Our very first trip was 8 days. We didn’t have Hopper and saw no need, since every park was brand new to us, we needed multiple full days at each park to see and do all the things
Second trip was just me and DH - just 3 park days — we had Hoppers and used them once.
Our next trip (originally planned for Spring Break 2020, after several reschedules is current for Spring Break 2021) we’ll have Hoppers as part of military promo tickets and are staying at Crescent lake. Our pre-COVID plan was to hop into Epcot for festival food after days at other parks. We’ll see if that’s reasonable in April (limited park hours make hopping less do-able).
I always get the Military Salute tickets, and PH is just part of the ticket price. If I was paying for it as an add-on, this is probably how I would look at things. If only 4 park days, then no; 4 days 4 parks. If it was 5 or 6, then maybe; a 5th day would give the option to revisit two parks vice just one, and 6 days would give me an extra half day at each park. 7 or more (not that I ever imagine staying for that many park days) I would definitely add them; with an extended trip having hoppers allows for much more freedom and spur of the moment decisions.
I’ve always gotten park hoppers, whether I’m solo or with DH and DD18. We prefer to spend the morning in one park, take an afternoon break, then have dinner and close out a second park.
I think the reason I prefer them is that I can spread out the things I enjoy, which makes it feel like I’m getting to do them more. Rather than riding Soarin’ four times on Tuesday, I can ride twice on Tuesday morning and twice on Thursday evening. Instead of thinking, “Tuesday is my only day to enjoy Epcot” I can look forward to enjoying it twice in the week, even if I’ve only got four days total to spend at WDW.
This is exactly how we feel! We usually go to one park in the morning, afternoon break and then another in the evening. We’ve also sometimes gone to RD at one park to ride a favorite and then leave and head to another that has a later opening. Or hop just to go to Epcot for dinner. We like the spontaneity it gives (note: we obviously haven’t visited during Covid times but this is our usual way of hopping.) Our kids are also older now be we’ve always purchased hoppers.
Last trip we did hop 2/5 day, we wanted 1/2 days at AK and HS. We were at the Poly 2 little kids, MK focused. With little kids, a break was needed, makes it easy to hop— just need the motivation to leave the hotel! I’m hoping longer trip next time and I’m glad PH is back, even just to hop for dinner would be fun.
My answer is “it depends”
Depends on length of trip and time of year.
In august, when we head back to the hotel in the afternoons and the park crowds are low and more can get done, then I usually will hop.
Busier times of the year, I find that we don’t really do it, unless we want to eat at a different park.
Currently DD and I are AP’s, hubby isn’t. We’re trying to decide if we want to hop for our trip and pay the added cost for his ticket. We’re only doing 4 full and one half park day, so I really don’t think we need to hop at the moment. Plus no FP, will have longer times waiting in lines…
I’ve always bought hoppers as I like the flexibility. Most recently (in the before times) we have stayed BC and have enjoy going to HS or Epcot at night after a rest at the hotel
I don’t ever park hop and don’t really see the value in it.
I don’t rent a car at Disney, and it takes way too long to park hop using Disney transportation, except between parks on the monorail. I’m also not a rope drop to close type person, so it’s just wasted money to me.
After my first trip where we did 8 park days we did not have park hopper and I did not see the need for it while we stayed at Pop and did RD most mornings, naps, and then back to same park or dinner. On our second trip which was adult only we did 3 days and 3 parks in October while staying at BWV. Now staying there I could see the appeal of it because Epcot and HS are so close. You could say that Pop is as close with skyliner but on the first trip with kids the cost did not make sense because 8 days we had plenty of time in each park.
I couldn’t find an answer that fits, but I said “most days”. In reality it just depends. But given our home resort is Bay Lake we probably do use it more than just once or twice.
If we’re staying at Bay Lake then one or more of us might go into MK in the evening even just for an hour or so instead of going up to TOTWL. Same when we stayed at Epcot, after coming back to the resort we often went into Epcot in the evening just for a wander or to do a few rides or watch Illuminations.
We rarely close down a park that we start at in the morning. I can only recall once last time at DHS where we started at around 11pm and stayed until the end. So we usually finish early and sometime some or all of us will head somewhere else later on.
But ultimately I don’t have to plan for it, it can be a spur of the moment decision. Our U.K. tickets automatically include park hopping so no decision required around whether or not we’ll use them. And it isn’t an “extra expense” because there is no cheaper option,
We’ve never used it but I do see the value for certain types of trips. We just haven’t taken those types of trips yet so it hasn’t been worth the added expenses for us.
We park hop all the time. We always stay at the Contemporary and no matter what park we do during the day, we always walk over the Contemporary mid-afternoon to closing. So fun! Happy to see park hopping come back little by little.
I’m so excited about park hopping returning. With the different hours I’m thinking of doing certain parks in the morning and others in the afternoon to take advantage of longer hours. For example, assuming AK closes at 5 or 6 when we go that would be a morning park and assuming EP closes at 9 or 10 that would be a night park. It will give us an opportunity to take a decent break in the middle of the day without feeling like we need to rush back to the park before it closes early.
