Anyone hear anything on removing the “no park hopping till 2pm” rule?

[marshallandcartersmo]

With more park availability it seems like they’d get rid of this rule soon???

 

[fabfemmeboy]

With more park availability it seems like they’d get rid of this rule soon???

Nope, no word on that. At least not that I've heard. Chapek has said that park reservations are staying for the foreseeable future, pandemic or not. If you let people park-hop immediately, it would (theoretically) defeat the purpose of park reservations because it would no longer be an accurate barometer of crowds. As though they are anyway. I would at least like them to move it up a few hours - 2:00 is really late if you start the day in a park that opens at 8-9!

 

[RamblinWreck]

Nope, no word on that. At least not that I've heard. Chapek has said that park reservations are staying for the foreseeable future, pandemic or not. If you let people park-hop immediately, it would (theoretically) defeat the purpose of park reservations because it would no longer be an accurate barometer of crowds. As though they are anyway. I would at least like them to move it up a few hours - 2:00 is really late if you start the day in a park that opens at 8-9!

How would the park reservations not be an accurate barometer of crowds?

 

[Lewisc]

How would the park reservations not be an accurate barometer of crowds?

Make a park reservation at AK. Tap in then take an Uber to DHS. Reservations at DHS wouldn't be a measure or control of crowd levels.

Limits on hopping are needed, for as long as park reservations are used

 

[cakebaker]

Make a park reservation at AK. Tap in then take an Uber to DHS. Reservations at DHS wouldn't be a measure or control of crowd levels.

Limits on hopping are needed, for as long as park reservations are used

Exactly right. Without limits on park hopping, reservations are pointless.

The park hopping limit rarely affected us, but it did on our last day in the parks. We had reserved HS 3 days originally to insure we got a lot of chances to get in the VQ. We had gotten it on our first try and would've changed our park to the MK, but it wasn't available to resort guests after checking for several days. So at that point, would've wanted to try for ROTH and leave the park or tap in and go to the MK if we didn't get in. That's not possible with the hopper limits. We did get in the VQ for group 3, rode it and went back to the BC for pool time until we could go to the MK.

I'm sure there are more than a few who like to make multiple reservations for HS for ROTR, but go to another park if they don't get in the queue or hop out as soon as they ride. HS always felt like the most crowded park to us. I think the VQ accounts for a lot of the crowds there- whether you make it or not, you aren't going to any other park until after 2.

 

[afan]

At least move it up to 12 or 1. I like to hop to epcot for lunch, 2 is just too late. Even 1 at dlr a couple weeks ago was frustrating. It was fine the 1st day but the 2nd day I'd done all I wanted before noon. And napolini where I are didn't open until noon. So there was some wasting of time.

Like the PP I prefer to have my last park be mk but I want to hop there. Due to the 2pm thing I've had to make it my park day instead. It'll work out but really all I generally want is one more ride on the peoplemover and maybe a look in the shops. It's just frustrating esp when ak starts closing earlier.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Yea other than the one time I did all 4 parks in one day, I can't think of any time that I've hopped before 2 anyway. Really, I don't hop much at all to begin with. So not a change that I'm super concerned about.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Make a park reservation at AK. Tap in then take an Uber to DHS. Reservations at DHS wouldn't be a measure or control of crowd levels.

Limits on hopping are needed, for as long as park reservations are used

But you can’t do that now

I guess I wasn’t being clear

I was responding to the bolded part below

“it would (theoretically) defeat the purpose of park reservations because it would no longer be an accurate barometer of crowds. As though they are anyway”

 

[gharter]

At least move it up to 12 or 1. I like to hop to epcot for lunch,

That is part of what they are trying to avoid.
I don't expect to see park hopping times change, especially with the 50th coming up.

 

[afan]

That is part of what they are trying to avoid.
I don't expect to see park hopping times change, especially with the 50th coming up.

It wasn't an issue before covid and if it suddenly is now, even though they won't, hopping should cost less. I really don't think in the grand scheme of things hopping affects things that much or we'd have seen people not allowed to hop at some point which I never saw happen.

