We got there a little after 8 AM and felt waayy late to the party. Thankfully we had some business to conduct at Guest Services. So we were ushered through to that desk, and then afterwards were directed to a very short security line all the way to the right, rather than being sent back to the beginning of the queue.
They started filling the area in front of the Chronos around 8:30. The music in this area is so great, and has a ticking clock motif in it that leads to the Chronos activating/spinning. We were unleashed into the park around 8:50 AM.
The Nintendo EPA chokepoint is atrocious. I tried to go through the exit, but was turned away by TMs. I don't know if they feel like the exit's too wide of an area to police, but you'd think they'd want to spread out the folks rushing into SNW.
I know I'm not the first to say this, but it would be really great if they could figure out a different way to filter resort and non-resort guests in the morning to make this all smoother.