Do I need park hoppers? Change my mind.

[PDXmouse]

We will be at the Swan for 13 nights and I think we will do 9 day passes... so two days each at AK, Epcot, and MK, and three at DHS. Some days we will do EE and one night each EEH for MK and Epcot.

Do we need Park Hoppers? It's about $300 extra which is a really nice meal.

Last time we went (2018) we did Park Hoppers because we stayed at YC and figured it would be easy to walk over to Epcot... except we never actually did. Once we got back to our hotel we were pretty wiped and often just chose to eat locally at YC or maybe BC. We only ever managed one park a day.

I'm leaning towards saving the $300 and just doing single park tickets. Then again, a lot has changed since 2018. Is there something I'm missing? $300 is a lot of money, but also not a lot in the grand scheme of the trip so...

 

[scrappinginontario]

With 9 park days I think you’ll be totally fine without PH, especially if you had a similar trip in the past and didn’t use them.

 

[dioxide45]

I am kind of an anti park hopper person. I guess it is right for some people, but I find it to be unnecessary. With 9 days, I wouldn't do it. Take the time to enjoy each park, one per day.

 

[CamillaF]

I don't think you will need them as you have lots of time . But MK is a wonderfully empty park on party days during the Halloween and/or Christmas season. You can get as much if not more done than on a busy long day. The park closes early and its easy and fun to hop to another park.

 

[Genie+]

I agree with @scrappinginontario.

The only other consideration is if this will be a different time of year than your last trip. Say your last visit was Sept or January with shorter park hours and this time will be summer with longer hours. Then maybe you’d like to go back to Swan midday for a heat break and rest before heading back to parks in the cooler evening. Hoppers might be nice in that case.

 

[loves to dive]

Hoppers are like the dining plan, you either must have them or not. That is a long trip so it really depends on your goals. I've never been without hoppers and have been going since there were only 2 parks. We like to go back to the room mid day and go to a different park at night. We are very play it by ear type of people so if we just aren't feeling the park we are in at that moment it's nice to be able to hop to a different one.

 

[han22735]

We stopped buying the park hopper option years ago and haven't missed it one bit. I'd buy a 10 day ticket instead(so cheap to go from 9 to 10) and use that if you wanted to go to epcot on an off night?

 

[glocon]

We’ve done it both ways- with and without PHs- and had a great time either way.
Next trip is sans PHs.
We plan to just do one park per day and have a meal at a nearby resort and enjoy/explore the resort, just going as we please.
That being said, I’m going with my sister who doesn’t do anything more thrilling than PotC so slow rides and enjoying ambience will be the plan of the day.
With 9 park days, you won’t have to rush around and can take time to enjoy your resort as well as the parks… and save some $$$.

 

[sheilafri]

With 9 days it seems like you don’t have to push too hard to do everything that you want. NOT having PHs might encourage you to use the resort more to relax and actually have more of a vacation.

 

[Pete W.]

If you'll be there during either Food & Wine or Flower & Garden at Epcot, the extra food/drink booths could tip the scales toward PHs if you'd prefer to 'graze' a few meals rather than doing primarily sit-down dinners. We're a family of 4 adults and a decent sit-down meal with drinks is easily over $400 and that buys lots of food and drink at the booths sprinkled throughout Epcot during the above 2 festivals.

 

[dioxide45]

We stopped buying the park hopper option years ago and haven't missed it one bit. I'd buy a 10 day ticket instead(so cheap to go from 9 to 10) and use that if you wanted to go to epcot on an off night?

This only works if they haven't been to a park already on that day.

 

[Kevin O'Brien]

I am kind of an anti park hopper person. I guess it is right for some people, but I find it to be unnecessary. With 9 days, I wouldn't do it. Take the time to enjoy each park, one per day.

I'm the same too once I'm in one park I prefer to stay in that park. Park hopping is very difficult especially when you are enjoying your day out in one park and having to get some kind of Disney transport such as monorail to another park it's easier to stay in the one park you are in each day. If it was Universal then I'd recommend it just for the Harry Potter train so you can enjoy all Harry Potter section with a park to park or an explorer ticket.

 

[starry_solo]

I say no.
We had hoppers once, but only because we had the Premier(e) AP (good at WDW and DLR). We only hopped once, when we were at HS for the day and then went to EPCOT that evening as it was the last day of the Flower & Garden Festival and the merchandise was up to 50% off at the shop, lol

 

[scrappinginontario]

We will be at the Swan for 13 nights and I think we will do 9 day passes... so two days each at AK, Epcot, and MK, and three at DHS. Some days we will do EE and one night each EEH for MK and Epcot.

