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

[SemperAbsurda]

2:00 PM is a little unreasonable. Even at Disneyland where park hopping is much easier it's 1:00 PM.

 

[BK2014]

I still don't get it - They know who's coming and who has hopping options tied to their admission. Use that to determine the attendance and allow hopping at any time for those people. Consider a hopping reservation as a reservation for all 4 parks.

I am not sure I understand this suggestion. As far as I am aware, there is no limit on how many people can buy park hopper tickets for a specific day. In theory, everyone with tickets could have a park hopper. But even if we assume its a small percentage, lets say 10% of guests with park reservations at all parks on a given day have park hoppers, then treating those park hoppers as a reservation for all 4 parks would effectively reduce the number of park reservations available for each park by (I believe) approximately 30%. Someone can correct my math, it assumes capacity at each park is equal - which I know is not the case.

And even though they know who is coming and who has park hoppers, they don't know where the park hoppers are going once they leave their initial park, until they get to their next park.

 

[Devil13]

…treating those park hoppers as a reservation for all 4 parks would effectively reduce the number of park reservations available for each park by (I believe) approximately 30%…

Exactly my point. The claim is that the 2:00 restriction is in place to control crowds. This would reduce capacity, by actually reducing capacity.

They want their cake and eat it too. We don’t want you to park hop but we want you to pay for hopping.

 

[afan]

Exactly my point. The claim is that the 2:00 restriction is in place to control crowds. This would reduce capacity, by actually reducing capacity.

They want their cake and eat it too. We don’t want you to park hop but we want you to pay for hopping.

And they could. Reservations for DLR are for one park tickets or two park tickets. You have to say which you have when making the reservation. Maybe WDW has a better integration (hahahahaha) so it knows your ticket type when you make the reservation. I did stay off site, so I don't know if the resort bucket has the same function or maybe it is integrated when you stay on site.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

My husband and I did 4 parks in one day at the end of July. Well, technically it was 5 parks because we started in MK and ended in MK. When we hopped from MK to AK, they let us through the tap style at 1:47 pm. My notes say I was in line for Everest at 1:55 pm.

Can you share your “route” & your transportation you used (boat/skyliner/monorail). We are relying on Disney transportation this trip

We plan on MK/AK/HS/EPCOT

 

[B1GxFOOT]

I don't understand what sense it makes that you have to "check-in" at your reserved park before you hop. If I can't hop 'til 2 anyway, what difference does it make how I spend my morning/lunch. After 2 I should be able to go wherever I want regardless if I spent the first half of the day at my reserved park, BB or DS.

 

[rlk]

Can you share your “route” & your transportation you used (boat/skyliner/monorail). We are relying on Disney transportation this trip

We plan on MK/AK/HS/EPCOT

We hopped in the same order as you are planning. We were staying at BLT, so we walked to MK for rope drop. We left MK earlier and had an early lunch at Contempo Cafe before heading to the CR bus stop. The AK bus came right away, so we arrived very early to AK.
Entered AK at 1:47.
Bus to HS
Walked to Epcot
Monorail back to MK by 7:45 for fireworks.

We got very lucky with transportation for this day; never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus or monorail. We thought about taking the skyliner from HS to Epcot, but we figured we'd go for a high step count as well as all the parks.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

We hopped in the same order as you are planning. We were staying at BLT, so we walked to MK for rope drop. We left MK earlier and had an early lunch at Contempo Cafe before heading to the CR bus stop. The AK bus came right away, so we arrived very early to AK.
Entered AK at 1:47.
Bus to HS
Walked to Epcot
Monorail back to MK by 7:45 for fireworks.

We got very lucky with transportation for this day; never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus or monorail. We thought about taking the skyliner from HS to Epcot, but we figured we'd go for a high step count as well as all the parks.

thank you so much!!!

 

[rlk]

thank you so much!!!

I forgot to add that if you end up hopping to AK as early as we did, the Rain Forest Cafe has an outdoor bar and covered seating area. They also had the misters on full blast which was nice.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I don't understand what sense it makes that you have to "check-in" at your reserved park before you hop. If I can't hop 'til 2 anyway, what difference does it make how I spend my morning/lunch. After 2 I should be able to go wherever I want regardless if I spent the first half of the day at my reserved park, BB or DS.

