What time to arrive at gates?

[123SA]

Staying on site, 1st two weeks in September. Art of Animation.

We'll be driving, except for MK days, I think we'll take the bus.


1. What time should I plan on arriving at the park for regular opening? We want to be ahead of the pack.

2. How much time should I build into my drive time for getting from the parking lot to the gates?

3. What time should be at the bus stop for MK if we are taking the bus?

Thanks for your help.

 

[cakebaker]

Josh at easywdw posted a review of the bog breakfast and in it he showed just exactly how the crowd builds at the entrance based on time. It's really interesting.

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...er-bell-moves-the-4th-fp-magic-kingdom-52814/

Going by this, I'd say 8am for a 9 am opening will beat the crowd.

 

[Stefecatzz]

If you haven't found it already, there is a great thread in the transportation section all about this kind of thing. You can do a search on there or ask the question yourself & someone is usually always quick to respond w/accurate information.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/of...-at-wdw-thread.2573200/page-183#post-53497487

 

[KEVD]

1. What time should I plan on arriving at the park for regular opening? We want to be ahead of the pack.
2. How much time should I build into my drive time for getting from the parking lot to the gates?
3. What time should be at the bus stop for MK if we are taking the bus?
Thanks for your help.

1. To stay ahead of the pack I would plan to arrive at gates (bags already checked) about 45 mins prior to park opening.
2. From AoA allow drive times of approx: 11 min to DHS. 8 Min to AK and Epcot. 15 min to the TTC for MK. Then allow another 15 for the monorail ride to the MK bag check.
3. Not sure as we've never stayed on property. (But hoping to for our next trip).

 

[Robo]

2. From AoA allow drive times of approx: 11 min to DHS. 8 Min to AK and Epcot. 15 min to the TTC for MK. Then allow another 15 for the monorail ride to the MK bag check.

Those are relatively accurate "on-the-road" times if you have no delays, but they don't account for "real-life road encounters" and slow-to-pay at the parking gate guests...
plus getting parked where the attendants direct you, getting the "car stuff" unloaded or hidden away, getting to the gates or monorail station (walk or tram) .
For more realistic expectations, I'd about double those times.

Better to arrive far too early than to get there one minute too late.

 

[Tomh]

Robo is always full of sound advice!! When driving from our resort to any park, my general rule of thumb is to leave the resort 45 minutes before I want to be at the park entrance.

To be ahead of the pack, I try to arrive at the park entrance about 45 minutes prior to park opening. This means, for a 9:00 opening, I want to be there at 8:15, so I am leaving my resort by car no later than 7:30.

By bus, my general rule is to be at the bus stop an hour before I expect to be at the park, so again, for that 9:00 opening, I would be at the bus stop no later than 7:15, and in all likelihood, I would probably get there more like 7:00, or even a few minutes ahead of that.

FWIW, when staying on site, the only time I am really likely to drive is if I have a reservation that the transportation system can't get me to. For the most part, I use the Disney transportation system, it is faster cheaper, and easier than using my own car.

 

[Fantabulously Cherry]

I agree with @Robo!

 

[MrKnight]

I would strongly recommend that you consider using WDW transportation for ALL the parks. The transportation will drop you off at the park entrances and you don't have to deal with the hassle of road traffic, congested parking lots, trams, etc.. AoA is closest to Epcot and DHS so the WDW bus ride will be a breeze to both of those parks, MK is the furthest away but the bus will drop you off right at the MK park entrance bypassing TTC which is nice and extremely convenient..

 

[KEVD]

Those are relatively accurate "on-the-road" times if you have no delays, but they don't account for "real-life road encounters" and slow-to-pay at the parking gate guests...
plus getting parked where the attendants direct you, getting the "car stuff" unloaded or hidden away, getting to the gates or monorail station (walk or tram).

Yes all of the times I posted were "on-the-road" times for EP, DHS, AK and TTC. That is what I thought the OP was asking. Those were not resort door to gate arrival times. Agree, though, that I probably underestimated the time it takes from TTC parking to monorail, to the MK bag check.
The other thing I didn't mention was that the times I listed assume that you are in your car and on the road by 8a for EP, AK and DHS and 7:30 for MK. Those are the times that we leave and are always at the gates 40 mins before opening. On our last trip we actually arrived at the MK rope around 8:10a.

Then again we have never encountered any unexpected delays (knock on wood).