I have definitely considered this but we have always neglected AK. On brief trip in January we had 3 park days and AK got skipped. Theres so much we’ve never done there like the nature trails and train to Rafikis since we always spend our time on on rides rides rides. We want to make sure we get on all the stuff we’ve missed plus the favorite rides and shows and food! Theres so much lol
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I enjoy hopping and having the flexibilty for dining in EPCOT…
For a 7 day ticket the cost of a park hopper is (i think ) $85 per ticket… so, it breaks down to a little over $11 per day. Not a lot… but not nothing…
For a longer ticket, I find the pull of hopping more desirable. Kids want to go back to ride their favorite rides in each park one more time… dining flexibility et.c
I have talked to a lot of people about this, and the feelings run strongly to both sides.
For me, I think the extra $340, IF it is in your budget, the flexibility is nice.
If you can’t hop - - - i don’t think you lose a lot… just some spontaneity, and ability to “go back” to certain things.
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As much as I like hopping we rarely do it. When we do it is because MK is closing early often for parties. I have hopped to Epcot for dinner. It gets expensive. I like the pace of your trip and don’t see a need to spend the extra money to hop.
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Second This!
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I would at least consider putting your HS day earlier in your trip…before your second AK day…so that you can potentially pivot and go, oh no…we don’t need a second AK day but do need a second HS day!!
Without hoppers - I like the idea of visiting all 4 parks before I repeat a park…but again, this is a kid-free liner opinion.
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As of now I have HS later in the trip at 60+6 to try and get an ADR for Rodeo BBQ. Luckily we still have some time before everything must be settled
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If you had hoppers you could book it for any day you felt like! As long as you didn’t want lunch.
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Thats a good point!
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Here’s my reply, which would totally work for me. 
Under no circumstances can you park hop. 
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my instant reply: oh yeah? watch me
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For me it really depends on if we are staying at a resort with super easy access to at least one park.
If we are on monorail loop, I want the option to be able to just “pop” into MK.
Much higher desire to park hop if I’m in Crescent Lake or anywhere on skyliner… the option to pop into HS or EP in an evening is strong.
If I’m staying somewhere with bus only access to any park, it’s always a one-park per day situation.
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great point, totally worth it if you can walk into MK from grand Floridian, poly, and contemporary. Similarly, walk into HS/Epcot from Boardwalk, beach club, and yacht club.
Add me to the list of 2 HS vs 2 AK
AK used to be my favorite park, but I couldn’t squeak out even a full day last trip. But I could easily enjoy more than two days at HS
I also would invest in G+ and ILL$ over hopping if I could only choose one.
So after thinking about this all for another night this part makes sense. I’m personally leaning towards adding the hopper for many of the great reasons you have all showed me. In the end the only real downside is another chunk of change to turn over to the mouse, in this case something like $340.
It can be justified in a lot of ways but I think what will be most effective for convincing the rest of the family is this. We won’t be back to WDW for awhile, potentially 3-5 or more years. We’ve been fortunate to have been on family trips in 18, 19. 21 and most recently over Xmas and new years. With the kids being 9 and 2 we’ve already said we’re taking a few years off to do other things and let DS2 grow up.
In 2 or 3 years if we do another Disney trip it will almost certainly be Disneyland as we’ve never been there. So WDW would be another year or 2 after that so its going to be a while. So might as well do it all of this trip in June is how I’m feeling.
I’ve also been hatching a plan in my mind today to do 4 parks in one day, but allot of it solo. June 19th is my birthday and a present to me would be the freedom to go off on my own and do that after starting the day with the family and meeting back up with them for dinner. I think AK>HS>EP>MK would do nicely.
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I never park hopped when my daughter was this age and I never missed it. In fact, I find not hopping made me plan more activities at the resort and more downtime, which was exactly what was needed.
Once DD was 11, we did park hop, but that was mostly to take advantage of deluxe after hours because we are DVC. Now, if staying at an Epcot or MK resort I would 100% get it so we can go back at night. But I still wouldn’t do it if I had a 2 yo.
To put in context, we are going to Disneyland in 3 weeks where everybody park hops. I still didn’t buy the hoppers because i am cheap. And i am not sad about it. It means on our California adventure day, we will just spend more time at the resort.
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My real response to parkhopping convincing is that hopping provides more options.
more options = more better
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We did not intend to park hop today, but ended up riding all the rides at DHS by lunch, so decided to go to Animal Kingdom after our break since we had Genie+ and could then use it there as they had lots of availability.
…I like the flexibility it provides. I have done many trips without it, but I’m starting to see the perk (like in September when we hopped to Epcot multiple times simply for GOTG.)
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I don’t understand park hopping. Each park already has so much to offer, it is not possible to do and see everything in one day, and the tickets being already quite expensive, I will surely not pay more to fill my already overflowing plate even more.
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This is an extremely valid point.
Which makes Disney World an awesome place despite probably not being really worth the expense - everyone can do it their way. 
For our part - we’re only doing about a tenth of what MK has to offer because of motion sicknesses and other phobias as well as just plain done with Hall of Presidents or trying to get our guns to work, etc. Add our short attention span, liking other restaurants better, and places less peopled, we appreciate park hopping.
It’s good we have the choice and apologies to you if exuberance for WDW in general runs over into each of our favorite ways to experience the magic. 
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Well said. Our favorite way to do Disney is up and out early rope drop, and leave the park as it gets crazy crowded early afternoon, and hit the hotel pool. Though I will say we walked back into MK for a couple hours at night from Grand Floridian and those were some of the most enjoyable times. We had nothing planned and no rush, just enjoyed the walk and lack of urgency.
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