When are park hoppers not worth it vs. worth buying?

[mi*vida*loca]

For me it's worth it because we use them.

We do AM park, midday break, PM park. Some days we do our FP+ in our PM park. It's just how we like to tour the parks.

 

[DisLiss]

For me it's worth it because we use them.

We do AM park, midday break, PM park. Some days we do our FP+ in our PM park. It's just how we like to tour the parks.

Same here. We might hit one park early, rope drop a few things, hit a few lower crowd attractions and then head over to a park with our fastpasses for the day.

 

[Farro]

We won't go without hoppers. We love them. Almost everyday of trip we are in 2 different parks. We go for a long time, so no need to spend all day in one park.

Couldn't imagine not having hoppers.

 

[Disneypro1]

We only do one park per day. Usually from opening till 10pm or so. Never use hoppers. Always get more done sticking with one park per day. Let alone the cost savings. And not wasting time good from park to park.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I’m kind of opposite on when it’s useful. I only get hoppers on short trips because of a ride is down, or the line is crazy, I want a chance to come back. On longer trips, we take our time a little more and don’t “need” to be at the parks ever available minute to fit it all in.

 

[TiggerishTTFN]

Do you have young children? I used to love park hopper before I became a parent. While my daughter was little (she is 11 now), it was just easier/more simplified for my husband and I if we just stuck to one park per day. There was always plenty to do. (Also, considering our trips were always four days or less.) Once my daughter becomes a teen, we plan on reconsidering the park hopper and would love to add it back.

 

[xipotec]

If your going for more than 5 days it makes more sense to buy more park ticket days , and use a second ticket if you wanna hop.

Much cheaper.

 

[siren0119]

If your going for more than 5 days it makes more sense to buy more park ticket days , and use a second ticket if you wanna hop.

Much cheaper.

You can't actually do that.

Tickets are for DAYS not ENTRIES. So if you enter a park and you don't have a hopper, you can't use another ticket day on the same day to get into a different park.

 

[xipotec]

You can't actually do that.

Tickets are for DAYS not ENTRIES. So if you enter a park and you don't have a hopper, you can't use another ticket day on the same day to get into a different park.

Oh wow, that must have been a change with the date/ticket thing.

Worked back in 2016...

Figure they would close that loophole.

 

[havoc315]

1. Because park hoppers are priced without consideration to the number of days, they become less expensive (per day), the longer you stay.
2. They add significant flexibility to change plans. Finish a park earlier than expect, park hop. Decide you want to spend 1 1/2 days in different parks, can plan around that.

So let's break this down into three categories:

Park hoppers "necessary":
Staying under 4 days, but still want to squeeze in all 4 parks. Obviously, can't do it without parkhoppers.

Park hoppers probably not worthwhile:
A "medium" length trip of 4-6 days with very firm planning. Especially if you do the parks in 1 stretch. For example, young families who may do morning, but generally don't do nights in park. Or those who show up at noon and then just stick around.

Park hoppers probably valuable:
-Long trips. If staying 7+ days. For a 7 day ticket, it works out to $12 per day. Not much at all, and I'd look at it as "insurance." Even if you aren't sure whether you'll use it... it's extra insurance. Say you get a Rise of the Resistance late boarding group. You're at DHS before 9am, but you won't be riding RoTR until 6pm or later. You now have the freedom to hop over to Epcot for the first part of the day. Or maybe you're staying at a Magic Kingdom resort.. you finish Animal Kingdom earlier than expected and not interested in returning for the night. Nice to have the flexibility to hop over to MK if even for an hour at night.

-Those who do Rope Drop + Night entertainment. Why be obligated to return to the same park as you started the day, especially as different parks have different night time flavors, different closing times. Maybe you're a night owl, so you want to go to the parks that are open latest, regardless of how you spent your morning. Maybe you love Epcot's International Gateway at night, with all the dining choices.

-Those who utilize a lot of EMH: The good side of EMH is lower crowds during EMH. The downside is those parks have larger crowds the rest of the day. So park hopper lets you split your day between EMH park and a low crowd park.

