Joe,
Thanks for asking your question to planDisney!
Yes, any use of a standard
ticket to enter
EPCOT or another park, even after 7 p.m., will count as a use of one of your theme park admissions. Of course, if a park is open until 1 a.m., they are not going to “charge” a second admission to those guests in the park. But one entry, regardless of when you enter, is used.
My advice to friends, when they plan out their trips, is to start by figuring out how many of the days of their trip they want to visit a park or multiple parks. After getting to that number, that is when they need to decide if they want to do any park hopping or not. I have trips where park hopping is essential and others where I don’t find that it is needed for my plans. As an example, when my girls were young, we really were fine visiting just one park per day. There is so much to do in each park, that jumping to another was not necessary. Now, as teenagers, we find that the flexibility to jump from one park to the next brings a nice level of spontaneity and flexibility to our plans.
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.
I hope that this helps, but if you have any follow-up questions you should feel free to
write me back directly.
Have a Magical Vacation!
Doug