park hopper vs 1 park per day

[homeschool mom]

In the past we have always gotten park hoppers. We are thinking about going to WDW in a couple months and to save $$ may consider going with the one park per day pass instead of the PH this trip.

I'm looking for pros and cons on each. Please help.

Thanks ahead of time.

[DizneyRox]

I have never considered NOT getting a park hopper.

MGM and AK are considered by many to be 1/2 day parks these days. For me then, it would be a waste to only be able to do parks for 1/2 a day, especially when vacation time can be so expensive. If this is the case, I would add it as soon as possible so that you CAN use it and spread the cost over many days. Adding it on the last day of a multi day ticket makes that one expensive day.

There have been many times where my initial park of the day is just too darn crowded and I want to go elsewhere.

I've told friends who ask for Disney advice that you can upgrade your tickets if/when you decide you want to park hop, that way you're not paying for it if you really don't need to, however every person to a T has come back saying they added it the first day, they couldn't imagine not being able to park hop.

The next question then is why did Disney make park hopping a pay option and not include it in the price of a ticket (like they used to). That's another thread.

[Ms. Mode]

We have thought about this too, but after you get used to hopping it's kinda hard to concentrate on just being in one park at a time.
It CAN be done though!

[ANG]

We always get park hopper because we usually want to see a night show at one park but don't want to just be there all day.

But this year, we're spending more time planning so we can save the extra money and not hop.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

IMO much of the pros and cons depend on a couple of things.

1) How many days are you staying?
2) How many ADRs do you plan on making?

I bought PH both times in my two trips as an adult, and never used them at all. I think for a trip of 5 or less days, you waste too much time hopping around that could be spend inside a park instead. HS is not a half-day park for me, but AK can be, so we just do Downtown Disney on our AK day. For my upcoming 7 day trip, I am getting the PH because I have more time to just "do whatever hits me" than I would with a 4-5 day trip.

If you plan on eating at a restaurant that's inside a park, and you are not prepared to lock yourself into playing at the same park that you are eating at, you have no choice but to get the PH.

It all depends on the particulars of your trip.

[g8rgirl29]

My pros for the park hopper are: Limited showings of Fantasmic, so often times need to just spend part of an evening at DHS just for this even though EMH was at a different park that AM. Dining reservations being harder to get sometimes we have to hop a bit. Plus I enjoy hitting both am and pm EMH's so we tend to do half days in parks, am in one, pm in another. Also we do the waterparks and consider them 1/2 day parks.
I think if you are vacationing for less than 7 days you really need park hopper if you want to catch all the fireworks/parades/shows. But, for 8 or more days you can make it work without it. For me I just can't imagine not having the freedom to go where I want to go when I want to go.
Pros for not getting it: A definite savings in money. It would add an element of challenge to my vacation planning which could be fun. Maybe it would 'force' you to take things at a slower pace since you will be in that park all day. Time savings in not hoping around from park to park.
Good Luck in your decision!! Have a great trip!!

[Jennifer_and_Chris]

We have always purchased park hoppers. With that said, now that we have 2 young children, we probably didn't need the hopper last time we were there. With a 4 and 2 year old, we weren't hopping as my DH and I used to when by ourselves. We didn't hop last trip even though we had great intentions of hopping! With 2 young children, we were lucky to get 3-4 things in before going back for a swim and nap, and then going right back to the same park to finish what we could.

So depending on your party and how you plan on tourning (the do or die way or the let's take it slow way) I would be able to support you either way!

One last thing, if it were just DH and I, we definitely would get the hopper. We actually did our top 2 attractions in each of the 4 parks in one day before - ending with a margarita in my hand watching Illuminations. That was fun!

[DakandZakMom]

Just a thought..It may be cheaper to add extra days to your park ticket than to park hop. That way if you really felt the need to go to another park on a particluar day then you could use another day admission...

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Just a thought..It may be cheaper to add extra days to your park ticket than to park hop. That way if you really felt the need to go to another park on a particular day then you could use another day admission...

Disney will not allow you to do this. Once you use a ticket to enter any given park, that ticket is married to that park until the next morning. The computer will deny you entry to a second park, even IF you have extra "days" to burn, unless you have the PH option.

[SBETigg]

I just don't see the value in skipping the park hopper. Yes, I know it is less expensive, and I know there are people who do one park a day and they're perfectly happy. The big thing for them seems to be that they don't like to lose time in transporting between parks. It works for some.

But for me, I like to have the whole world open to me at any given time. It's a big bummer to think that if I went to MK in the morning, that's it. I'm stuck with just that park. I get so much more out of the parks by breaking them down, hitting two parks per day. Some parks are more active. Some are more walking. By mixing it up, I get the best of each without the drag of too much walking, or too many rides.

Being confined to one when I could have access to all would take away from my trip to the point at which I feel I would be losing out-- which means, saving money by skipping the hopper is no actual value for me. I would find other ways to save. Though of course, it can be done and there are people who have the complete opposite outlook (why waste money on hoppers when you can do so much in any one park that you don't need to hop). It really depends on you. Do you think you could be happy with just one park a day? Are you at WDW enough that it's worth giving it a try this once?