They're basically back to regular capacity, there's no reason to keep it at 2. Open epcot earlier if you're so worried about people hopping over at noon. But even on oct they are only opening at 10. Then let us hop to the other 3 parks before 2 and leave epcot at 2, problem solved.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

I wish it would be eliminated or earlier. We used to hop frequently before 2pm (to eat lunch at Epcot for instance). We have annual passes but my mom is traveling with us in December and I’m having a hard time justifying the cost of the hopper for her to essentially eat dinner in another park.

 

[HashberryOTG]

I figured lunch planning was a big part of the reservation system, not to mention ROTR. I don't see them implementing different hop times for different parks.

I don't have any issues with the 2pm time. I have not heard of any plans to remove or adjust this.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

But you can’t do that now

I guess I wasn’t being clear

I was responding to the bolded part below

“it would (theoretically) defeat the purpose of park reservations because it would no longer be an accurate barometer of crowds. As though they are anyway”

What I meant was that just because someone has reserved a park for that day doesn't mean they are in that park at any particular time.
For example:
Some people rope-drop and stay all day.
Some people rope-drop, do a couple hours, head to the hotel for most of the day, then go back in the evening for the last few hours of the park.
Some people meander in midday and stay until dinner, then go to DS or a hotel for a dinner res.
Some people come in midday and stay until close.
And some people have a park reservation but end up not going to the parks that day for whatever reason.

So if it shows 40K people have reservations to MK that day, it doesn't mean that there are actually 40K people in the park at any particular time, whether there are park-hoppers in place or not. There could be 40K, could be 35K, could be 10K at the right (or wrong) time. At most it's a ceiling, that there are NO MORE than 40K people in the park. But that's only effective until the park-hop time, at which point there could be literally any number of people in the park.

 

[Devil13]

I want it gone, and I want it gone now. Let me hop when I want.

This is one of those things, like shorter hours overall, that amount to a lesser experience for the same money.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Disney officials told a CA newspaper last week that the hopping restrictions at DL are here to stay for the foreseeable future. I'm guessing it will be the same at WDW.

 

[KimMcGowan]

Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the 2 o'clock time was all because of ROTR. If they allow people to hop before the afternoon group selection they would possibly be able to get a boarding pass.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the 2 o'clock time was all because of ROTR. If they allow people to hop before the afternoon group selection they would possibly be able to get a boarding pass.

Yes, but setting 2:00 as the time for the second release is arbitrary. In Disneyland it's 1:00. It could be noon. It could be 4.
There's no reason that it has to be tied to ROTR groups anyway. The afternoon group selection is based on whether you've tapped into DHS already that day, but there's no reason it has to be. It could still be based on whether you have a park reservation for the day - exactly as the morning groups are.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the 2 o'clock time was all because of ROTR. If they allow people to hop before the afternoon group selection they would possibly be able to get a boarding pass.

They didn’t have the park-hopping restriction when RotR opened. It started when the parks reopened after the shutdown. Disney has said that the rule is in place, and will stay in place, because it is a way to manage attendance and reduce crowding.

 

[Devil13]

Reduced crowding could be done by allowing people to leave a park that's too crowded. Even if it's at 11AM.

The parks have been crowded. Now you're trapped with the crowds.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

Reduced crowding could be done by allowing people to leave a park that's too crowded. Even if it's at 11AM.

The parks have been crowded. Now you're trapped with the crowds.

Also it doesn't do anything to manage crowding as soon as it hits 2:00.

For example, there are no more reservations for October 1 at MK - and haven't been for months. But starting at 2:00 pm, people can swarm into MK and many people seem to be planning to. Maybe the plan is to create a one-in/one-out system, meaning that people can only enter the park at 2:00 IF that many people have left the park already, but since you don't tap out of parks (only in) and since that hasn't been an issue thus far with, say, DHS throughout the reopening, I suspect they aren't actually limiting hopping to the number of people who entered and left the park already.