Hi Robert,
Thank you so much for visiting planDisney with your Walt Disney World planning question. Planning ahead to make the most of your days while on vacation is a great idea. The planning process, for me, is a great way to get excited about my upcoming vacation!
In terms of how to best use your
Park Hopper option, I think that it depends on what your priorities are for your trip to Walt Disney World. If it is imperative for you to visit all four theme parks -
Magic Kingdom,
EPCOT,
Disney's Hollywood Studios, and
Disney's Animal Kingdom - then I would say go ahead and make a theme park reservation for one park for each of your four days. You can plan the attractions that you want to visit at each park on each day, and when you have accomplished those highlights, you can head to another theme park.
That said, it sounds like your traveling party has certain theme parks that you know you will want to visit multiple times. If that is the case, and it would be okay with you to miss a theme park if you end up spending your whole day at your original theme park, I would say go for it and make multiple days of park reservations at whatever the most important theme park to you is! This is how my family would handle this. On a four-day trip, we would be likely to want to go to Magic Kingdom at least twice. I would probably make park reservations there for at least two of the four days. This would allow us to head to Magic Kingdom at opening time, when there tend to be fewer guests, and enjoy lots of attractions. Later in the afternoon, we might head to another theme park, knowing that we were going to come back to Magic Kingdom later in the trip. If you do choose this option, do remember that Park Hopping is subject to capacity limitations of the theme park to which you are Park Hopping so it is not a guarantee that you will be able to Park Hop to a specific theme park on any given day.
Please also remember that on any given day, you do need to visit the initial theme park for which you made a theme park reservation before taking advantage of heading to another theme park with your Park Hopper option. You can also check the
Walt Disney World theme park hours, which show both the regular hours of the theme park as well as Park Hopper availability. These can also be found in your
My Disney Experience App.
I hope that these thoughts are helpful for you, Robert. Please do come back and visit us again at planDisney if you have any further questions!
- Mona Leigh