Should You Be a Hopper?
/“I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper, wouldn’t you like a be a Pepper too?” (sorry, closet Diet Dr. Pepper fan here)
Now, change Pepper to Hopper and you have a very important Disney World question: Should you purchase the Park Hopper option for your ticket?
What’s a Park Hopper?
Disney World Base tickets allow you to visit one Park per day. You can re-enter that Park as often as you like in the 24-hour period (unless it’s at maximum capacity but we won’t go there now), but you can only go to that park. For example, you go to Magic Kingdom for rope drop like every good Mouse Tales client does, spend all day touring the Park and having fun, then go back to your Resort for a swim in the afternoon. Refreshed, you head to a delicious dinner at ‘Ohana, then back to the Magic Kingdom for more rides and Happily Ever After!
Adding the Park Hopper option to your Base ticket allows you to go to more than one Park in a single 24-hour period. This is especially helpful with dining and special events! Your day might look like this – breakfast at Akershus with the Princesses in Norway before Epcot opens, then to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. Or what if your MTT agent scored a reservation for you at Le Cellier, but it was on a day where Epcot was expected to be very crowded? The Park Hopper option gives you the opportunity to enjoy that hard-to-get reservation while allowing you to have the best touring day at another Park.
Will I Really Use It?
That depends. If you’re traveling only with very young children, maybe not. Using a Park Hopper adds transportation time, especially with strollers, and one park per day is most likely plenty.
If you have a family with teens or mixed ages, yes! We love going to one Park in the morning, taking a break in the afternoon, then going to dinner and touring another Park. Also, if you have a child that wants to ride the same ride or see the same show over and over and over, you can meet that need without “wasting” an entire touring day at that Park.
Sometimes MiaMouse and I will go do something girlie in the morning while the Chief Mouse sleeps in and gets a little work done, then meet up at lunch somewhere and pick a different Park for the afternoon.
Where we find the Park Hopper incredibly valuable is with Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios. We will never recommend touring Hollywood Studios on a Fantasmic! day because of crowds so if you want to see the show, the best way to do it is with the Park Hopper option.
Do you have to purchase the Park Hopper option to have a great time at Walt Disney World? Absolutely not! However, if you want maximum flexibility then you want to be a Hopper too!
