Need advice on taking a bus from Zagreb to Plitvice

Despite the early departure, I would consider keeping the Flixbus reservation and
leaving it at that.

• Flixbus is reasonably reliable.
• in the event they are not, you have a buffer built into your schedule
• make sure you know where your lodging at Plitvice is (if it is one of the official hotels like the Jezero, you should be fine, but if not, you might have a long walk along a busy road with no sidewalks),
• do you have similar concerns for your departure?

Thank you, shoeflyer, for your advice. You are probably right that this might be my most reliable option, even though I am uncomfortable about making if from our hotel (Hotel Jägerhorn, a 30 minute walk or ?) to the bus station by 7:30.

From what I can tell, this bus will drop me at a stop near Plitvice Mirič Inn (which I was sadly not able to book) and our guesthouse is not too far from there. Anyway, I have schlepped my bag many a mile over inhospitable terrain, and we will have plenty of time.

On departure we will be picked up at our guesthouse for a private transfer tour (Funky Tours), so fortunately I don't have to worry about that.

Now I need to find the most efficient and reliable way to get from our hotel to the bus depot: by foot, by uber, by city bus, by taxi? Perhaps the hotel can help me with that.

It's been a minute since I was last in Croatia,. but I used the bus a lot and never had any major problems.
I like to do the following to find any bus schedule in Croatia: Google "city name" and "bus station." You'll get the following for Zagreb and can search the schedules there by date: https://voznired.akz.hr/VozniRed.aspx
It looks like you still may want Flixbus, but you do have options.
Funny story, one of the few times I hitchhiked in my life was in Croatia along the road between Plitvice entrance 1 and 2 (we mistakenly got off at the wrong one). A lovely fellow gave us a ride and all's well that ends well. (one of the other times was also in Croatia, lol).
A taxi won't break the bank for getting to the station at an early hour.

Thank you, Valadelphia. Unfortunately I couldn't make that site work for me, it said sorry couldn't find anything. I had that same result on a few different websites I tried. Very frustrating.

I did a good bit of hitchhiking back in the '70's, mostly good experiences, but it was a pretty accepted thing back then. Recently, in Poland, three of us gladly accepted a ride from a stranger who saw us trudging along the road in the rain, heading the wrong way, away from town. He spoke no English, we spoke no Polish, but we crammed into his car and he got us to our hotel, and gave us the thumbs up on the restaurant there. Those are the kind of travel experiences that make me smile.

There’s generally not a ton of bus options, so I agree that sticking with your Flixbus is probably your best bet. Of the busses I took, Flixbus were the better, more comfortable ones. The bus station would be too long a walk from the hotel. There’s a tram right on the square that I think connects to the station, though I did not take it. The folks at Jagerhorn are very helpful. I’m sure they can assist with the tram, or schedule a taxi pickup which would give me the most peace of mind. (When I was checking out prior to breakfast service, they handed me coffee and a big bag of pastries for the road!)

At Plitvice, for my late afternoon and morning visits they never even looked at the entry time. YMMV but if you’re there before 3, I’d go ahead and see if you can enter before then (if you want.)

Thank you, awrzesinski, that is most reassuring. It looks like we are definitely going to hang on to those 8 a.m. tickets! And I just today reached out to Jägerhorn and they wrote back immediately that they could assist with early checkout, taxi and breakfast to go. Glad to know that you had a good experience there.

If you're staying at a guesthouse not at one of the entrances to Plitvice, how far is
the walk to the entrance? That will be a factor into how you access and tour the
park.

Also you might want to consider alternate route for walking other than the main road,
which if I remember correctly, doesn't have any sidewalks.

We do plan to walk to Entrance #2. According to maps, it is about a half an hour walk, a little over a mile. The distance is no problem, we walk a lot anyway. It looks like there might be a smaller road or path we can take, I will have to check that out. I am hoping our host can help us with some tips. Thanks!