To add Parkhopper or not add parkhopper...

[StacyStrong]

I actually think it's closer to 75, but with taxes...

 

[StacyStrong]

So it would be 75 x 3 = 225 because your 1.5 year old doesn't need a ticket from what I understand.

 

[stsomewhere]

What time are you arriving on Sunday? I would hit a park depending on arrival time. Adding an extra day won't be that much money.

 

[sking5844]

So it would be 75 x 3 = 225 because your 1.5 year old doesn't need a ticket from what I understand.

It would be 5 with the in-laws priced in, but I get what you are saying. This makes it much easier to swallow and justify from a pricing standpoint.

 

[sking5844]

What time are you arriving on Sunday? I would hit a park depending on arrival time. Adding an extra day won't be that much money.

Up in the air at this point. We are driving and haven't decided if we are going to breakup the trip yet or not. Its an 8hr drive from where we are and we are doing the early HDDR show time that afternoon, so we elected not to get a ticket for Sunday at this point. If we break up the trip that may change.

 

[StacyStrong]

It would be 5 with the in-laws priced in, but I get what you are saying. This makes it much easier to swallow and justify from a pricing standpoint.

Do your in-laws plan on hopping though? Will they be with you at all parks? You don't need to add hoppers to each ticket. You can do it individually if you need to

 

[StacyStrong]

Re-read your initial post. If your in-laws are doing the whole travel with you, definitely get hoppers. It's hard to plan for what every single person wants to do and it'll be nice to give them some flexibility too.

If you want to buy hoppers for them only so that they can get dinner one night without you guys, that's possible too.

 

[saraheliz]

I wouldn't add them now because if you find those parks don't take all day and you want to hop in the evening, you can always add them.

With my kids, we've always found an advantage to having one or two shorter park days....although really HS is the only one that fits the bill anymore (we used to do EP over the course of two shorter park days, too).

 

[MomOTwins]

I have a different take on it. We have kids of similar ages and we always park hop, even though we are back at the resort and in bed around 9pm. Here's why:
1) It is very hard for kids that age to wait in long lines, and MK (the biggest draw at that age) has a lot of them. When we hop, we go to MK first thing in the morning and ride the rides in the first couple of hours before the lines are long. We then abandon MK to the teeming masses that accumulate around midday, and do a different park in the afternoon like AK, HS, or EP which have more shows and atmospheric entertainment, and fewer rides. This would be easy for OP too, since they are at Contemporary.
2) For some reason, whenever we try to stay in one park for a whole day, our kids get exhausted and putter out earlier (think 7pm). When we split it up, maybe it is the change of scenery or pace, or maybe it is the quiet time sitting on the air-conditioned bus or monorail for a while in transit, but they are always refreshed and able to stay out later when we hop.
3) Character meals are a big deal to my kids. It is the best part of the trip for them. Having the flexibility to move between parks can be useful to hit all of our character meal favorites. Since OP is booking well in advance, it probably won't be a problem for him to find reservations. We usually don't plan that far ahead, and it can be hard to get character meal reservation, so having the flexibility to move between parks is a big deal.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Right now my wife and I have a date night in Epcot so, that kills my in-laws chance for one without Park Hopper. The feedback on the AK and HS parks is great because I have had some folks at work that have gone recently tell us they were a half day or little more parks for them with their kids. We aren't sure how our kids are going to handle being up super late either, so this could at least give the option for one set of adults to go out if the kids do indeed need to crash early in the evenings. The only nights we are going to try our best to force them to stay up is at the MVMCP. I think the 4 yr old can handle it most of the time, but the toddler might not. The other reason we were torn on this is for the short MK day we have, we could go into one of the other parks in the evening and then if for some reason we don't do a full day at another park there is the ability to just walk over to MK from the Contemporary for some night time fun. This actually has been our family's hardest disney planning decision since it would be a $600 expense and getting our money's worth could go either way when we are there.

hoppers can be added at the parks during your stay. another idea the in-laws can add to their tickets the day before or early in their stay and you guys can keep your tickets one park tickets or you can add hoppers to all the tickets. will cost no more to wait until at parks and that way only the ones who want to hop can add. now you have more to think about. have a great trip.

