The Best Park Hopping Combos for Your Walt Disney World Trip

Planning on doing some park hopping on your next Disney World vacation? We’re here to help you make the most of your day in the parks!

Since the Disney World parks reopened in July, guests have only been able to visit one park per day. But with the announcement that park hopping would return on January 1, 2021, guests will soon be able to visit multiple parks per day once again.

These are our suggestions for the best park hopping combinations!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios to EPCOT

One important thing to note with the return of park hopping — guests will only be able to snag a Rise of the Resistance boarding group if they start their day with a Park Pass in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. If this ride is on your must-do list (which it deserves to be!) you’ll definitely want to start your day at Hollywood Studios.

After spending the first part of your day in Hollywood Studios, hop over to EPCOT. These two parks are connected by the Disney Skyliner, so transportation between them is usually pretty quick and easy. You’ll change lines at Caribbean Beach Resort, which is typically pretty straightforward.

There aren’t many great dining options in Hollywood Studios, especially later in the day. In contrast, EPCOT is packed full of awesome restaurants, so it’s the perfect park to visit for dinner.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom to EPCOT

Of all four parks, Disney’s Animal Kingdom regularly closes the earliest, so it’s a good park to visit in the morning.

Even though we do like a lot of the dining options in Animal Kingdom, try to stick to snacks and Quick Service meals for breakfast and lunch since you could run into long waits for some of the most popular rides like Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey.

Since Animal Kingdom has been closing relatively early in the evening, hop to EPCOT after you’ve hit all the Animal Kingdom attractions you wanted to do. Again, EPCOT is a great place to be for dinner, plus you might be able to sneak on one of the park’s popular attractions like Frozen Ever After or Test Track with a shorter wait.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom

Since Animal Kingdom usually closes several hours earlier than the other parks, it makes the prime park to hit in the morning. In some cases, you can even stay in Animal Kingdom right up to park close and still have time to hop to another park for a few hours after.

Much like EPCOT, Magic Kingdom is another park that has generally stayed open later, which makes it a solid option to hop to after Animal Kingdom. And since there are SO many attractions in Magic Kingdom, hopping here for the evening will give you the chance to hit some rides that you might have missed on your other day(s) in the park.

EPCOT to Magic Kingdom

Hopping between these two parks will be especially quick and easy once Monorail service resumes between them. Right now, Monorails are not running between EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this service will resume with park hopping. At press time, it has not resumed.

Magic Kingdom tends to be the busiest early in the day, and families often start to clear out later in the afternoon when the kids need to head back to the hotel to get some sleep. Spend the first part of your day in EPCOT, then hop over to Magic Kingdom in the early evening to take advantage of lower crowds and shorter lines.

The return of park hopping will open up plenty of new options and ways to spend your day in Disney World. If you do plan to hop from park to park, these are our picks for the best combos to get the most out of your time on vacation!

What is your favorite park hopping combination? Let us know in the comments!

 

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