Best Time to Parkhop?

[mysteriouspnai]

Hello!

We're Disneyland vets planning our first WDW trip in May. I know it comes at a pretty bad time with FP+ and whatnot, but it's the only time we're free. Anyways, onto the question:

When is the best time of the day to parkhop? We're aware that it can take upwards of an hour to hop, but that'll be our "break of the day." The plan is to visit the park that has EMH and then hop to another park later. But when is later exactly?

If we parkhop during the lunch rush (11-1, right?) we miss the shortened lines. If we parkhop after the lunch rush (1-3).. is there any reason why we shouldn't parkhop then?

Along with that, can we eat on the bus to save time and money?

Thanks for your help!

 

[themommy]

I would suggest EMH with no fastpass+ at the first park...hop/eat lunch at either (we eat an early lunch around 11 because they will come in masses after that)...make fastpasses for the second park. You should be fine this way. Also, sorry to say you can't eat on the bus. Hope you have a great time!

 

[TreeSapp]

Hello!

We're Disneyland vets planning our first WDW trip in May. I know it comes at a pretty bad time with FP+ and whatnot, but it's the only time we're free. Anyways, onto the question:

When is the best time of the day to parkhop? We're aware that it can take upwards of an hour to hop, but that'll be our "break of the day." The plan is to visit the park that has EMH and then hop to another park later. But when is later exactly?

If we parkhop during the lunch rush (11-1, right?) we miss the shortened lines. If we parkhop after the lunch rush (1-3).. is there any reason why we shouldn't parkhop then?

Along with that, can we eat on the bus to save time and money?

Thanks for your help!

We typically hop at 1:00-2:00 or 7:00-8:00 for very late nights at MK. It's never taken us an hour, but we soemtimes drive (since paying for parking once covers you in all the parks for the whole day) or else we travel in the lower season when you don't have to wait for more than one bus midday.
You can't eat ON the bus, but we've eaten PBJ sandwiches and snacks while waiting for the bus.

 

[LSUfan4444]

We avoid the parks with a.m. EMH and hit a recommended park in the morning for the lightest crowds. Where we hop to depends on where we are eating lunch...we will either hop then heat lunch, or eat lunch then hop so it depends on when we get our ADR.

If we hop again, it might be to park that has p.m. EMH and our FP+ will usually be in the second park we visit.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

For us, when we hop we leave the first park when we have finished our rides in that park for the day. The time varies too greatly to even begin to put it into a time window. Depends on the parks involved, crowd levels, when/where we plan on eating, how we feel on the given day, etc.

 

[sharonabe]

One other note...lunch rush does NOT make attraction lines any shorter. Lines will begin to build around 11:00 a.m. and stay constant until early evening depending on the park.

We also decide time to hop around where we want to eat and how much we want to accomplish at that first park, so it varies from day to day.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

It really depended on the day of the week, season of the year and whether or not we had plans for a specific park in the evening. We'd usually get done what we wanted (at the recommended park) in the a.m. and stop for an early lunch. 11:00 was ideal for us.
Then we had plenty of time to go to the next "least busy" park for the afternoon. It might not make any difference, but our second park was usually Epcot.
The only time we varied that is if we were particularly tired and wanted an afternoon break away from the parks and walking --- that too depended on the season of the year --- and then we'd go to Epcot in the evening in time to have supper and stay for Illuminations.
I like having the option to park hop and we don't figure on doing FP+ anyway, so we don't have to save our FP for afternoon/evening.
Everyone tours differently, but we've always liked getting an early start and then leaving when the park gets busy. Epcot is bigger overall and more space to spread out. We can do World Showcase leisurely if we avoid Friday nights, and so on.