-Guests of deluxe Monorail hotels and guests of deluxe Epcot area hotels. Why? Because you're hotel room in 5-20 minutes from being inside a park. Come back to the Contemporary after spending most of the day at Epcot. Your family isn't in the mood to go back to Epcot, but everyone would love to do a couple of Magic Kingdom rides one more time. It would suck to be right across the street from MK but not be able to go.

So the guests for whom the parkhopper isn't necessary but a great value:
Those staying on a longer trip, at a MK or Epcot deluxe hotel, who are Rope Drop + Night type guests.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

1. Because park hoppers are priced without consideration to the number of days, they become less expensive (per day), the longer you stay.
2. They add significant flexibility to change plans. Finish a park earlier than expect, park hop. Decide you want to spend 1 1/2 days in different parks, can plan around that.

So let's break this down into three categories:

Park hoppers "necessary":
Staying under 4 days, but still want to squeeze in all 4 parks. Obviously, can't do it without parkhoppers.

Park hoppers probably not worthwhile:
A "medium" length trip of 4-6 days with very firm planning. Especially if you do the parks in 1 stretch. For example, young families who may do morning, but generally don't do nights in park. Or those who show up at noon and then just stick around.

Park hoppers probably valuable:
-Long trips. If staying 7+ days. For a 7 day ticket, it works out to $12 per day. Not much at all, and I'd look at it as "insurance." Even if you aren't sure whether you'll use it... it's extra insurance. Say you get a Rise of the Resistance late boarding group. You're at DHS before 9am, but you won't be riding RoTR until 6pm or later. You now have the freedom to hop over to Epcot for the first part of the day. Or maybe you're staying at a Magic Kingdom resort.. you finish Animal Kingdom earlier than expected and not interested in returning for the night. Nice to have the flexibility to hop over to MK if even for an hour at night.

-Those who do Rope Drop + Night entertainment. Why be obligated to return to the same park as you started the day, especially as different parks have different night time flavors, different closing times. Maybe you're a night owl, so you want to go to the parks that are open latest, regardless of how you spent your morning. Maybe you love Epcot's International Gateway at night, with all the dining choices.

-Those who utilize a lot of EMH: The good side of EMH is lower crowds during EMH. The downside is those parks have larger crowds the rest of the day. So park hopper lets you split your day between EMH park and a low crowd park.

-Guests of deluxe Monorail hotels and guests of deluxe Epcot area hotels. Why? Because you're hotel room in 5-20 minutes from being inside a park. Come back to the Contemporary after spending most of the day at Epcot. Your family isn't in the mood to go back to Epcot, but everyone would love to do a couple of Magic Kingdom rides one more time. It would suck to be right across the street from MK but not be able to go.

So the guests for whom the parkhopper isn't necessary but a great value:
Those staying on a longer trip, at a MK or Epcot deluxe hotel, who are Rope Drop + Night type guests.

PH price per day is only relevant if you use it every day though. Last trip we had 7 day tickets with PH and we hoped 4X. So it was like $20 per hop, per ticket. Not bad at all.

Used to be much better before they tiered the PH price to the number of days.

 

[havoc315]

PH price per day is only relevant if you use it every day though. Last trip we had 7 day tickets with PH and we hoped 4X. So it was like $20 per hop, per ticket. Not bad at all.

Used to be much better before they tiered the PH price to the number of days.

Agreed that of course it was better before tiered.
But no, price per day is relevant even if you never use it -- It's buying insurance. Insurance is worth having, even if you never use it.
It's flexibility insurance. It's insurance that allows you to change your plans on a whim.

I have a 7 day trip coming up this summer. As I start to build the plan, the plan has me hopping 2-3 out of the 8 days. But I could see myself changing it on the fly and hopping as many as 5-6 out of the 8 park days. But even if I went the other way and used it only 1-2 times... I'm still grateful I had the option on all the other days.

 

[DisneyGirlMI]

Worth it for us because we like a lot of the restaurants in one park and we don’t necessarily want to be restricted to where we get fast passes. Booking dining 150 days out then fast passes 60 days out can be complicated if you don’t do park hopper and you are eating at sit downs a lot.

This is us. We like eating at Epcot, but don’t necessarily want to spend multiple days there just to eat. With FP we can go where we want for the day and then hop for dinner.