Park Hopping Strategy

[Morgol]

Our family is considering getting park hopping tickets for the first time. We'll be visiting for 8 days and purchasing genie + because we don't do well with lines.

For those who've had to a chance to try it out, would you recommend rope dropping/early theme park entry the parks that you don't have to use Genie + heavily (Epcot and AK) and then hopping over to HS or MK (while stacking Geni+ throughout the day), or the reverse and go to HS or MK in the morning and going to Epcot or AK in the afternoon since they'll likely have more Genie+ options still available for the more popular rides later in the day?

Thanks!

 

[Meglen]

you plan on genie + everyday? or just a few of the days? I feel with going 8 days you really only need G+ for HS and MK and maybe a cross over night where you use it at AK morning/EP night with a mid day break. If you rope drop or go at night all other parks (not hs) you can get a big chunk of the rides done with - 30 min wait.

 

[Morgol]

you plan on genie + everyday? or just a few of the days? I feel with going 8 days you really only need G+ for HS and MK and maybe a cross over night where you use it at AK morning/EP night with a mid day break. If you rope drop or go at night all other parks (not hs) you can get a big chunk of the rides done with - 30 min wait.

Genie+ each day, especially if we park hop, because on days we go to AK or EP, we'll hit up HS or MK to take advantage of Genie+

 

[wiggy500]

Hoping to HS or MK while stacking lightning lanes for them works great!

 

[princesslover]

One thing to consider is that some of the headliners in HS and Epcot will already be booking into late afternoon even at 7:00 am. (Slinky and Remy, as well as Guardians). That kind of already puts those parks in the position of being the 2nd park if hopping.

 

[cjlong88]

I would use early entry to rope drop one major attraction, then enjoy attractions with low standby waits. At the same time, create an evening stack with G+ for the park you are hopping to so you can skip the line at the couple of headliners. A midday break is the perfect way to recharge so you can go until park close. If you use this strategy for multiple/all of your days, you should be able to hit all of the top attractions, most likely multiple times.

FWIW I have only toured with PH tickets and we find that the flexibility is so nice. Start in a park that has an earlier opening time, relax at the resort in the afternoon, and enjoy a park that has a later closing time. If one park is crazy busy, at 2pm you can move somewhere else. Enjoy an 11pm closing time and Enchantment at MK after enjoying another park earlier in the day. More dining options made available to you since you aren’t tied to one place all day. Lots of options to think about. Something to consider…IMO PH tickets work best for families who can be flexible and don’t need to do XYZ at very specific times on specific days. You will literally have the entirety of WDW at your disposal after 2pm. Be willing to move to another park to take advantage of an opportunity!

 

[jwolfpack]

You will get more of out of it by stacking lighting lane reservations for your afternoon park. We found that at all parks except Magic Kingdom, when we tried to use lightning lane in the mornings, we could really only get 1 attraction in on EE, 1 in on short standby, and 1 LL. By the time we were eligible to book our 2nd LL (either after tapping in or 2 hours after park opening), all the return times were pushed out in to the afternoon. I posted several examples of exactly what we did with park hopping + LL in the "Here Now, Just back..." thread - we were there last week.

 

[Morgol]

Thanks so much for the helpful feedback. For those with young kids age range 6-11. Do you find it easier on them to start in the park early, take a break at the hotel in the afternoon and then hit another park in the afternoon/evening?

 

[Meglen]

Thanks so much for the helpful feedback. For those with young kids age range 6-11. Do you find it easier on them to start in the park early, take a break at the hotel in the afternoon and then hit another park in the afternoon/evening?

When my son was younger he didnt wanna do parks at night he was beat after getting up early. Once he got older 10+ he liked the nights but was still super tiered. Our normal plan is we only Rope drop one park per trip the rest of the time we would do other things till 1-3pm than hit the parks till an hour after close. So it really just depends on your kids. Also as an adult I don't want to rope drop and park close I would need a good 3-4 hour break in the middle to even attempt and even at this point I don't think I would be having a great time.

TLDR: We only go Park warrior 1-2 days max. Than we don't rope drop anymore. Depends on your family and how people hold up.

 

[Morgol]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't like getting up early, but I like early mornings to get away from the crowds. Maybe going early then park hopping in the afternoon to another park for another ride or two and dinner and calling it a day at 6-7pm will work.

 

[Meglen]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't like getting up early, but I like early mornings to get away from the crowds. Maybe going early then park hopping in the afternoon to another park for another ride or two and dinner and calling it a day at 6-7pm will work.

Rope rope at any park will have a lot of crowds the lines will just not be as long. Plus to use the short lines you will need to be at rope drop almost an hour before it starts. So if the park opens at 8am, EMH is 7:30 you need to get there for before 7am and get on a bus by 6:15am.. Its a much earlier morning than most think to utilize the emh to save 30-45 min in line.

 

[Morgol]

So maybe the better strat is to just build up LL throughout the day and hit the parks later in the afternoon until park close? Do the crowds thin out at park close sufficiently to hit up rides without waits?

