When it comes time to buy your Disney World tickets, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want to invest in the park hopper benefit. But it’s only an investment if you know how to get something out of the extra cost. In this post we discuss the ins and outs of park hopping—visiting more than one Disney World theme park in a day—and buying park hopper tickets that allow you to do so.
Basics of Park Hopping
Let’s start with some basics…
What is park hopping at Disney World?
Park hopping at Disney World is when you visit two or more theme parks in a single day (with a few exceptions discussed below). The four theme parks at Walt Disney World are Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The water parks—Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon—have nothing to do with park hopping.
Park hopping has nothing to do with visiting different parks on different days, or the same park on multiple days. It only applies to visiting multiple parks on a single calendar day.
As always, keep in mind that Universal Studios is not a part of Walt Disney World. If you want to visit Universal Studios, you’ll need to buy a separate ticket from them, completely unrelated to you Walt Disney World ticket.
How to Park Hop at disney World
Here’s a summary of how you’ll park hop at Disney World, with some details below:
You buy park hopper tickets for Disney World
You visit a Disney World theme park
You leave that park and, on the same day, visit another Disney World theme park
Now, some details on these steps.
You Need Park Hopper Tickets
You need tickets with the park hopper option. Base tickets without park hopper will not allow park hopping. We’ll discuss park hopper tickets in a little more detail in the next section.
What if I already bought tickets?
If you already purchased tickets, you should be able to add park hopper (talk to the place you bought it, or you can usually upgrade at the park gates). You should also try calling Disney directly at 407-W-DISNEY (407-934-7639) about upgrading your tickets.
Second Park Is Subject to Capacity Constraints
Just because you have park hopper doesn’t mean you will necessarily get into the second park. The parks will still be subject to capacity restraints. Capacity closures are relatively rare, but you should be prepared for them particularly around holidays (and I’d never expect to park hop on New Year’s Eve).
You Can Visit As Many Parks As You Want
If you want to hop to another park, and another park, you can.
How to Get Between the Disney World Parks
You can get between Epcot and Hollywood Studios via Skyliner, pedestrian path, and boat. All three methods take about 20-30 minutes, though a wait for the boat will make that trip longer.
You can get between Epcot and Magic Kingdom via monorail with a transfer at the Transportation and Ticket Center.
All other journeys can be done by bus.
If you have your own car, you only have to pay for parking once—if you go between the parks you won’t have to pay for parking at the second/third/etc. lots.
Finally, you can Uber, Lyft, or Minnie Van between the parks. Keep in mind rideshares other than Minnie Vans do not stop directly at Magic Kingdom. Instead they stop at Transportation and Ticket Center.
Buying Disney World Park Hopper Tickets
Generally park hopper can be purchased as an add-on for ordinary, date-based tickets. If you have other tickets—like special offer tickets from Disney or tickets tied to some special event, you’ll need to consult the terms of those tickets to see if they including park hopper or if it can be added.
Here’s an example of what the option looks like when buying tickets on the Disney World website:
Tickets without park hopper are usually called “base tickets.” With base tickets you can still visit all four parks, as long as you are at Disney World for at least four days. Tickets without Park Hopper are good for one park each day. You can choose the park. So you could visit all four parks in four days, or you could visit one park four times in four days.
You’ll usually also see a “Park Hopper Plus” option. This is a poor naming choice, in my opinion, but it’s basically an add on that includes both the Park Hopper add on and the unrelated “Water Park and Sports” add on. You’ll probably want park hopper plus if you plan on visiting one of the water parks—Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.
How much does park hopper cost?
Disney doesn’t advertise specific park hopper prices—you have to compare the ticket prices for a given date to find the exact costs. But, park hopper roughly costs:
$65 per ticket for one day tickets (compared to price of Magic Kingdom admission)
$85 per ticket for 2- and 3-day tickets
$95 per ticket for longer tickets
Note that’s per ticket, not per night, and park hopper is always for the length of the ticket. So if your five day ticket costs $600 without park hopper, it will cost $695 with park hopper for all five days.
Downsides of PArk Hopping
Park hopping comes at an additional cost, but beyond that it will only impact your trip if you choose to use it. That said, if you are planning a trip that involves lots of hopping, you should be aware of when hopping is more trouble than it’s worth…
Park Hopping Takes Time
Whether you drive or rely on Disney transit, getting between parks takes time. While you could conceivably get between two parks in 15 minutes, it can also take over an hour. You might want to use Uber / Lyft to park hop (or, from Magic Kingdom specifically, Minnie Vans).
If you’re relying on Disney’s internal bus/boat system, you’ll definitely have a few unexpected delays waiting for the buses and boats to arrive. Buses between parks don’t start running until 10AM, though this is most significantly an issue for getting to Animal Kingdom, a problem not many people are likely to have before 10AM. If you have to get to one of the other three parks before 10AM and you’re totally unwilling to pay for an Uber/Minnie Van or bring your own car, you could just take a bus to a nearby hotel. This isn’t ideal and will take some time, but it will work.
Time is money at Walt Disney World, and with Park Hopper you could wind up spending more to have less time in the parks. If you take advantage of the earliest park opening and the latest closing, you might avoid this, but some days you'll be losing time.
All this said, just because you can park hop every day, and multiple times every day, doesn’t mean you have to. The extra cost of park hopper might be justified, for example, by one easy hop between Epcot and Hollywood Studios, plus a day where you leave Animal Kingdom early, hang out at your hotel for a bit, and then go to Magic Kingdom for the evening.
