To Hop or Not

[DisneylandPlanner]

I noticed it is an add-on to get a park hopper. I would never think of not getting a hopper for Disneyland. Is it worth the extra money? Is it easy to hop parks?

[musiken]

Re: To Hop or Not

It can take a substantial amount of time to hop at WDW, depending where you are and where you want to go. If you are at the Magic Kingdom, it is easy to get to Epcot, since the monorail goes there. However, most other scenarios require that you take a Disney bus, or possibly drive. It can take up to an hour to get from one park to another, or as little as 15 minutes.

All that said, we always get park hopper tickets when we go to WDW. We use them about half the days we are there.

[Disney Magic]

Re: To Hop or Not

I'd say go for the hopper ticket. You will have better options to get around the resort. One good example would be; the day you decide to visit Animal kingdom, they close early usually at 5 so without the hopper option you couldn't go over to MK or Epcot to unwind and catch the night shows. Or if you spend the day at MK and don't want to watch the same fireworks but instead want to ride TOT or watch Illuminations at Epcot instead. It is also helpful for many other reasons like dining options, you may want to leave one park if it is too crowded or just don't like it there. With out the option you would be stuck with the first park you choose that day.

As far has actually hopping from park to park it is not as easy as walking across the esplande at DL, but the resort transportation does work. Personally I find it easier to take my car, since parking is free anyways for WDW hotel guests and non-hotels guests only pay once per day.

[Parisi]

Re: To Hop or Not

oh Hopper for sure... Disneyland is so small so since they have 2 parks, hopping is something that you can go without.. but at WDW its so huge, that you should never buy a ticket without the hopping add-on. Everytime I go to Disneyworld, I make sure that I have the park hopper ticket. It is invaluable

[kcnole]

Re: To Hop or Not

It depends on what you want to do. We normally just get the three day hopper when we go but add on the park hopper option. That way we can do DAK and something else on one day since I haven't made it past about 1:30 at DAK yet.

[akfandisney]

Re: To Hop or Not

YES get the Park hopper add on

Water park and AK Close about 5:00 pm
Nice to goto Epcot or late open MK or show at MGM ( Close 7:00pm)

[TDLFAN]

Re: To Hop or Not

It depends on what you want to do. We normally just get the three day hopper when we go but add on the park hopper option. That way we can do DAK and something else on one day since I haven't made it past about 1:30 at DAK yet.

You must be skipping a lot of things at DAK because I can honestly be at that park from 10am till 4pm and not repeat anything.

[lisaboo]

Re: To Hop or Not

You must be skipping a lot of things at DAK because I can honestly be at that park from 10am till 4pm and not repeat anything.

I agree because we spent a whole day 9-5 and never even got to Africa. Then, spent another day 10-5 and never went to Camp Minnie-Mickey.

Personally, we only park hopped twice in a seven-day trip. I am not sure if I would buy the hoppers again next time. I would just use my evenings and go to DTD and PI or Mini-Golf or hang at the hotel or something.

[Doofy]

Re: To Hop or Not

I will always buy the park hopper passes. My favorite thing to do is on the last day of a trip hit your favorite attractions in each of the parks. I have been to all four parks in a day several times. It does take substantially longer if you use their transportation. I usually relied patially on their transportation and partially on family members with cars. I found it was easy to use their transportation between parks. You just have to know where you are going.

[Phonedave]

Re: To Hop or Not

I noticed it is an add-on to get a park hopper. I would never think of not getting a hopper for Disneyland. Is it worth the extra money? Is it easy to hop parks?

I have hopper too. One other thing is it allows you to take advantge of the Extra Magic Hours and still schedule "special" things. Lets say you wanted to do breakfast at restarauntasaurous. But the one day AK is open late, all the priority seating is booked. You can go to breakfast there, and not miss EMH at another park if you have the hopper. I have never found interpark transport too much of a hassle. It can make for a nice break.

dave

[DisneylandPlanner]

Re: To Hop or Not

I think the hopper is the only way to go. Thanks for your tips!
Doofy I love your last day at the park idea.

[kcnole]

Re: To Hop or Not

You must be skipping a lot of things at DAK because I can honestly be at that park from 10am till 4pm and not repeat anything.

We do skip some of the things so I should mention that and I haven't been since Everest opened so that may change some things. Our normal pace is to hit The Safaris first, then check out some of the trails, bypassing the water ride mainly because we don't like it, hit Dinosaur and Primevial whirl, then head back for It's Tough to be a bug and FOTLK if we feel like seeing it.

Now with Everest and with the Nemo musical coming, it may make the park last longer. We normally skip the water ride and Rafiki's planet watch entirely since it's horribly boring. With Everest there now you may want to run to Everest first and grab a fast pass, then head over to Kilamanjaro, then back to Everest for your fastpass time, and then the rest of the rides.

[Disney Magic]

Re: To Hop or Not

Personally, we only park hopped twice in a seven-day trip. I am not sure if I would buy the hoppers again next time. I would just use my evenings and go to DTD and PI or Mini-Golf or hang at the hotel or something.

That is a good point too about the mini-golfing and DTD, there are some days I don't park hop too, but I'd still rather have the choice to do so. And when you have 7 days to see everything hopping isn't that important, but when your trip is only 3 or 4 days like mine tend to be hopping is the way to go.

[lisaboo]

Re: To Hop or Not

That is a good point too about the mini-golfing and DTD, there are some days I don't park hop too, but I'd still rather have the choice to do so. And when you have 7 days to see everything hopping isn't that important, but when your trip is only 3 or 4 days like mine tend to be hopping is the way to go.

Very good point, it would be quite different for a much shorter trip.

And about Rafiki's Planet Watch, we actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The "Sounds of the Rainforest" attraction was especially good. So I guess it just depends on what your interests are and how long you watch the animals.

[DLForever]

Re: To Hop or Not

After going and having a park hopper on my last WDW trip, I would never think of not having one in the future. I loved the ability to go to a non-EMH park during the day (less crowds) and go to an EMH park at night. you can decide what you want to do spontaneously as well...

[NeverNeverland]

Re: To Hop or Not

TOTALLY get the hopper!! Having that option was wonderful, and the only time that it took me more than an hour to get anywhere (prk to park) was when I totally thought one thing and there were NO SIGNS to help me out. As long as you know ahead of time your options to get from park to park, it's fine and "easy" and not THAT long.