Disney World offers two main type of tickets, standard and park hopper. The standard park ticket allows you to enter one park per day and the park hopper ticket will allow you to enter more than one park per day. You could even do all four parks in one day if you were feeling ambitious.

Park hopping timeframe – Currently park hopping does not begin until after 2 pm. This means that whatever park you start your day in is where you will have to stay until at least 2 pm. This does limit the value of the park hopper however if you start your day at a park that opens early and end your day at a park that is open later, you can still get a lot of park time in.

Park reservations – Until January 9th 2024, guests will be required to have park reservations. For park hopping guests, you have to have a reservation for the park where you want to start your day and then you can park hop without a reservation after 2 p.m.

Pros of park hopping

• Get more bang for your buck – Park Hoppers give you the ultimate freedom in your Disney trip. You can start your day at the park that opens first and end at the park that’s open the latest. You can hop to a park for a lower wait time or go ride your favorite attraction every day.
• See more things in fewer days – If your time at Disney is limited and you are going to be there less than 4 days, I would strongly recommend the Park Hopper so that you can take in as much as possible. One of the top questions I’m asked, is which parks to skip if your days are limited. This is such a hard question to answer! Every park is so unique and has such diverse offerings. Having the ability to park hop will reduce the likelihood that you will have to completely leave a park out.
• Flexibility – Having a park hopper ticket gives you the ultimate amount of flexibility in your Disney day. Here’s and example of how we used our park hopper tickets to make the most out of a Disney day. We started our day in Hollywood Studios taking in all of our favorite rides and attractions but didn’t want to stay there for dinner. While waiting in a ride line I took a minute to check the MDE app, and found the highly coveted dinner reservation for Topolinos Terrace. We left HS around 4, went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. Our dinner reservation was around 6:30. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Topolinos but then instead of getting dessert there we hopped on the Disney Skyliner and took a beautiful nighttime ride over to Epcot. Because we had park hoppers, we were able to go into Epcot, enjoy a stroll around the World Showcase, take in the fireworks and pick up some fantastic desserts at Les Halles.
• Revisiting new found favorites – Say you are visiting the parks and your little one falls in love with the Frozen ride in Epcot, they are begging you to go back and ride it again while your are spending the day at Hollywood Studios. Like any good Disney mom you want to make your little one’s dreams come true. If you have the park hopper, you can climb aboard the Disney Skyliner and hop over to Epcot to give them another float through that beautiful Frozen ride.
• Fireworks viewing – Many families visiting Disney like to take a rest break in the middle of the day. If this is in the plans for your crew, park hoppers could be a great fit for you. You could start your day at one park, go back to the hotel to rest and then go see one of the amazing nighttime spectaculars like the fireworks at a different park.

Cons

• Feeling rushed – The expectation to visit more than one park per day can cause you to feel rushed. Sometimes paying extra for the park hopping feature creates a pressure to make sure you use it. You may want to spend extra time doing something like exploring the Maraja Jungle Trek in Animal Kingdom but because you set the expectation to park hop you cut your AK day short and rush out to a different park.
• Overdoing it – Disney days are tiring! You’re walking thousands of steps, fighting crowds, and navigating an unknown environment. These things can lead to what I like to call the Disney meltdown where all of the sudden a member of your crew is upset and stressed out. Park hopping can lead to longer days where you are trying to squeeze in more. This brings a higher level of exhaustion and can cause some undue stress.
• Cost – Currently park hopper tickets will cost you around $60 more per ticket, per day. If you are taking a family and going for multiple days, this can really add up. If saving money or staying on a budget for your trip is very important to you, this may not be an option that will work for your crew.
• Must be purchased for your whole trip – In a perfect world, Disney guests would be given the option to purchase park hopping for a certain number of days or for certain park days. This would allow you to enjoy the benefits of park hopping, save some money and hopefully not exhaust yourselves. Unfortunately, the Disney world is not perfect and you can only choose one ticket type for your whole trip.

Park hopping strategies

• Close proximity – When you are park hopping it’s a good idea to hop to parks that are closer together or have connecting transportation. This makes Epcot one of the ideal parks to include when you are park hopping. Epcot is linked to Magic Kingdom by the monorail and to Hollywood Studios by the skyliner. These dedicated forms of transportation make your park hopping more efficient.
• Plan around park hours – Take a look at those park hours and start at the park that opens earliest and end at the park that is open the latest. Animal Kingdom is almost always the first park to open and the first to close. If you start at AK, you can get a lot in before 2 and then park hop, or start there, go take a nap in the afternoon and enjoy a different park in the evening.
• Hop for a great meal – With dining being one of my favorite parts of Disney World, using park hopping to snag more dining reservations is also one of my favorite things! Let’s say your crew is dying to try Be Our Guest restaurant in Magic Kingdom. If you don’t have park hoppers, your only option to dine there would be on your Magic Kingdom day and you would have to give up time at one of the parks with tons to do so that you could enjoy this meal. If you had park hoppers, you could look for this reservation every day of your trip instead of just MK days. This greatly improves the likelihood of getting to eat here and you can add it in to the end of a park day like AK where the park closes at 7.

Having traveled with and without park hoppers, I can confidently say there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Hopefully the pros and cons above will help you be able to make the right choice for your trip. Have more questions about park hopping? Drop them in the comments. I’d love to help you out!