Park Hopping Can Be Tiring
“Tiring” is maybe understating it. Park hopping can be exhausting. Families with smaller children or older adults may find it much easier to be in a single park all day.
This is especially going to be true if you're hopping parks trying to cram in rides. If you're not taking the time to relax at a restaurant or sit and watch a parade, you’re more likely to get tired. Park hopping often (but not necessarily) includes walking from ride to ride or character greeting to character greeting trying to fit as much as possible into a single day. Consider whether you’re cramming too much into a single day.
But as with the above point, you can make a conscious effort to avoid this route. Breaking up your day with a hotel break in the middle—with different parks in the morning and evening—is a good way to use park hopper to add some relaxation to your trip.
Park Hopping Usually Isn’t Necessary
Every Walt Disney World park really is a "full-day" park. Animal Kingdom is the closest to a "half day" park, but you could still fill in about seven hours there. The other three parks all can easily fill a day.
If you focus too much on park hopping just to get in as many rides as possible, you'll miss plenty of top-notch entertainment and scenery. There is so much detail and so much story in every Disney park, you just have to take the time to see it.
Upsides of Park Hopping
Before we became Disney World annual passholders, we always purchased Park Hopper. The flexibility in planning goes much deeper than might seem obvious at first glance. We'll cover a few ways Park Hopper can make planning your Disney World trip easier.
Take Advantage Of Varying Park Hours
It’s not uncommon for the four parks at Disney World to have wildly different hours on a given day. A common setup is for Animal Kingdom to open early—maybe at 8AM—with the other parks opening at 9AM. Animal Kingdom also tends to close earlier than the other parks, while Magic Kingdom often closes at 10PM or 11PM.
The best way to use park hopper is to start at a park that’s opening early and end at one that’s opening late. This gets you the most park hours in a day.
Moreover, other than using Lightning Lines, the best way to get on rides with short waits is rope drop. And, on rare days, you can actually use park hopper to make it to multiple rope drops on the same day.
And just like with rope drop, parks tend to be less busy at close. Hopping from an 8PM close to a 10PM close allows you to double up on these small crowds.
This is especially valuable on days when one park has a special event that you’re not able to visit. For example, if you go to Magic Kingdom before Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party, you’ll have to leave at 6PM. The same is true of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Park hopping allows you to spend the morning at Magic Kingdom on party days without having your day cut short. As a bonus, crowds tend to be low at Magic Kingdom during the day when it is hosting a holiday party. People without park hopper don’t want to visit on a short day.
Lean Into What You Love
If you’re a first time guest, you really won’t know what things you love in Walt Disney World until you’ve actually visited. One upside of park hopper is that if you find out that you or your family particularly loves something at a specific park, it’s a lot easier to get back to it if you have park hopper.
You’d hate to go to Epcot on day one and then have grandma talking about how much she’d love to go back to the World Showcase the rest of the trip if you didn’t have park hopper. You’d hate to ride Winnie the Pooh with your little one and have them keep asking for it over and over the next three days without park hopper.
Park Hoppers Have More Dining Options
This is a pretty underrated aspect of planning with Park Hopper. Since some restaurants are located in the parks, you need Disney theme park tickets to dine at those locations. Without Park Hopper, you’re forced to dedicate an entire day to a park if you want to dine at any of its restaurants. This can cause problems, particularly if you want to dine at multiple restaurants in a single park but can’t get advance dining reservations at both on the same day.
This idea extends to restaurants outside the parks, as well. If you want to have breakfast at the Polynesian one day and dinner at the Grand Floridian another day, it makes sense to be able to swing by Magic Kingdom on both of those days without having to spend two full days there. (Obviously you don't need admission to a park to eat at hotel restaurants, it's just convenient for planning purposes.)
Lightning Lanes and Park Hopping
Here’s how Lightning Lanes work with park hopping…
You’ll probably want the “Multiple Parks” version of Genie+. If you only want Lightning Lanes at one park, you can just buy Genie+ for that park. But if you’re hopping and expecting to make Genie+ bookings at multiple parks, you’ll need the more expensive version of Genie+ for multiple parks.
The rules for Individual Lightning Lanes aren’t impacted by park hopping. Guests of Disney hotels can buy individual Lightning Lanes at 7AM. Other guests can buy individual Lightning Lanes for rides in a park at the time the park opens.
Learn about stacking. While you should have a good Lightning Lane strategy any day you’re using Genie+, you also will particularly want to learn about stacking on days you’re park hopping. We discuss it in that post, and highly recommend this Disney Tourist Blog post, too.
Should I Get Park Hopper at Disney World?
This question is one that will depend not only on what kind of family and traveler(s) you are, but also whether this is your first or tenth trip.
If your family takes it slow, you won’t need Park Hopper. You can take it slow in one park each day and accomplish plenty.
Similarly, if this is your first trip, feel free to skip Park Hopper. This will allow you to truly savor each park to its fullest without the stress of hopping. The exception is that if you’re going to have people in your group who absolutely have to make it back to some highlight once they experience it the first time, you might wind up needing park hopper.
If you’re planning a return trip, or if you’re someone who can get up at 6AM and be moving until 10PM, then Park Hopper is a great option. The only time we've come close to skipping park hopper was on a trip with a first-timer. We are usually up and running around all day at Walt Disney World, hopping between parks, resorts, and restaurants all trip long.
A final caveat—if your trip is fewer than four days, the only way you can see all four parks is to buy a ticket with Park Hopper option. We would consider that essential and worth the extra cost, but plenty of families could skip a park.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.