OK... Bottom Line on Park Hopping?

[mowsluver]

We are going to WDW for 5/6 days the first week of Oct.
My question is---is there enough in each park to keep us occupied for a day? I mean, without rushing, will we have a full day in AK, Epcot, etc? Then we will decide wich park(s) we enjoyed most and go back fopr another day.
There will be 2 adults, 2-18 year olds, a 12 year old and a 5 year old.
I really don't want to get the hopper option if we can have a full day at a single park.
Also, would it be cheaper to buy a single day pass to DQ rather then add the 'plus' option?
I hate to sound so cheap but the tax refund came in today and it was less then we had expected .
ALSO....do they have the MNSSHP the beginning of Oct???

Thanks for all the help!!!

[ericles]

that's a hard one....

For Instance - we can do the Animal Kingdom in 3/4 of a day (by that I mean we are outta there by 2 or 3 pm) however, we need a day and a half for Epcot. Sometimes, depending on our mood - a day and a half for Magic Kingdom.

Don't underestimate the advantages of having the hopping option. Especially with a 5 yr. old.

That being said - EVERYONE has their own way of doing things at WDW (ours is go-with-the-flow and a non-planned style which suits us to a T. Others? It would drive them crazy and they enjoy WDW with a more structured itinerary) and you may find your style of touring WDW changing as your week goes on. Best advise I can give you is to be flexible! Oh - and try the Pub in England for lunch.

[Drince88]

Last year the Halloween party started early in October, and I can't see them cutting down the nights they offer it.

You'll also be there during the Food & Wine Festival, which can be a lot of fun too. Personally, I would never not get park hoppers, but that's as a person who hasn't been to the parks with someone under 30 on vacation since there's been more than one park! Personally, I can do most of a full day at each park (Animal Kingdom being the "shortest" but it has shorter hours anyway). But my preferred method of touring is to do the early entry park, and then when it gets "too" crowded, hop to another park that is open later in the day. This is particularly helpful when the MK is only open one day late for you to see the "regular" Spectromagic parade and Wishes, or Fantasmic! isn't showing every day. It's also good for allowing you to go back to the hotel and chill for an hour or two (which might be particularly helpful for the 5 year old, but the 18 year olds as well, depending on how late they stay up and how early you "make" them get up).

That said, I think the park hopper is a personal thing - but like I said, that is the one "extra" I plan on paying for on my next trip (whenever that may be!)

[kadiehl]

We have always managed to Park Hop on both our trips even though I think you can make a full day out of each park. We are hoping to do the 9 nights/10 day when we go next year and we would Park Hop due to character dining and so on. Plus, we plan on devoting a day to go to all the different resorts to see their special holiday decorations and gingerbread concoctions(spelling?) that you see on the TV specials.

We have found that with my kids (almost 9 and 3 now- will be 10 and 5 when we go back late 2006) we can easily get 2 1/2-3 days out of Magic Kingdom (we ride rides multiple times), 2 days out of Animal Kingdom (you can spend a lot of times in the bone yard digging) and then one day out of MGM and one day of Epcot. That may sound like a lot to some but with my kids that is what we discovered to be the best. It allows us to do everything we can plus to just take our time. I mean, on our last trip we saw the Cinderella show 6 times because it was my daughters favorite thing and my son loved it too! IMHO, that is better seen at night too. Plus, our kids loved Toon Town and we spent quite a bit of time there as well letting them explore and play in Donald's Boat and in Chip and Dale's Park (I think it was Chip and Dale's).

As far as the MNSSHP....Here are the (click on the underlined)MNSSHP Dates that were listed in a WDW weekly update for Sept 27 - Oct 3, 2004 just so you can see what they did last year.

[mowsluver]

HHMMM....too many options!

My 12 year old stepson will probably not want to leave DQ, but the 18 year olds (girls) don't care if they go there or not. They also do not want to do the waterparks... but the 5 year old does....sigh...we have gone to Disneyland every year for the past 13 years and this will be their first trip to WDW.

We are renting a condo off property. So I am looking at (no park hopper option) being able to go later or leave early and go back to the condo for a swim or an early night. At this point, I cannot get everyone to agree on what tickets to buy! If they didn't have school, I would get the 10 day tickets and just take our time!!!

