Welcome to Day 10 of Disney World Training. Please be sure to catch up on all the previous posts here. I am covering information in order of how you might need it when you are planning your trip.
There are 4 parks at Disney World, but if you want to visit more than one park a day you are going to need to add the Park Hopper option to your tickets. Park Hopper allows you to use your 1 day ticket to enter 2, 3 or 4 parks a day (depending on how daring you are!) and it is a one time fee of $52 per multi-day ticket. (So $52 will cover all 10 days of your tickets if you have a 10 day ticket). Disney does not require you to purchase the Park Hopper option when you purchase your multi-day ticket. You can add Park Hopper at any time, including the day you plan to start hopping!
So let’s talk a little bit more in detail about Park Hopper. Say we have a 10 day ticket. We wake up in the morning and we go to Magic Kingdom, but it’s so crowded and hot. We either have to stay at Magic Kingdom that day or we can use our Park Hopper option to hop to another park like Animal Kingdom (where it’s shaded and more spread out and doesn’t seem as crowded). The ONLY way we can enter both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on the same day is with the Park Hopper option. Disney will NOT allow you to use 2 days worth of tickets on the same day to enter 2 different parks.
If we were undecided if we would even use Park Hopper, we are in luck. Disney does not require you to make the final decision on the Park Hopper option when you buy your ticket. So even though we already bought our tickets, we could go to the ticket window and add the Park Hopper option right there in the parks. And then we could immediately hop to another park. There is Disney transportation from park to park so it is very easy to Hop.
Do you need to Hop? Well that is totally up to you and your touring style. Some people get to the parks in the morning and don’t leave until the park closes. They would probably be content to stay in the same park. Some people take a break in the middle of the day (like us) and it would be nice to spend your mornings at one park and your evenings at another. But like I said, you do not have to make the decision today!
You can read more about the Park Hopper option here.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
We usually get seasonal or annual passes; they both include park hopping privileges. On the years that we haven’t had passes, we get the 3 or 4 day ticket, depending which is on sale. (We are FL residents and AAA members, so we can usually find something on sale.) When we do those, we don’t get the park hopper option added. We can’t justify spending the $200 extra for our family. We just plan on sticking to one park per day and do our research to find the best park to attend (touringplans.com is my favorite site for this.).
We love park-hopping, but it’s not essential. However, it really comes in handy if you only have a few days to tour. We have seen 4 parks in 3 days, and it’s not a terrible schedule. It’s also great to have a park-hopper during special events, such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, if you’re not attneding, so you can switch to another park when those start and still get a full day of touring in.
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The park hopper is good option, personally. (keep in mind it has been about about 10yrs since I’ve been). Especially if you want just want to walk around the parks after you have rode all the rides. (if you do the water ride at Animal Kingdom, you might want to take another change of clothes, depending on the weather) I liked Epcot the best. We would walk in and out of the shops and come back another day if another park did not have the same item.
I like the park hopper option because of the reasons you say – sometimes the parks are crowded and sometimes you like varieity. One thing I’ve noticed about Animal Kingdom is that the best time to see the animals is in the morning. As the day goes on and it gets hotter the animals tend to go into hiding to avoid the sun. With the park hopper option you can do the entire park over a few mornings.
Just my opinion.
Just a curious question: You can add park-hopper the day off if you want… Can you do the same for no expiration or is that ‘add it last minute’ pek just for the hopping?
You can add no expiration at any time too. As long as you have unused tickets.
The park hopper is a must for our family! Many times I make dining reservations 180 days in advance, and its hard to know what parks we’ll go to that early. Its easier to plan our morning without worrying being committed to a park because we have ADRs there. We also prefer Epcot restaurants over the ones at other parks…so there are trips where 4 out of 7 dinners are in Epcot, and we wouldn’t want to be stuck going there each day. We take a midday break as well and usually switch parks after nap.
I could be wrong but I don’t think there is transportation between all parks. There is a boat between Epcot and DHS…and the monorail between Epcot and MK (or to TTC) but for the others, I think you have to go to a resort to switch.
okay,.. help!! My poor brain is overloaded!! But I must say I am using/reading this website like a bible these days. We are headed to WDW in March 2012 and I booked it through AAA. We have a magic your way pkg with dining. My quesion now { probably one of a thousand!!} is, is park hopping part of this packaging or are we locked in to 1 park per day unless I pay an extra fee? I have reservations at misc different parks/resorts { we will be there 6 nights/7days}, and want to be able to hop/see what we choose depending on the kids moods.
Traveling with small children makes park hopping a nightmare. We can barely get through one park in a day. I save the extra money for treats and souvenirs.