Plan for park hopper vs one park per day

Yeah I think I’d lean toward one park per day in that case. As @noreen99 said you can always add hopper later if you’d like to.

And what parks do you suggest for 2 days vs 1 day…like I said we have 6 days….

This is a tough choice. Park hopping is great, especially if your resort is next to one of the parks. When we stayed at BCV, it was great to go to one park during the day then hop to Epcot for dinner and evening.

But on our next trip, we are doing one-park-per-day because it is a short 4-day trip. Park hoppers are more valuable the more days you are there.

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We are staying at RIV…I’m
thinking 2 days at HS and AK. I was thinking of taking advantage of the evening hours for delux guests- but my kids rarely stay up that late!! Honestly I think my In laws might enjoy checking out resorts or Disney springs more than being in the parks…
I just worry that they will end up loving one park over another and I’ll need to change plans with no park passes available!

What is the makeup of the rest of your group. I was going to suggest 1 day at HS and AK and 2 at MK and EP.

Sounds like you need to have your family complete a survey ahead of time a la @Jeff_AZ :joy:

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I highly recommend it! :wink::joy:

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Wait a second…is this true? What does the survey say…I attempted a Disney family meeting and everyone said “whatever is fine” and thus the planning again rests on my shoulders!!

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Here’s a link to my post where I included some screenshots of my survey that I sent out to my bro and sis in-law. It was very helpful!

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Here is a simple quiz for your in-laws to take that may help determine which parks to visit the most.

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This quiz is too easy to game if you’re familiar with the parks! :joy:

Reminds me of: “Do you enjoy having lunch with nice people … or having nice people for lunch?” :joy:

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Hmmm, I wish I knew of someone who could make a better quiz…:thinking: :wink:

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It probably works for newbies though! :wink:

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Wow. Interesting thread.

As an older person, touring more slowly with mobility issues I can’t imagine not having PH. Starting early, rest right after lunch, head to Epcot, probably.

Well, I don’t have to imagine, we had that scenario in December 2020. Didn’t care for it. Going back to the same park is as weird to me as is staying in a park for 6 or 8 hours at a time.

I miss out on the reasoning that only 4 days means PH aren’t as valuable.

But then, I’ve been going to WDW as an adult for hmm . . . 48 years come January 2022. When WDW = MK. Or you could monorail to every park - all 2 of them.

We’ve brought several newbies to the World over the years. I’ve usually done my own survey to gauge their interests, health issues, dining choices etc. Rarely do we do all 4 parks.* I figure they won’t know what they’re missing, and yet, they’ll still have a good time making great memories.

*only once for 4 and that was a 4 park wipeout, with 40-something newbies, and a 30 yo and a 15 yo veterans. Good memories there, too. :blush:

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It’s debatable but my meaning was that since park hopping is a flat fee for 4+ days, the more days you go above that, the less it is on a per-day basis.

Also the longer I go to WDW, the more I like to wander around and take my time. If I’m there just four days, I like to power through each park one at a time. The exception is if I’m there for three days or less, I usually get park hopper so I can do two parks in one day and hit all four.

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That’s my thinking as well. I think with a 4 or 5 day park ticket, hoppers are hard to get your money’s worth. At 6+ days, the idea of hopping seems more doable because of, as you said, that more relaxed feel to the trip.

At 4 days, hopping between parks eats into the limited time you have. And I think this is even moreso the case now with HS no longer being a half day park due to TSL and SWGE. The only park that is half day for us now is AK (not saying it can’t be more than that…only that you can hit the highlights in a half day), and it doesn’t seem worth the cost of PHs just to cut a day at AK short.

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I figured this was part of it. Didn’t think of switching to commando if time’s short.

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If this is the case- it’s all too familiar lol…
Go ahead and get park hoppers if that was your original intention- let the in-laws get base tickets…Plan the trip the way you wanted if the ability to park hop is important than do it…again they can upgrade if they feel up to it…heck maybe they can watch the kids while your hopping…

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We almost never have hoppers are are totally fine with that.

We got them one year as part of a free dining package (remember those, in the olden days??) and we literally hopped twice for extremely short periods of time and very specific reasons (Osborn lights, ADR)

I have had hopping as an AP holder. I hop a lot more when I travel solo, so that made sense.

But as a family we pick a park and stick to it - always have and probably always will.

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This is what I told myself. At the TP recommended discount seller, the PH was $50 more. Our tickets were 10 days. So, $15/day for the three of us. Shorter ticket would have been more.

What clenched it for me though was the park reservations. If I’d completely guessed wrong on which parks to reserve and we couldn’t change them, we’d just spend the second part of the day at the desired park. So, I blame Disney for ‘forcing’ me to get PH. Only half joking.

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