One key element to every Disney Vacation is, of course, your park ticket.
There are currently three main options offered: 1 Park Per Day, Ticket with Park Hopper Option, and Ticket with Park Hopper Plus Option.
This does not include annual passes or special limited-time tickets and offers.
Today, we’re going to take a look at what the Park Hopper ticket is and what the biggest pros and cons are. Hopefully, this will help you decide if the Park Hopper is worth it for you and your family or group!
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What is a Park Hopper?
A Park Hopper ticket gets you the option to hop from one park to another in a single day. You can even hit all four parks if you wanted to!
A 1 Park Per Day ticket starts at $109.00 for ages ten and up.**
Adding a Park Hopper option costs an additional $60.00 added to the base price. This ticket lets you go to any of the four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom) in a single day.**
Adding a Park Hopper Plus options costs and an additional $80.00 to the base price and allows you to hop between any of the four theme parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, and Disney’s Golf and Minigolf courses.**
You can read more about the ticket options on Disney’s website.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of adding a Park Hopper Option to your ticket.
**Prices are current at the time of posting but are subject to change.
Pros
The freedom
You aren’t confined to a single park for any day of your vacation. You can get by with a little less planning and change up your plans as you see fit.
You’ll always want to do some planning if you’re going to Disney World, but if you or your group are more the types to go with the flow, the Park Hopper will absolutely give you more flexibility and options each day of your trip.
You can also get the most out of your day by starting your day in the park that opens earliest and ending it the park that’s open the latest if you’re up for it!
The FastPasses
You can book three FastPasses per day at the start of your trip. And if you’re using a Park Hopper, this means you can get those hard to get FastPasses whenever you can get them.
For instance, if you only have a 1 Park Per Day ticket, and there aren’t any Frozen Ever After FastPasses left on your Epcot day, there’s not too much you can do except to keep checking back.
But with a Park Hopper, you can grab that Frozen Ever After FastPass whenever it’s available and hop over and ride when the time comes.
For more on Disney’s Fast Pass System, check out this post!
You can avoid the crowds
With the Park Hopper, you can go to morning Extra Magic hours then hop to a less crowded park.
Or if you’re feeling like the park you’re in is more crowded than you’d like, check the wait times for other parks in the My Disney Experience App. If you see reduced wait times someplace else, you can go ahead and park hop.
The dining options
If dining is important to you, the Park Hopper gives you the option to eat anywhere you want.
This means if Epcot has one of your favorite restaurants, you can eat there no matter what park you decide to spend your day in.
It also means if the park you’re spending your day in doesn’t have a restaurant that appeals to you, but another park does, you can park hop to the restaurant of your choice!
Cons
The cost
Depending on the ticket you choose, you could be paying $60-$80 more per person per day. That cost can add up depending on the size of your family or group.
Additionally, the parks themselves aren’t any different regardless of if you have a Park Hopper or 1 Day Park Ticket.
The travel time
The only Disney World parks that are really close together are Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The rest are spread pretty far apart from one another.
And while there are many perks of Disney Transportation, you’re also at its mercy when you park hop. So on top of the travel time, you’ll have to add waiting for your transportation method to arrive.
However, if you’re group is the type to get an early start, take a midday break, then head back to the park, you can easily work around this. Simply choose one park for the morning and one park for the afternoon.
Any park-hopping beyond that will likely take away from your time in the park and may not be worth the extra cost as a result.
You run the risk of overextending yourself
If you’re paying for the park hopper, you may feel extra pressure to get your money’s worth. This may mean that you’ll be more likely to go-go-go!
A single Disney park can easily be a full and fun, but exhausting day. Adding the pressure of hitting multiple parks and trying to make it to FastPasses and Dining Reservations in different parks may turn out to be a bit too much.
I’ve said it on this blog before and I’ll say it again: Disney World is a lot less fun when you or the people you’re with get tired and cranky.
Sometimes, you’re better off doing less. If you think the Park Hopper will make you feel compelled to do more it may not be the best option.
You may miss out on hidden gems
There is so much to do in Disney World and new things are consistently being introduced.
A lot of people park hop so they can hit their favorites day after day, but if you’re only hitting your old favorites, you may miss out on discovering something new.
If you make it a point to spend the entire day in a single park, it can help you slow down and try something you might have overlooked if you were rushing from one park to the next.
My Personal Preference
I’ve done both the single-day park ticket and the park hopper. For me, the single-day ticket is my preferred option.
I find that the time I lose traveling from park to park isn’t worth the price of the ticket. I also found that I just don’t have the energy to go from earliest park open to latest park close, which is the only way I can see to make up for the time lost traveling.
Also, I generally prefer a trip with less time constraints and I’ve found that trying to get to FastPasses and Dining Reservations in a single park can sometimes be stressful enough. The prospect of adding a bus or monorail ride in between isn’t a fun one to me.
But again, this is just my personal preference. Plenty of people love the Park Hopper, so if it seems like that makes the most sense for you and your group, you should absolutely go for it!
For more Disney World tips and tricks, check out the other Disney World Posts!
If you’re getting ready to book your trip, we’ve partnered with Siera at Destinations in Florida to help you out. You can use this form to request a free quote.
Sound off: Have you used Disney World’s Park Hopper? What are your pros and cons? Tell us about it in the comments!