 

[rentayenta]

Park Hoppers are not necessary in my opinion. You can always add them. We are going in August, have APs, and don't plan on hopping.

 

[loves to dive]

We have always had park hoppers since there was more than one park to go to. We have been going since my son was just shy of 3. We like the freedom to go to a different park if the one we are at is too crowded for words, we like to be able to eat wherever we want and we tend to go back to the resort in the afternoon for a pool break and find we normally want to do to a different park in the evening than the one we did in the morning. A caveat though, we are non-planners and rarely even book FPs more than a day in advance and rarely book ADRs any earlier than in the afternoon for that night.

 

[gharter]

We have APs and rarely do we jump parks. We used to and found we spent so much time traveling that it wasn't worth it. Also the way FPs are set up ahead of time, you can't prebook Fps in 2 different parks.
Now we generally stay in the park we start at unless it gets extremely crowded.
If you will be doing one park in the morning, take a break at the resort in the afternoon and then a different park in the afternoon/evening, then the park hopper may be worth it.

 

[ChristineOH]

Non-party nights at MK are supposed to be very crowded. You may not want to hop there in the evening. However, if you really DO want another evening in MK, you could switch either your HS or your AK day to your party day. Do AK/HS in the morning, party at MK at night, and then whatever day you move your MK day to, you will have to option to walk over to MK in the evening. It essentially gives you one hop without having to pay extra.

There are so many good restaurants on the monorail loop that there is NO WAY I'd add hoppers so that I could eat at a restaurant in Epcot. I'd eat at California Grill! You're right there! Or somewhere at GF.

Don't discount enjoying your resort in the evenings. You can enjoy the water parade and fireworks from your resort or head over to the Poly.

 

[J'aime Paris]

YES to parkhoppers!
I wouldn't do WDW without that option.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I had hoppers last time and went to two parks in a day a lot. It’s completely doable but I was super tired and had to manage my time a lot.

With 5 days you can go to each park 1 day and then do whatever you want the last day

For your amount of time it’s probably not needed, but since it’s the same price if you do it now or there, you can just wing it and see how it goes when there

 

[North of Mouse]

Another one here that would never go to Disney without hoppers or APs. We have never stayed in one park all day, love the flexibility of going/doing whatever we decide spur of the moment. Only you can decide what is right for your family/situation..

 

[cbl1]

We have never done park hopper in the past. Especially with small children the short days - start at rope drop and end day at like 6-7pm is enough for them. Plus the nights at the hotels are nice.

We are doing park hopper this year but that is because we are going for a week and got 3 day passes (so needed hopper to hit all 4 parks). But then got the waterpark and more addition so we have some water park days in between.

So your saying the day you go to Epcot - the grandparents are going back with kids that night so you have the night to yourself. But they want to go back as a family later in the week?

 

[disneylover102]

I wouldn’t add Park Hopper. To justify going to HS and AK I would do one of those on the party day so you can park hop that way. We never get park hoppers and most likely the only reason we ever would is if we got a 3 day or less ticket (since we wouldn’t be able to go to all 4 parks)

 

[sking5844]

We have never done park hopper in the past. Especially with small children the short days - start at rope drop and end day at like 6-7pm is enough for them. Plus the nights at the hotels are nice.

We are doing park hopper this year but that is because we are going for a week and got 3 day passes (so needed hopper to hit all 4 parks). But then got the waterpark and more addition so we have some water park days in between.

So your saying the day you go to Epcot - the grandparents are going back with kids that night so you have the night to yourself. But they want to go back as a family later in the week?

No, we are going to take the kids back after lunch and let the grandparents do Epcot at their own pace and then that late afternoon or early evening we will go back sans kids and do it at our own pace. My FIL just mentioned something that made me think he may want to go to a specific restaraunt one night without us in Epcot. I am not sure which one though. The way he was asking it just seemed like one of those vague hint type of things if you know what I mean.