December January & February Park Hours Update Watch/Discussion

Is there any way to see if bus schedules are changed or when they start at Disney resorts in the morning?

There are no published schedules. Buses generally start rolling to all parks at 6:30 every day of the year, and earlier when park hours are early.
 
There are no published schedules. Buses generally start rolling to all parks at 6:30 every day of the year, and earlier when park hours are early.

So when HS secretly opens at 6 am like it is doing this week, will the buses run at 4 or 5 in the morning?
 
Is there any way to see if bus schedules are changed or when they start at Disney resorts in the morning?
Buses start at 6:30 for 8 or 9 o’clock openings. For earlier openings they start one hour before. So for DHS 6 AM EMH tomorrow, DHS buses will start running at 5.
 
I’m wondering if they will change Sundays in December to 8 am regular park opening and then 7-8 or 6-8 EMH. It seems weird that they are leaving it as is. Of course that’s our DHS day so I haven’t been able to take advantage of the 8am SDD drops for other days....
 


I’m wondering if they will change Sundays in December to 8 am regular park opening and then 7-8 or 6-8 EMH. It seems weird that they are leaving it as is. Of course that’s our DHS day so I haven’t been able to take advantage of the 8am SDD drops for other days....
We are hoping for a change on Sun. 12/29 to an earlier opening. It’s our one “half day” devoted solely to SWGE. Maybe we can get in a boarding group and do much of the rest of land before actual park opening and RotR opening for the day.
 
We are hoping for a change on Sun. 12/29 to an earlier opening. It’s our one “half day” devoted solely to SWGE. Maybe we can get in a boarding group and do much of the rest of land before actual park opening and RotR opening for the day.

Sun 12/29 is also our morning half day at HS dedicated to SWGE. We have so many fastpasses and reservations in Epcot during the afternoon, I really hope we can ride RotR in the morning. An earlier opening would help. An afternoon boarding pass will make things unnecessarily hectic.
 
Sun 12/29 is also our morning half day at HS dedicated to SWGE. We have so many fastpasses and reservations in Epcot during the afternoon, I really hope we can ride RotR in the morning. An earlier opening would help. An afternoon boarding pass will make things unnecessarily hectic.
Right there with you...we are packed full w FP+ and ROL dining pkg at AK that afternoon, so we probably won’t be making any changes. We may have to choose another morning to try RotR, if the 29th doesn’t work out. Hopefully we can get the rest of SWGE “done” even if we don’t get in a morning Boarding group.
 


I was here waiting for Nov hours to update and I'm still here, now waiting for Jan hours to update. We have a short trip booked over MLK weekend. Hoping to see some updates on Friday!
 
Waiting for AK to change to an 8AM opening on 12/31. Please, Disney. Really not sure why it's opening so late on the busiest day of the year....
 
Buses start at 6:30 for 8 or 9 o’clock openings. For earlier openings they start one hour before. So for DHS 6 AM EMH tomorrow, DHS buses will start running at 5.
I was going by this general rule but found for Thurs RoTR, buses were coming much earlier according to other guests - buses picked them up as early as 2:30am, held until 4:30 for an 8am opening. last Fri it was closer to 6am let in for a 9am opening. Probably just because of the anticipated crowds for grand opening. As I believe boarding ceased before 10am both days.

We couldn't wake up that early and got picked up around 6:10am both days and were all the way back to 40 group on Thurs, and 24 on Fri. Because of several break downs got on 11am ish Thurs and early afternoon Fri, with a second boarding of 69 group we obtained during one of the first attempts in line in the am before a breakdown. We went on that 69 boarding in the early evening.
 
How did the other guests find out how early the buses were running? Is there a notification to your room or did they just get up that early and wait on the bus to show up?

thanks!

I was going by this general rule but found for Thurs RoTR, buses were coming much earlier according to other guests - buses picked them up as early as 2:30am, held until 4:30 for an 8am opening. last Fri it was closer to 6am let in for a 9am opening. Probably just because of the anticipated crowds for grand opening. As I believe boarding ceased before 10am both days.

We couldn't wake up that early and got picked up around 6:10am both days and were all the way back to 40 group on Thurs, and 24 on Fri. Because of several break downs got on 11am ish Thurs and early afternoon Fri, with a second boarding of 69 group we obtained during one of the first attempts in line in the am before a breakdown. We went on that 69 boarding in the early evening.
 
