Park hopper vs single park

[AlienBrain]

I'm a former AP member who is looking to go in October - Halloween time is our favorite. For a 2-day, one-park-per-day ticket for my family, it'd be $910 vs park hopper price of $1130. That's a fairly large price difference for something I don't feel to be that major.

What are your thoughts on park hopper vs single park tickets? I've never had to ponder this decision because I was always an AP. I'm finding it really hard to make the case for spending an extra $220 just to have the ability to hop parks, but maybe I'm overlooking something.

Why did/do you go with park hopper or one-park-per-day?

 

[pharmama]

I think this is a little hard to answer for October. Right now, if riding ROTR and/or WS is important to you I think the PH is worth it so you have the extra chance for the VQ in the other park. Without PH's, we would not have ridden WS on our visit this week (we did not get on WS on Monday between the two chances-we started at DCA-but we did get in via the noon BG drop yesterday when we started in DL). But how all that is working can and probably will change by October.

As a former AP, do you think you could spend a full day in DCA without hopping? For some people this is a yes and others no...really depends on what you like to do and if you like to repeat rides. We did spend all day in DCA on Monday but that included waiting 1.5hrs to get into AC and spending another 3+ hours inside walking around, trying the food and riding GOTG.

 

[longboard55]

Its a flat price, for short visits not worth it, for longer visits I would do it. For 2 days I would skip it

 

[Aspencreek]

We've visited from out of state a number of times. Typically we will do 3 or 4 days at the parks and I think only once have we ever got park hoppers. We are fine staying in one park all day until closing and almost always will do one full day at DCA and 2 or 3 at DL. Much more to do at DL and we prefer that park by far, so for the cost differential for our family of four it isn't worth it to hop.

 

[Indiana Scott]

We've done it both ways and will never do anything but hoppers again. I think it's even more important for a short trip.

 

[wishing4PA]

We got hoppers, but this is our first DL trip. DD really wants to ride WS, so I ended up reserving DCA as starting park 3 times. But I'm not sure we want to spend all of 3 days there, so we can hop. That also means we can at least try for WS at noon even on our DL day.

 

[mouschievous]

We went in 2018 for 3 days. We did not do hoppers because we had 4 kids and didn't want to deal with them begging to go to the other park. It worked well, but I will say that our DCA day we all got to a point where we were kind of wishing we could hop to DL in the evening, when there were no fast passes left in DCA and all the rides were 60+ minute waits. On the flipside, since DCA closed earlier than DL and we didn't have hoppers, it forced us to call it a night early (10), which meant a better night's sleep before day 3.

All that said, I think you *can* do single day, but you have to decide what your priorities are (will it ruin your trip to not get ROTR on day 1 and not be able to try again on day 2?) and how you feel about possibly being done early if you get to 6 pm and there's nothing left that you want to do, or the lines are so long you don't want to wait in them? Is the ability to avoid those scenarios worth $220 to you?

 

[coaches24]

Before covid we always did hoppers and loved them. it allowed us to treat the two parks as one and go where we please when we wanted. With no restrictions it was the best way to go IMO. We spend more time in DL park than DCA, but liked having the ability to hop over to where lines were shorter at a moments notice.

Last week we did 4 days with single park tickets because we did not think it was worth the extra price to park hop with the current restrictions and we had a great time and do not regret a thing.

 

[disneycat321]

If you're used to having an AP, not having hoppers is a pretty difficult mental switch. (Been there, done that.) We only did non hoppers twice - once for a single day at DL around Christmas time, and once with a 2 day: DL day 1, DCA day 2. While we did still love that 2 day/1 park trip, only being able to go to DCA for the day was pretty weird. We really missed the flexibility. We decided that in the future we will always get hoppers and would rather save money elsewhere (hotel, food, souvenirs, etc) to make up the price difference. Not everyone is like us, though - we are just hopper people, I think. We get them at WDW too, and far less people seem to feel they're necessary over there.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Whenever I had a single park ticket or reservation, I always wanted to park hop. You know your pattern, though. If your previous visits have been staying in one park, save the money.

 

[Matrixleos]

There really is no right or wrong answer here, just personal preferences. I look at the decision to add Park Hopper to tickets in several factors below...

1) How many days are you planning to go to the parks?
Park Hopper costs $55 per person for the duration of your trip. Person who is planning to go to DLR for just 2 days will pay roughly (ticket prices might change) $145 per day with Park Hopper. Person who is planning to go 4 days ($98.75) or 5 days ($83) will see a dramatic drop in per day prices with adding Park Hopper. In my opinion, value wise, easier to justify adding Park Hopper if per day ticket costs are $83 (5 day tickets) compared to $145 (2 day tickets) or $122.33 (3 day tickets).

2) How many times are you planning to visit DLR over the next couple of years?
If you're a DLR veteran and go fairly often, than you've already done everything that both parks offer and will most likely already have a favorites to ride lists. In those cases, maybe your perfect day is to start the day in DL, hop over to DCA in the afternoon to do the few rides you like there (GotG, Soarin, RSR) and then hop back to DL to finish the day. If you fall in this category, then the cost of Park Hopping would be justified, as it tailors to your favorite DLR experience.

If this is going to be your first DLR trip or you only visit every several years. Than you might prefer to spend a whole day per park over Park Hopping. This decision is made even easier if they're not offering Maxpass/Fastpass services. As if I'm in this category and I want to have the full DLR experience and go on every ride, then Park Hopper might not make sense. Without Maxpass/Fastpass (this might change in the future), it would be hard to do everything both parks offer in a single day, leaving no time or hardly any time to hop to the other park.

