We have park hopper tickets for our last minute trip coming up in Dec. How many parks do you try to do in one day? We will have a rental car and will be staying off site. How long does it take to “hop” to another park if you are driving? Any help or tips are greatly appreciated!
We usually do two parks in one day. We’ll go to one in the morning, and then hop somewhere else for dinner and evening activities. I can’t help you with driving times, I’ve only used internal transportation. 20 years going to Disney and I couldn’t even get from MK to EP without GPS. I do know that I see the firehouse and McDonalds all the time though. No idea where they are or why I continue to pass them…
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One or two runDisney races (half marathon or marathon) and you’ll be right as rain.
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Honestly, we haven’t found a need to park hop at all. We did pay for park hoppers one trip (6 days) and only used the hopping on the last day…and that only to head back into MK to make a purchase of something we couldn’t find anywhere else.
Now, I’m not saying there aren’t times to use park hoppers usefully. But the more days you have, the less need there is for them (generally speaking).
If you want to mix things up by hopping (such as taking in MK in the morning, but eating at Epcot in the evening, etc), by all means, go ahead! But for us, we found we’d rather save the money on park hoppers and spend it on other things instead.
But to fully answer the question, I think more information on the details of the planned trip become important. If you are only going for four days or less, for example, I feel the value of park hoppers becomes much more significant.
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We usually hop between two. Occasionally three. We hit all four one time just to say we did.
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We will only have 4 day tickets. There are only a few things that we plan to do at AK, and MVMCP is the driving force behind my questions. Here are the specifics:
Is this schedule to tight?
9: 20am ADR at Boardwalk Inn, then drive to AK for Lion King, Nemo, and Everest, hop to EPCOT for Soarin’ with FP, then head to MK for HEA and fireworks only.
It depends on your FP time for Soarin’. In general, I’d say it is fine. But the biggest time will be at AK. A LOT of walking there, and then walking back out to the parking lot. Not sure what wait times will be due to the time of year.
We park hop a fair amount, although we don’t drive so I can’t comment on how convenient it is in that case. Our usual hopping is either:
- One park in the morning, another (usually Epcot) for dinner
- Morning in Studios and then go to Epcot after lunch
- Morning in Magic Kingdom and then Epcot in the afternoon (normally when we’re staying at BWV or BCV)
We are AP holders, so do not pay extra for the hopping privileges.
We rarely do more than two parks in one day now that we have DD (4). In my solo trip days I used to hit all four regularly, but that’s not something DH has ever enjoyed.
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Be sure to take into account travel time. Advice I have seen, and confirmed to be accurate even when driving my own vehicle which we always do, is to give yourself an hour to transport on Disney property. So, for resort to park budget an hour, for park to park budget an hour, and for park to resort budget an hour. So you’re looking at 1 hr from Boardwalk to AK, 1 hour from AK to Epcot, and 1 hr from Epcot to MK. I think the 1 hr is leaving resort (not driving away, but say walking away from breakfast restaurant) to walking in AK gates.
I always have hoppers, but probably use them once or twice during a 4-5 day trip. If I only have 4 days, it’s typically one park per day; maybe only only a half day at DHS with a hop to a different park. If I have 5 I’ll typically do two parks on the 5th day. One time I did 3 parks in one day (EP in the AM through lunch, hop to AK for an afternoon Liner meet, and then hop to MK for PM EMH).
We park hop a lot. On our last two trips, we would go to MK to close out our day and never had a full day there. Usually, our last day would be spent going to three or four parks.
Our next trip has us leaving AK, MK, and HS to go eat at restaurants at Epcot. I was doing the math earlier today and noticed that we are only going to one restaurant in each of AK, MK, and DS; none in HS; Eight in Epcot and the rest at resorts. Yes, PH are a must for us!
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Our October trip was only four days due to my difficulties getting away from work. On Day 1: plane landed 10:50am, Uber to HS arrived 12-Noon, walked to Epcot 7pm (TT & FEA), walked back thru IG to Beach Club and grabbed an Uber to Contemporary, walked to MK to ride Splash Mountain before 11pm close. 11 park hours, 3 parks, 13 attractions.
I’m on vacation to DO things, not nap. Even if I’m lucky enough to someday enjoy WDW for a longer vacation, I think I’ll still want to park hop. An early entry day here, extended after hours there, I want to maximize my park time. Using Uber to go from park to park in under 20 minutes makes park hopping even better.
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THIS!!!
We’re exactly the opposite. If the trip is short, 4-5 days we won’t hop. But if it’s longer, like 6-8 days we totally hop around. For us, the shorter trip requires planning and compartmentalizing. I need to say MK, done. Then move to the next. It’s a sense of completion. If we’re there a long time it’s much more loosy-goosy. We go here, there and everywhere on a whim. Usually driven by a food craving.
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I hear you. I’m speaking more from the “need” aspect, though.
For example, at 3 days, park hopping is the ONLY way to do all four parks. 4 days, and you might find you didn’t get through everything at MK, but finish up DHS by later afternoon. Park hoppers allow you to “make up” for what you missed.
After that, you generally have at least one more day (day 5, 6, etc) to “catch up” on what you missed without having to actually hop. A second day at MK, or at Epcot, etc.
Now, obviously if you WANT to hop for the fun of it are you are inclined to do, that’s an entirely different matter!
I see your logic and agree.