Without the park hopper, you can visit only one Walt Disney World theme park per day. But with the park hopper, Disney World's entire four theme parks are yours on each day of your visit. Adding that option might sound like a no-brainer, but let's remember that Walt Disney World isn't Disneyland or Universal Orlando, where the parks stand within walking distance of each other. Traveling from park to park at the expansive Walt Disney World Resort requires getting into a car, a bus, a boat, or a monorail, and spending that time to go between. (You can walk between Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot, but it's a long haul.)
It's much easier for first-time visitors (and many long-time fans) to just go with the one park per day. There's no hassle with and loss of time going between parks, or need to return to another park at the end of the day to retrieve your car, if you drove and used Disney transportation to switch parks. You can just be where you are and not have to worry about crowd patterns in multiple parks in enjoying your day.
But many repeat visitors have learned to find the value in park hopping. With the park hopper option, you can extend your day by visiting a park that's open later after another closes for the day. If you're only visiting for a day or two or three, park hopping allows you sample from all the parks, rather than missing one or more on a visit. If you're trying to get the most from a Disney Dining Plan, having the ability to visit Epcot's abundant table-service restaurants, even on days when you're playing in other parks, helps many families feel like they're getting a better deal.
We've recommended that visitors looking for the lowest price and least hassle in a Disney World vacation skip the park hopper. But for other families, who are willing or able to spend a little more and to put a bit more advance planning into their trip, adding up to $60 per person for the park hopper can become a great investment in unlocking extra value from a Disney World visit. (It's currently $60 to add the park hopper to tickets of four to 10 days, $49 for two- and three-day tickets and $40 for a one-day ticket. That's per ticket, not per day.)
So, what do you and your family do? Are you park hoppers? (Note that we are limiting this question to Walt Disney World. With theme parks much closer together at other multi-park resorts, as well as with other pricing levels there, the value proposition is different at other resorts.)
Please tell us your thoughts about and strategies for park hopping, in the comments. And, as always, thank you for being part of Theme Park Insider!
So no unless someone else paid for the option for me! :)
Certainly not as fast as walking at Disneyland, but it's not bad either.
Whenever Disney gets it's act together and changes in the resort I once loved I will not visit them but when they change I won't use the hopper option.
That said I'd always want the hopper option. If you have a limited time to spend at the parks it may be better to simply concentrate on one park per day but if we are staying for 14 nights we want to be able to just 'dip into' a park sometimes. We'll schedule a full day in each park but after that we'll revisit favourite rides, maybe just head into Epcot to chill out round the lagoon... It's about flexibility and freedom so for us the hoppper option always makes sense.
Of course, for some reason, both boys wanted to go on the Star Tours ride with me, every time. I love the ride, but...man...I think I've seen all 54 different ride combinatons.
Next time we go, it will be "pick-a-park-that-isn't-Hollywood-Studios-if-you're-going-with-dad" in the evenings.
For us, the Park Hopper just broadens the activity options.
If you are touring a Disney Theme Park properly are you not supposed to arrive as the park opens, then leave around 2pm or 3pm back to your hotel as the crowds are at their heaviest. Then return to the park in the evening as the crowds drop again (hopefully).
If you follow this plan doesn't it make the lost transportation time a moot point .
To me, there is simply not enough attractions to visit at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios to spend the entire day at either one. Plus, both of these parks close early and I would like the opportunity to hop over to Epcot or Magic Kingdom to continue visiting for the rest of the day.
I have to give a shout out to Robert for something he wrote a few years ago about driving your car to each park in order to park hop. This is the best thing I've ever done. Previously, I would ride the buses from park to park, but now it seems like the bus schedule is much slower and infrequent. I spend less time walking to my car and driving it to the next park rather than relying on Disney's poor transportation methods. On top of that, I get a bit more exercise walking.
We may be incorrect on this, but we believe that if you have a one or multi-day, single park ticket (Magic Your Way) and you wish to visit a second WDW park on the same day, you’re in for a problem. We think Disney policy prohibits using a non-PH’er ticket more than once a day. In other words, you’d either have to purchase a separate, one-day single park ticket or upgrade your existing MYH ticket to PH level. The costs associated with doing the former are currently $94 - $99, depending on the park; the latter will cost between $35 - $49, depending on the number of days upgraded. Please let me know if we are incorrect on this policy and fees.
Regarding my comment about driving to the second park - in our opinion, as the overall quality and convenience of using WDW transport has severely declined in recent years, using our own vehicle is the only way around the World.
As the previous users have commented, what works best is a realistic evaluation of your family’s age-makeup, park preferences and economic circumstances.
The best way to park hop is to visit Animal Kingdom, Epcot or Hollywood Studios during the day and switch to Magic Kingdom after dinner when the crowds aren't as bad. You will still need to buy a multi-day pass, if you want to see all of the best attractions. There is no way to see all the best attractions in one day, and even two days is near impossible.
The only way around this is if you have two completely different tickets and use one day from Ticket A in the morning and one day from Ticket B in the evening. However, with the new FastPassPlus, you cannot reserve attractions unless you make two completely different My Disney Experience accounts for each ticket and make sure you know which ticket is which. But doing this makes multiple person-linked FP+s extremely difficult and time consuming.
With my Universal pass, I can actually visit both parks, do a ride or two in each, the pop out to CityWalk in about 2-3 hours.
At WDW, to visit 2 parks and downtown would take 2-3 hours of buses/parking hassels. Especially for Magic Kingdom omg. When the fireworks end, forget it. Whether you paid $17 to park, or $1000's to stay at Polynesian or GF... cannot walk!! You have to take a bus, boat or monorail to TTC, then the tram out to your parking lot section. That is a 1-2 hour experience when the fireworks end.
Also, remember when WDW had slow days? Like, actually slow days? When you could walk onto every ride... I miss that. Disney's 'slow' is everybody else's 'medium.'
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
