Arbitrary and Nonsensical Park Hopping Limits

[DavidNYC]

With the massive price hike on the new APs, it's really ridiculous that there is such a late time for park hopping. And there seems to be no good reason for it either. Capacity control can't be it because park hopping is already subject to those capacity limits. The only capacity issue I can think of is that it would allow them to staff fewer people for the 9-2 block which sucks from many different angles. You look at the crowd reports from times like this week and it's absolutely ridiculous that you cannot hop earlier particularly on days where there are still park reservations left. Our last day in parks is very frequently a big hopping day to catch a few rides that we wanted to do again. Easily would do something like rope drop in one park for a couple of hours and then to another for lunch.

I hate the reservation system to being with but at least can understand their reasoning for it. The hopping restriction seems a very small incremental benefit (if any) to Disney while putting a huge restriction on customers.

I've pretty much decided my current AP will be my last and each new restriction, benefit reduction, and regular price hikes of 20-50% every year on many things has pretty much changed Disney from a several time a year visit to a once every several year visit.

 

[fla4fun]

Personally I think they put the hopping so late because they don’t want anyone hopping to DHS until after the second round of boarding groups is processed. With Genie coming along to shake that up, I think we may see a change to a slightly earlier hopping time. I don’t expect it to be too early, but I would not be surprised if it moved to one or possibly even noon.

 

[DavidNYC]

Personally I think they put the hopping so late because they don’t want anyone hopping to DHS until after the second round of boarding groups is processed. With Genie coming along to shake that up, I think we may see a change to a slightly earlier hopping time. I don’t expect it to be too early, but I would not be surprised if it moved to one or possibly even noon.

Eh - they're retaining the virtual queue for that and adding it for Remy so not sure it will be shaken up that much. They already limit BGs to those with park reservations for that day so allowing hopping doesn't affect that (other than having to reemphasize that only those with park reservations can join the queue). I'd think noon would be a bit more acceptable but it's just generally a huge pain giving people a lot less flexibility. The whole reservation system doesn't really make a lot of sense for a large part of the year when they're nowhere near capacity.

 

[Lewisc]

You can choice to buy, or not to buy, an AP subject to limited park hopping.

MK isn't available for new reservations. A guest makes a reservation for AK, taps into the park then takes an Uber to the MK. There is a difference between hopping because you've finished with a park for the day and "hopping" as a work around the reservation system.

The reservation system is the real issue. Disney can, indirectly, impose black out dates.

 

[fla4fun]

You can choice to buy, or not to buy, an AP subject to limited park hopping.

MK isn't available for new reservations. A guest makes a reservation for AK, taps into the park then takes an Uber to the MK. There is a difference between hopping because you've finished with a park for the day and "hopping" as a work around the reservation system.

The reservation system is the real issue. Disney can, indirectly, impose black out dates.

People are already using hopping as a way around reservation limits. I have seen it recommended several times on the boards. That could be another reason why Disney set it up the way they did.

 

[btuftee]

The whole reservation system doesn't really make a lot of sense for a large part of the year when they're nowhere near capacity.

If the parks hit true capacity (like in the past, on NYE, Jul 4th, etc.), they have phased plans for closing down access. With the park reservation system, my feeling is that Disney is really liking the extra data to drive staffing in each park - they know that 16,000 people are headed for AK today, so they can plan accordingly. In the past, Disney wouldn't have nearly as much information on how to staff the park (though with FP+ they must have been getting pretty close). I do hope the whole park reservation thing goes away quickly; it's one thing to expect being denied access to a park when it's super busy, but I can only imagine the stress it's causing right now. How many people have been turned away at the MK because they didn't understand the process? Guest Relations must be getting pretty good by now at dealing with it!

 

[Tormania]

Not sure if they will ever go back to fully unlimited park hopping. We bought PH tickets in Feb 2020 for our Nov/Dec 2020 trip so we were fully impacted by no PH at the time of our trip. Since we got our tickets though a 3rd party we weren't able to even get a full refund on the PH portion of our tickets, which sucked. But with the current PH limits, I don't see us ever getting PH tickets again. We probably didn't utilize them nearly to their full potential on our two prior trips but now it's even less convenient and just like Disney, no PH price reduction for reduced benefits. It's gonna be a while before we'll be going back so time will tell how things look then but not holding out any hope for improvements.

 

[OKW Lover]

With the massive price hike on the new APs

Massive? I'm not seeing "massive".

At any rate, I don't see what a price increase of any size has to do with park hopping as it currently stands.

 

[mustinjourney]

Massive? I'm not seeing "massive".

At any rate, I don't see what a price increase of any size has to do with park hopping as it currently stands.

20% increase on the gold to sorcerer's pass (when throwing in photopass). That's a pretty big increase. Even more when you consider APs went up like $150 the last round of hikes in 2018 or 2019.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Personally I think they put the hopping so late because they don’t want anyone hopping to DHS until after the second round of boarding groups is processed. With Genie coming along to shake that up, I think we may see a change to a slightly earlier hopping time. I don’t expect it to be too early, but I would not be surprised if it moved to one or possibly even noon.

