Park Hopping Strategy For One Park

[BethDisDreamz]

Hey All!

I'm looking to get ticket for my family plus my parents for March of 2023. I know that you cannot buy Park Hopper for just one day of a series of tickets. My question to the group is have you had any success of doing something like buying a 2 day ticket without park hopper, then a 1 day ticket for the day you want to park hop? For example, I want to do MK and Epcot on a Thursday and Friday, take a day off, then Park Hop for Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios on Sunday. Can I buy a two day ticket sans park-hopping that starts on Thursday, then a 1 day ticket with park-hopping that starts on Sunday? I cannot seem to find anything online about this strategy and I cannot be the only person ever who's thought of it. If I add Park Hopping to all 3 days worth of tickets it's almost $800 that we would just not use at all. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks in Advance!!

Beth

[AlexisW]

Your exact prices will vary depending on dates (I'm using the lowest prices non-discounted tickets can be in this calculation):

2-day ticket without Park Hopper: $226.13
1-day ticket with Park Hopper: $185.31
Total cost: $411.44

3-day ticket with Park Hopper: $416.37

So, in this case, it may be slightly cheaper to buy a 2-day ticket without Park Hopper and a 1-day ticket with Park Hopper-- but you'll want to check this with Disney's website based on the specific days you're visiting since ticket pricing can vary based on the day.

From a technical point of view, I'm not aware of anything stopping you from doing this-- although you may want to pop into Guest Services outside the park before you enter for the first time to double-check that your Park Hopper ticket won't be used early (I'm not sure if this is still an issue with date-specific tickets now).

[jm1670]

I haven't really looked at this since I have an Annual pass but I thought you can upgrade your tickets anytime. Are you sure they don't let you upgrade at the ticket window?

[AlexisW]

I haven't really looked at this since I have an Annual pass but I thought you can upgrade your tickets anytime. Are you sure they don't let you upgrade at the ticket window?

You can always upgrade to add Park Hopper to a multi-day ticket, but you have to pay the difference for the whole duration of the ticket-- if you wait to upgrade until the last day, you'll be paying to add Park Hopper to days you've already used. You can't "just" add Park Hopper for the last day of your ticket.

Basically, Park Hopper's an all-or-nothing thing on a given ticket, regardless of how/when you add it.