Hopper or no hopper

[Disneygrammie1953]

Will be going for a week next year..Will be 8 Adults and 4 children under the age of 5.
Do we want to do hoppers or not.. I usually do when its just adults but not sure if its worth the extra money with the kids... Also trying to decide between Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom
Thoughts welcome please..

 

[Shanti]

Will be going for a week next year..Will be 8 Adults and 4 children under the age of 5.
Do we want to do hoppers or not.. I usually do when its just adults but not sure if its worth the extra money with the kids... Also trying to decide between Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom
Thoughts welcome please..

Boardwalk Inn & Animal Kingdom Lodge are both wonderful, but I'd give AKL the edge with young kids. All guests are allowed to use both of the feature pools: the one at Jambo, which has a huge, shaded hot tub & a big pool with sloped entry, and the one at Kidani, which has a waterfall/water play area for small kids & a great spiral water slide. Plus, the Mara at AKL is a very nice quick service, which will be especially convenient for a family. Boardwalk Inn has no in-hotel dining besides room service, and quick service in general is very lacking in the Epcot resort area. And the animals at AKL are a natural draw for kids, as well. We have found both AKL's and Boardwalk Inn's bus service to be efficient to and from the parks. Boardwalk Inn is within easy walking distance to Epcot, but Hollywood Studios is less convenient from the Boardwalk. It's either a 20-minute walk (not great with small kids), or a 20-25 minute Friendship boat, which is not climate-controlled.

Hoppers are more worth it the longer your trip is, imo. I like to give each park a full day, to let the ambiance and experiences really sink in. But after you've spent a day in each park, hopping in and out for the highlights and/or special meals can be a perk. Hoppers are never a necessity at WDW, imo.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Will be going for a week next year..Will be 8 Adults and 4 children under the age of 5.
Do we want to do hoppers or not.. I usually do when its just adults but not sure if its worth the extra money with the kids... Also trying to decide between Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom
Thoughts welcome please..

Boy, that's a tough one. Both BWI and AKL have their advantages and disadvantages with young children. AKL, as PP pointed out, will offer you two pools (zero entry), small slides and a great splash area for younger children. The theming is amazing, but the rooms are smaller than BWI (I'm assuming you are looking at regular rooms, not villas?) and it is a more remote location.

BWI will offer you bigger rooms, an amazing location (within walking distance of two parks and a ton of restaurants and entertainment), but the pool isn't as good for younger children. Theming is still lovely!

If a pool is really important to you, I would probably go AKL. If location and being able to simply walk to two parks is more important, I would go BWI.

In terms of tickets, if you stay at AKL and will be going back to the resort for naps or afternoon breaks, I would probably stick with the base tickets (you can always upgrade at the resort if you change your mind). I found, when DS was really young, unless we were staying at a resort with super convenient transportation (walking or the monorail), I really didn't want to go back out once we were back at the resort for the afternoon/early evening. It was just SO much work to pack up and get on a bus again. If you stay at BWI, hopping is super easy and walking into WS at night (even after being in another park during the day) is SO much fun, IMHO. Again, when DS was younger and we would stay at an EP resort, we would typically spend most evenings simply strolling around WS, getting dinner, etc. If you are on the fence with the hoppers, I would start with base tickets and see how you feel once you get to WDW.

 

[Shanti]

The PP made a good point. You can always upgrade to hoppers during your trip. I've upgraded during a trip before and it was easy to do. That's what I recommend doing if you're on the fence about it now.

 

[Wild4Walt]

If the kids are going to need naps in the afternoon, then I'd get a hopper in case you wanted to take a short break and then head back to the park. Also, if gou stay at BWI I would do the hopper as it's easy to take a break and then head back to Epcot or HS. AKL is a bit off the beaten path so going back to the resort may not be as easy at that location.

 

[Ensusieasm]

If the kids are going to need naps in the afternoon, then I'd get a hopper in case you wanted to take a short break and then head back to the park. Also, if gou stay at BWI I would do the hopper as it's easy to take a break and then head back to Epcot or HS. AKL is a bit off the beaten path so going back to the resort may not be as easy at that location.

You don't need a hopper to head back to the park after a break. You just have to head back to the same park.

 

[KenHutch]

In 4 trip with a total of 48+ days we have never used park hoppers. We find enough to do in a park and to keep us busy and I just do ADR's based on what park we plan to do that day (and yes we plan that all out before our 180 day mark). As to hotel with little ones it seems AKL would be the clear winner. Kids love animals and the activities and animals there should keep them well occupied.

 

[hllb]

I consider a hopper an insurance policy. If one park is unexpectedly busy, you can hop elsewhere. We've had hoppers before and I think we've only used them once. That is clearly not worth it, but I like the peace of mind of being able to hop. This next trip, we actually have one or two hops in the plan, so we can hit FoP more than once.

 

[cruisin5]

Hopping never seemed worth the effort to me. Sure the WS at Epcot may be crowded but am I really going to hop over to another park to see if it's any better? We pick a park and plan a day at that park.

The incremental bump is money is another reason not to hop IMO. Just too much money these days.

 

[chris benton]

With 8 adults and 4 kids under 5, I'd stay at Boardwalk and buy hoppers for the adults ONLY. I'm not sure that's possible - like the whole Dining Plan thing where everyone in the same room HAS to have the same DP, but for some reason, I don't think everyone in the room has to have the same ticket.

My reason - Usually, kids under 5 are gonna hit a wall, and be wiped out at night. If you are all related or good friends, I'd feel out the adults on this concept:

ALL ADULTS: Wake up early, have fun with the kids at a park.

