Hey there, Karen. I'm so glad you've stopped by planDisney to talk about one of my favorite things - park hopping! It's my favorite way to spend a Disney day.
Park hopping does look a little bit different than it did before with the new
park pass reservation system. Now, when you are wanting to visit a Walt Disney World Theme Park, even with a park hopper ticket, you need to make park pass reservations for an initial theme park you'd like to visit each day. Park hopping hours now start at 2:00 p.m. To park hop, you must scan in and enter the theme park with the park pass reservation first before continuing to other theme parks later in the day. It is not necessary or even possible to make multiple park pass reservations for one day, you just need that initial one. Your park pass reservation does give you in and out privileges at that particular park all day long, even before park hopping hours start at 2:00 p.m. but only at that particular theme park.
If your park pass reservations are at
Magic Kingdom Park, that would be the theme park that you will need to visit first before continuing on to others later in the day. It would not be possible, with the reservation system, to leave your
Epcot area resort hotel, walk through Epcot and hop on the monorail to Magic Kingdom Park if your park pass reservation was for Magic Kingdom Park. What you will need to do is use the complimentary bus transportation that will take you from your resort straight to Magic Kingdom Park.
After you've scanned into the theme park with your park pass reservation and the clock strikes 2:00 p.m., you then have in and out priveledges at all of the other Walt Disney World Theme Parks. You can visit one or you can visit them all in a single afternoon the choice is yours!
I hope this helps explain the park hopping process a little bit better, Karen. If you have any other questions before your trip, please feel free to stop back by and
ask me. I'm happy to help.
Have fun and happy hopping!