Why You Should Stop Buying Park Hopper Tickets at Disney World

A lot has changed at the Disney parks in the past few years.

Magic Kingdom

Genie+ was introduced, social distancing has come and gone, the 50th anniversary was celebrated, and so much more. Another big change was the addition of park hopping hours, which doesn’t allow guests to hop to another park until 2PM. This is just one of the reasons that Disney guests are choosing to skip the park hopper tickets.

Interested to see if they’re worth the extra cost? Keep reading for information that can help you make that decision!

Restrictions

Park hopping used to be a lot easier! Prior to the pandemic, you could hop between parks as you pleased for the most part. Once the parks reopened after the 2020 closures, Disney placed restrictions on park hopping, only allowing guests to switch parks after 2PM.

Magic Kingdom entrance

You also need to tap in to your original reserved park before heading to another park. When you add in Genie+ and those reservations, it just becomes more complicated. Many guests would rather not deal with the hassle.

Scanning a park ticket

Earlier this year Disneyland changed their park hopping restrictions — guests can now hop starting at 11AM. Perhaps we will see a similar change at Disney World in the future.

The Cost

One of the biggest reasons why people you might want to skip the park hopper option is the cost. The park hopper option is an additional cost on top of what you pay for the base park ticket. If you’re trying to do Disney World on a budget, choosing the park hopper option can be a pretty significant cost.

Scanning in to the parks

Also, the park hopper add-on must be purchased for ALL days of your trip. You cannot pick and choose which days you want to pay for a park hopper ticket.

©Disney

Park Hopper tickets are now subject to surge pricing. During holidays and other popular times of the year, you will be paying even more for this ticket option.

Park Hopping Will Be More Expensive in Disney World in 2023

May Not Be a Necessity

Park hopping is not for everybody, but if you’ve never park hopped before or this is your first Disney World trip, you might think you need a park hopper! Before deciding, look at your plans closely and see if you really do need those tickets to hit all of the items on your must-do list.

Tower of Terror

Are you actually planning to hop or is this a “just in case you want to hop” scenario? If it’s the latter, save your money and skip the tickets. Just make sure you plan a day in each park that you want to visit so you don’t miss any of your priorities!

Magic Kingdom

Remember — it takes a good chunk of time to travel from one park to another. You can drive between parks if you have a car, but you’ll have to take into account the time it takes to get back to your car and how long the drive is depending on you destination. If you don’t have a car, you’ll have to rely on Disney transportation. Disney transportation is free, however buses can take a while and systems like the Monorail and Skyliner can break down.

Monorail

The parks themselves are full of rides, attractions, shows, activities, and more, so don’t worry about running out of things to do! It is absolutely reasonable to spend at least one day in each park. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of transferring parks, the park hopper option is probably not for you.

10 Tips for Disney World for First Timers in 2023

Genie+ Confusion

Genie+ is Disney’s paid skip-the-line system that allows you to use the Lightning Lane at many attractions for an expedited wait time. If you use Genie+ and decide to park hop, it can get a bit confusing.

Disney Genie+

If you know when and where you are going to park hop, you can make Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane selections for the park you are going to later. However, this is another thing to keep track of in your park day and you have to make sure you have time to travel to the next park so you don’t miss your window.

Genie+ Lightning Lane

There’s also a free version of Disney Genie that gives you recommendations depending on your priorities and interests, but that doesn’t always work as it should. Sometimes options for the park you are hopping to do not show up in Disney Genie.

Everything You Need to Know About Genie+

All things considered, there are some times that you should opt for park hopper tickets! If you do want to purchase tickets, here are our tips:

  • Buy your tickets prior to arriving if possible. The rule that you must purchase park hopper tickets for your entire trip is still valid, even if you decide to buy them in the middle of your vacation. That means that even if you only have 3 days left of a 7-day trip, you’ll still be paying for the first 4 days, even though you didn’t get to park hop.
  • You can easily choose the park hopper add-on when purchasing tickets on the Disney World website!
  • You won’t be allowed inside your second park of the day if it is full. To avoid reaching the entrance and being turned away, you can call the Park Hopper Hotline at (407) 560-5000 for information on park capacities.
It’s not as easy to get between the parks as you think!

You can also read more about park hopping in the posts below:

We can’t decide for you whether you should add on the Park Hopper option or not, but hopefully this information can help you choose. Stay tuned to our site for more posts like these that can help you plan your next Disney vacation!

This is the ultimate park hopping event — check out this video where we hit every Disney park in the U.S. in just ONE DAY!

Read This Before Park Hopping in Disney World

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What’s your take on park hopping? Do you like to skip around to hit your favorite rides? Or would you rather focus on one park per day? Comment below!

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9 Replies to “Why You Should Stop Buying Park Hopper Tickets at Disney World”

  1. Make sure you understand how limited your park Hopper is now. You must register for a park and go to that park before it becomes effective. Then you cannot use it for another park till after 2 PM! On a recent visit, we were made to sit for 45 minutes in the hot sun, waiting for 2 o’clock when all we wanted to do was walk through Epcot to go back to our hotel, the yacht club. Turned out to be a major mistake to take the monorail from the Magic Kingdom.

  2. I have been saying this for 2yrs now from 1971 to 3019 no need for reservation system or restrictions on park hopper why now it’s not needed they give all kinds of reasons and it’s bull my opinion is control.

    1. As much as I agree and would like these restrictions dropped; the one reason I think might not be total bull about not changing hopping time at wdw when they changed at Disneyland, is the massive bus system. My understanding is there is still an appreciable shortage of bus drivers and with hopping at 2, they don’t start offering between park buses til 1. If they stopped the 2 pm restriction they’d need a fair amount of additional buses I think. It was easier to adjust at disneyworld cause you can just walk between parks. That being said, I’d still love the raising of hopping restrictions.
      Just my reluctant opinion.

  3. For Disneyland it’s a one time cost of $60, no matter how many days you go. So whether you do 5 days or 2, it cost $60. That not a bad deal of you ask me. I don’t park hop though, it’s unnecessary.

  4. We used to hop if we found the park we chose to be too crowded. Time wasn’t a problem. There were no restrictions back then. Chapek ruined the whole Disney World experience. One day in MK, we rounded the corner at Adventureland going into Frontierland and couldn’t see pavement, it was so crowded. We turned around, left to go to EPCOT. No reservations, no time limits, just go. It was much better. Chapek imagined the worst and then made it so.

    1. Everyone blames Chapek, but weren’t all these changes in motion while Iger was still there? There are a lot of people who want to go to WDW, apparently, and the brass had to figure out how to control crowds and squeeze every last dollar out of the guests. Chapek is no more to blame as anyone else, probably.

  5. We stopped buying Park Hopper because of the time involved in switching parks. Disney makes it sound like you just zip onto transportation and magically arrive at the next park. Of course, getting out of a park and to Disney transportation can take well over 30 minutes, and then there is often a wait for the ride, and the time spent entering and enduring a security search at the next park, easily another 30-45 minutes. Plus, Park Hopping can be exhausting on a hot day. It just isn’t worth it.

  6. Don’t listen to this hog wash. If you want more flexibility, get the park hopper. Went in November, though having to wait till 2, it gave us more options. Didn’t use genie +, did early entry and got all the big rides and more. For those who save to go every 5 years or so, probably most of us, don’t limit yourself.

    1. 100% agree. We stay on property so at times we can do early arrival at one park then park hop to the park with extended late hours= more time with less people. Another thing to consider, weather or maintenance can close some rides, if you scheduled one day only in each park you might miss something you really wanted to do. With park hopper now you can go back and get to experience those rides on another day.