Is park hopping worth it?

[Pamle]

I figured out the price was $175 for 5 of us to park hop. Seems to me, it's just as easy to pick a park each day.

We're staying at the CO, so we'll be able to see the MK fire works each night.

What do you think?

 

[contempgal]

Personally, I love to park hop. The reason - there are some parks I like better than others so hopping allows me to visit what I want when I want and I don't have to spend all the time somewhere I don't want to be. It also opens up dining options...........ex: spend the day at AK and then hop to Epcot for dinner and a few more rides. I won't do WDW without hoppers. Just my opinion.

 

[mikey13v]

For us it's important to have so we can do what we want, when we want. It's nice to be able to change parks on busy days.

 

[umaangel00]

We didn't hop in march and it was ok. I don't regret not hopping because we had a four day pass and we stayed off site. I think it really depends on what you want to do. This time around, we are going to hop though because there were things I didn't get to do at MK last time and I couldn't go back because I couldn't hop. Besides, it's only 35 bucks a ticket. Not much in my opinion.

 

[DisFlan]

We wouldn't go without them. I can't remember a single trip when we weren't in more than one park in a day. Hoppers cost more because they let you DO more. And they let you do it when you want to.

Examples -

You get to MK and it's more crowded than anyone dreamed it would be. Leave and hop to another park and come back later in the afternoon when it'll probably be less crowded.

It's your "Epcot day", but you have ressies in the MK for Cinderella's Table at 5 pm (the only time you could get it). Hop on back to the MK for dinner. Then, if you want, you can grab the monorail and hop back to Epcot for Illuminations!

You're in Epcot and you want to see Fantasmic. Just grab a boat and hop over to MGM.

You get to AK and find it's okay but not really an "all-day" kind of thing for you. Hop to one you like better.

You've spent the day at MGM but want to see the Spectromagic parade (it's only on certain days). Just hop back to the MK.

The combinations are endless. With hoppers, you won't have to miss anything because you can't get to another park when you want to. And, if you aren't among the lucky people who do WDW several times a year, how often are you going to have the chance to do all this?


DisFlan

 

[MommytoMJM]

We rarely spend all of our time in one park, we love to hop

 

[missypie]

I enjoyed having the flexibility. I think we actually only hopped to different parks on two of our 10 days, but those were during Memorial Day weekend and it enabled us to have a more relaxing experience on those busy days.

 

[kimnscott]

we always hop and love this option.

 

[Alice's Mom]

Hopping is incredibly convenient. On our trip we would hop to the park that had Extra Magic Hours or a few times we hopped from one park to Epcot to have our sit down meal. Even on days we planned to do only one park I liked the fact I wasn't restricted from going to another had the day turned out different.

I would always recommend the park hoppers

 

[TarGander]

Hopping is a must for us. There have been a couple times we have spent a whole day in one park, but it has been rare.

 

[Dodie]

I think that this is probably different for different people, but I cannot imagine not park hopping. Even if we do end up never changing parks during the day, the thought that we couldn't if we wanted to drives me to always get park hopper tickets.

What if a park is more crowded than you anticipate?
What if a park closes earlier than you are ready to stop for the day?
What if you just want to run over to Epcot for dinner or Illuminations one evening after spending the day at MGM or AK?
What do you do in the evening after seeing AK - if you aren't going to DTD that night?
What if you have a whim and want to jump on the monorail from Epcot to MK?

It's so convenient to be able to have total access this way. You can relax and enjoy your vacation because you can change your mind or change directions at any time for any reason.

 

[jarestel]

I'll take the less popular view about this. If it's costing $175, park hopping is not worth it to me. It was a nice enough feature when it was included in the cost of the ticket, but I don't see $175 worth of benefit in being able to go to 2 parks in one day.

In the interest of truth, I will admit that we have APs, so hopping is always available to us anyway. And we do take advantage of it, since it's there. But we could do just as much without hopping as with it, it would just require a bit more planning.

Try it without the hopper option and see what you think. If you don't like not being able to hop, at least on your next trip paying the extra $$$ will seem more of a value.

Good luck!

 

[LadyDulcinea1]

Actually just changed out MYW park tickets to hoppers....like not feeling locked into one park. What if we finish everything at one park early and then have the rest of the day? Just makes us feel better having the option and flexibililty. Ours were only $35 a person to add the hopper though, which is a lot less than $175, so with that in mind its not completely impossible to enjoy the trip just as much without hopping, always have the resort itself and DD

 

[jarestel]

Ours were only $35 a person to add the hopper though, which is a lot less than $175, so with that in mind its not completely impossible to enjoy the trip just as much without hopping, always have the resort itself and DD

It's $35 per person for the OP also, but they have 5 tickets to upgrade. 35 X 5 = 175 total upgrade price to add hopping option.

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

I think the OP means it is $175 to add the park hopper option for the entire family . . . right. Like someone else said to add the park hopper option it costs $35 per ticket.

BTW . . . HOPPERS HERE!!! (And not the one from Bug's Life!!)

 

[jjarman]

I love having the option to go where I want when I want. Our next trip I will have PS every day and I don’t want to feel obligated to go to Epcot one day, for example, just because I have a PS for San Angel Inn that night. I want to be able to go to MK that morning if that is what looks good to me that day and have the option of hopping over the Epcot for supper that night. The only way I would not do park hoppers would be to buy more days on my ticket. A friend just returned and he found it cheaper to buy a 10 day pass without hopping even though they only spent like 6 days actually in the parks. I haven’t investigated this yet but it might be an option for you.

 

[paladin]

I am also an ardent hopper. My husband favorite's park is Epcot, so spend many evenings there, while spending the morning/early afternoon at another park. It is definetly worth it for what we do.

 

[ShuisFan584]

My family loves park hopping and absolutely think it's worth it for the extra money. We hate spending the whole day in just one park, we really like to mix it up. If we're going for 7 days and want to have say 2 full days at Epcot, we like to spread it out and go on 4 half days to Epcot instead of just 2 full days. That way it still adds up to 2 full days, but we're actually visiting each of the parks more often on the trip! Everyday that we're there we spend the morning at one park, and then hop on over to another in the afternoon, sometimes taking a resort break in between. Even the first night that we'll be there on our next trip, we only have half a day, but we plan on going to Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours and then heading over to MGM to see Fantasmic, which I think is the perfect way to start our trip! I could never imagine going another trip without having the option of park hopping.

 

[LadyDulcinea1]

Yea, I got that point, just saying that $175 dollars is a lot more than we're paying since they're two of us....sorry if I didn't make that clear

 

[disneytraveler]

I like park hoping also! Its great to go from park to park on a day!