SOME ADULTS: Get the kids back to the room at a decent hour. Dinner and swimming, and whatever other fun, then to bed. I'd suggest night activity at the hotel - most offer something like movies or scavenger hunts, etc. I'd also suggest having them all stayand hang out in one room to amuse each other as only kids can do, and then being moved back to their own rooms later after they fall asleep.

SOME ADULTS: Go out for night fun (WALK TO EPCOT OR HOLLYWOOD* in just a few minutes, or uber / bus to the parks further away.)
Lather, rinse, repeat.

If they are all gonna be under 5, you'll all have a blast with them in the parks during the day, and hitting the pools, but sometimes, I think the parks at night with kids that age can be more trouble than the payoff, all in all.

I'd present this case to the other adults in the group. Kind of like tag teaming the night activities with the kids, and giving some adults the option for kid free adult time. The kids will probably not miss the adults that go out at night at all. They'll be having too much fun with everything else.

*This is where hoppers absolutely rock. If your travel time to a park is 5 minutes or 10 minutes, hopping after a hotel break is...well, magical. If you KNOW you'll be taking a hotel break, might as well get a hopper if the park you were at is a zoo, and a diff park is empty.

 

[jandkmom]

I differ from the "no hopper used" poster. We use hoppers all of the time. But I think it depends on where you stay. If you are near and have easy access to a park, that may be where you want to go for dinner or later visits. We often do one park, then go back to Poly to rest, swim, etc., then head to another for dinner and some evening rides. We are usually at MK in the evening since it's easy for us to hop on the monorail. Plus we can catch the fireworks at a different park than we were at in the AM. So if you are at BWI, it's easy for some or all to head to Epcot or HS in the evenings, especially for all of the good dinner spots at Epcot!

 

[missbrooke06]

I think hoppers are great from September to mid-December. It's great to be able to do MK on a party day and hop to another park in the evening or to spend the morning at Hollywood Studios and then go to MK for the fireworks.

 

[Kimberle]

Will be going for a week next year..Will be 8 Adults and 4 children under the age of 5.
Do we want to do hoppers or not.. I usually do when its just adults but not sure if its worth the extra money with the kids... Also trying to decide between Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom
Thoughts welcome please..

You can buy the basic ticket now. Anytime during your trip, you can upgrade to the Hopper if you want. It's still the same price no matter how many days you have left on your ticket. But having this option gives you the flexibility to plan conservatively and upgrade later.

 

[TiffanyA]

I will also chime that I would never go without hoppers and use them all the time. I can only spend half a day at Hollywood Studios and more often than not, when we go to Epcot the kids in our group want to go back with the grandparents to Magic Kingdom after riding the headliners. We also frequently end up back at Epcot for dinner (the "parents" at least) while hte grandparents stay with the kids. We get date night that way!

 

[monorailsilver]

I have no advice on the rooms, never stayed at either. If I had to choose, I’d pick boardwalk just because of the location.

As for hoppers, would you use them. We have used hoppers pre kids and still use them with kids. I prefer them as I like to see illuminations at night and if I don’t have a hopper, I can’t go to Epcot 3 of my 5 park days (their other 2 are spent at the MK). I am not a AK fan and the studios haven’t been my fav either but I haven’t been since 2013 and hopefully toy story will be ready for us in August.

So I guess if you’d use them, get them. We made no difference in our park time with ornwith our kids. We still took a mid day break.

Oh but if you were going when the parks are not open late then I’d probably skip the hoppers.

 

[westie55]

To me, to hop or not to hop depends on the length of your trip. The longer the trip, the less need there is to hop. I agree with others that with small kids, you often end up doing an "early" night and heading back to the resort instead of doing the late night thing. In this way, you often don't make it out to another park. In the 5 trips I've taken young kids, I never bought park hoppers until my most recent trip. DS got sick and we missed most of one of our days in the MK. We decided to add park hoppers (while there) and just spent less time at Hollywood Studios that day. I would plan not to hop, and then play it by ear. As others mentioned, you can always add hoppers, but it's pointless to pay upfront if you won't end up using them.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I prefer the central location of the Boardwalk, but to your main question about hopping—as mentioned by PPs, you can add it anytime during your trip. But if you’re looking at buying tickets ahead of time from a third party seller such as Parksavers or Under Cover Tourist, sometimes you can really do better by buying a hopper.

In 2016, for example, I got 7-day hoppers for the price of 4. The same deal did not apply to non-hoppers.

 

[nighttowll]

Something I don’t think anyone else has mentioned is check the park hours for your dates.

We aren’t doing hoppers for the first time ever this next trip because the parks all close really early for our dates, like 8:00. I just didn’t see us running out of things to do with such shortened hours, and I definitely didn’t see us hopping to another park for only an hour or two. In my mind hoppers work well when park A closes early or you are done at park A between lunch to early evening, maybe 4 to 6, and park B stays open late, like 10 to midnight or after. If I can get an additional 4 to 6 hours in a second park in the same day, it seems more worth it to me.

Just something to think about.

 

[ols386]

I would do Kidani. I personally just don’t like BWV. The hallways just seem to go on and on, forever and ever.

AKL/Kidani is very large too, but not as large as BWV, when it comes to walking.

 

[SharonZ]

Every visit I swear we aren't doing hoppers, but ultimately we always do. Like the others have said, I like the freedom of switching parks if one is too crowded and also the possibility of just doing dinner at another park.