We have 4 park days, so my plan is one park per day (and MNSSHP the evening of our day at HS/Tuesday) for DH and I, my mom, DS(6) and DD(2) Sunday Oct 8 - Wed Oct 11 (travel days Sat and Thurs)
When we took my son when he was 2, we had successful daily naps in the stroller and he was able to stay up until about 9-10ish each night. I’m not sure if my daughter will do the same…she tends to fight sleep a little harder if she thinks she may miss something.
Would we be better off breaking up our days between parks? We have a couple ADRs we would have to work around. But I’m wondering if we could find a better balance between accomplishing everything and getting rest if we scheduled a daily break back at our suite at AoA. My biggest concern is that I was thinking nap time would be ideal time for DS and I to ride some of the bigger/wilder rides with height requirements.
Also, if you do park hopper does it have to apply to every day of tickets? I think I definitely want the full day at MK on Sunday and will already be going from HS to MK for the party on Tuesday. So technically we would only need to truly park hop Monday and Wednesday.
I like using park hopper in order to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours in the morning, and then avoid that same park later in the day.
We did a mid-day break during each of our heavy touring days, and I wouldn’t do it any other way. Forget the kids, I’M too tired to go from 7 or 8 am until 10 or 11 pm! Also, leaving the parks between noon and 4 pm allowed us to avoid the most crowded and hottest hours of the park. My two nephews didn’t actually nap during that time, but they did play games quietly in the air-conditioning, so we found it was worth it. Even the year we stayed 30 minutes away from the parks, we still found the mid-day break worth it.
We don’t park hop. Really - no reason to IMHO under most circumstances. Each park is big enough for a day so, even if we take breaks we go back to the same park. Now I remember when PH was FREE (image that WDW and FREE in the same sentence) and that was cool - but for a family of 4 spending an additional $200+, not worth it to me. I would rather put that $200 towards a stellar meal or something else. If I had a family that got up at the crack of dawn and stayed out until park closing (with EMH) sure - it would be good - but no - my group doesn’t do that - so PH not worth it for us.
Think of it this way - would you need to park hop any place else (universal doesn’t count as you have to have PH to take Hogwarts)
Depends on your family. I also think that hopping is more beneficial to those staying at a resort that is walking distance / or very short commute to a park. Travel time can add up for everyone, but if you’re using the busses, and staying far away, it might eat up a decent portion over the whole vacation. If I’m staying epcot area, I know that epcot or DHS is only a few minute walk or nice boat ride away. I can walk to WS for dinner or snacks at any time, or hit DHS for whatever I’d like at any time (DHS) is a park we like a LOT - maybe more than other folks, which adds in to the lure of hopping for us. If hopping makes sense to you for the price, then go for it. If it doesn’t make sense for your fam, don’t waste the $$$. For us, rope drop park a, swim break when it’s hot, then hop to park b.
Unless you have a specific reason to hop, don’t waste your money.
We did it last time because we were staying at BC, right next to Epcot and knew we’d be walking over there almost daily for food, drinks or touring.
My trips always adult-only, and in the cooler months, so we never take mid-day breaks. Although I always have either PH or AP, if I’m only there for 4 days I rarely hop; if I do it’s to go from a park that closes early to a park that closes later. On a longer trip I am more likely to hop in order to have additional half-days in multiple parks,
If you decide to add park hopper to your tickets, I believe you have to pay the cost of adding it to the entire ticket, no matter how many days you want to use it or how many days you have left.