When it comes to planning your Disney World vacation, you may consider adding the park hopper option to your ticket.
Disney World Theme Park Ticket Cards
While park hopping is often seen as a strategy to maximize your time and experience in the parks, sometimes it is not the hack you would think it is. While park hopping does give you the flexibility to visit multiple parks in one day, it sometimes can cause more stress to your park day.
It really comes down to two main reasons: money and time. We want you to get the most out of your limited time at Disney World, especially when it is well-known that a vacation to Disney World is not always the cheapest.
Mickey park ticket
It Costs More to Park Hop
When purchasing your Disney World theme park tickets, you have the choice to add on the park hopper option. The price of the park hopper depends on how many days you are purchasing tickets for. Due to the additional upgrade fee, you will want to make sure you adjust your Disney World budget.
Park Hopping!
This does not apply to Annual Passholders as park hopping is included within the cost of their Annual Pass.
Annual Passholder
It is Time-Consuming
You can lose out on park time with how long it can take to go between parks. Sometimes, Disney transportation is not the most reliable, and it can take a long time to go from park to park. It can be frustrating when you miss the bus or there is not enough room on the monorail, and you have to end up waiting even longer.
Disney Bus
Disney World is huge. For example, if you plan on taking the bus from Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom, you should sit back and enjoy the ride as the two parks are on opposite sides of Disney World.
Magic Kingdom Bus
There is also the risk of weather delays. If the Skyliner has to close due to thunder or lightning, you will have to wait for Disney to start running buses as a form of transportation, which can also take a huge chunk of time out of your park day.
Look for a sign to let you know the Skyliner is closed!
You Need to Think About Park Hours
If you want to get the most out of your park hopper add-on, you should make a game plan based on park operating hours. For example, if you decide to start your day at EPCOT and then end it at Animal Kingdom, you are missing out on more time that could be spent in the parks, as Animal Kingdom typically closes hours before the other parks.
Animal Kingdom
While checking park hours, you should see if a park is hosting an After Hours event or if there is a holiday party like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Jollywood Nights, or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party as the parks close early to accommodate these events, so you should also take that into account when making your park hopping game plan. You can check the My Disney Experience app for updated park hours.
Magic Kingdom closes at 6PM for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Park Hopping is Subject to Park Capacity
While it is hard to believe, the Disney World theme parks do have a limited capacity, which is why the Park Pass Reservation System is a helpful tool for Disney to gauge park attendance.
Disney makes sure to watch park attendance
While it is rare, in some cases, like on holidays, park hopping might be limited if a park is full. If you want to double-check before you hop over to a different park, you can call (407) 560-5000.
You can call the hotline!
While it can be fun to visit multiple parks in a day, it is a good idea to keep these four things in mind to see if adding the park hopper option is right for you and your party.
For more Disney World tips and to stay up to date on all the latest Disney news, keep following along with us here at the Disney Food Blog!
Disney Just Simplified Park Hopping with Its NEW Lightning Lane System
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We used to park hop, when we took shorter trips. In order to get in all of our must dos, it was important to be able to get over to a park that was still open when our first park closed (or we had covered everything we wanted to). But even driving ourselves, it does take a lot of time during those precious park hours to hop. We tend to prefer longer, less frequent trips now, so we can stick to one park a day and build in rest/resort days too. Even though our tickets usually include park hopping, sticking to one park a day lets us start later, leave earlier, or both. Park hopping is great when you’re on a short trip and have must dos in multiple parks. If you’re going to leave the park in the middle of the day anyway (such as to nap, go to the pool, or eat), then park hopping is a lot easier and makes more sense as well.
Agree – i can easily spend all day in a park and never end up park hopping. I feel like if you are going to get the PH, part of your pre-trip planning is to think about how or what days you are actually going to PH – for example my BFF and i are going to 4-park challenge this summer so it makes great sense for us to have it that day.