[nursemelis374]

I went for the first time in October and did not spend a full day at neither MGM nor AK. We had seen Fantasmic a million times at Disneyland, so we went to Epcot for the evening instead (this was for about 4 hours). We still managed to get in everything at MGM. We didn't get to AK until about 1130 because of car trouble, but we were done there at about closing, still doing almost everything!

Before we left, I though that people were being ridiculous saying you needed more than 1 day for Epcot, but now I know they were not kidding! We spent about 16 hours there and it is an exhausting place!

Promise me you will go to MNSSHP! It is awesome. We went last year on Sunday October 17th and the crowds were perfect!

[mowsluver]

We are going to do the Halloween thing, for sure!

Also trying to do the Princess breakfast in Norway...I fully intend on 'embarrassing' my 18 year old there, by letting everyone know that she is a U.S. Marine! She will be leaving for boot camp about a month after we return home.... .....and I have to "send her off" with as good a vacation as money can buy!! We got a GREAT rate on a condo and would stay for 2 weeks if the kids weren't in school!!!
I just want everyone to have a grteat time, yet not be totally rushed.....

[efoxx]

Park hopper will be well worth the money in the long run for a few reasons.

1. the time of year you are considering the MK closes early generally, as does the AK. leaving you with some evenings to fill.

2. park hopping is incredably easy, and a lot of fun. it's worth it at least once for the trip between MK and epcot.

3. you can take better advantage of early entries/ extra magic hours while still avoiding the worst (although admitedly light) crowds.

4. If you like fine dining you can park hop down to Epcot at the end of your day just for dinner.

[mzloolue]

We park hop every day. I really can't imagine staying in one park a whole day, but everyone does it differently. We don't even plan which park we will go to some days. Sometimes it's fun to just go out to the bus stop and get on the first park bus that shows up.

[Mark Goldhaber]

Preliminary word that I've got so far is that this year the first MNSSHP will be September 30.

[sediment]

Park hopper will be well worth the money in the long run for a few reasons.

1. the time of year you are considering the MK closes early generally, as does the AK. leaving you with some evenings to fill.

MK stays open the latest, barring a Not-So-Scary night. At that time, it's generally MK until 10, EPCOT until 9 (when Illuminations begins), MGM until 7 (when Fantasmic! begins), and AK until 5.

The whopping two times we've been, we've done a whole day at MK, EPCOT and MGM, parkhopped after a day at AK, and parkhopped three more days, taking in what we missed and repeating things we liked.

[WillCAD]

MK stays open the latest, barring a Not-So-Scary night. At that time, it's generally MK until 10, EPCOT until 9 (when Illuminations begins), MGM until 7 (when Fantasmic! begins), and AK until 5.

Actually, on both of my October trips and all 4 or 5 of my September trips, MK has generaly closed at 7-8pm through the entire months of Sept and Oct. and 6pm on MNSSHP nights.

In my experience, it's usually Epcot that's open latest (till 9pm) during that time of year.

In all 15 of my trips, over 15 years, I have park-hopped almost every day. Epcot can always hold my attention for a whole day, but I am done with AK by 2-3pm. MGM can keep me occupied till about 4 or 5, then I go to Epcot. And since I don't have kids, I skip a lot of the kiddie rides at MK like the TeaCups and Dumbo, so MK doesn't keep me busy past 2-3pm most days either.

Hopping is also great if you plan on spending the whole day in one park, but want to head over to another park for dinner or the evening fireworks. Illuminations, Fantasmic, and Wishes are so good that lots of people will cut their park days short to catch their favorite a second time.

You also have the option of going back to another park to pick up that one item you MUST have that you saw in a gift shop 3 days ago, but haven't seen at any other gift shops.

And most importantly, if you arrive at the park you chose for the day and find it absolutely mobbed, packed, full, and otherwise crowded beyond your ability to comprehend, you can change your plans on a whim and head out to a less-crowded park for the day.

[efoxx]

Actually, on both of my October trips and all 4 or 5 of my September trips, MK has generaly closed at 7-8pm through the entire months of Sept and Oct. and 6pm on MNSSHP nights.

In my experience, it's usually Epcot that's open latest (till 9pm) during that time of year.

