How important is walking to the parks vs driving next week - enough to do one of these options?

Right now we are booked 3/17-3/20 in a one bedroom suite at Flamingo Crossing western entrance for less than $110 a night including all taxes and fees for our group of 3 adults and 2 kids (ages 12/10) so less than $330 total and hotel is newer, free hot breakfast, laundromat onsite, heated pool etc etc

We could stay at the Dolphin in a standard room with 2 queens and a rollaway for about $800

Or we could stay at the Blue Tree Resort in a 2 bedroom apartment for $224 (Two bedrooms plus sofabed in living and full kitchen not that we would be needing that) but no breakfast and seems to be similar proximity to parks as our current reservation.

So the question is - which one is most likely to get us BG1? J/K! Question is if we go with option 1 or 3 but drive to parks and make sure to arrive 1:15 before opening is that enough? If so, which of these would you pick?

From all I’ve learned in preparing for my trip in two weeks, walking is the best way to be one of the first in HS. Recent reports have said cars are being held even later than buses and Skyliner, severely cutting in on early park time.

Options 1 or 3 sound great, and you can uber to swan or the speedway near boardwalk and walk to HS from there, maximizing the early access.

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I snorted. Well done. :laughing::laughing:

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Yay! That was entirely my goal. Day made!

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So is it really just HS we need to do that for? Or are all the parks like that? I keep seeing varying info. @bebe80 seemed to show up early at cones and do alright but they also walked to one or two parks - maybe for the same reason…

I couldn’t help answer the question, so glad to help any way I could!

@Ariel79’s plan sounds pretty solid. The walkers clearly have an advantage, so if you can just uber in, that’s what I would personally do.

We just walked to HS on one day. We did SDD then MFSR that day.

@DumboRunner was at AK today, bused in and said she was able to do 3 headliners before 9am. I’m not sure how crowded it was the rest of the day, but I heard the lines got pretty long towards the end.

cars were held far behind walkers, skyliner, and buses at HS yesterday

cars seemed in and parked as i arrived by earliest bus from AKL to AK this morning, so no disadvantage. but i don’t know what time they needed to line up

i don’t know if yesterday at HS was an anomaly — others might!

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What time did you get to bus stop for earliest bus? And how far back were you when you got there? I’d love to do bus from ASMo but it seems so unpredictable.

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i was at the AKL bus stop about 6:45am for the 8am official opening. the bus arrived about 10 min later. the CM told me buses start 45mi before park opening, but based on previous experience i knew it would be earlier, so i guessed 6:45a vs 7:15am

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i walked right in but was not first in the park. but with that and purposeful determined and speedy walking i was in one of the first FOP boarding entries

to be clear, i am answering about bus to AK, not HS. i walked to HS yesterday, bus to AK today

but i will bus from AKL to HS tomorrow so happy to share that experience tomorrow!

That would be fantastic, thanks! We will be taking bus to MK and AK for sure, and I’m thinking about the Speedway route for HS. Have breakfast reservation before Epcot but we may just want to sleep in! Depends on whether Remy opens and how crazy the crowds are. Have a great time tomorrow!

The challenge at least with MK is you can’t Uber in. EP/HS sure we could Uber to one of the other resorts (I’m assuming) and walk but not with MK. Plus that would mean having to Uber again if we wanted to leave. I am stumped trying to plan this trip!

You’re right about this, MK does seem to be the trickiest. I’m not sure if there’s any way around this.

Here’s an update from a Liner on chat this morning.

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I think we might just have to bite the bullet and drive to all the parks and (GASP) maybe not be the first in. With all the flexibility required in my plans there will definitely be drinking in our touring plan this round! Probably everyday! In fact I am going to go ahead and highlight all the booze on my maps now!

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We drive to all parks, since we are local. If we arrive in the parking line no more than an hour before official opening we are in the parks 30-40 min before official opening; with the exception of MK since you have to ride monorail or boat first. We have been able to ride 1-3 rides before official opening when we do this. Yes, resort guests have an advantage but we just walk right through temp screening and security.

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Agree, we were not too far behind the walkers and Disney transport.

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