Disneyworld Hopper Passes

[Superflyer]

When we did DW we had lunch with the princesses in Epcot and it was awesome. My girls loved it. We also did our last breakfast at Ohana, food was great and we had a great time there as well.

As for the tickets, someone mentioned earlier that there is very little differance between 7 and 10 days, but if I remember correctly you can also pay a little more on top of that and get no expiration. So if you get the 10 day and only go for 6, you can use other 4 days even years later.

[macker]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Lots of great stuff here. What are peoples thought on the Character Meals?

We did Goofy's kitchen and it was a great value as the food was great and the characters were very interactive with the kids. We also went to Ariels Grotto which was great for my daughter as there was every Disney Princess you can think of there but the food was not the greatest. The kids reactions make it well worth it and iirc this is for a 5 & 3 year old so they are at the perfect ages to be amazed! Next time we will do a couple of new ones but those two were well worth it!

Also we never did this but you can buy the tickets for these breakfasts in advance through some of the travel sites etc.

[Antithesis]

With kids that young, I seriously doubt you'll get full value for the park hopper option. They (and you) will almost certainly be happy sticking to one park per day, as long as you do some planning beforehand.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

With kids that young, I seriously doubt you'll get full value for the park hopper option. They (and you) will almost certainly be happy sticking to one park per day, as long as you do some planning beforehand.

That is what I thought but my wife thinks we will. I guess we are going with the hopper option! HAHAHA

[Swedish_Express]

I bought mine off their site. Went a month ago. AMA sells em cheap too I believe like movie passes, etc.

[jjbouma]

I was just in DW in Nov/Dec. Being in my 20's and with other people the same age, we didn't spend a whole lot of time there. I bought a 2-day park hopper pass where we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning and then Epcot that night. Me and a buddy decided to go golfing the second day instead of go to Magic Kingdom as we had both been to Disneyland a couple times. They let us refund our 2nd day portion of the pass because we hadn't used it, so I would error on the conservative side of buying your ticket as you could always refund it. There are plenty of other things to do in Orlando such as Gatorland, and Universal (which I would highly recommend).

As for eating, we ate a couple meals at Epcot which has some terrific food, from Mexican to French to Italian to Moroccan to German, etc. We ate lunch at the German site and had an excellent brat and bier and then tried to have dinner at the France site which was fully booked, so we went to the Moroccan site which was excellent. We also ate at Fulton's Crab House in downtown disney which was great as well... lots of good food to try!

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by Mccree

That is what I thought but my wife thinks we will. I guess we are going with the hopper option! HAHAHA

Well then, I guess when you're there, she'll just have to be happy with $300 less for souvenirs or other treats!

My wife and I went to WDW about 4 years ago and loved it - yes, on our own as adults - and purchased the park hopper thing. I can tell you that in the week we were there, we used it exactly once - on the last day when we were dead set on going to our 'favourites' from each park again. (and only go on those favourites .... one ride/attraction per park and then onward)

I think it will boil down to two choices: Do you want to try to see everything (which is impossible) and have grumpy kids, or, have happy kids and go at a slower pace. I don't want to absolutely guarantee that you won't use the park hopper option, but I really can't see it!

Hope you have a good trip!

[Gobsgraham]

Bring a chariott stroller or a Sit and Stand. I know you think your kids are too old for a stroller but you will need it. They can't physically walk a park for 8 hours. You can probably rent strollers there but either way you need something.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Lots of great stuff here. What are peoples thought on the Character Meals?

Our kids really enjoyed the breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. I felt violated when I saw the bill though...

[dubc80]

Bump.

Heading down to orlando in a few weeks and trying to make sense of the whole pass thingy to optimize our experience.

Anyone been down there lately?
Where did you get your passes from?

Looking for Disneyworld and Universal passes. Thx!

[jus_sum_guy]

PM sent

[BEANZ]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Bump.

Heading down to orlando in a few weeks and trying to make sense of the whole pass thingy to optimize our experience.

Anyone been down there lately?
Where did you get your passes from?

Looking for Disneyworld and Universal passes. Thx!

We bought Southern California passes thru Costco which include 3 days at Disney, 1 day at Universal and 1 day at the Sea World. This type of pass is also available for Florida, at least it was when we purchased ours.

I did find the tickets a bit cheaper online but without the security that Costco offers. Our passes also allowed one day early entry which was awesome as we avoided a bunch of lines and park hopping.

[troutman]

We found that we had more fun at the big Water Parks, than the Amusement Parks.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/de...s/water-parks/

http://aquaticabyseaworld.com/

http://www.wetnwildorlando.com/

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Bump.

Heading down to orlando in a few weeks and trying to make sense of the whole pass thingy to optimize our experience.

