To hop or not to hop, that is the question...

[Shadey55]

Are park hoppers worth the extra money? I'm just wondering if it is even possible to visit two parks in one day. What do you think?

[lenzs4]

Disneyland - YES
Disneyworld - NO - they are too far apart and transportation will eat up too much of you day. Plan wisely and go to parks that are low visitation AM and PM for best results - or visit the park that has the evening entertainment you want to see!

[Magical JenK]

PH are the only way we'd do Disney World! I guess it depends on what you expect to do at each park. If you want to "do it all" at two parks a day, then I agree w/Shirley & no, PH would not be worth it. However, if you're like DH & me & are thinking about having dinner in one park, but want to spend the day in another, then yes they are worth it.

For us, it's totally worth it & allows us to be a little less structured than if we had day passes. But that's just us. We love the flexibility of being able to hit MK, go back to our room to relax & get ready for dinner & evening at another park.

[linanglab]

We are hoppers. We like doing EMH at one park, then leaving when it gets busy and head to another. We also have done dinner at one park - the park that we are not visiting. We find it convenient. If one park seems really busy, we will go to another park. Now....we go in the middle of summer when it is extremely busy, so that plays a part in it for us.

We also take afternoon breaks, so the morning may be one park, and the evening another.

It is worth it to us. Now if I HAD to save money, I would opt to not have hoppers if necessary.

[LuvMyBoys]

We don't hop, like the other posters I agree that it all comes down to your "park style". We like to do one park each day and do the whole thing. If we do Magic Kingdom then I want to be there from opening to closing - maybe a short break in there if we must.

If we do Animal Kingdom (which closes earlier than other parks) we make sure to get there at opening and then stay the whole day. Animal Kingdom is always so hot and crowded for us that by the time we are done I don't even want to think about going to another park. Usually we go back to the hotel and then have a nice dinner later.

I don't want to drive from park to park or just hit a few attractions at each, we like to do each park experience separately and totally for the day.

So that's a long way of saying that not hopping is what works for us!

[chipndale]

I think it all depends on your own style. For us we have done both and I prefer to have the hopper option. When we do a week trip we have always had the hopper option. My children are early risers so that means that we can get up and head to the park that has the extra magic hours in the morning. Then when that park starts to get busier usually around noon we head for lunch and then sometimes the pool at the resort or to another park. I like the flexibility to go to one park and then another. With younger children I never know what time they are going to get up and if they are going to take a nap or not. My DD has been know to bound out of bed at 6 am spend the morning at MK, go to the pool, take a late afternoon nap, and we can head over to Epcot and see Illuminations. If you are trying to save money then I would say not to do the hopper option. To just do some careful planning so that you can see everything you want in the park that you are in that day.

[eaglesdare]

i really think it all depends on what you plan to do. i have always (in the past) gotten the hoppers. this past april and dec i opted for the 1 day tickets. i have enjoyed both. this coming june, i am getting the hoppers again, we are going with 3 teenagers that have never been before and i think with dinner scheduled for epcot on more than 1 day, this will be best for us on that trip.

[spring]

I personally have purchase park hoppers the last two times I went. I like the flexibility. I can eat breakfast one place, lunch or dinner in another park. I almost always went to at least two parks in the course of a day, even if it was only for a meal. However, frequently, I would do one park in the morning, take a break for a while at the hotel, then go to whichever park my dinner ressies were at and spend time there.

[PSL1013]

We always hop from park to park, we rarely stay in the same park for a whole day. MK might be a whole day but we don't have kids with us anymore and we have been so many times to Disney that we tend to skip over things that are very crowded or that we decide we aren't that interested in. The Studios and Animal Kingdom are never full day parks for us, so we need to have the ability to go to another park the same day. We like to dine most of the time at Epcot, so hopping is a necessity for us! I think it depends on how often you have been and if you have little kids, in that case you probably would want to take it slow and stay in the same park.

[askomsky]

The key I think here is if you have kids, their tendancies and how old/young they are.
We opted not to bc of their ages, and we made the right choice. there was no way we could have done 2 parks a day. At 8.5, 5 and 4 they held up really well, we're all early risers so we did hit the parks early, when it started to get crowded we ate took a break got refreshed and moved on. Most of the time we lasted until close to park closing. We still never saw everything we wanted to.

I will agree with OP on Animinal Kingdom that was the one park we left at 3pm. It was nice to see, liked it a lot, but we live so close to Phila Zoo and are members that even the safari ride wasn't really "ohhing and ahhing" for my kids. the uniqueness (if that's a word) of the different countries was really cool, but really only DH and I could appreciate that. If we go back in the next year or two that would probably be one park we would skip and do Universal instead.

I think it's a matter of preference and family dynamics.