Timing question

[mchelle77]

Splitting AK and Epcot on a lower-to-mod-crowd day in early May. AK opens at 9am (we'll be there at rope drop) and plan on Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl and Everest, then taking the bus to Epcot (where we have our FP+s set)

How much time would you budget? Could we do those AND Safari (first thing) and make it to Epcot via bus by noon? I've never taken the buses so I have no clue.

 

[soniam]

The buses really vary. I think it took us 45min or more to get to AK from Epcot by bus in late July. A transportation person had to call one in, because people were waiting so long. Then there was a concern that we wouldn't all fit.

 

[cakebaker]

I think you may be cutting it a little close. It's just hard to tell what kind of line you'll encounter at Everest as your second ride- shouldn't be awful early in the morning, but things happen.

When I lay it out with what I consider to be reasonable, it gets you real close to not being long enough. Off Safari by 9:30, Off Everest by 10:15, Dinosaur by 10:45, PW by 11:15- that leaves 45 minutes to get out of the park, on the bus and at Epcot. That could work, but any delay in that schedule and you're late. It is possible you'll get through those rides quicker, but I think those are reasonable expectations.

Add an hour to that and I wouldn't worry. I hate watching the time when I have things scheduled in another park and you can always find things to do at Epcot to fill the time if you get there earlier than expected.

 

[JimmyV]

Probably. If you arrive before RD, and head immediately to the Safari when the park opens, and then go to Everest after that, you should be finished with those 4 attractions by 11:00-11:15. Then you have to walk to the front of the park and get on a bus. The wildcard is how long you have to wait for a bus. Also note that if you are heading to Epcot to go directly to World Showcase, when choosing a bus at the AK bus depot, you probably want to take the bus to the Beach Club and then walk into Epcot using the International Gateway entrance. You would just sort of have to play it by ear to judge which bus will depart first...the one to the Beach Club or the one to Epcot.

 

[mchelle77]

Might not be an issue, as our first FP+ at Epcot is 12:15-1:15pm, so we technically have longer, I just don't want to miss out on our TT FP+.

 

[cakebaker]

I think you're pretty safe if you have until after 1 on your first fp+. Also, we're pretty proactive on the bus wait times. We give them no longer than 30 minutes to show up before we call someone. We've found in general, if they haven't shown up by then, there's a problem and we might as well get it figured out sooner rather than later. That said, we haven't had to call but just a couple of times and once we did, a bus showed up pretty darn quick.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If you have until 1:15, you should be fine.
I would purpose to be at the bus stop outside AK by Noon. (Using that extra 15 minutes as buffer.)

I think you can accomplish what you want easily before noon.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Could we do those AND Safari (first thing) and make it to Epcot via bus by noon?

No guarantees, but you should be fine.

8:55 - 9:30 - Safari
9:40 - 9:50 - Everest
10:00 - 10:10 - Primeval Whirl
10:30 - 10:40 - Dinosaur
10:40 - 11:00 - Walk to bus stop
11:00 - 12:00 - travel to Epcot