One of the most common questions people ask when planning a trip to Disney is what type of park ticket they should purchase. In this blog post I’m going to include all the details you’ll need to know to help you decide which type of park ticket is best for your trip!
REMINDER: a valid park ticket AND park reservation are both required for entry to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland!
WHAT ARE THE TICKET OPTIONS?
1) Base Ticket (Standard Park Ticket)
Visit 1 park per day. Ticket is valid all day, so yes – you can leave and come back!
2) Park Hopper
Visit more than 1 park in a day (visit second park after 2PM at WDW / 1PM at DL). As long as you have a Park Reservation for the FIRST park you want to visit, you can visit as many as you’d like (you could visit all 4 parks in a day at WDW if you really wanted to!)
3) Park Hopper Plus (only at WDW)
This option includes the Park Hopper option AND gives water park access (Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach – check availability prior to purchase).
Plus, you get a certain number of visits to other Walt Disney World fun based on the length of your ticket. For example, a 4-day ticket allows 4 visits and a 5-day ticket allows 5 visits. For each visit, you can choose one of the following:
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park (Currently Unavailable)
- ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex (Currently Unavailable)
- Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course – FootGolf
Played over Disney’s 9-hole golf course, FootGolf combines the excitement of golf with the fast-paced nature of soccer for a unique experience. The precision sport requires players to kick a soccer ball into a cup, in a similar fashion to regular golf, using as few attempts as possible. - Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
Enjoy a 2,913 yard, par 36, 9-hole walking course with fun for everyone, from developing golfers to experienced players. Greens fees only. - Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course (prior to 4PM)
Play one round of miniature golf (prior to 4:00 PM) at a fun course inspired by the Disney classic film Fantasia. - Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course
Treat yourself to one round of miniature golf (prior to 4:00 PM) at either of 2 Santa Claus-themed courses.
4) Water Park & Sports Option (only at WDW)
Walt Disney World Resort has 4 exciting theme parks to explore—Magic Kingdom park, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With the Water Park and Sports option, you can visit one theme park each day of your ticket.
Plus, you get a certain number of visits to other Walt Disney World fun based on the length of your ticket. For example, a 4-day ticket allows 4 visits and a 5-day ticket allows 5 visits. For each visit, you can choose one of the following:
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park (Currently Unavailable)
- ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex (Currently Unavailable)
- Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course – FootGolf
- Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course
- Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course (prior to 4PM)
- Disney’s Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course
WHAT IS A PARK HOPPER?
The Park Hopper ticket option is an add-on to your Disney base ticket that allows you to visit more than one park within that same day. Say you’d like to spend the morning in Animal Kingdom and then have dinner reservations in EPCOT (or Disneyland Park to Disney California Adventure) – this would be how you’d do it!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Park Hopping starts at 2PM at WDW (1PM at Disneyland) and ends at each park’s scheduled closing time. Park Hours are listed in the My Disney Experience App for each park.
Disney requires not only a valid park ticket, but a Park Reservation as well. To utilize Park Hopper passes, you would make a Park Reservation for your first park of the day. After you have entered that park, you can hop over to a second park of your choosing starting at 2PM (1PM at Disneyland). It is required to visit the first park before you can hop to another! You must scan in!
SHOULD I UPGRADE TO A PARK HOPPER?
I mean it when I say – IT DEPENDS. Every family, every group, and every trip is different.
If this was your first time visiting the parks, it would be fairly rushed to soak everything in by 2PM. There is truly so much to see and do, and for first timers you could EASILY spend a full day in each park (if not more than one day!). I feel it also depends on the length of your trip. If you’re spending a full week in Disney, Park Hopping might be a good option. If it’s your first trip ever and you’re only going for a few days, it might be better to stick with base tickets and visit one park on each day of your trip.
For Disneyland, I will say the convenience of the parks being directly across from each other makes Park Hopping A BREEZE. When I visited in January it was definitely worth it to upgrade to Park Hoppers for us to have that flexibility. Again – it depends on each group/family.
I’d say ages of kiddos is also a factor. If you’re a family with small kids that will need to go back to the resort and nap or just have shorter park days, you may not want to purchase a park hopper.
Hope this breakdown was helpful and will guide you in your choice of park tickets!
If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out. That’s what I’m here for!
