Park Hoppers at Disney, Yes or No?

I get asked a lot of times about Park Hoppers. When should you get Park Hoppers and when you shouldn't. It is completely up to you when you get them. You can get them every time or you can never get them. We play it by ear based on what kind of trip we're going to be taking.

You see on a short trip where we may only have four days so I wouldn't spend the money on Park Hoppers. Because you need to get as much done as you can and spending time hopping from one park to another (usually an hour at least!) isn’t a good use of park time.  Instead of going from one park to another go back to the room and rest or find somewhere in the first park and take a little quiet rest.

On longer trips when you're going to be doing two and three days in a single Park, it might be worth having Park Hoppers especially for dining! We used to do dining every night at Epcot. But now that all of the Parks have nice restaurants and the resorts have even gotten some good choices, it's rare that we change parks for the evening.

Another instance where park hoppers were necessary was when Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios had very little stuff to do and you spent literally a morning in each Park. Then you would spend your afternoon and evening over at the Magic Kingdom or Epcot. That's how we've gotten to try so many good restaurants at Epcot. But both parks are really getting full and have become full day parks, so hopping to another park isn’t as necessary as it used to be.

Now another theory is if you start at the early morning hours Park and then end your evening at a different Park then you will have less crowds. The early morning Park always becomes busy in the afternoon. People see that it's the early morning park and yet they don't get there when the gates open. Making the afternoon and lunchtime crowds swell pretty good. That makes it convenient to be able to change to a different park for the afternoon and evening.

So like I said if you're going for a short trip and you're going to do one Park per day I don't recommend having Park Hoppers. I also don't recommend it unless you've been for 5-10 times and know the Park's very well. Because you'll spend quite a bit of time navigating out of the first park and into the second park and lose valuable touring time at both parks.

I have clients that love them and will not go without them. And I have clients that go quite often that never ever get Park Hoppers. So it is completely up to you how you want to spend your vacation. I can give you guidance, I can tell you the benefits and I can tell you all sides but I can't make that decision. Next time you take a trip to Disney, make sure you book with Mia so that you know you're getting the best advice possible!

I AM READY TO START PLANNING MY DISNEY VACATION!