Talk to me about Park Hopping....

[RocketCityMama]

We love to park hop, it's great for so many reasons already listed. Only you can decide if it's worth it for your family

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We've always been a one park a day family. We've purchased park hoppers before just so we could eat at a particular park on one day and that's all we really used it for. Do most people park hop? What is your touring plan like?

I think it depends on your park style/preferences and your length of stay. We like to do one park per day and that's what we enjoy. We are also the midday resort breakers too so PH isn't really our style. However on our Aug 2017 trip we did hoppers since we only had 2 park days and we really wanted to see Pandora so we hopped AK & Epcot. We RP AK, went to Epcot midday and back to AK to see Pandora at night. It was WAY TOO MUCH squeezed into a day. We should have just stayed at AK and not PH. However we still had a great time. I think it certainly would be a nice option on shorter stays but I would likely not do it again- negatives for us is that it's a lot of time on the buses if needed or monorail/uber, whatever, it requires some crafty FP+ planning and it's takes away time from enjoying more attractions-only pro for us is that it gave us flexibility to do more parks. For us since we've been to WDW a lot we didn't really "miss" anything but for someone who hasn't been to WDW before or recently, you miss stuff. And even though we go fairly often, we missed doing the rides and attractions we normally do b/c we spent time PH.

 

[Heather Mooney]

I used to be a one park per day person but I was blessed to get an annual pass for Christmas. This week I was off for spring break and I did a fun challenge for myself by seeing all 4 parks in one day. It was a very LONG day, but it was fun and I did it at my own pace. I am a local so I had my car. I rope dropped AK to ride FOP and Everest while crowds weren't crazy yet. Then I drove to HS for my fast passes for Tower of Terror and Star Tours. Once I scanned my magic band to redeem my star tours Fast Pass, I made a Fast Pass to use in EPCOT Then I moved my car and parked at the TTC. I took the Monorail to EPCOT. By that point in the day the crowds were high, so I ate and enjoyed the topiaries in the world showcase. Then I got back on the monorail and finished my day our at MK.

Park hopping is pretty easy between MK and EPCOT because of the monorail. Then you can also park hop easily between Hollywood Studios with the little boat. The boat took much longer but it gives your feet a nice rest.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

We have never hopped before, but we got hoppers for our upcoming trip. The boys are older and are not interested in doing a full day at MK, so this will give us a chance to ride the things we want at MK and then go elsewhere. They love HS, but we're not sure we can do a full day there (we'll be there before TSL opens), so the option to change parks will be handy there as well.

We won't be using the buses, as we drive to Orlando, and we will probably go back to the condo to lounge in the lazy river (or take a nap!) during the hottest part of the day, so it will be more convenient for us to pick the park we want and not the one we were at earlier. I'm looking forward to this new way of doing things!

 

[CdnCarrie]

We have on a trip or two but usually do not.
Seems like a waste of money to me.

 

[deedubb]

I've always felt that it's a waste of time going from one park to another at WDW, so we don't tend to park hop. I did buy park hopper tickets for our upcoming trip though, because we'll want to get FP+ for the new rides in Toy Story Land which likely means spending more than one day there (I'm guessing they will be tiered FP+) but there is no way I would want to spend 2 or more full days at HS. The upside is now we'll be able to see HEA many times, or spend a few evenings at Epcot if Illuminations is replaced by then.

 

[DisDaydreams]

We have always bought hoppers. We have usually used them once or twice during the trip, but not everyday. One trip we ended up not using them at all. I think we could definitely have survived without them, and saved the money. But we go every 2-3 years, and I’d rather have the option than to wish I had it.

That said, now that the kids are older (13,11,8)- I can definitely see more hopping potential, so I’m sure we’ll get them again even though I debate the cost every time!!

 

[scrapquitler]

Thanks everyone! It sounds like I need to learn how to utilize the hoppers. As far as fast passes go, we will need to use the first 3 in our first park before using the extra one in another park??

Yes, but you can also opt to save your 3 FP for the second (or third) park you visit during the day. We will often go to MK early, ride a bunch of rides before the lines get long, then hop to a different park like AK to use our FP during the afternoon when lines are longer.

