't be an issue, but in the past we have done RD to lunch, afternoon break, then dinner and evening rides. Now the kids are older and we are planning some later nights and getting a later start. It's the ADRs in a different park that I'm concerned about, and that's really what I need to decide ahead of time.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We park hop basically every day. We stay onsite and take a break at the hotel in the middle of the day. The break makes our day seem less crazy than if we just stayed in one park for a whole day or hopped straight to another park.

 

[Remy is Up]

Park hopping allows you to take advantage of certain park hours and certain park trends. By using it effectively, its easy to Hop, do parks in shorter time frames, and certainly not be worn out. All day at one park wears most people out. Just people watch allt he meltdowns starting around 5PM in any given park on any day.

 

[Mome Rath]

No, I park hop every day, and I find it actually refreshes my enthusiasm for being there. I rope drop the first park and ride what I want, breakfast snack/coffee, then either wait til lunch and then hop, or hop and then lunch. Start in one park, finish in another. I use Disney transportation exclusively as you get dropped off closer, the only wait is if you don't time the bus right. The biggest thing for me, as far as being wiped out, is not to over plan. Do what you want when you want, and that may include swinging back by your hotel whilst park hopping.

 

[Spunky946]

What parks are you hopping between? What time are the fast passes and what time are the dining reservations?

 

[rwdavis2]

I would look at any plans that have you park hopping for meals. Are you staying in the park where you ate or moving on? IMHO, none of the WDW restaurants are good enough to go to a lot of trouble.

Park hopping is really no more taxing that staying at a single park all day.

 

[mco65]

We only park hopped one trip and my wife did not like the wasted time... we obviously didn't time the buses very well. I mentioned park hoping for our upcoming trip, her response.. 'too much wasted time'.... She still prefers commando style, rope drop to park close... (we have skipped out before fireworks a few times on recent trips, she is mellowing).

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We park hop often. It doesn't wipe us out. When we park hop we do RD, a midday break by the pool and then hop to a different park in the evening. Some days we sleep in and hit a park around noon and shut it down with no break. This trip we are staying at BWV. I have 2 days where we stop into Epcot for F&W from 11-2 and then hop to DHS with FP+. That won't be exhausting.

 

[Momto2minniemice]

The only time park hopping has been really hard is when we did a 4 Park challenge and started after dinner for 3 of them. That day we did over 13 miles...... butttt we brought that on ourselves.

On a normal day though no it is great! We go to the park of the day, have the flexibility to have dinner where ever and then use more fast passes in the next park. The kids love it!

 

[Hoodie]

Sometime we park hop, sometime we don't. Depends on our length of stay and our goals. We've never been wiped out by it, in fact the transportation can be a nice break. For instance, we started at DHS, took the boat to EPCOT, then took the monorail to MK for the fireworks. As long as you don't over plan, park hopping can be a lot more relaxing than doing as much as you can in a single park.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Sometime we park hop, sometime we don't. Depends on our length of stay and our goals. We've never been wiped out by it, in fact the transportation can be a nice break. For instance, we started at DHS, took the boat to EPCOT, then took the monorail to MK for the fireworks. As long as you don't over plan, park hopping can be a lot more relaxing than doing as much as you can in a single park.

I agree. The ride over to the next park can be a nice break, especially if it's air conditioned!

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We park hop on some days. For us, AK and HS don't have a full day's worth of activities, so we will just do a couple of things and then hop over to MK for the rest of the day. It doesn't wear me out.

Honestly, the thing that bothers me the most is having ADRs. It takes so much time to travel to the ADRs. It seems liie just as we are hitting our stride in a park, we have to turn around and go to the meal. I have been minimizing them this trip.

 

[Horizons-1]

My family & I purchase the Hopper package every time we visit. A typical day is for us to wake up early, have breakfast in the room, and then rope drop the first park. At about 11:30-12pm we usually go back to the resort to rest & eat lunch. Then about 4pm or so we will head to whatever park we want to go to. We try to do at least one new table service meal each trip in the evenings for dinner so that's the only ADR we have to be mindful of. We also do Cape May to end the trip, or sometimes start the trip, so that's one morning where we get a slightly slower start to the park day.

For the most part it's not exhausting by any means. It gets us out of the sun for an extended period of time, and let's us recharge mentally. I could easily spend the whole day in one park, but not everyone in my party can. It's all about being flexible. On the last couple of trips I have gone out solo to a park while others rested, and then met back up later.

 

[goofyintoronto]

I park hop all the time, and I admit my hopping style is pretty crazy. I do 3 parks per day. haha. Rope drop one park, afternoon at another, then a different park that night. If i feel the need to slow things down and relax, i'll do two parks in a day (with a midday break in there). My style can be tiring, but i like it that way I guess. Always on the go. Im weird.

 

[Kristin0713]

What parks are you hopping between? What time are the fast passes and what time are the dining reservations?

The thing giving me the most pause is FOP at 3:25 in AK, and a BOG ADR at 6:15 in MK, for Wednesday which is the ONLY non party night of our stay. The night before we will be doing the party which wasn't originally factored into my plans. So Tuesday night - late night; Wednesday AK ending with FOP around 3:30; dinner at MK and maybe staying for fireworks. In my mind i'm also thinking AK = exhausting. Everything is so spread out. And will FOP make us nauseous and not able to enjoy the BOG dinner? I wouldn't be as concerned if I could have gotten FOP for just a little earlier in the day so we'd have time to reset before dinner. Or maybe I should have put DHS on Wednesday which I think is less exhausting, right? But it's too late to switch now.

 

[chelseabun76]

I park hop, but only one time a day and not usually for an adr or fp's. I spend until after lunch at one park and then either a rest at the resort or just head directly over to another park depending on time/schedule. I wouldn't hop all over the place just for adr's unless they are at the park I am going to already, because that eats up a lot of time travelling to and from. I'd rather plan my meals around where we will be rather than try to jump over to them if I'm having a great time elsewhere.