Park Hopper vs One Park cost... Please help!!

[gnicholl]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with something I was considering. I am planning on taking my family of 6 to WDW in April of next year. We are frequent travelers from NJ, and while we always do the park hopper, we have found that we often do not take advantage of it and stay in one park all day. I have been pricing out my tickets for April and saw that it is considerably cheaper for a 9 day single day ticket for my family than it is for a 7 day park hopper. the question is.... Does this allow me to go to the park on 7 days, but use the two additional days to effectively park hop on two of those days????

 

[bumbershoot]

Nope.
If you had two completely separate tickets per person then you could do that, but that’ll be more expensive than a hopper.

 

[gnicholl]

Ah, that makes sense, thanks!

Nope.
If you had two completely separate tickets per person then you could do that, but that’ll be more expensive than a hopper.

 

[mesaboy2]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with something I was considering. I am planning on taking my family of 6 to WDW in April of next year. We are frequent travelers from NJ, and while we always do the park hopper, we have found that we often do not take advantage of it and stay in one park all day. I have been pricing out my tickets for April and saw that it is considerably cheaper for a 9 day single day ticket for my family than it is for a 7 day park hopper. the question is.... Does this allow me to go to the park on 7 days, but use the two additional days to effectively park hop on two of those days????

Sorry, doesn’t work.

 

[FCDub]

Your tickets are calendar days, not separate entries.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you find you aren't hopping a lot, I would just buy the base ticket for now. You can always upgrade it to a PH once you are onsite if you decide you'd like to hop.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

If you don’t hop a lot, a base ticket is probably all you need. Especially if you are doing 7 park days. My next trip is the first one I’ll hop at in almost a decade and the only reason it makes sense this trip is that it’s only a 5 day trip for my daughters graduation and she wants to do SWGE as much as possible, so we’ll probably be hopping over there at the end of most days.

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

Unless we have AP's I don't purchase park hoppers, I find I can manage a week long stay without them. They add a lot of cost, I'd rather purchase an after-hours event instead if available.

 

[ghtx]

You could buy, for each person, a 5-day non-park-hopper ticket AND a 2-day park hopper ticket. But I am pretty sure that that would be more expensive than a 7-day park-hopper ticket.

 

[Tomh]

As others have said, no, it doesn't work that way. You have to either have a park hopper, an annual pass, or two separate tickets, which would cost well more than the park hopper would.

I personally never buy park hoppers. They are quite expensive compared to the base tickets, and I just don't see the need to move from one park to another. I would rather spend my time in the park having fun, than to spend it on transportation moving from one park to another.

You can always add the park hopper option at any guest services window at any time during your vacation, so I would just buy the base ticket for the number of days you are going to be there, and then, if you find while you are there that you really want to hop to another park, stop at guest services on the way from one park to the other, and upgrade to the park hopper ticket.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

I really wish it did work that way!

We have done hopper and no hopper. It really depends on the trip for us. We will be hopping to galaxy's edge several times on our upcoming trip, and I bought discounted hoppers from UT.

 

[ram2016]

As others have said, no, it doesn't work that way. You have to either have a park hopper, an annual pass, or two separate tickets, which would cost well more than the park hopper would.

I personally never buy park hoppers. They are quite expensive compared to the base tickets, and I just don't see the need to move from one park to another. I would rather spend my time in the park having fun, than to spend it on transportation moving from one park to another.

You can always add the park hopper option at any guest services window at any time during your vacation, so I would just buy the base ticket for the number of days you are going to be there, and then, if you find while you are there that you really want to hop to another park, stop at guest services on the way from one park to the other, and upgrade to the park hopper ticket.

When you do this - can you upgrade to park hopper for just that day (example day 3) and not the rest of your stay (6 day ticket)? If so, what’s the cost look like?

 

[Calee]

When you do this - can you upgrade to park hopper for just that day (example day 3) and not the rest of your stay (6 day ticket)? If so, what’s the cost look like?

No, you have to add park hopper for the entire length of your ticket.

 

[SirDuff]

When you do this - can you upgrade to park hopper for just that day (example day 3) and not the rest of your stay (6 day ticket)? If so, what’s the cost look like?

It’s all or nothing.

 

[nkereina]

If you find you aren't hopping a lot, I would just buy the base ticket for now. You can always upgrade it to a PH once you are onsite if you decide you'd like to hop.

You can do this, but I believe the price is the same if you add it before your trip or if you add it on day 4 of your trip (for example). So it would make more sense to either decide you will not park hop and not add it at all, or decide that you will and plan your days that way, so you can add it before your trip to maximize the value of it.

 

[AngiTN]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with something I was considering. I am planning on taking my family of 6 to WDW in April of next year. We are frequent travelers from NJ, and while we always do the park hopper, we have found that we often do not take advantage of it and stay in one park all day. I have been pricing out my tickets for April and saw that it is considerably cheaper for a 9 day single day ticket for my family than it is for a 7 day park hopper. the question is.... Does this allow me to go to the park on 7 days, but use the two additional days to effectively park hop on two of those days????

This should tell you this is not allowed
They'd lose out on a lot of sells of hoppers if they allowed it

 

[AngiTN]

You can do this, but I believe the price is the same if you add it before your trip or if you add it on day 4 of your trip (for example). So it would make more sense to either decide you will not park hop and not add it at all, or decide that you will and plan your days that way, so you can add it before your trip to maximize the value of it.

True but what some do is wait to see if there is a real need to add hoppers. Sometimes you can go in to a trip with no plans to hop but something goes awry and in order to reach your goals you find you finally need to break down and hop. So yeah, it costs the same no matter when you do it but if you get lucky you can wait and then never need it. But it's nice to know it's there just in case

 

[stinkpickle]

Yeah, we almost always add hoppers when we get there, because the flexibility of having EMHs, FP+s, and ADRs in different parks is worth the cost. For a 7 day ticket, it's less than $12 per day. For a 9 day ticket, it would be less than $10 per day.

 

[sharadoc]

I think it depends on what time of year you go. When hours are shorter we usually don't hop but when hours are longer, or if there are enough evening EMH then we do park hoppers. SInce we got free dining for this next trip, it required park hoppers but we are technically "forcing" ourselves to hop more than we might have.

We always take a mid-day break so hopping works fine for us. When we don't have hoppers we just go back to the same park.

If you are going to be out all day, then I agree with a PP that you waste time travelling between parks.

A family of 6 will cost over $400 to hop so that's a lot of money if you don't plan to use it much. Just make plans that don't include hopping. You'll see, you can do it!!!

 

[nkereina]

True but what some do is wait to see if there is a real need to add hoppers. Sometimes you can go in to a trip with no plans to hop but something goes awry and in order to reach your goals you find you finally need to break down and hop. So yeah, it costs the same no matter when you do it but if you get lucky you can wait and then never need it. But it's nice to know it's there just in case

Yes, I do understand that. But I still think in order to get the most value out of a hopper, it would behoove someone to plan their days in advance in a way that incorporates the use of hoppers. If you buy them on the fly because something goes awry (weather, ride closure, etc), then you're adding them without necessarily planning for them. So you may not need them again for the later days in your trip, unless you have very flexible plans, which a lot of us don't.

In other words, if you're going to spend the same regardless, might as well take advantage of them all week long rather than just later on when you decide to buy them. But its still good to know the option is available for those don't necessarily care about getting the most bang for their buck.