We have a trip in December and as of now I am paying extra for Park Hopper tix. We used to spend 1/2 day at Animal Kingdom and finish up at Hollywood Studios pretty early too and park hop on those days. Occasionally after Epcot as well. With Pandora opened (we’ve never been) and soon Toy Story Land, are Park Hoppers necessary? We spend sun up to sun down in MK and if there are any nighttime EMH we will park hop, but to save money should we skip them this year? We will be going with first timers and they haven’t seen Fantasmic or Illuminations meaning we will be there til park closing on those days…opinions please!
How many days is your trip? The longer your trip, the less necessary Park Hoppers become.
Sorry I should’ve mentioned that…we are staying Saturday to Saturday and have 5 day park hopper tickets right now. One day we will be at US and IoA
If I were you, I wouldn’t pay extra for the Park Hoppers then, since you can hit each of the parks across five days, plus one extra for a return to your favorite. Of course, that’s coming from Mr. Cheapskate here. But the one time we bought park hoppers (6 days in our case) we didn’t use them.
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I think it depends on your touring strategy and where you will be staying. I like to stay in the Epcot resort area and Park Hoppers work great in that situation because you can hit a park during the day, return to your hotel to relax/swim in the afternoon and later walk over to Epcot or Hollywood Studios in the evening for dinner and some extra attractions or shows. If you are a RD to close person at the same park then Hoppers may not be for you.
I agree w/ this!
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Staying at Port Orleans Riverside.
I just bought park hoppers and I’m really regretting it now that I’m trying to do a touring plan. Maybe I’ll get it together, but I really wish I had saved the money to spend on hoop de doo review - that got knocked off my to do list do to $$.
We’ve never had PH. Our trips have been 7-9 days. The only times I wished we had them is when we wanted to go to multiple Epcot restaurants but only wanted two days in Epcot and the day that it was super awful weather (cold and really windy) on our only HS day. We did not want to stay/come back for F! so we missed our chance to see it as we weren’t returning to HS another day. We don’t usually take mid-day breaks (prob b/c we never go June-Aug) but if we did, I could see PH being a huge bonus for that. Also we have a family of 6 and that’s lots of $ for us all.
I like being able to hop from one park to the other. You never know when one park will be more crowed then expected and you might want to switch up in the middle of the day. Also the last day is the day to make up what we missed or want to try again. If you could buy or add hopper to only one or two day I would be happy to pay for it that way but sorry its all or nothing. I know I won’t use it the whole trip but I like to have the option.
I am the same boat, trying to decide what we should do this trip. I keep thinking I could plan around one park a day since we are there for a week but then I also like to jump to another park some evenings for a change…
Just hanging on to see if free dining will be offered (I am not holding my breath), this trip I need to keep spending down, I have already been to Disneyland a couple times this year and we are going back again in August. I just want to see Disneyworld all done up for Christmas and not be in the middle of hurricane season.
Happy Planning!!
I think for the most part Park Hopper is best if you plan to eat in a different park than what you are touring that day. Also some parks stay open longer than others and depending on how young you are, you might want to continue the fun. 
Personally, I like the flexibility of having park hoppers. I tend to modify my plans as I learn more about the parks, which seems to happen on a weekly basis even though I started planning this trip about a year ago 
It’s nice to know that I can cut some attractions at one park and spend a few extra hours at another if I want to. We have young kids, though, so we’ll already be heading back to the hotel midday for nap time, and there are a couple of days that we’ll be leaving the kids with grandma and going back to the park for date nights. (Thank you to MIL for that treat!) That makes park hopping easier / more attractive.
If you’re looking to adjust your budget, though, why don’t you try making a rough draft set of TP and see if you want/need the park hoppers to fit in the key things that you want to do?