Do we need Park Hoppers? It's about $300 extra which is a really nice meal.

Last time we went (2018) we did Park Hoppers because we stayed at YC and figured it would be easy to walk over to Epcot... except we never actually did. Once we got back to our hotel we were pretty wiped and often just chose to eat locally at YC or maybe BC. We only ever managed one park a day.

I'm leaning towards saving the $300 and just doing single park tickets. Then again, a lot has changed since 2018. Is there something I'm missing? $300 is a lot of money, but also not a lot in the grand scheme of the trip so...

Going to throw a totally different spin on this. You said you’re there 13 nights and getting 9 day passes. If you decide to keep the PH option, you may wish to think about adding the ‘+’ option for only $20 more per ticket. We love the Disney water parks so for $20 you’d have the option of going to the water park(s) on an off day or, mini golfing, etc.

 

[han22735]

This only works if they haven't been to a park already on that day.

Correct. Thats why I said "off"

 

[kylenne]

Hoppers are like the dining plan, you either must have them or not. That is a long trip so it really depends on your goals. I've never been without hoppers and have been going since there were only 2 parks. We like to go back to the room mid day and go to a different park at night. We are very play it by ear type of people so if we just aren't feeling the park we are in at that moment it's nice to be able to hop to a different one.

This is us too. We have an even longer trip in May than OP (11 days) and we got 10 day hoppers. Even with the restrictions on hopping it's still worth it to us especially staying at Crescent Lake. I hate being hamstrung, I value the freedom to go to a different park in the evening after our midday break or go have dinner in Epcot regardless of what park we spent the morning in. We never find ourselves spending less time in the resort either.

 

[PDXmouse]

This is us too. We have an even longer trip in May than OP (11 days) and we got 10 day hoppers. Even with the restrictions on hopping it's still worth it to us especially staying at Crescent Lake. I hate being hamstrung, I value the freedom to go to a different park in the evening after our midday break or go have dinner in Epcot regardless of what park we spent the morning in. We never find ourselves spending less time in the resort either.

We’re actually going to be at The Swan for 14 days/13 nights but DH made me promise to have some “off” days where we just chill. We may head to a hotel for a special meal, but no parks.

I LOVE the idea of swapping parks which is why I bought park hoppers last time. Then we never used them. Lol. But the kids are a little older so I’m not sure…

 

[kylenne]

We’re actually going to be at The Swan for 14 days/13 nights but DH made me promise to have some “off” days where we just chill. We may head to a hotel for a special meal, but no parks.

I LOVE the idea of swapping parks which is why I bought park hoppers last time. Then we never used them. Lol. But the kids are a little older so I’m not sure…

We never go with kids so I honestly can't tell you whether or not that makes a difference, only you know your personality and preferences but to me tickets cost so much in the first place that "saving money" by ditching PH is silly. With the longer tickets the price of PH is negligible too so what's the point of leaving it off, is my thought. Even if we hop only once in a trip (which did happen in Oct 2018 when we stayed at the Poly, party season kinda put a damper on hopping into MK), I'm still glad we have them for how we like to do the parks. We always stay in close proximity to them and while our mornings are generally structured, after our midday break we play things very loosey goosey and PHs just offer us greater freedom to do that. I would hate feeling constricted from going into whatever park is nearby even if just to get a quick snack or walk around to enjoy the atmosphere just because I went to another park that morning. Disney has done a lot to suck the spontaneity out of trips and PH is one of the last tools we have for that even with the timing restrictions.

 

[RunDisney Matriarch]

I do not think you need park hoppers on a 9-day visit and $300 is nothing to sneeze at so I am definitely not going to try and change your mind. But we love park hoppers for two reasons: (1) if our favorite park is too crowded/rowdy/hot (I'm looking at you, Epcot) it's nice to skip out to somewhere more pleasant, and (2) with the new-ish change to ADRs of a two-hour cancellation window we've been able to grab some pretty nice last-minute ADRs, like a dinner at Space 220. (You'll probably have your pick of ADRs with your booking window but we go on much shorter trips.) Have a great trip! It sounds amazing!

 

[bchbetha]

I'm totally pro-PH. Especially when staying at Swan. We do a park in the AM, chill at the hotel in the afternoon and then typically hit Epcot. As mentioned, if a festival is going on then you can find a lot of great food and drink at Epcot and not have to do a sit down meal.