Are you all more inclined to purchase park hoppers for upcoming trips?

[Farro]

Reading the info about boarding groups and how it seems some people almost need to start each day at DHS in order to make sure they get a boarding group, what do those people who don't have hoppers do?

I can see hoppers being more attractive due to either trying to get a boarding group each day, or getting later in the day boarding group and hopping somewhere else.

We always get hoppers, but wondering if anyone changed their mind and are now getting hoppers? It's just all so complicated!

 

[igrsod]

I still wouldn't buy one. Anytime we have had them, it's because they were forced on us for a package deal, and we never used them. Too much time and effort wasted getting between parks. We just make a solid plan for one park per day and stick to it. Our last trip we had two HS days, the first day we got a back up boarding group that was never called... the second time we got a regular boarding group. We all agreed that if we didn't get it the second time... just a reason to come back for another trip... (we are DVC members, so of course we are coming back) lol

 

[mom2rtk]

Nope. We chose one day for DHS. We planned to be there all day. We got a boarding group and rode. It was great, but it was one and done for us on that trip. No need to give Disney any more money than we planned.

 

[Farro]

Nope. We chose one day for DHS. We planned to be there all day. We got a boarding group and rode. It was great, but it was one and done for us on that trip. No need to give Disney any more money than we planned.

We always have hoppers, but I am already warning Micky (and my brother if he comes) we are NOT trying to get a boarding group each morning! IF we don't get on, we don't get on!

Maybe by spring 2021 things will be different...or worse....

 

[goofyintoronto]

We always get hoppers. We normally take a midday break, then we hit a different park after our break. I cant imagine going back to the same park. That's just us though.

 

[mom2rtk]

We always have hoppers, but I am already warning Micky (and my brother if he comes) we are NOT trying to get a boarding group each morning! IF we don't get on, we don't get on!

Maybe by spring 2021 things will be different...or worse....

I am an early riser by nature and even I can't imagine starting every day like that. Or even several days. But we hadn't been to WDW in a number of years and wanted plenty of time in the other parks to reacquaint ourselves.

 

[mom2rtk]

Something else to keep in mind is that you can start with base tickets, then add the hopper option while there if you decide you need it.

 

[cakebaker]

We always get hoppers ( currently have AP's so it's included) but even if we didn't, I wouldn't go right now without them. 1) Getting a BG is not a guarantee and we want more than 1 shot at it 2) We have absolutely no desire to stay at HS in those crowds all day long 3) There are 3 T 1 rides. The only way to get them (good luck refreshing) is to visit the park multiple times and 4) We want to see both the the night time show and Fantasmic, need 2 visits to do that. So, we're doing several half days.

 

[bethannie203]

Our rule of thumb is we get hoppers for longer trips to give us more flexibility, but if we only have 4 or 5 park days, we just get one-park per day tickets. Either one day at each park for 4 days, or for 5 days - with 2 days at the MK.

Although, We got APs last year, so that probably spoiled us to having hoppers! Lol

 

[SaintsManiac]

After 2 years of having APs I will always get hoppers. I can’t imagine going without the flexibility.

 

[Canooknic]

We always have hoppers, sometimes parks are too busy or we're in the mood for something else so we use the transportation time as time to rest our feet because we don't ever do the 'back to the resort for a few hours' thing

 

[5kidsmommy]

When our kids were little we never did hoppers, I didn't see the value, plus honestly getting five kids to one park was enough. Then I went on a trip with just my teenager daughter. We went on a FD package and had to get hoppers. It was awesome. Everyday of that trip we did multiple parks. Since then on every trip we've had hoppers. I cannot go back to not having them. My husband and I like to take a midday break. We also love spending a few hours every trip at Epcot. It's just so nice to spend the morning at one park and the evening at another.

 

[Heather07438]

We normally get hoppers. If not, we'd be more inclined than ever to add hoppers because-

• More chances to try for BG without staying in crowded HS the entire day
• Ability to do EMHs without staying in those crowded parks all day
• Access to more Tier 1's at some parks without needing to spend more full days there
• Multiple short visits into Epcot Festivals for food and see different stage performances

I prefer not playing into WDW hands but the value of hoppers is worth it for the way we plan.

 

[sponica]

We've never not gotten hoppers because my husband likes eating in Epcot and I get overwhelmed at MK pretty easily. Once I leave that park I'm not going back the same day.

 

[Kaadk]

We've always gotten the hoppers, but I'm finding we're using them less and less. WDW now just needs so much planning ahead of time, for FP+ and ADRs, that the spontaneity of park hopping is gone now. I could see people who absolutely must get a BG using them, but we've basically resigned that unless they change it to FPs, and we can get one, we're not going to be riding that ride. There's no way I'm getting the whole family there for rope drop, much less RD early enough to be sure we're registered as being in the park before the 1 second window when BGs are available. Much like FOP in it's first year. We missed out, cause we couldn't get FPs and there was no way we were going to wait the 4+ hours the standby line was at. We'll get to ride it in a couple of years on a followup trip.

 

[SteveH]

Since we don't go every year, we get park hoppers so we have the ability to change our mind. Plus as you mentioned it allowed us to try to get ROTR without worry, we got it our first day and then two more times. Our first day was actually scheduled to be our Epcot day, and after ROTR we went about our day as planned.

 

[MinnierellaMama]

We always do hoppers — but it’s because we like to stay at the boardwalk area resorts and enjoy evenings at Epcot after spending the day at another park. I like the flexibility that they bring and it’s definitely part of our strategy this trip with HS.

 

[westie55]

I always used to get hoppers, then I stopped once I had kids. Babies and toddlers can't make it all day at the park, and if we did make it back to a park in the evening, we could go back to the same park and do the things we missed. Last trip I did free dining so it included a park hopper. Since we were staying at the Contemporary, it was easy to pop back into the MK in the evenings after doing different parks earlier in the day. For my upcoming trip, I'm back to non hoppers. We are staying at AKL this time so it isn't as convenient to hop. One year we didn't have hoppers and my son got very sick. We missed basically 2 days of our trip. We added the hopper option so we could get back to MK (our favorite park) to see the fireworks and do some more rides in our final days even though we had planned to be at Epcot and DHS. I think park hoppers make sense sometimes and other times they are unnecessary. It depends on your touring plan/style, who is in your party, and where you are staying.

 

[Tormania]

We have always got hoppers for our 2 previous trips and our upcoming trip. It's just 3 of us so it's around $240 extra for all of us. We leveraged it more last trip which was nice. Now could we manage WDW without them, of course. Our friends are a family of 7 we are going with this year and they bought normal park tickets, but for them it's almost $600 to get park hoppers. And they can always upgrade at the parks if they so desire. We just like the flexibility it gives us, especially with the dining options to bounce around for dinner and such.

 

[tguz]

We always have the park hopper. We also take a mid afternoon rest/pool break and half the days we end up in a different park for the evening, especially once we have had a day in each park. The last few days of the vacation we do half days in 2 parks and try to rehit our favorite rides and attractions.