The fact that is a pain is the point. If you've got a reservation at Animal Kingdom, and you want to go to HS, and there are no HS reservations that day... how many people are really just goin gto go all the way to AK to tap in and go to HS. Most of them will probably just stay at AK. They're selling the hoppers because it's pure profit but they'd really prefer people don't hop, so they're not going to make it easy.

 

[Wakey]

They won’t remove this as people have put up with it and it massively reduces operational costs (staff only as required, supplies as required, planning etc) so it’s more money in the coffers. Plus with the Key in DL they’ve monetised the park reservation system as well- have to buy a more expensive pass to get more reservations, wouldn’t surprise me to see similar at WDW.
So they have to keep it otherwise the park reservation system is pointless.
Until the ‘fools and their money’ stop going, they won’t change it.

 

[Redhead5]

Unpopular Opinion here. If I have a reservation for a certain park, I want to enjoy it for a while before the rest of you pile in. I like park hopping not starting until 2PM.

 

[Devil13]

Maybe even more unpopular. I paid for the beauty of park hopping. Let me move around as I wish.

 

[Leigh L]

Unpopular Opinion here. If I have a reservation for a certain park, I want to enjoy it for a while before the rest of you pile in. I like park hopping not starting until 2PM.

But remember, as people pile in, lots of us will be eagerly leaving .

Maybe even more unpopular. I paid for the beauty of park hopping. Let me move around as I wish.

I truly wish they'd move it back at least 2 hours. Eventually, lift it altogether.

Have a quick trip coming up and we only have one day as a park day (along with a Boo Bash on a different day) - I'd love to hit all four parks, but with the 2 p.m. limitation, probably not happening since I only have the one day. Even with longer trips though, if I'm paying for hopper, I'd like to use it.

 

[sandrews0608]

I know I would like it removed completely. In the past I have park hopped as early as 10:00 am. I like to do MK at rope drop for just a handful of rides and then hope over to Epcot for lunch.......

 

[Tigger's ally]

They also had the misters on full blast which was nice.

Ummm, i first thought there must have been a band called "the misters".

 

[ChanaC]

I also hope they remove this rule, especially with another virtual queue/boarding group coming up with Remy. I would like to attempt to park hop between Epcot and HS and attempt to get both boarding groups (start in HS and try for RotR and head over to Epcot for Remy for the second virtual queue at 1pm - assuming the system is identical). Looks like I would be able to.

And honestly if you are only going for a few days like I am, starting with an Epcot reservation just seems like a waste when it doesn't open until 11. I could start the day at Animal Kingdom at 8 and do half the park by the time Epcot opens up. Even if I wanted to get the Remy virtual queue, I don't know if I would want to make the park reservation and just sit around all morning waiting for it to open.

 

[StageTek]

My typical last day:

Take luggage to Bell Service>MK early for a couple of attractions>AK for Everest>DHS for RnR>Epcot for Spaceship Earth then back to the resort for DME.

Even with a 7:30PM flight I don't think I can hit all four parks on my last day. Yet another "tradition" gone...

 

[DL1WDW2]

I forgot to add that if you end up hopping to AK as early as we did, the Rain Forest Cafe has an outdoor bar and covered seating area. They also had the misters on full blast which was nice.

Learn something new every day! Thanks

 

[riversend22]

a friend & I are hoping to do the “4 parks in one day” challenge next week & we sure were hoping the 2pm hopping restrictions would be lifted by then. Even bumping it to 1pm would be helpful. Doesn’t look likely

I just got back from a trip and on our last day (Sunday 22nd) we were able to hit 3 parks, and could easily have included the fourth if we wanted to. As long as the crowds stay low I think it's totally doable. We hit rope drop at AK first and we were able to have everything done by around 12:30. We did skip the shows, but hit every ride (minus triceratops spin), and even did some multiple times. Then we left AK at 1 and drove over to MK. We tapped into the park at 1:45 and started our loop. We hit Pirates, Splash, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Philharmagic, and also got some dole whips. We could have done more, but chose to hop over to Epcot around 6:30. We then enjoyed Food and wine until about 8:30 when we decided to tap out for good because of an early flight the next morning. So 4 parks is totally reachable, you may just have to cut out a ride or two, or just eliminate the double rides etc. Have fun!