Is the Disney Hopper Ticket Right for You?
Have you ever been to any of Walt’s theme parks in Orlando, Florida and found yourself either wanting to see more of the other Disney theme parks or that the park you are in is just too crowded? Well you wouldn’t be alone. With all of the different tickets you can buy to see all of Walt Disney World’s world famous theme parks, the one ticket that has been the most popular has to be the famous Walt Disney World Park Hopper Ticket!
Working for the mouse for 8 years I have seen it all and the one thing that I would hear the most was how guests wish that they had bought the hopper ticket when they were planning and buying their passes. The main reason people wished they had purchased the Hopper Ticket was that they had accomplished most of what they had set out to do at a certain park and wished to go over to another park in the same day and finish the evening off at another Disney park. On some nights for example, the Animal Kingdom might close at 6pm. and the Magic Kingdom on that night might close at 12am midnight. When you have a 1 Day Base Ticket, you are closing out your night early at the Animal Kingdom. If you had spent an extra $30 to upgrade your ticket to a Hopper Ticket, you would be spending the evening at the Magic Kingdom or Epcot with everyone else being the hero of your vacation. Most people go in with the mindset that they are going to be content with just spending the day at one park, but you would be amazed at how people’s moods and energy change once they are in Walt’s parks.
The biggest advantage to buying a Park Hopper Ticket in my opinion is that if a theme park gets a little too busy for your taste and it does happen quite frequently, you have the ability to travel over to another park where the crowd is much more manageable. For instance I have personally had my own Disney Park Hopper Ticket and started out at the Magic Kingdom and by 3pm or 4pm the park was an absolute mad house. Having the Park Hopper Ticket I and my guests were able to jump on a Monorail and stop by a Disney Resort for a cold beverage on our way to Epcot. Epcot is my default park to head to for a little elbow room. Epcot also closes every night at 9pm. so it is a great park that stays open semi-late and you do not feel the crowd factor as much as you would at any other Disney park.
To add a little curve ball to this equation, you can also buy a Walt Disney World Water Park Fun & More Ticket or the Premium ticket of all tickets the Park Hopper Water Park Fun & More Ticket. Both of these tickets are Hoppers in a sense. The Water Park Fun & More ticket is NOT a Hopper ticket for theme parks i.e. Epcot, Hollywood Studios etc. but a Hopper ticket from your one theme park that you are allowed to visit in that day, to an “Optional” item of your choice. The “Optional” items are the 2 Disney Water Parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s Blizzard Beach, Disney Quest, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Disney’s Miniature Golf Courses at 2 locations or a round of golf at Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course. So for example with this ticket you could start off at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and stay until 4pm., then you could walk to the front of the park and jump on a Disney bus and go over to Typhoon Lagoon and spend the rest of the day there soaking up the evening sunshine before returning to you humble abode for the night.
Now if you had bought the Walt Disney World Park Hopper Water Park Fun & More Ticket you could do the same thing as the Water Park Fun & More ticket but now you have the ability to Park Hop between theme parks in the same day as well as Hop over to one of the “Optional” items as well. It all boils down to how much money you want to spend, how many days you are going to be here and do you want the ability to change course within you day in order to visit multiple parks. If money is tight and you do not want to visit more than 1 park within a day, or you think that you or your kids will not be able to handle this type of traveling, then stay with the Disney Base Tickets. They are a great ticket and have served many a traveler with just the right amount of Disney Pixie Dust, but if you are the type of person who can handle a little more action in you day then the adventure ticket you are seeking is definitely the Disney Park Hopper Ticket.
To purchase any of these tickets that I have mentioned at a discount, please contact The Official Ticket Center in Orlando, Florida. There are many online ticket brokers, but they are local and have an actual Guest Service location within 5 miles of Disney and other Orlando theme parks.
©Patrick Pulliam 2014