3) How do you see DCA, is it a half day park to you? Are you a fan of Marvel?
I saw DCA as a half day park and was considering getting Park Hopper for my July visit. Especially since I didn't want to waste time if we completed DCA by 3-4pm or so. Although when I heard Avengers Campus would be opening on June 4th.....THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING!!! LOL

Personally, my family is a HUGE fan of Marvel and as a family we make an event out of seeing all the MCU movies as they come out. My 3 kids all love those movies, tv shows and characters. With Avengers Campus now open, I now see DCA as a full day park. Between the following that Avengers Campus offers....

* GotG ride and WS ride (if lucky to get boarding pass)
* All the different character shows from Spidey stunt show, Dr. Strange sanctum show, fight sequences with Black Widow/Black Panther vs Task Master show and the Dora Milaje show
* Eating food on campus between Pym's Test Kitchen and grabbing shawarma from one of two Shawarma Palace carts on campus
* Grabbing different drinks from Pym's Tasting Lab and trying different treats like Cosmic Cream Orb/Sweet Spiral Churro
* Visit to the new Stage 17 at Avengers Campus, which is simply the greatest collection of Marvel collectables that I've ever seen

With all that, we will probably spend 3-4 hours just in AC and possibly more, as we want to see AC at night time too. My 3 kids already told me they want to spend all their "souvenir" money for our entire California trip in Stage 17, so I'm expecting to spend at least close to an hour there just shopping and browsing.

On the flip side, if you don't care about Marvel and don't care about Avengers Campus outside of riding GotG or WS rides, then you might still consider DCA a half day park and want to think about getting Park Hoppers to go to Disneyland once you're done with DCA.

4) How important is riding both Virtual Que rides RotR and WS multiple times to you?
Virtual Ques are really a lottery system and if you have Park Hopper, it allows you two chances to ride both rides in a single day...…instead of just once in a one park per day ticket. To have better chances to ride both those rides might be worth the price of Park Hopper to some people, so you have to factor that in also.

Personally, I'm going with a 2 day/single park ticket for my family of 5, as we only just have 2 full days in our Anaheim leg of our trip. In the end, budget wise, I had to choose between getting a Park Hopper ($55 per person) or putting that amount towards a 1 day ticket at Universal Studios on our Los Angeles leg of our trip. We decided going to Universal would be more fun than having the option to Park Hop.

This will be our first trip to DLR and doing tons of research before our July visit. We are going early in the morning when parks open and staying till they close. Even though this is our first DLR trip, I'm a WDW veteran and pretty sure we can do everything that we wanted to do on those days. Only stressful items is dealing with the Virtual Ques but I've been practicing and constantly been getting through. I'll try on both days at 7am and 12pm to get VQ reserved for Rise and WS. Hoping for a bit of Disney magic on those two days!

 

[PirateBrigade]

I struggled with this question, too. My daughter is 7 and isn't into thrill rides, so our options at DCA are fairly limited.

I ended up getting PH tickets because our trip was so short, and I wanted the option there, because we have ONE must-ride at DCA (Soarin'). Plus, we stayed at the GCH, so the ability to exit (and now enter DCA) was useful.

On day 1, we baaaaaarely left DL in time to park hop. Literally spent like 90 mins at DCA. On day 2, we spent maybe 4 hours in the park.

If I were you, I'd probably pay the +$220 to park hop. If anything, it just gives you a few more options during the day. What's the make up of your family and do they have any must-go attractions at DCA?

 

[AlienBrain]

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback everyone! This is super helpful.

What's the make up of your family and do they have any must-go attractions at DCA?

It’ll be a 3 and 5 year old with my wife and me. We want to ride Monsters Inc., GotG, WS, Soarin’, The Little Mermaid, all 3 Carsland attractions, TSMM, and Incredicoaster.

Now that I mention those attractions, it makes me wonder if I could fill a full day with that. Seems like about 6-7 hours, so we may be done by 3/4 and then want to head back to DL for the evening. But is it worth $220 to go back to DL from 4-close?
So much of this depends on the night shows. I wish we knew if/which shows will be back.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback everyone! This is super helpful.


It’ll be a 3 and 5 year old with my wife and me. We want to ride Monsters Inc., GotG, WS, Soarin’, The Little Mermaid, all 3 Carsland attractions, TSMM, and Incredicoaster.

Now that I mention those attractions, it makes me wonder if I could fill a full day with that. Seems like about 6-7 hours, so we may be done by 3/4 and then want to head back to DL for the evening. But is it worth $220 to go back to DL from 4-close?
So much of this depends on the night shows. I wish we knew if/which shows will be back.

Well, put it this way (this is how I justified it). You had a whole year+ where you spent $0 at the parks (DtD excluded). Amortize that $220 over the last year and it’s a rounding error. I did PH for literally one ride, and I really don’t regret it…just reading the age group + rides, full PH is worth it with the evening ending at DL (after spending sunset at Carsland).

 

[wishing4PA]

I'm not sure this was mentioned, but one further consideration might be your hotel/resort. If I was staying someplace nice, with lovely grounds, nice pool, etc., I might be more tempted to skip the hoppers and spend some quality time at the resort. May as well get one's money out of the nightly charge!

 

[buzz1523]

Is the Park Hopper after 1:00 PM a new Disney permanent rule or a COVID-based rule that will be lifted eventually?