Hey Nicole!
Welcome to the Disney Parks Mom Panel! Thank you for bringing us your question.
One of my favorite tips for anyone traveling to Walt Disney World is to take breaks in the afternoon. This can be as small as finding a nice, cool place to have a leisurely lunch in the park or it can be heading back to your resort to take a quick dip in the pool. These breaks are especially helpful during the summer months when the temperatures can be blistering. If you are going to chose the later option of heading out of the theme park for your afternoon break, you will need to add the
Park Hopper option to your base ticket. The base Walt Disney World ticket offers one theme park entry per day. This includes visiting the same theme park twice in one day.
Adding the park hopper option to your base ticket is well worth the price. Since the cost of adding the park hopper option is a flat fee (as of 1/31/2014 adding the Park Hopper is $59.00/ticket), the longer you stay the less expense it is per day.
Utilizing the Park Hopper also gives you more choices when creating your daily plans. For example, my family usually only takes a 1/2 day or so to tour the Animal Kingdom. This leaves our evening open to visit another theme park for the evening.
I hope this helps you in planning your magical Disney vacation. If you have any other questions please come back and see me.
Have a pixie-dusted day!
Sue N., IN