And most importantly, if you arrive at the park you chose for the day and find it absolutely mobbed, packed, full, and otherwise crowded beyond your ability to comprehend, you can change your plans on a whim and head out to a less-crowded park for the day.

Exactly what I was going to say. in my last five visits four were this time of year and on each one the MK closed at 6 except of fridays and sat when it was open to 8 and 10, but both those days the park was crowded

[sediment]

Further dusting of cobwebs reveal that the 10 closing was on a Saturday (first Sat. in November).

[teri]

You can park-hop or not park hop and still have a wonderful time. If you are on a "squeeze a dime until it shrieks" budget, and going during off-season when the parks close early, then choosing not to park-hop may be a better option for you. Just plan to do other things at the resort, and resort hop. Resort hopping is truly one of the great pleasures at Walt Disney World... especially if you are short on passes!

If you are going during the Food and Wine Festival, then you may want those park-hoppers, because Epcot is a one or 2 day park at best, but an excellent nighttime venue. HOWEVER, the Food and Wine Festival is no bargain - you can eat cheaper at the formal dining venues! Food and Wine Festival is not for budget-minded people who are hungry.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Personally, I would regard AK as about a half-day park, even if I have "days to burn" at WDW, and MGM as no more than a 3/4-day park unless I have "days to burn." Indeed, if I'd known that the old Animation Backstage Tour had gone bye-bye along with the on-site working animation studio, and had been replaced with something approximating the Animation building at DCA (including the same "Drawn to Animation" show I can see at DCA), I quite literally wouldn't have done anything at MGM other than riding GMR (twice, once each scenario) this past November (when I was a bit short on time), reducing it to less than a half-day park.

Epcot, on the other hand, is at the very least a day-and-a-half park, and that's if you only hit the highlights (like Mission:Space, Test Track, American Adventure, Maelstrom, Ellen, SpaceShip Earth, and Imagination). And MK is at least a full day.

I've only had direct experience with the now-discontinued "Ultimate ParkHopper" length-of-stay ticketing, in which hopping privileges are a given, but I think I'd still opt for the hopping privilege under the new system, just for the flexibility: there could easily be several things happening on the same day in different parks, and not any other days during my stay, or I might have dinner reservations in one park, but a special event in another. I'd much rather stick with a rather Spartan hotel (e.g., my old standby, the All Star Music) and the hopping privilege, than a more expensive hotel without it.

I don't know, however, if I'd spring for "plus": it wouldn't be cost-effective for just a single trip to PI, and I don't have any interest in visiting a water park. So I'd also have to plan on trying DQ, at the very least.

As far as structure goes, I tend to be sort of middle-of-the-road: I don't plan out some detailed, optimized itinerary, but neither do I just go out without some sort of plan for the day. I'll typically know when Spectro is scheduled to run, and book the BackStage Magic and Steam Trains tours, as well as a side-trip to Kennedy Space Center, and I'll typically at least try to book dinner reservations for Cinderella's and the Liberty Tree (but if you're willing to dine at odd times, they may be able to work you in without a reservation; just don't even think about doing the Princess Breakfast at Cinderella's without a reservation!), but other than that, I just try and do whatever catches my interest.

Incidentally, if you want to avoid wasting time, make sure you have a guidemap for AK. You can find your way around MK, Epcot, and even MGM without one, but at AK, well, I spent over an hour wandring around trying to find Dinosaur last Fall, having ridden it twice before, and finally ran out of time.

[mzloolue]

And most importantly, if you arrive at the park you chose for the day and find it absolutely mobbed, packed, full, and otherwise crowded beyond your ability to comprehend, you can change your plans on a whim and head out to a less-crowded park for the day.

Exactly.
We had this experience at MK. Truly unbearable. I wondered if Disney haters had visited on a day like that. There was almost no room to walk and people were still streaming in...not good. We hopped to MGM and the place was almost empty.

[Drince88]

HOWEVER, the Food and Wine Festival is no bargain - you can eat cheaper at the formal dining venues! Food and Wine Festival is not for budget-minded people who are hungry.

