New rumor (part 1) from this week's Disney Dish podcast, Len reports WDW working on returning Park Hopping in 2021

@len reports on this week’s Disney Dish podcast that the WDW folks are working on getting Park Hopping back into use for next year. He said that they were looking holding back a few thousand park reservations per day for guests already in the parks and possibly having more Park reservations available starting in the afternoon for park hopping.

He speculated that it might even start in January 2021.

Link to the podcast

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Loved this week’s episode. It felt like there was a lot packed in.

Another vaccine is in the works and looks good. Of coarse it will take some time to distribute. Once done let’s hope the WDW parks get back to the way they used to be. I like POR, Buffet dinning, Park hopping, NO park reservations, and restaurants and rides fully open. Take into account how much all these things cost and what you are now paying for next to nothing. Where’s the Magic? Sorry, I don’t see where it is worth the cost of a flight, resort, and dinning when there is little if anything open.

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It seems like they could be able to have the same park capacity at each park if they account for park hopping, as long as hopping is equally distributed between parks. Say you have 3000 people from MK moving to HS and 3000 from HS to MK - you wouldn’t have to decrease the capacity in either park for the morning.

The issue would be if one park (maybe Epcot?) is more favored for the evening. But seems they rarely hit capacity there anyway. Anyway, I’m sure they have statisticians working on this.

So if you have a park hopper ticket, you would reserve 1 park for the first half of day and one for the second half?

Maybe they will have a specific time range to do the switch? Otherwise, the overlap would be more uncertain.

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I think if they could somehow have people tap out of one park, and then book a second park reservation, they could real time tally the park capacities…

I was fooling around with ticket prices and dates on the Disney website, and there was a message on the site stating park hoppers would return in March. Of course that is always subject to change, but it’s good that Disney is at least considering their return.

That being the case,I have to assume The return of FP+ isn’t far behind.

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You can buy park hopper tickets for January onwards, so not sure what that message is about. I can’t see it on the U.K. site as all tickets are park hoppers for us.

Oh that’s true actually here too I think

Oh, I see what I did now. I selected the Parkhopper PLUS option, and that’s why it gave me a date of March 7, 2021 when it will be available again. I’m assuming that is the target date for reopening at least one of the two Disney water parks.

Water Parks

While Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park and Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park remain closed at this time, pending government approvals, we currently plan to reopen one of the two Disney water parks on March 7, 2021.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/experience-updates/parks/#water-parks

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2 pm is the official park hop time

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@len called it on the podcast, he said it looked like January 2021.

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I’m curious how that last bullet will work - “subject to the park’s capacity” … will they track how many people exit? Hold a portion of the day’s capacity?

Also, everyone hopping at 2 could be a problem.

As of last week, and the way I understood it, was this:

  • A portion of the 35% capacity is set aside for park hoppers
  • Actual park attendance will be either monitored or estimated, allowing the park hop availability to increase if there’s room

I’ve already been told by folks at WDW that 2 p.m. is a guideline - it may be earlier or later, and park-hopping might be available from the get-go on slower days.

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Mad dash to buses/monorails/skyliners/boats!!!

:laughing:

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So queuing up early for the 2 PM Second park admission is… the Hop Drop?

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