[BigThunderFan]

We liked using it and the flexibility in scheduling it allowed. We wanted to see all the shows (Fantasmic! & Spectro, etc...) but didn't want to deal with a super crowded park all day like there are now because of the limited showings. So we would hit a non-busy park in the morning, take a break, and then visit the busier one in time for the show. It worked out great for us, and if you plan on taking a break in your day anyway (which I definitely recommend ) then you don't lose any time to park transfers.

Of course there is the extra cost, but that is the only downfall to park hopping I can think of. This is your vacation, do you want to come home and say I wish we could have done this, but you weren't able to because you didn't want to spend the extra money? In my opinion, if you want to save money cut it from another part, such as food or souvenir budget, and keep the park hoppers.

[KylesMom]

I agree that the only notable "con" is that the hopper costs more.

As many others have said, I can't imagine going to a park and not having the option of changing locations, whether it be due to crowds, ambiance or early park closing. We often will go to MK or AK early in the day, and then in the evening have a nice ADR at Epcot or DHS with the opportunity to watch Illuminations or Fantasmic. Although we've been passholders for many years now, I can't imagine going to Disney World without the ability to visit more than one park on any given day.

[wdwnutz]

We have gone to WDW with park hoppers, with the water park option and without hoppers. Personally we seem to enjoy our WDW vacation without the hoppers. When we begin to plan our trip we make a chart of the days we will be there (usually 7 days), the park hours for each day, extra magic hours in each park, the days and times of parades and shows and ADR's we plan on making. From there we plan our days. We go to one park per day and plan our days around the info we have. The days are much more relaxing not feeling like we have to "use the park hopper to get our money's worth". We have plenty of time to go back to the resort in the afternoons and freshen up for dinner. After we swim and freshen up we go to our ADR and take the Disney shuttle bus back to the park to finish out our day! Generally we go to MK and Epcot for 2 days each, one day in HS and AK. We never have a problem getting to all our ADR's, never feel like we are missing out on anything and we get to see everything at a much more relaxed pace.

[caryrae]

We have never used the PH option even back when PH was included on every or most ticket. It works for us mainly I suppose because we go in slower times and have never needed it. We like to take our time going through the Parks and take little breaks from walking every so often so we can easily find plenty to do at 1 Park in a day.

[Giggy]

We always use the park hopper at some point while we're there. That said the ticket we're buying this time are for unlimited entry during the 14 days we are there, park hopping included.

We don't hop every day, for example our first day is normally Magic Kingdom the whole day. However there are things we like to do such as parking at MK, taking the monorail to Epcot and then finishing off at MK for the parade. We do normally spend two days at AK but normally they are part days where we switch to somewhere else when it gets too hot. Another one is for Fantasmic, we see it each trip but not necessarily on the same day we were at MGM, so it pays to be able to arrive after a day at another park. Sometimes with the MGM and AK plans they hare a day with one of the water parks, not sure if doing that actually requires a park hopper though.

Basically we like the flexibility it offers.

[crazygoalie39]

We always use park hopper because we can make ADR's for a different park than the one we're going to for the day. We never do it, but another good reason for it is because you can go to a show at night in a different park. It's also just nice knowing you have it and can do whatever you want.

[1DisneyNut]

We are like wdwnutz. We used to get hoppers but realized we never used them. Of course I think some of those trips were back when the tickets pretty much all came with hopper so we had the option to park hop if we wished. We just never did. I am a planner and I have an itinerary set a few months before each trip. I go through the park hours, extra magic hours show schedules, etc. and plan what park we will visit each day. On the days when we have open time after a park such as the day we do Animal Kingdom, I schedule our trip to downtown disney for the evening and we eat while there. We just simply never park hopped even when we had the ability to do so. I have considered it so we could revisit parks to ride favorite rides before we leave but after doing the math we found it was comparable in price to add extra days since we have three kids we would also have to buy the hopper option for. Another thing I often see people mention when this topic is brought up is their dining reservations being in different parks. If we have somewhere we definitely want to eat, I work it into the schedule. We go to the parks for the entertainment, not to eat. There are nice restaurants close to where we live that have just as good if not better food and value than most places at wdw.

[princessgirls]

We lived without the park hopper on the last trip.
DH gave me a tight budget to work with as it was an extra trip at the end of the year.

Here are my thoughts...

Actually had more time to ENJOY the parks we were in. It was not bad. Thought being in HS for an entire day would be terrible and it wasn't.
We were on time for all of our ADR's and not rushed getting to them.
I tend to make most of our ADR's in Epcot and we are always rushing to get there.
We tried some new places on this trip.

HOWEVER, we were only in WDW for 5 days, the fifth day we left at 3pm.
If you are there for a week, it is worth the money for the hopper.
I would get the hopper in the future, espessially for our usual week long trip.
But, for this shorter trip the one park one day ticket was a pleasant surprise.
Hope that helps.
Julie

[Scar]

I think the ability to go to early EMH and then go to another park when it starts getting crowded is worth the price right there. Plus for me, I usually spend 4 or 5 nights in World Showcase and never spend a night in DAK or DHS, so I need one.

[CaptSmee]

I was never a big fan of park hopping until recently. now I'm a big fan of it