How has Skyliner affected early morning entry at International Gateway?

[adear11]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this question since it isn't necessarily specifically resort related, so if this isn't the correct board I apologize...

I've just booked our next trip for Oct of 2023 at Beach Club. We love Beach Club because of its close proximity to Epcot. We haven't stayed here, though, since 2016. The last few trips we have taken have been as part of group reservations with my kid's dance team so we haven't been able to stay there. So, we haven't stayed at BC since Skyliner opened. In the run up to it opening, there was a lot of speculation that with Skyliner unloading at IG, it would be overwhelmed with people trying to get into the park in the mornings. Has this turned out to be the case? With crowds being what they have been since the parks reopened, and with the opening of Remy, what has your experience with entry into EPCOT via IG been like? Has ETPE helped or made it worse?

While the trip is a ways off, and I presume that the answer to this question is going to largely depend on what crowd levels are like, but I want to have an idea of what to expect. On our last stay at BC in 2016, and on subsequent trips taken through my job in 2017 and 2019 where we stayed at Swan, my experience has been that we could get to IG as little as 20 or 30 minutes prior to entry time and there wouldn't be a huge line. Should I just let that hope go all together?

 

[RoseGold]

The Skyliner is not running early enough to be first in the park for on-site rope drop. People from other resorts actually have to Uber. From BC, you should be looking really good for rope drop at HS or Epcot.

Some people actually Uber to BC to go in the back entrance, but obviously most will be at the main entrance.

You'll be fine.

 

[LRdismom]

When I went in May, the Skyliner was running before EPCOT rope drop. Epcot opened at 8 and we were there at least 30 mins before rope drop. The line started to get really long behind us.

 

[adear11]

When I went in May, the Skyliner was running before EPCOT rope drop. Epcot opened at 8 and we were there at least 30 mins before rope drop. The line started to get really long behind us.

When you say that it was running before "rope drop" do you mean the official park opening time, or the ETPE time 30 minutes prior to scheduled opening?

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this question since it isn't necessarily specifically resort related, so if this isn't the correct board I apologize...

I've just booked our next trip for Oct of 2023 at Beach Club. We love Beach Club because of its close proximity to Epcot. We haven't stayed here, though, since 2016. The last few trips we have taken have been as part of group reservations with my kid's dance team so we haven't been able to stay there. So, we haven't stayed at BC since Skyliner opened. In the run up to it opening, there was a lot of speculation that with Skyliner unloading at IG, it would be overwhelmed with people trying to get into the park in the mornings. Has this turned out to be the case? With crowds being what they have been since the parks reopened, and with the opening of Remy, what has your experience with entry into EPCOT via IG been like? Has ETPE helped or made it worse?

While the trip is a ways off, and I presume that the answer to this question is going to largely depend on what crowd levels are like, but I want to have an idea of what to expect. On our last stay at BC in 2016, and on subsequent trips taken through my job in 2017 and 2019 where we stayed at Swan, my experience has been that we could get to IG as little as 20 or 30 minutes prior to entry time and there wouldn't be a huge line. Should I just let that hope go all together?

It's largely dependent on what the epcot resort crowds are like but we've stayed at S/D and BW several times over the last few years, even most recently during this past spring break and you still can't get any better than IG for a relaxing, less crowded feel but the skyliner does run before park opening and can effect the RD crowd.

I believe it starts anywhere from 45 min to an hour prior to park open. If your goal is to RD and be ahead of the crowds, you will need to get to IG early. I would recommend to arrive no later than 30-45 min before park opening. We did this on our last trip and they'll let you in and hold you at the bridge to either France or UK. This strategy works great if you want to RD remy. We ended up doing this one day and we also did iLL$ another day for Remy to sleep a little bit later.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this question since it isn't necessarily specifically resort related, so if this isn't the correct board I apologize...

I've just booked our next trip for Oct of 2023 at Beach Club. We love Beach Club because of its close proximity to Epcot. We haven't stayed here, though, since 2016. The last few trips we have taken have been as part of group reservations with my kid's dance team so we haven't been able to stay there. So, we haven't stayed at BC since Skyliner opened. In the run up to it opening, there was a lot of speculation that with Skyliner unloading at IG, it would be overwhelmed with people trying to get into the park in the mornings. Has this turned out to be the case? With crowds being what they have been since the parks reopened, and with the opening of Remy, what has your experience with entry into EPCOT via IG been like? Has ETPE helped or made it worse?

While the trip is a ways off, and I presume that the answer to this question is going to largely depend on what crowd levels are like, but I want to have an idea of what to expect. On our last stay at BC in 2016, and on subsequent trips taken through my job in 2017 and 2019 where we stayed at Swan, my experience has been that we could get to IG as little as 20 or 30 minutes prior to entry time and there wouldn't be a huge line. Should I just let that hope go all together?

Do read this thread below on ETPE, you can search for Epcot, Skyliner, etc and see if there's any more recent comments but I will say, even with skyliner adding to the crowds, not entering Epcot from Future World is a win for getting to Remy early.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/everything-early-theme-park-entry-etpe-please-read-post-1.3855945/

 

[LRdismom]

When you say that it was running before "rope drop" do you mean the official park opening time, or the ETPE time 30 minutes prior to scheduled opening?

So we stayed at Beach Club and were rope dropping EPCOT for the Extended hours. The park officially opened at 8:30 and we were there for 8:00 early opening. I think we got in line somewhere around 7:30ish and people were already getting off of the Skyliner and jumping in line.

 

[DebLovesPooh]

We were there in April and were at the IG 45 minutes before ETPE. The Skyliner was already dropping off when we got in line. So, for our trip, the Skyliner folks added to the lines there.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The biggest change at the International Gateway is that they added more entry posts. It is still faster to get in that gate than the main gate, even with the additional Skyway passengers.