How did the other guests find out how early the buses were running? Is there a notification to your room or did they just get up that early and wait on the bus to show up?

thanks!
No notification... they never want you to know that buses are out earlier than the 45min - 1hr before park opening that CMs are trained to tell you. If you ask, they will consistently tell you that.

the 2:30 HS bus on Thurs was per a guest who claims to have been on it. The 4:30 am let in of the line at the taps on Thurs was per a CM at GE and I did talk to a few who was said they were in at 5:15. Talked to some who Lyfted at 5am who assumed the buses weren't out but also heard about the super early bus rumor afterwards. We got to taps around 6:30 after bag check (picked up 6:10 ish) and it looked like people have been going in for a long time with the line for Smuggler's being wrapped around for a while... plus we were already down to boarding group 40 at 6:30 when park didn't open until 8.

We heard the buses were out much later for Fri 9am opening. We again got there at 6:30 at taps and took boarding group 24 and 25 (we had an error for 1 in my group trying to check in immediately after taps and it took a while to resolve).

I typically went with the earlier of 630am bus (trying to get there 10 min before that) or 1 hr before earliest park open and found that, at least this past week, being special circumstances with the grand opening paired with Thanksgiving, buses were even earlier. Thanksgiving Day ,for instance, we tried for 6:30 bus for AK 9am open, and the bus driver said that he had been doing runs since 5am.
 
No notification... they never want you to know that buses are out earlier than the 45min - 1hr before park opening that CMs are trained to tell you. If you ask, they will consistently tell you that.

the 2:30 HS bus on Thurs was per a guest who claims to have been on it. The 4:30 am let in of the line at the taps on Thurs was per a CM at GE and I did talk to a few who was said they were in at 5:15. Talked to some who Lyfted at 5am who assumed the buses weren't out but also heard about the super early bus rumor afterwards. We got to taps around 6:30 after bag check (picked up 6:10 ish) and it looked like people have been going in for a long time with the line for Smuggler's being wrapped around for a while... plus we were already down to boarding group 40 at 6:30 when park didn't open until 8.

We heard the buses were out much later for Fri 9am opening. We again got there at 6:30 at taps and took boarding group 24 and 25 (we had an error for 1 in my group trying to check in immediately after taps and it took a while to resolve).

I typically went with the earlier of 630am bus (trying to get there 10 min before that) or 1 hr before earliest park open and found that, at least this past week, being special circumstances with the grand opening paired with Thanksgiving, buses were even earlier. Thanksgiving Day ,for instance, we tried for 6:30 bus for AK 9am open, and the bus driver said that he had been doing runs since 5am.
Thank you for the info. Contemplating taking an Uber when we are there on January 4.
 
Thank you for the info. Contemplating taking an Uber when we are there on January 4.
No problem. I anticipated, at least for RotR that we were going to have to uber. But we were so beat from 10 days of staying out late and getting up by 530. That the 610 bus was fine. Was able to ride it 3x thurs/fri. Couldn’t handle 3rd day in a row, so sat being our flight day, I was the very first into FoP with sleeping in a little (vs the HS days).
 
Wow. What is up with the remaining Sundays in December then? I think they're just doing this to torture us. Think they'll go to PM EMH too? Given the fiasco that was last Sunday's EMH I think that would probably be the best idea.
 
Wow. What is up with the remaining Sundays in December then? I think they're just doing this to torture us. Think they'll go to PM EMH too? Given the fiasco that was last Sunday's EMH I think that would probably be the best idea.

IMO I really think they should (change December EMHs to PM). Bail on the whole AM EMH concept at DHS to avoid the operations messiness.
 
The fact that they haven't changed it for the remaining December EMH at DHS is making me wonder if it is a staffing issue with the scheduling or something. Because after last Sunday, you have to think that they want to do everything possible to avoid the clusterchuck of the EMH and non-EMH eligible guests all being at the gates at the same time again.
 
I didn't look at all of January - just the first week - they've also changed hours at AK.

01/02 - 8 AM to 10 PM (it was 9 AM to 8 PM)
01/03 - 8 AM to 9 PM
01/04 - 8 AM to 10 PM (EMH now 7 AM to 8 AM)

And, at MK, those same dates now close at 11 PM (it was 9 PM)
 

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