If ROTR boarding passes are the reason they are keeping it there is no reason to modify the hours. Alas with RAT going under the same program with distribution times in the morning and at 1pm I don't expect to see any changes to this dumb policy.

I couldn't care less about BGs, I miss being able to hop to the EP festivals for lunch

 

[gottalovepluto]

hmmm... how would I change the policy? I think I'd get rid of hopping hours but I would only allow virtual line access to people who reserved that park that day...

 

[GatorChris]

This is why I won't be getting an AP for WDW or DL. I like the idea of having a pass and being able to head into a park anytime I'd like. But now you have to reserve the day you're going?!?!? And way in advance to prevent being shut out of the park you paid for the right walk in whenever. Plus the pass is good for only 4 days at a time, or whatever. I see no point to getting one of these passes. But...upgrading my Universal 4 day pass to an AP when I can just show up and be there? That sounds a lot more appealing.

 

[DavidNYC]

People are already using hopping as a way around reservation limits. I have seen it recommended several times on the boards. That could be another reason why Disney set it up the way they did.

MK isn't available for new reservations. A guest makes a reservation for AK, taps into the park then takes an Uber to the MK. There is a difference between hopping because you've finished with a park for the day and "hopping" as a work around the reservation system.

These miss my point. First - the "workaround" doesn't work until 2pm so it's not a workaround - it's simply the system Disney put in place to allow hopping after 2pm. Further, Disney already has a system in place to turn off the ability to hop to a park if it has hit a certain capacity. If a park is closed to new reservations - Disney can simply say the park is closed to hopping that day or until later (they even have a hotline to find out which parks are open for hopping). The issue is they set up a system with a one way restriction for when it's full but no system to open it when it's not. They shouldn't be able to say to people who paid for park hopping that you cannot hop if we have a certain number of reservations while at the same time saying you cannot hop even if we don't have that certain number of reservations. I have had many many park days where I finished at a park for the day well before 2pm. If I were there this week seeing the massively low crowds but still not being able to hop until 2 I'd be really annoyed as there is no capacity rationale for it right now. Again - not saying everyday - but if you create a system to close something under one condition - you should have a system to open it under the reverse.

hmmm... how would I change the policy? I think I'd get rid of hopping hours but I would only allow virtual line access to people who reserved that park that day...

It's already the case that you need a reservation for virtual line access.

Massive? I'm not seeing "massive".

At any rate, I don't see what a price increase of any size has to do with park hopping as it currently stands.

Taking into account the price increases (particularly for the middle levels) as well as removed benefits and the reconfigured blackouts, it's pretty darn big! And absolutely the price is relevant. Park hopping is one of the features included with the cost of the ticket and any limitation on my ability to do so while raising the price I'm paying for it is very relevant. It's one more aspect of the way I choose to plan my day that Disney has taken away from me while asking me to pay approximately 60% more for the same thing.

 

[sponica]

If the parks hit true capacity (like in the past, on NYE, Jul 4th, etc.), they have phased plans for closing down access. With the park reservation system, my feeling is that Disney is really liking the extra data to drive staffing in each park - they know that 16,000 people are headed for AK today, so they can plan accordingly. In the past, Disney wouldn't have nearly as much information on how to staff the park (though with FP+ they must have been getting pretty close). I do hope the whole park reservation thing goes away quickly; it's one thing to expect being denied access to a park when it's super busy, but I can only imagine the stress it's causing right now. How many people have been turned away at the MK because they didn't understand the process? Guest Relations must be getting pretty good by now at dealing with it!

They should at least throw the reservations back into one bucket....I don't have an issue with making a park reservation, but having one bucket would probably alleviate a lot of concerns. AND I believe after next month, most of the tickets should be date based again so it will eliminate the question of when will people be using tickets they extended through September 26. My gut feeling is that park reservations should become less of an issue as time goes on.

That being said, I would prefer an earlier start time to park hopping.

 

[OKW Lover]

20% increase on the gold to sorcerer's pass (when throwing in photopass). That's a pretty big increase. Even more when you consider APs went up like $150 the last round of hikes in 2018 or 2019.

I look at it as not having to pay for something I don't use.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Eh - they're retaining the virtual queue for that and adding it for Remy so not sure it will be shaken up that much. They already limit BGs to those with park reservations for that day so allowing hopping doesn't affect that (other than having to reemphasize that only those with park reservations can join the queue). I'd think noon would be a bit more acceptable but it's just generally a huge pain giving people a lot less flexibility. The whole reservation system doesn't really make a lot of sense for a large part of the year when they're nowhere near capacity.

Over the last week or two with the lower attendance and BGs lasting well into the afternoon/evening, there have been at least a few people that have reported being able to get a BG after hopping without having a HS reservation.

The hopping time makes zero difference to me. I can only think of one instance where I've hopped before 2 and that was when I did all 4 parks in one day. 2 or 3 is about when I hop anyway, when I do at least. Not a fan of hopping as it is.