Mary,
Thanks for asking your question to planDisney!
The way that the
Theme Park Reservations system works currently, in conjunction with park hopping, is that you do have to go to your initial park before hopping. We had to do just this last week, as my wife had to go ‘check-in’ at
Disney’s Hollywood Studios before joining the rest of the family in
EPCOT, where we had park-hopped to enjoy the food stands at the
EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.
It is a bit of an inconvenience, but now you know, and can plan accordingly.
HOPPING TIP #1Disney has a bus service between parks, starting just before 2 p.m. specifically for park hopping, where needed. When hopping, if you can catch one of those buses that leave closer to 1:30 p.m., that would get your hopping off to a good start.
HOPPING TIP #2While you are not guaranteed to be able to get into any given park when you are hopping, (since the second park has to have available space), I have never had a problem getting into a second park on my travels. If you were trying to get into the Magic Kingdom on a super busy day, like Christmas Day, you could have a problem, but most days you should be fine.
HOPPING TIP #3How will you know if that next park has available space? When getting ready to park hop, call
(407) 560-5000. That is the
Park Hopping Hotline (or at least that is what I call it!), and it will tell you the status of all the parks, and if the park you want to hop to has space.
BONUS TIPPark hopping is especially convenient if you are moving between Disney's Hollywood Studios and EPCOT, or the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. These two routes, which are served by the
Disney Skyliner and the
monorail respectively, are more accessible because you are dealing with these convenient transportation services.
Please feel free to
write me back directly if you have any follow-up questions.
Have a Magical Vacation!Doug