Hello everyone, my family and I are planning our 4th trip to WDW, and our package includes park hoppers - these were gifted to us, so we would like to use that opportunity to be able to visit multiple parks on at least a few days of our trip. In the past, we have not had the park hopper option, and have stuck with one park each day, and maximized our time. How do you suggest we get the most out of this opportunity? I’ve planned out our days (in early May), and happily was able to snag all the ADRs we need, which coordinate with the parks we plan to visit. I was thinking we may use at least one day to hope back to HS to catch the Star Wars “A Galactic Spectacular” - I found dashing from Fantasmic to the the Galactic Spectacular is a stress mess, so it would be nice to plan and enjoy that show. Anyone else have this park hopper opportunity? Our boys are 12 and 10, and have amazing stamina, so we usually stay until park closing. Thanks!
VSince they were gifted to you, I would stop stressing about getting best use out of them!
However we always go for between 10 and 18/21 days. We don’t plan out every day, we don’t go from rope drop to park close. We will have at least one day in each park planned out, usually 5 or 6, and for the rest of the days we "wing " it depending on what we feel like.
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So we might head to MK and do SOTMK for a couple of hours, then head back to the resort, and later decide to go to Epcot either to see Illuminations or to ride some rides whilst it’s on.
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Or someone will decide they’d like to go to DHS again, whilst I head to WS and then meet up for dinner in Epcot.
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DH and DS slept in on the 2nd MK day so didn’t ride BTMRR or Pirates, so we go back to MK before going to see Fantasmic again.
Personally, we are early risers and hit rope drop and take advantage of early magic hours and are usually out of the 1st park before noon(having ridden everything we desire) and back to the resort for a quick nap or swim to recharge. Then back to the parks around 3:00 and fast passes usually scheduled 4:00, 5:00 & 6:00. Then its dinner time at 7:00 then the evening fireworks/shows. I’m an obsessive planner, so I don’t like using all fast passes early and hoping to get more later. I suppose if your boys are night owls, that gives them the opportunity to ride their favorites multiple times if using fast passes at night. Or, you sleep in and use fast passes for the morning park and hope to get more for the evening park and if staying until closing, you should get on the more desirable rides without bad waits. Either way, I suggest using the daily plan to its optimum level. Have a great time!
I really love hitting the WS in Epcot in the late afternoon/evening…I would get the Hoppers for that alone! Def plan a couple evenings of wandering around there, having snacks and a few drinks, maybe some Agent P…SO fun.
I and my wife love to eat at Epcot so a Parkhopper has always been a must. Now with HS having so little to do, a Parkhopper is almost essential to get to another park for the rest of the day.
Hi all,
I’m also struggling whether to get hoppers or not. We have 7 day tickets for October and, after the Star Wars announcement, predictions and resorts price increased a lot. So we are wondering if park hopper will be the solution for us.
Is there any park that is less crowded on the afternoon? Or it will depend on the day?
Thanks a lot!
We are Annual Passholders (and have been for years) so always have the ability to hop.
In a typical stay (12-14 days each time) we do parks from rope drop until early afternoon, go back to the resort for a few hours to swim and relax, and then go to another park for dinner and perhaps another ride or two. This makes for a pretty relaxing vacation. We go 2-3 times a year, so we stopped rushing around and doing rope drop until park close many years ago.
I would say to use the ability to hop where it fits in with your plans, but there is no point hopping just for the sake of it. Moving between parks takes time. 
I have found park hoppers to be completely unnecessary. We paid for them on one of our 6 day trips, but never hopped once.
If you were staying a SHORT time (4 days or less) I could see hopping. Or possibly even 5 if you wanted to tack on a half day at two different parks. But with 7 days, I think they would mostly be a waste of money. Spend that money on something else!
But, there might be circumstances that are the exception. For example, if you are staying at an Epcot resort, you might want the option to hop to Epcot several evenings to eat there rather than elsewhere. That kind of thing.
I went for 5 days and loved being able to hop.
I would suggest you use the hoppers to your advantage only if you want to. I hoped by going to EMH and then getting out as the park got crowded. I would hop to Epcot for dinner, and I hoped when I picked up FOP and SDD FP while in other parks. In short, use it only to your advantage.
Why not just get base tickets for now? Then, when things start to become clearer and your plans get refined, you can always upgrade.
You can even upgrade at the gate of any of your days. You’ll pay the same whether you do that on day 1 or day 7, but it gives you the option if you find that park hopping is going to make your trip better.
I think it would be wise given GE opening.
@Nicky_S I didn’t know that! I thought I needed to do it in advanced… i wanted to take this into account for my ADR and FP but I guess that, if I’m getting it to get flexibility it doesn’t have sense to plan ADR and FP during the afternoon…