Are Park Hopper Tickets Worth it?

(Updated 3/12/2019)

Deciding between a 1 Park per Day ticket or a Ticket with Park Hopper Option can be one of the first stumbling blocks in planning a trip to Disney World.

1 Park per Day Tickets allow guests to enter ONE park per day for each day the ticket is valid. Guests may leave that ONE park and re-enter as they please from park opening to closing that day.

Ticket with Park Hopper Option allows guests to access ANY of the four parks each day the ticket is valid. Guests may come and go between any of the four parks from park opening to closing. The Park Hopper Option is a flat fee that extends to ALL days that park tickets are valid for.

Confused or need more basic ticketing information? Click here for more on how Disney World park tickets work.

NOTE: This discussion is about Park Hopper and NOT Park Hopper Plus. The latter includes access to Disney World’s two water parks as well. This is also geared more towards folks who are planning to use Disney transportation rather than driving their own car.

However, this information should be helpful to anyone considering whether or not Park Hopper tickets are worth it. Below are some questions to ask yourself before taking the plunge.

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Are you planning to visit Disney World for 3 or more days?

Make no mistake, Park Hopper tickets are more of an investment than 1 Park per Day tickets. Tickets with Park Hopper Option generally add around $60-$80 (prices are subject to change) per guest to the ticket total. That’s potentially $240-$320 more for a family of 4 than 1 Park Per Day tickets.

However, just like 1 Park Per Day Tickets, the cost per day decreases with each additional ticket purchased. No doubt this is to incentivize guests to stay 2 or more days. Spending extra money on the Park Hopper Option is not the greatest value for a one or two day trip unless your group will take full advantage of it each day.  For those planning a 2 or more day stay, it is definitely something to consider.

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Are you a first time visitor?

For first time visitors, or folks who haven’t visited recently, this decision is not an easy one to make. Without a clear idea of park size, transportation logistics, or time needed for must do attractions, it is a leap of faith. Will your group be satisfied with devoting an entire day to a single park and then checking it off the vacation to-do  list? Or, are you the kind of park goers who like to scope a place out and swing back later in the trip for repeat rides?

With a little research and planning, Park Hopper tickets can work for first timers. My group loves the ability to visit one park in the morning and then another in the afternoon or evening. We also appreciate the flexibility to go back on another day in order to do things that we couldn’t earlier.

However, we are two adults travelling with a teenager. We aren’t tied to nap schedules and we aren’t wrangling toddlers all morning. Which brings us to the next question.

Are there younger children in your travelling group?

1 Park Per Day tickets allow guests to exit and re-enter the same park from opening to closing. If you have younger children, you can leave the park for a nap or swim at your resort. After a rest, just head back to the same park to finish off the day

What Park Hopper does, however, is give guests the flexibility to head to a different park in the evening. Think about what kind of stamina your kid has when you visit the local zoo or children’s museum. Would they be able to sustain that all day or repeat it again in the evening after a rest? Would heading to a different and lower key park for dinner and an evening show work out better?

A lot of kids are Magic Kingdom’ed out after a morning and early afternoon of meeting characters, running around Fantasyland and standing in lines in the sun. Having the flexibility of heading over to Animal Kingdom for a slower paced park experience later in the day could be a life saver.

Does anyone in your travelling group have mobility issues?

Guests with mobility issues may not get the best use out of Park Hopper tickets. If it is easier for everyone to stay put in one park each day then do that. If shuttling back and forth multiple times during the day from resort to park or park to park is problematic, consider sticking with the 1 Park Per Day Ticket.

However, Disney buses are fully accessible and most accommodate up to 2 ECVs. For more information on Disney World transportation accessibility, scroll towards the bottom of this page.

Are flexibility and convenience important to you group?

This is the best reason to get Park Hopper tickets. For us, it is worth the upcharge for flexibility. We plan our days around attractions and our evenings around food and evening entertainment. That’s not to say that we don’t also ride attractions at night, but it tends to be a much more casual experience for us.

We get to the parks early for rope drop or Extra Magic Hours. All of our hardcore park fun is in the morning and early afternoon. In late afternoon or early evening we head out for dinner and another park. The Park Hopper option is super convenient and allows for changing plans on the fly. Want to ride the mountains in the morning but eat at France for dinner? Get Park Hopper tickets.

For larger parties with differing interests and stamina, Park Hopper tickets allow you to split up if needed. Grandma and the kids want to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks but everyone else wants to grab dinner in Epcot? Park Hopper enables that.

Are one or more of the Disney World parks less appealing to your group in terms of attractions?

Not much at Hollywood Studios that appeals to your group? Afraid that most of Epcot will be lost on your toddler? Park Hopper tickets are the perfect solution. If a park doesn’t offer enough attractions for your group, visit in the morning and then head to another park. Spending an entire day in a park that has only half a day’s worth of activities that work for your family is a waste of money. If the Park Hopper upgrade works for your budget, that extra cash can go towards a fuller day of fun for everyone.

How much time are you able or willing to spend on getting from one place to another?

Remember that transportation, particularly Disney bus transportation, can involve a fair amount of waiting. Shuttling back and forth between the resorts and parks takes time. That time varies depending on the crowd level, time of day and which resort you are staying at. Figure in about an hour total with wait time, as well as getting from point A to point B. Travel and wait times may not always be that long, but it is better to be on the safe side.

Park Hopper tickets can add more time in travel. More trips between parks and resorts means more travel time. Just keep transportation in mind, especially if considering Park Hopping to more than 2 parks in a day.

If you need more information on how Disney World transportation works, check this out.

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Most of my advice on ALL parts of the planning process starts with the same refrain: know your group.  Are Park Hopper Tickets worth it? That really does depend on what works best for your travelling party. There are definitely benefits to both 1 Park per Day tickets and Park Hopper tickets. Hopefully answering these questions will help you to make an informed decision on whether or not they work for you.