Resort Bus or Driving to get to park early

[SuJo]

I have been reading that the parks are opening about 45 minutes early. Is it faster to just drive and park or do you need to ride the buses in order to get there early? Are they letting the cars park for the 45 minutes early opening?

 

[maltdizzy]

I expect this will; be phased out as social distancing ends and the parks return to a more traditional rope drop. They are supposed to be switching to all resort guests getting in 30 minutes early by Oct. 1.

• The only way to ensure you arrive before the soft open is to stay at a Deluxe resort within walking distance
• The resort transportation is next fastest, but requires you to be in line for the bus/skyliner quite early (up to 90 minutes before first bus).
• The buses start running ~60 minutes before scheduled park opening.
• Parking lots do not open until 45 minutes before scheduled park opening, they will not let cars line up more than 60 minutes before scheduled park opening (they will turn you around and send you on your way)
• Rideshares, like Uber, must wait and enter the parking lots with the rest of the cars

You may be asking yourself, then how is anyone supposed to get there before the parks start letting people in? The answer is Disney don't want you to. The reason Disney is letting people into the parks early was to avoid crowding at the turnstiles so they could maintain social distancing. Then the resort transportation and parking lots can trickle more people at a steady basis. While you might arrive after others have gotten in early, most guests are in the same boat, so it's not like you are at the end of the line. But it looks like you've been back to WDW a couple of times during the pandemic, it's all pretty much the same until they get back to a full rope drop.

 

[123SA]

I expect this will; be phased out as social distancing ends and the parks return to a more traditional rope drop. They are supposed to be switching to all resort guests getting in 30 minutes early by Oct. 1.

• The only way to ensure you arrive before the soft open is to stay at a Deluxe resort within walking distance
• The resort transportation is next fastest, but requires you to be in line for the bus/skyliner quite early (up to 90 minutes before first bus).
• The buses start running ~60 minutes before scheduled park opening.
• Parking lots do not open until 45 minutes before scheduled park opening, they will not let cars line up more than 60 minutes before scheduled park opening (they will turn you around and send you on your way)
• Rideshares, like Uber, must wait and enter the parking lots with the rest of the cars

You may be asking yourself, then how is anyone supposed to get there before the parks start letting people in? The answer is Disney don't want you to. The reason Disney is letting people into the parks early was to avoid crowding at the turnstiles so they could maintain social distancing. Then the resort transportation and parking lots can trickle more people at a steady basis. While you might arrive after others have gotten in early, most guests are in the same boat, so it's not like you are at the end of the line. But it looks like you've been back to WDW a couple of times during the pandemic, it's all pretty much the same until they get back to a full rope drop.

I'd like to check that I understand what you're saying here.

The MAgic Kingdom opens at 8:00 am tomorrow.
Buses will begin to run at 7:00am (60 minutes before opening)

and...we should be in line at our resort for the bus at 5:30am? (90 minutes before first bus)

 

[maltdizzy]

I'd like to check that I understand what you're saying here.

The MAgic Kingdom opens at 8:00 am tomorrow.
Buses will begin to run at 7:00am (60 minutes before opening)

and...we should be in line at our resort for the bus at 5:30am? (90 minutes before first bus)

As of a couple months ago, yes. But things are changing fast on social distancing, and I assume that means more people on each bus and shorter lines. It may be becoming a moving target.

Personally, getting up at 5am to stand in line for a bus for 90 minutes before spending a long day at the park? That's a no good for me,

 

[123SA]

Wow. That is truly awful. We have always been rope drop people...as in if we are 5 people back at the turnstiles, we've had a late start. I thought the 90 minutes people were suggesting was 90 minutes from PARK OPENING...meaning 630am at the bus stop -- that is doable.

I wonder if there is a lot of line jumping at the bus stops -- like one family member is in line and 45 minutes later the rest of the family shows up. I hate that.

 

[disneydentist]

This is from mid-April. We were on the MK bus twice around 6:45 with an 8 AM open. It was the first bus of the day. This was the Gran Destino Tower which is the 4th stop at CSR so others were obviously having earlier bus arrival times.