Anyone been down there lately?
Where did you get your passes from?

Looking for Disneyworld and Universal passes. Thx!

Just got back from Orlando about 3 weeks ago with my wife.

For both Disney World & Universal Studios we purchased in advance online, which worked out well. Depending on how many days & the number of people your traveling with your needs might be different, but with just a two adults we found a park a day wasn't too bad, but two parks a day was a bit much.

We managed to see pretty much everything we wanted, with only Universal feeling rushed as we wanted to do both parks (Island of Adventures/Universal Studios) in the same day. Not something I would advice, we fit everything in that we wanted to see, but it was a bit rushed.

Disney
Disney has four "parks" down in the Orlando area, we only did Epcot & The Magic Kingdom with no hopper passes. Honestly I don't feel we missed out on anything by not park hopping. We did 1 afternoon at Epcot and a whole day (9:00 am to 9:00 pm) at the Magic Kingdom.

Best tip for Disney parks was to immediately head to the back of the park (be it by foot or people mover) and work your way towards the gate from there. And hit up a FastPass (it's free) kiosk immediately after lunch. Basically you go to the Kiosk, an employee will help you pick 3 attractions and give you times to go visit them without waiting in line. So you'll have 3 attractions scheduled for the afternoon and lots of time to explore stuff between your scheduled times.

Also, most of the lines are non-existent during the evening show/fireworks. So if you can handle missing it (it's about 90 minutes if I recall correctly) you can cram a ton more stuff in. We did the Haunted Mansion 4 times in one day.

Universal Orlando
As I mentioned before we scheduled both Universal Parks in one day, we also sprung for the "express passes" which allow you skip the line (with every other express pass holder) and typically get premium seating (front of roller coasters and such) on most attractions.

But having said that, a single day at Universal with Express Passes cost more than 2 days at Disney for two adults. So take it for what it's worth.

Our Universal Day did feel a bit rushed, and with the shorter hours (I think Universal closed at 7 the night we were there?) we didn't really have a chance to see things more than once. My wife loved the Harry Potter village thing (note, express passes are not accepted on the main harry potter ride) but we were on the far side of the second park and didn't really have time for a second visit.

Oh, and Moe's Tavern in the Simpsons area is fantastic. As is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride.

Short Version:
Disney: Skip the Park Hopper and do a park a day. Utilize fastpass
Universal: Park 2 Park is decent as the parks are close together, don't do all of the two parks in one day. Visit Moe's, drink duff.

[dubc80]

^^^ awesome, thanks.

Where online did you buy your passes from?

[Superflyer]

If you are looking to purchase the passes either go through the parks website itself or undercovertourist.com. There is very little wiggle room in ticket prices but undercovertourist is probably the best.

Do not buy from the many roadside places saying they sell tickets. Alot of them are a scam.

[mariners_fever]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I am travelling with my two kids ages 5 and 3 along with my wife. We are there for 10 days and were thinking a a 7 day hopper pass. Is that too much to do?

I worked at Epcot for a year and there is never too much. I never got sick of it.

If you're looking for trip planning tips, go to forums.wdwmagic.com . Their community is pretty good, but don't read too many of the threads because they can often be unfairly harsh on the place in complaining so much.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by dubc80

^^^ awesome, thanks.

Where online did you buy your passes from?

Just the official sites (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com, https://www.universalorlando.com), you might be able to save a bit of money bundling em with a hotel/flight package on something like Expedia, but we bought our separately of our flight/hotel.

Disney Tickets we picked up from the customer service windows in Downtown Disney (free outdoor mall area near a lot of the hotels) and the Universal Tickets we picked up at the Will Call kiosk at the park itself.

Disney did most things better than Universal, but City Walk right outside Universal was a lot better for bars/restaurants and as it's right outside the parks. Where as Downtown Disney isn't really connected to the parks, so it's almost a separate day in and of itself.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Bump.

Heading down to orlando in a few weeks and trying to make sense of the whole pass thingy to optimize our experience.

Anyone been down there lately?
Where did you get your passes from?

Looking for Disneyworld and Universal passes. Thx!

edit: Realized you were taking about Florida, so this doesn't matter to you, but will leave this post here in case anyone cares later on.

We bought the Southern California CityPASS when we went last year. 3 days of Disney, One day at Sea World and one day at Universal. It is essentially the Park Hopper pass with the extra stuff added on. You can also add on San Diego Zoo and Legoland as well.

We got a discount buying them though my mother's place of employment, so look around for some deals, because we paid quite a bit less than what the website lists.

[killer_carlson]

We bought our passes through AMA. We couldn't find discounts but it did nclude fre parking. This was Disneyland, not World though.