Interesting. I’ll be at MK Sunday and try to report back I have EE from Contemporary.
So if that’s up to 90 minutes before EE then it’s 6 AM?
Can you catch a bus from the resorts to get there that early?
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When I said up to 90 minutes early I meant official park opening.
Not sure about the buses. There’s a discussion about that somewhere, I’ve lost track of threads. 
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OK so 6:30 through the AK gate.
Aside from members of my family who don’t know there’s a 6:30 in the morning as well, I wonder if the bus is even running early enough to get us there.
And I’m staying at AKL on my next trip!
As much as I loved AKL, we found the buses between AKL and AK to be the worst bus service of all the parks. 
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Oh boy, I was thinking it would be the easiest, we are planning 2 days at AK from AKL too.
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Others say it was fine for them, so as always I think it’s a matter of luck.
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Same.
This 90 minute thing must have been in the last week or so because it wasn’t happening earlier this month!
We went to AK on 10/1, the first day of Early Entry (7:30am) with a regular opening at 8am…
We were at the Poly bus stop at 6:40am and were on the third bus to AK that morning at 6:48am…
I know it was the third bus because…
There was a guy sitting at the bus stop by himself w/ a double stroller. He shared a tale of woe about driving to AK w/ his family, parking not being open, so they returned to take the bus. His wife and kids went ahead of him and hopped on the second bus of the morning and he was following w/ the stroller.
We were at AK, waiting in line at the entrance by 6:58am. We were very close to the front of the line (between the “turnstyles” and the ticket booths, which aren’t very far apart). Just went back and checked my trip report to get all the exact times…I had posted that they started letting people in and that we were through and scanning bands at 7:11am.
We walked straight to FOP, no one was being held back at any point. We rode FOP, walked on Na’vi, took some pictures in Pandora and then headed to the safari (also walk on). My first KS picture is time stamped at 8:23am.
I would be interested to hear more about these super early entry times. We did Early Entry at all four parks from October 1-5 (MK twice) and all started us accessing attractions at about 0-20 min earlier than the Early Entry time. MK wasn’t early at all. You could tap through and enter Main Street pretty early, but then you were stopped at the Hub. They were scanning bands for resort guests on the right side of the castle only. On 10/2 there weren’t any signs, but they had some on 10/5.
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So, coming from Beach Club to MK from Early Entry… am I catching a 7 o’clock bus to get there for 8? (Presuming 8:30 early entry / 9:00 regular)
Or do the buses (and I) start running earlier?
My goal earlier this month was to be at the bus stop about 60 minutes before the Early Entry time.
So if you are looking at a 9am open/8:30am Early Entry I would be at the bus stop around 7:30am, or earlier if you want to hang on Main Street a while.
I rope dropped on 10/2 (from the Poly, took the boat launch) and 10/5 (from Pop) using that timeline. On 10/2 I headed straight for 7DMT and on 10/5 we did Peter Pan. I wasn’t at the very front of the line but waited no more than 10 minutes for either.
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Here is an excellent article discussing ETPE vs Official Park Opening (OPO ??)and there is a paragraph about when to arrive. Apparently, MK is letting those w/ ETPE in far earlier than they were at the beginning of October!
A note on early arrival, because we’ve been getting questions about transportation: our Early Theme Park Entry tester arrived at the Autoplaza at 7:10, and the parking booths opened at 7:15. The monorail wasn’t running that early, so the only options were the ferry or walking. After a quick ferry ride, security opened at 7:30, and then ETPE users were allowed to start tapping in at 7:50. Remember, ETPE didn’t officially start until 8:30, so it’s to your advantage to get there even earlier (if possible) and take pictures or line up early.
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I got those times from early trip reports from here, 2 or 3 of them, plus from other friends’ first hand reports. All in the first few days.
What time was early entry when you went to AK?
We were there on 10/1.
Park opening was 8:00am, ETPE was 7:30am, and they let us (only resort guest) through the gates at 7:11am. We didn’t have to wait inside the park at all.
I’ve searched for the thread where someone linked to a report on chat about early entry. Can’t find the thread about early entry at all.
We have never had to wait for more than 10 minutes for a bus to AK, but the other parks is another story. The early morning bus was an exception. However AKL is the second stop, so overcrowding may be an issue as well later in the day. Minnie Vans were a lifesaver on most days.