when to leave?

[allisonwonderland]

I know that this is not an exact science,,and traffic happens..eyc,,BUT what did you do?Say we are staying at an ALL STARS,,,we wanna go to AK one morning..park opens at 9,,,and i dont know the bus schedules,,BUT I know some of u have,,if we want to get there about an hour before parks open(all th books recc this)..what time should we leave our hotel room?thanks,,,,

 

[ILoveWDW2003]

I am always on one of the first buses between 7:15 and 7:30.

 

[allisonwonderland]

aaakkkk..that is what i was thinking...oh boy..trying to DH out of bed on vacation at that time...well..i THINK that we did this our first trip there....man on man..outta bed at 6.....well..we do it every day during the week..so why not now?I will have to buy some great coffee for this...lol...but yeah,,,i gotta be on of the first ones too,,thanks!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DVCLiz]

Are you looking at up-to-date guidebooks? Many of them used to recommend this early arrival because the parks often opened 30 to 60 minutes ahead of the "official" time. For a while, now (maybe 2 or 3 years) the "official" opening time has been reliable. If your husband is unhappy about getting up early, I don't think he'd be any happier waiting outside the park entrance for 1 or 2 hours!!!! You do need to be there in order to be among the first through the gates if you want to maximize your time, but I wouldn't wait 90 minutes!!!!!!!

 

[dis-happy]

ITA with the above poster. Get there too early and you just stand around. We try to arrive about 20 minutes (30 min. max) before the park opens and we are still in the beginning part of the first wave to enter. If is an EE day for the park, it's not super duper crowded anyway. Of course, these are off-peak travel times; if you are travelling during Easter week you might want to adjust a bit. But I will say, all the times we've gotten to the gates, they opened at the stated time, not early. This included April 2003, early August 2004, January 2005.

 

[MrsJ Henry]

YUP... what they said!!!!

 

[allisonwonderland]

so is the 7;15.7;30 time too early or just right??it sounds right to me...getting at the bus,,,,waiting for everyone to board,,,and with traffic,,etc,,by the time you get to the parks if you left at 7;30 it is prolly around 8;00 or 8;30?or am i off the mark with that time?