Park Hopping gives you more flexibility with dining reservations I’ve addressed this before, but I’ve just been asked again so I thought it deserved a second mention. If you have a dining reservation at a theme park, you need to also have a Disney Park Pass Reservation. Your dining reservation does not guarantee that you will be able to enter the park.
Things have changed since the beginning of the year. Since Park Hopper is back, you don’t have to spend the day at the park that you have the dining reservation at. For example, you can make a Disney Park Pass Reservation for the Magic Kingdom and spend the morning there, but then make it to Epcot for your 5:00 dinner reservation at Coral Reef Restaurant.
There are a few things that you need to remember. First, you do need to have a reservation at one of the parks and physically enter that park. Second, Park Hopping does not begin until 2:00, so the reservation needs to be later than that. Third, this may sound obvious, but you need to have Park Hopper added to your ticket in order to do this.
If you worry that the second park might be full, that hasn’t been a problem so far. As far as I know, there has not been one time when Park Hopping wasn’t available due to capacity problems. This could be an issue on October 1 and maybe Christmas Day, but on a normal Wednesday you should be able to Park Hop.
As always, if you have a restaurant reservation that you aren’t going to use, please cancel so that someone else can have a chance. You will be billed a flat rate per person if you don’t cancel the day before, but that shouldn’t be the reason why you do it. Making a stranger’s day should be reason enough.