Park Hopping returns to Disney January 1 — with a few catches
Disney World reopened its doors this summer after a 117-day shutdown to a different guest experience. On top of all the safety precautions, perhaps the largest change to the guest experience was the removal of the Park Hopping option allowing you to visit multiple theme parks in a single day.
Starting January 1, the option to visit multiple parks in a single day returns, albeit in a modified format.
The Disney Parks Blog announced that ticketholders and annual pass holders with the Park Hopping option (read: more expensive ticket) will be allowed to visit multiple parks as long as:
- You make a reservation for your first park in the Park Reservation System
- You visit that first park
- You can then visit a second park after 2 p.m.
- No reservation is required for your second (or third or fourth) park, but parks will still be capacity controlled
That means you could try and head from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios after 2 p.m. to find Hollywood Studios (the most popular park currently thanks to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway) at capacity.
Hopefully, Disney will have some type of monitoring and alerts set up in the Disney World App to alert you to park capacity before you try and head to a second park. Disney also said that Park Hopping hours could change away from 2 p.m. at a later date based on the park and date, so be sure to check the app during your trip.
Park Hopping returning comes directly on the heels of Disney's announcement they are increasing capacity from 25% to 35% and that parks are 77% booked for the holidays in the park pass reservation system.
Related: What to expect for the 2020 holidays at Disney World
The news of expanded park options and increased capacity coincides with the US just shy of adding 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day and the CDC strongly discouraging travel during Thanksgiving.
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