This February will be my first trip to Disneyland in 20ish years! My Mom (80) and I are taking my elementary aged daughters and are planning on 5 day tickets to have a slightly more relaxed time. My sister and her teenage daughter are joining us for the last three park days (2 full and the 3rd will be a half day before our 6:00pm flight). I’m trying to decide on Park Hoppers. If it was just my family I would absolutely go for it given the long stay but my sister is hesitant as they will really only be able to use it two days with the 1:00 pm restriction and the cost is thus more significant. If they only end up with single parks tickets and we intend to tour with them, I’m thinking it’s not worth the cost to us either as we’d only hop the 2 days before they join us. We have visited WDW many times and I don’t do hoppers there but I understand the circumstances are much difference at DL so I’d love to hear from you all! Thanks!
I think with 5 days for you and 3 days for her hoppers aren’t really “necessary”…… We have a 3 day trip coming up and as I make my touring plan I’m noticing that we won’t really be using the hoppers I bought lol. We are doing 1 day of DCA sandwiched between 2 days of DLR. I thought we might want to hop around at night bc some of the rides just have such a different feel. Like Racers, Guardians, Big Thunder. But we will probably just end up doing those rides twice on the same day, once in the day and once at night. Still it’s nice to have the option
It’s not necessary and you will have a great time either way.
Normally for shorter trips, I would 100% recommend hopping. Longer trips are interesting because on the one hand, you have plenty of time to do both parks and won’t need to hop. But on the other hand, by the end you’ll appreciate the flexibility to go wherever you want on a whim to hit your favorites one last time! Hopping is so convenient at Disneyland and it can be nice to change things up midday or even multiple times a day, even if you weren’t planning on it.
With 5 days, you shouldn’t need park hoppers. This is coming from someone who has always had hoppers in CA but never in FL because it is so easy to hop in CA. You can walk from Toontown in DL to the CA Adventure gate in about 10 minutes!
A few weeks ago, I went, sans family, to DLR for the first time in 9 years. I had a 3-day hopper. I walked down memory lane leisurely, shopped every store, rode whatever I wanted, chased characters, sat on benches to people watch, and ate to my heart’s content. While I love the flexibility of the hopper, I honestly didn’t need it. 2 days in DL and 1 day in CA Adventure would have been enough. Of course, I didn’t have kids with me. So, with 5 days, you most likely don’t need the hopper.
You haven’t been to DLR in 20 years. There will be so many new things to see, do, marvel, explore, and eat, and things to reminiscence that your days and nights should be full. The only time you may miss the hopper may be the last day of your trip.
Read trip reports as Genie+ and LL gets going in DLR to plan your trip. Really enjoy your time!
Thank you, everyone! This was all really helpful information. We went with single park tickets - I think it’ll force me into building in a little more downtime than I might have been inclined to had we spent extra on hoppers. That’ll be good for the rest of my crew!
