Entering Epcot Early from International Gateway for 9:00 Tour

[TNKim]

I'm staying at the wonderful Beach Club. We have reservations for the Gardens of the World tour at the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot at 9:00 am in the morning. I need to be at the front entrance of Epcot to meet for the tour at 8:45 am. Will they let us through the IG early, say, no later than 8:15 am, in order to walk through to get to the front of Epcot? Is this allowing enough time to get there by 8:45, if they allow us to enter? Another thing I should mention is my mom uses an ECV, and I don't want to break it down, so using a taxi is not an option. I asked at the concierge desk and they called customer relations at Epcot & said it "should" be okay for us to enter early. But the security at IG said they had never let anyone in early except with breakfast reservations. The front desk at BC told me if they didn't let us enter early that they could always radio ahead for us to let the tour know we were on our way. I'm not real comfortable with being told they "should" let us in, and then not being able to enter and missing the start of the tour, which is the main reason I brought my mom to Epcot! I really don't want any mix-ups or delays getting to the front of Epcot for the tour. Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? And I just want to say our first visit to the BC has been wonderful!

 

[DebbieB]

I'm staying at the wonderful Beach Club. We have reservations for the Gardens of the World tour at the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot at 9:00 am in the morning. I need to be at the front entrance of Epcot to meet for the tour at 8:45 am. Will they let us through the IG early, say, no later than 8:15 am, in order to walk through to get to the front of Epcot? Is this allowing enough time to get there by 8:45, if they allow us to enter? Another thing I should mention is my mom uses an ECV, and I don't want to break it down, so using a taxi is not an option. I asked at the concierge desk and they called customer relations at Epcot & said it "should" be okay for us to enter early. But the security at IG said they had never let anyone in early except with breakfast reservations. The front desk at BC told me if they didn't let us enter early that they could always radio ahead for us to let the tour know we were on our way. I'm not real comfortable with being told they "should" let us in, and then not being able to enter and missing the start of the tour, which is the main reason I brought my mom to Epcot! I really don't want any mix-ups or delays getting to the front of Epcot for the tour. Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? And I just want to say our first visit to the BC has been wonderful!

No problem. We had an 8:30am Segway Tour last year and were staying at BWV. They had our name on a list and let us in around 8:00.

 

[aubriee]

No problem. We had an 8:30am Segway Tour last year and were staying at BWV. They had our name on a list and let us in around 8:00.

Same here. I was staying at BWV and had an 8:30am Segway tour. They just checked my name off their list and let me through. In fact, there were three other people on the same tour that they let through with me.

 

[LSchrow]

i would just make sure you are at IG no later than 8:00AM.
we've gone on a few EPCOT programs that required us to meet at front of park before park opening.
last year, they would not allow us to walk through EPCOT alone. we had to wait for a GS CM to walk to IG (from the front), and then we all walked back together.
thankfully, we allowed ourselves an hour from IG to GS, and were just a few minutes late.
a couple of years ago, i had left the confirm in our room at the BWV and they couldn't find our reservation. we had to wait for it all to be cleared up (we were just under 1 hour early), and wound up getting there about 10 minutes prior.

chances are you won't have a problem....we just prefer no/less stress buffer

 

[TNKim]

I'm staying at the wonderful Beach Club. We have reservations for the Gardens of the World tour at the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot at 9:00 am in the morning. I need to be at the front entrance of Epcot to meet for the tour at 8:45 am. Will they let us through the IG early, say, no later than 8:15 am, in order to walk through to get to the front of Epcot? Is this allowing enough time to get there by 8:45, if they allow us to enter? Another thing I should mention is my mom uses an ECV, and I don't want to break it down, so using a taxi is not an option. I asked at the concierge desk and they called customer relations at Epcot & said it "should" be okay for us to enter early. But the security at IG said they had never let anyone in early except with breakfast reservations. The front desk at BC told me if they didn't let us enter early that they could always radio ahead for us to let the tour know we were on our way. I'm not real comfortable with being told they "should" let us in, and then not being able to enter and missing the start of the tour, which is the main reason I brought my mom to Epcot! I really don't want any mix-ups or delays getting to the front of Epcot for the tour. Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? And I just want to say our first visit to the BC has been wonderful!

Thanks for all your replies to my post. Just reporting back to let you know how our journey to the front entrance of Epcot for the 8:45 tour turned out. We arrived at the International Gateway from the Beach Club around 8:05, no one else around except for the security at bag check. I had worried all week whether we would be allowed to walk through prior to park opening, but security had no problem with it at all. Checked our bags and we went right in. It was wonderful to be able to walk slowly and take pictures of the flowers and topiaries without all the crowds. I think I enjoyed seeing Epcot without the hoards of people and in the early morning light as much as the tour! We took our time and got to the front of the park about 8:35, plenty of time before the start of the tour. So it is possible to enter the park early to get to the front entrance, or maybe security thought two ladies, one with an ECV, weren't much of a threat!

 

[Sandi]

Thanks for all your replies to my post. Just reporting back to let you know how our journey to the front entrance of Epcot for the 8:45 tour turned out. We arrived at the International Gateway from the Beach Club around 8:05, no one else around except for the security at bag check. I had worried all week whether we would be allowed to walk through prior to park opening, but security had no problem with it at all. Checked our bags and we went right in. It was wonderful to be able to walk slowly and take pictures of the flowers and topiaries without all the crowds. I think I enjoyed seeing Epcot without the hoards of people and in the early morning light as much as the tour! We took our time and got to the front of the park about 8:35, plenty of time before the start of the tour. So it is possible to enter the park early to get to the front entrance, or maybe security thought two ladies, one with an ECV, weren't much of a threat!

This is exactly what should happen and I'm glad it did for you! It is quite wonderful to amble through WS without lots of other people around -- especially during the flower festival. You can take time for photos and to really see things.