 

[loves to dive]

We have always had PHs and always will. We don't have any kind of touring plan, we just don't plan. Park hopping is perfect for non-planning type people. We get up in the morning and decide where to go, if we aren't staying at an Epcot resort that is usually determined by which bus appears first. We get on the bus and I look for FPs, sometimes I find something we want sometimes not. We are not ride centric, we do ride rides but it's not the end of the world if we don't get to ride a certain ride. If we get bored at a park or it's too crowded, we go to the bus stop and hop on the first park bus to arrive. We tend to go back to the resort most afternoons for a hour or two to relax by the pool then we will hop to a different park. We don't make ADRs any more in advance than the afternoon of so having park hoppers means it doesn't matter what park we find something in. It's just easier for our lazy style of doing WDW.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We hop our hearts out.

A lot of days it’s a three park hop. We will hit rope drop morning EMH wherever it’s offered, stay for about 1.5 to 2 hours, then hop on over to another park where we may have our FPs setup. Lunch in the park then back to the resort for a bit. That night, new park.

Very few actual plans are involved in our hopping. Beyond the morning EMH we often just decide where to head next as we’re exiting the park.

We love the freedom of Park Hoppers and have never booked a trip to WDW without them (or and AP).

 

[kwdw]

Overall, I would guess the MAJORITY of ALL Disney guests don't park hop. On these boards - it's probably pretty evenly split - with park hopper in the majority. I think hopping is more common among frequent visitors - and this board attracts those folks.

When traveling alone without an AP - or with company that doesn't have an AP - no hopping. It takes too much time and we just plan around it. We never feel the NEED to hop. We also see no point in spending the extra money.

When I have an AP - I still rarely park hop. Most days - it's just one park for me. But - I do hop sometimes. It's not about the crowd level in the park for me - it's about what I want to do. If there was an option to buy a cheap AP that did not include park hopping - I'd buy it.

 

[Robo]

There is "direct" transportation between all the WDW theme parks.
The frequency of departure for each is approximately every 20 minutes, give or take, all day long.

Most routes are via Disney Buses.

Here are the "park-to-park" Disney Transportation direct connections:

MK> Epcot = Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to Epcot
MK> DHS = Direct Bus
MK> AK= Direct Bus

AK> DHS= Direct Bus
AK> Epcot= Direct Bus
AK> MK= Direct Bus

DHS> MK= Direct Bus
DHS> AK= Direct Bus
DHS> Epcot= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

Epcot > MK= Monorail to TTC, Switch to 2nd Monorail to MK
Epcot > AK= Direct Bus
Epcot> DHS= Direct Bus (Epcot Front Gate) or Boat (Epcot Intl. Gateway)
......Boats ("Friendships") make 3 interim stops at the Epcot area resorts.

The buses have their destinations shown on them on illuminated signs.
The bus stops at the parks are also marked with signage.

As a rule-of-thumb, allow 40-60 minutes to get from the gates of one park to the gates of another park. The actual on-the-road time is far less than that, but you need to factor in the amount of time that it might take to wait for the next bus to arrive and load.

 

[WaterLinds]

We had hoppers when we went three years ago and used them several times, so I bought them again this trip. We ended up not using them at all, it just wouldn't have worked the way our plans came together. I think part of the difference was location (last time we stayed at the Poly, so it was super easy to hop on the monorail and do an evening at MK or Epcot after a morning elsewhere). Also we didn't have to deal with the security line ups three years ago, so that made going back into the parks faster than it is now.

Party size might also make a difference--its way easier to move nimbly with a small group, IME. Just going from 3 people to six made it a lot harder to move between any two places, so park hopping felt like a bigger burden. I had planned to do a half day at HS because we only had a few attractions we wanted to experience there, but in the end we ran out of time and skipped it altogether. I thinker higher than expected overall crowd levels contributed to that--we just couldn't get as much done, so there wasn't time to hop and do more. If the crowds had been noticeably lower at one park hopping would have made sense, but I never noticed one with dramatically lower crowd levels.

If we stayed at an Epcot or monorail resort next time I would probably get hoppers again, because it is nice to be able to pop over for dinner or a show, etc. If we're either driving or busing everywhere I would be less inclined, I think. The exception would be if a I got a hard to book adr that ended up not matching out touring plan or something, although even then I've had pretty good luck snagging coveted ADRs late in the game.