Help with plans

We are planning to be at WDW May 10-14. We are staying at Dolphin and have a 3 day pass. We are doing MK, HS and Epcot. My question is should I get a park hopper or just plan to visit one park a day. We have a group of 9 adults and 3 kids under 7. Also should we do MK on Friday or Sunday? Thanks for any input. Friday is EMH at MK and Sunday is EMH at HS

For a short trip I don’t like hoppers. It takes too much time to go from one park to another. I’d rather get to a park and dig in.

Also with small kids I don’t think hoppers are a good idea.

I would consult the crowd calendar to decide which park which day. Generally EMH makes for a busier park and traditional thinking is to avoid those parks on that day but I don’t worry about that and do what works best for us. A solid plan makes the difference.

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Hoppers would allow you to use EMH in one park and then visit another park with late hours in the afternoon/ evening and/or eat at Epcot on your non-Epcot park days. We don’t do PH with little kids but we also don’t usually do afternoon breaks–we typically rope drop until dinner or sleep in and do lunch to park close. With a party of 12 people, that’s a lot of $ for those benefits for such a short trip. If it were a week, it might be worth it.

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I’m going to vote against the hopper. Too short a trip. It will cost minimum $850 more to add that option. Then the pressure is on, so to speak, to make use of it.

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My first thought would be for 3 days and that many ppl, hoppers would cost too much for what you’d get out of them.

My second thought is: Have you checked a costco travel deal? Just check. It might be worth your time if you can cancel your other booking.

My third thought is: Perhaps not all of your party would need hoppers?

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I’m a fan of park hopping, but I’m also a fan of taking breaks, especially when traveling with kids. Since I already plan to be back at the hotel midday, it doesn’t add any extra time to “hop” to another park.

So, for you, I’d decide if you’re planning to take breaks and how late you’re planning to stay out (in which case, hopping to another park that’s open late after fireworks can be fun). You can squeeze a lot of fun and variety into a short trip by hopping, but it’s not fun if your group gets run down.

Another factor in favor of hopping is that you’re planning to visit HS, where you can find things to occupy your time, but really isn’t worth investing a whole day in visiting right now. Of course if you wanted to use part of your HS day to spend time at your resort, Disney Springs, playing miniature golf, or just resting, then that could also be great!

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It’s hard to not park hop when staying in the Epcot area but it’s also hard to pay for it for a short trip. Is it a first trip for most people, then skip the park hopper. If the adults would like to spend more time at Epcot for Flower and Garden festival, then get it.

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Thank you for all the help. I will let you guys know what I decide. This has definitely been helpful.

Hi Jacques!

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[quote=“OBNurseNH, post:9, topic:43657, full:true”]
Hi Jacques![/quote]
I don’t let Jacques monkey around with my Touring Plans account!

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My husband behaves similarly

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Are parkhoppers all or nothing? We definitely need them some days, not so sure some others. 6 day ticket. If it’s all or nothing, we’re getting them. unless we can add on just specific days?

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Yes, they’re all or nothing.

If purchased as part of a package then yes everyone has to get the same ticket. But if you have a room only reservation then each person could get the kind of ticket that you’d prefer them to have.

In terms of each individual’s ticket though, it would be either hoppers or no hoppers for the duration of the trip. You cannot mix the two unless you buy two different tickets entirely which negates any savings you might be attempting to achieve.

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It seems to me that park hoppers are actually MORE useful for shorter trips than longer trips.

Longer trips, you have every opportunity to hit each park and then re-visit those parks you wish to spend more time at on subsequent days. But when you have 3 days, but 4 parks, you don’t even have the option to hit the highlights of each park. You might want to just hit Animal Kingdom for FOP and Expedition Everest and then hit HS for RNRC, ToT, and TSMM. Without hoppers, there is just no way to even see the parks.

The one time we got park hoppers was during a 6-day trip and we never even used them. Ended up a waste of money.

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I decided to get park hoppers for my next trip for 3 reasons:

  1. I promised mid day breaks for this trip for naps/pool time
  2. a lot of party dates during our stay impacts available hours of MK
  3. staying at BC (Epcot resort) makes it easy to pop in and out for lunch/dinner.

Since you are staying at dolphin you might want to consider it too. It really is a personal decision.

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But the cost is tremendous for short trips.

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Yes. Undoubtedly. But if you can only go three days and can’t go a fourth, it is the only real option. The question is if it is possible to extend the trip by a day…and if you can, does the added cost of hotel/food/additional day per ticket outweigh the additional cost of the park hopper.

Nah. If you can only go 3 days and can’t go a fourth you skip HS. :wink:

You may even do that if you have 6 day tickets but love the other parks way more!

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There are several presuppositions in that statement. :slight_smile: I’m working under the assumption that there is a desire to see all four parks. If not, then don’t bother. Personally, I’d be more inclined to skip Epcot than HS. Or, before Pandora, skip AK. (Although, Expedition Everest makes skipping AK hard…it is the best ride in all four parks, IMO.)

The point is that getting Park Hoppers adds cost no matter what. But the only situations where it REALLY makes the MOST sense would be on shorter stays. Longer stays allows the ability to enjoy everything without hopping. (Not that hopping doesn’t have some lesser advantages, but I just don’t see that they justify the added cost for a longer stay.)