What time to leave Disney to get checked in at US before early entry?

We will be leaving Pop Century and checking in to Royal Pacific. We will have our own rental car and will be vacationing during early September 2016.

My question is what time should we leave Pop Century in order to be able to…

  1. Drive to Royal Pacific
  2. Check in, get our express passes, and check our luggage
  3. Walk over to Islands of Adventure
  4. Arrive at Turnstiles with time to spare before early entry…30 min? 45 min? not sure about September crowds

Thanks in advance!!!

EPA will be 8am prob. So I would aim to be at RPR for 6.45 at latest. 6.30 would probably be better. So leave WDW 5.45/6am?.at latest.

What time would you think I would need to be at the turnstiles in September?

7.30 for 8 am opening would be best. Lots of people check in around 7 am to make 8 am EPA. Sometimes the queue for check in and then exp pass can take a while. Walk is about 10 mins. Remember there is a nightly parking charge at Uni. We are returning our hire car while staying there.

Just did this last week (9/24) at Cabana Bay. We left AKL around 6 AM, maybe a little before and were checked in and at the turnstiles before they started letting people in at 7. Even had a minor issue with the bus not being able to make a left turn due to malfunctioning turn signal. We went straight to Diagon Alley, rode Gringotts and looked around for a while and got on the first Hogwarts Express to IOA.

There were maybe 10 people in front of us when we got to the turnstiles.

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Thank you mdcorbitt! This is just what I was looking for :smile:

I’m assuming it wouldn’t be much different if we have an 8am early entry for IOA…I should just add an hour to your experience?

I would think so. We didn’t have anyone in front of us to check in at the hotel. But in general I’d say you can get from Disney property to your Uni hotel in around 20 minutes. Only a few minutes to check in and 10 or so on the bus to drop off. 5-10 more minutes to walk through Citywalk to the gate.