This would be ok with me, except it seems like a shame to be staying at a Disney Resort and miss out on the EMH time.

 

[Meglen]

So maybe the better strat is to just build up LL throughout the day and hit the parks later in the afternoon until park close? Do the crowds thin out at park close sufficiently to hit up rides without waits?

This would be ok with me, except it seems like a shame to be staying at a Disney Resort and miss out on the EMH time.

If your up and wanna rope drop do it. If your family is tiered and would benefit from more sleep to enjoy the vacation stack for later. With this system you can plan day to day. Being flexible is the best bet with this kinda stuff with kids.

 

[emmabelle]

we park hopped on 5/28, Epcot/MK with Genie+. At 7am I tried for Guardians VQ, but that was an immediate fail. Didn't try to buy it since I knew I wanted to do MK at night. I bought 7D for 6:30pm and next I got Frozen for 8:55am. I had looked at the MK selections and they were all for 2pm so that wouldn't work because my husband requires pool time.

We got to IG by 7:45 am by ubering from POFQ to the Dolphin and got immediately in line for Remi and off by 8:25am. As soon as I could after riding Frozen I looked again at MK times and they were still at 2pm, so I grabbed Soarin for 10:40am. As soon as we clicked into Soarin, Jungle was then up to 6pm so I took that. Now I had to wait two hours for my next one.

at 1pm - Thunder for 6:30pm
at 3pm - Space for 4:20pm
at 5pm Pirates for 6:15pm

After those rides I got HM and Winnie with some refreshing to ride right away. I could have kept getting the "filler rides" because ones were still available at 7:15pm but my husband was tired so we left.

I felt like MK was busy but maybe people didn't want to buy Genie+? It seemed pretty easy to get them even at night. It was much harder in February to do that.

 

[snikki]

We have 9 day hoppers with G+ already attached for our trip in November.

Our plan is 4 RD mornings, one for each park. We will stack at the PM park those days. The other days I have us sleeping in/going to the pool in the morning/early afternoon and heading to a park around 12-2. I will stack for that park also. I'm up early anyway so I can start doing that at 7 am. We may also hop to MK or Epcot if they are open late enough and stack there if available, especially after an evening in AK (we LOVE AK at night).

I know some people don't think it's worth getting G+ for AK and Epcot but saving 30-45 minutes 3 or so times is worth it for me. I've read several trip reports where G+ worked very well at those parks and saved them lots of time.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

So maybe the better strat is to just build up LL throughout the day and hit the parks later in the afternoon until park close? Do the crowds thin out at park close sufficiently to hit up rides without waits?

Here’s an example from about 3 weeks ago:

We hit Rise of the Resistance at 7:40 pm and found an 85 minute posted wait time. The actual wait was 15 minutes for the first ride then 5 minutes the 2nd time through.

We could have done a 3rd but opted for Tower instead. The posted wait over there was 80 minutes with a 10 minute actual wait time.

All done in less than an hour and a half. That’s how you close a park.

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

Also, just in case you were not aware, extra evening hours are for Deluxe Disney resort guests only. Early morning hours are for all Disney resorts.

 

[Meglen]

Kenny the pirate just posted on Twitter .. saying that you can only have 2 g+ selections at a time now. I'm hoping people that are there right now can verify. So one g+ than if you hit the 120 rule u can have one more. Than you must use one before you can get the next g+.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1534598004237385729

 

[snikki]

Kenny the pirate just posted on Twitter .. saying that you can only have 2 g+ selections at a time now. I'm hoping people that are there right now can verify. So one g+ than if you hit the 120 rule u can have one more. Than you must use one before you can get the next g+.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1534598004237385729

At this time it's just a rumor but I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes the rule.

 

[FreeCA]

My last trip was with a 13, 11, and 7 year old.

We used different strategies on different days, but found stacking G+ for the afternoon to be the best for us. Time will tell if it continues to be an option.

We liked to Rooe Drop HS and be out of the park by lunch. By then the crowds were just too much. That said we had no problem getting everything done we wanted before lunch.

We did not like to rope drop Magic Kingdom. We much preferred to hop in the evening and close the park. Not only were crowds and waits lower but the weather was cooler and more pleasant.

Epcot and Animal Kingdom were manageable with Genie + regardless of rooe drop or stacking.

We found the extra money for Genie + was worth it in all parks given the cost of the overall trip. We didn’t spend the money on a week in Disney to wait in extra lines. Also, with the park hopper it’s great to have options.

We went back to the resort for a nap EVERY SINGLE DAY! we didn’t want grumpy kids (or adults). The break was completely worth it!!!

As far as rope drop it just depends. I was up before 7 to book LL and IAS but if my kids wanted to sleep I let them. The only park we felt we needed to rope drop was Hollywood Studios, but we didn’t try stacking for the afternoon in that park. Maybe that strategy would have worked as well!