Good point, Teri - I've only gone with my sister or by myself, so when it was the two of us, we would get one of what we wanted to try and both get to taste it, but after a bit, you really did need a "real" amount of food. But we could drop $50 total (not too much alcohol, but some) and still need to eat "real" food, so cheap it is not. We did find for us, though, that $50 is about all you can do in a session and not be too overwelmed - or at least that was about our limit.

But if you review the choices before hand, and decide to have a small snack from a booth or two, it's not a bad deal and you get to try "different" food from what you might normally feel comfortable ordering a full meal of in a restaurant.

[mowsluver]

We are going in Oct just because that's how it is working out for us (not going for food/wine festival), though it STILL is not a good time for us to go. The kids will be missing school.

I love the "squeeze a dime 'till it shrieks" and that is about the way we have to do it! The tax refund was not as much as expected, and I have been out of work for over a year now .

The thing I was thinking, about NOT adding park hopper, is that when we are done with AK, we will be able to do DQ or a water park for a couple hours. We are not staying on property ( a GREAT rate for a week at a condo!!! ) so we wouldn't mind 'having' to go back and relax a bit! Pool. whirlpool, etc...

But I do want to be able to see most things. We go to DL every year, so seeing Fantasmic is not a HAVE TO DO thing. More then likely, we will spend a couple days as a 'family' and then the older kids will take off on their own.

We do have some MUST DO'S such as the Princess breakfast in Norway, and MNSSHP. Other then that, we are pretty open to it all!!!

[SpamPutney]

As far as structure goes, I tend to be sort of middle-of-the-road: I don't plan out some detailed, optimized itinerary, but neither do I just go out without some sort of plan for the day.

Incidentally, if you want to avoid wasting time, make sure you have a guidemap for AK. You can find your way around MK, Epcot, and even MGM without one, but at AK, well, I spent over an hour wandring around trying to find Dinosaur last Fall, having ridden it twice before, and finally ran out of time.

I agree, to a point. I tend to get the opening closing schedules of all the parks together, and work from there. I always try to hit a park on a day when it will be open for the longest period of time. Also, plan your schedule around dinner/show reservations. For instance, I'll book a Fantasmic dinner package, and make that my day at MGM.

You also make an EXCELLENT point about Dinosaur. That ride is impossible to find! I can't tell you how many times I've been there, and still get confused. You have to walk through the woods, into a store, out through the alley, climb over a dumpster, scale a wall, battle a 3-headed monster, and then follow a narrow path to the ride entrance. No useful signs to be seen.

[danyoung]

Some great advise on this subject. My only contribution is that it would KILL me to not be able to park hop. Say the MK closes at 6pm on my MK day. Now I've got an entire evening to fill, and not being able to hop over to Epcot would suck! I understand the budget and all, but this isn't an area I'd scrimp on. Bite the bullet and get the hoppers!!!

[vamassey]

To hop or not to hop the ultimate question. In the past when the parks were still very new to us we didn't need to hop. Each park had enough to do to keep us there all day except AK, but it closes early too. If a park closed early then that's a good day to go to DQ and shop at Downtown Disney. Also if you spend all day at the park then there's no time to enjoy the pool. I the think your idea of doing DQ and a water park is a good one.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Fantasmic is not a HAVE TO DO thing.

Keep in mind that the Florida Fantasmic is NOT the same show as the California Fantasmic. It has maybe most of the same scenes, and certainly the same "hard to describe" (tm) concept, but it isn't the same show. Most people regard the California version as anywhere from marginally to dramatically better than the Florida version. I tend toward the former, and do consider the Florida version to be worth seeing.

[danyoung]

And I'm on the other side - SoCal's version is "dramatically better". I never warmed up to the Pocahontas theme in place of the Peter Pan ship. I really think they use film too much, and the bubbles sequence just seems to go on forever. And that little Steamboat Willie finale totally falls flat after you've seen the Mark Twain in the same role. Perhaps if I'd seen the WDW version first I'd feel differently. But as is, I'm with mowsluver - Florida's Fantasmic! is not a HAVE TO DO. Go for it at least once anyway and make up your own mind.

[cocoabeach]

Also if you spend all day at the park then there's no time to enjoy the pool. I the think your idea of doing DQ and a water park is a good one.

I'll second that. If it is your type of activity, buy the relatively cheap plus fun and go to the water parks for part day. You save money and you'll never have idle time.