Park Hopper with young kids?

Our children are 7 and 5 and have been hopping on every trip since the youngest was 18 months. Like some previous posters we like the flexibility to switch it up based on their preferences for any given trip. That being said, we are midday breakers always! So we head back out to a different park in the early evening bc we find it more enjoyable than going back to the same park.
 
I would only get a park hopper if you are staying at one of the epcot resorts. Otherwise we find when we stay anywhere else but that area we tend to not park hop.
 
We also have parked-hopped, even when the kids were little. We like the flexiblilty and almost always take a mid-day break. It really depends on how you are planning your trip.
 
Kids are 2.5 and 4 and we hop! Spending almost every evening in Epcot. The kids love it. (They are weird kids though...definitely belong to my DH!).
 
Hi, my bf has a 6.5yo daughter. It's his first time at WDW, I'm a veteran (lol), and his daughter's 2nd time. I have no idea the details of her first trip with mom last year (may ask later), but at least for now, do you think it's worth it to add the park hop option? Park hopping is sometimes tiring enough for me as an adult, but I'm afraid there may not be enough to interest a young child at Epcot for a full day. Thoughts?
We never park hop at WDW, even when we have hoppers. We've taken kids annually from the age of 2 months to now almost 17 and we've always found more than enough in every park, but maybe AK. You'll be fine save the money and stick to 1 park/day.
 
We always park hop. We rope drop then we take a break after lunch and go back to another park and eat that night.
 
We never park hop at Disney World. It takes too long to take the bus, or even drive to the other park we just do one park per day. At DisneyLAND resort we park hop because the other park is literally a 3 minute walk once out of the gates of Disneyland
 


Unless you are staying at a monorail resort, skip the park hopper this time. You will fill the day regardless. Make sure you schedule a break. You don't necessarily have to leave the park. You could cluster a few shows together. Just make sure the kiddo gets a little down time.
 
Depends on a few factors that are based on how you vacation:

1) Do you think you want to take a break in the middle of the day at the resort and go back to the parks at night?
2) Does the extra cost of hoppers make you think twice?

If the answer to 1 is yes and 2 is no, then go for it. Personally I'm not a middle of the day break kind of guy and I've got a 5 yo, 3 yo and infant. I went last year with my then 4/3 year olds and we rope dropped and left at fireworks. I didn't do Epcot but MK/HS. There was plenty of stuff to do. We planned around breaks like character meals and snagging a seat for fireworks about an hour before they started.

The thought of "wasting" 4-5 hours in the middle of the day to go back to the resort makes me wince! You can spend 30 minutes getting out of the park. 30-45 minutes getting back to the resort via bus. Few hours relaxing at the resort (2-3?). 30-40 minutes getting read to go back to the parks (dress for dinner, clean up from swimming etc.). Then 30-40 minutes getting back to the parks (walk from room to bus stop, wait for bus, travel to parks). That's how my brain works though, a lot of people don't think that way!

It's really up to how you vacation honestly.
 
We park hop every day, never had an issue with doing it with the kids (every year since they were 2).
 
I just went a few weeks ago with DS9 and DS4, and we park-hopped.

The first parkhopper day, we went to AK at 8 am (EMH), took a break at the resort, and then went to MK in the afternoon. Stayed till fireworks, but DS4 fell asleep in the stroller right before fireworks started.

The second parkhopper day, we went to Epcot at 8 am (EMH), had lunch at Epcot, and then went to AK. We stayed till 8 pm. Once I realized it had literally been 12+ hours with no real breaks, I couldn't believe DS4 made it that long.
 
Is there an option to add park hopping on after the fact?
Yes, you can add parkhopper to your ticket once you get to Disney World or at anytime before exiting the park on or before the last park day of your ticket.
 
We hopped with my 3 year old and 15 mo old last year. We stayed at the Contemporary and RD at MK everyday, then when it started getting crowded we would hop to the park where I had booked us afternoon fast passes. We went in Sept and it was such low crowds that we were easily able to go to 3 parks in one day.
 
We usually have hoppers but on a short trip we seldom use them, and if I am not with my DD and her family I don't even purchase them. On s shorter trip I think careful planning can help to skip using hoppers. On a longet trip we do nto feel the need to spend as much time per day in any park, so we leave for a break and head back out for dinner somewhere else.

Hopping takes time, but if you already have a midday break built in the effect is no harm, no foul..
 

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