My fam is headed to DL for sun/Mon of thanksgiving week this year. What are the advantages to park hopping DL? We went to WDW in Oct 2021 and hopped almost every day. But with 2 days and 2 parks, I’m not sure if we need to at DL. We were also at WDW for the first day of genie+ and used it for a day and bought a couple ILLs another day. Do we need g+ for DL?
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With the two parks in walking distance and park hopping starting at 11am, the biggest advantage of the park hopper is the flexibility. If one of the parks has a bunch of rides that are down, which happened to us at DCA a few weeks ago, having the ability to hop over to the other helps a lot. Also, personally, I enjoy spending a morning in one park, taking a break and then going to the other for a change of pace so would probably always opt for park hopper tickets.
Whether or not to get G+ probably depends on what your priorities are while you are in the parks. Though with the CL9 I’m seeing on the crowd calendar for those days, G+ is probably a wise investment. That said, I also have a family with a low tolerance for waiting in line so my thought process is a bit skewed toward getting G+ as the default.
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If you really, really need to save in your budget then not getting park hoppers can be a way to do it. Personally, I would cut out specialty dining, souvenirs, add-on experiences & even bring a mix of home-brought snacks & supplies for cheap, easy meals in the room before I cut out park hoppers.
The space between the two park gates to hop at DLR is about the same as walking from the front entrance to the castle in MK in WDW so there’s no real time spent taking transportation to hop. Both park entrances (and Downtown Disney if you’re so inclined) are all within the same security perimeter so it’s more time savings vs. WDW.
As mentioned above the hopping time is earlier at 11am so adds a lot of flexibility and makes it even more worth the cost. Lastly, one of my favorite things is when DCA closes at 10 or 11pm and DL is still open until 12am, I love to hop into DL even just for soaking in ambiance of Main Street or grabbing a treat from the confectionary before saying goodnight.
So while you certainly can fill the day by sticking to one park each day, it would be one of the last things I try to cut out on a strict budget &would be one of the first things I would want to spend budget on.
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We always park hop so we can utilize G+ across both parks. We would use up all our G+ options pretty quickly (especially in DCA) if we didn’t.
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I personally recommend Park Hoppers at DLR. It’s fixed $60/ticket so you’ll be paying $30/day. I think you’ll enjoy being able to spend 6 hours in one park and then hop to the other one to freshen it up and do new things. It also gives you more flexibility with dining reservations. (Speaking of: blue bayou and carnation cafe. Trust me, but only if it’s in the budget.)
Genie+ is much better than at WDW. There’s less attractions on G+, but those that are on have reasonable return times (which are available throughout the day!) and save a lot of time if you know how to use them.