Getting Around Walt Disney World
When planning a trip to Walt Disney World, we tend to focus a lot of our attention on how we’ll be getting to Orlando. We book flights, arrange transportation from the airport to our resort, but we don’t spend too much time thinking about how we’ll get around once the vacation officially begins. Today, we’re going to take a look at all the complementary transportation options available to you while at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Grab onto the handrails and stand clear of the doors! Let’s talk about how to get where you’re going at Walt Disney World!
Disney Bus Transportation
Photo Credit: elisfkc
It’s probably safe to say that Disney buses are the most common and most widely used form of transportation at the Walt Disney World Resort. The reason that this is the case is fairly simple, Disney Transportation buses serve every part of the Walt Disney World Resort. Whether you’re trying to get from your resort hotel to one of the theme parks or even hop from one theme park to another, Disney Transportation buses will be able to get you there.
The way bus transportation works at Walt Disney World is fairly straightforward. Resort hotels, theme parks, water parks and Disney Springs all have bus stops where guests can catch a bus to their desired location. At the resort hotel bus stops, guests can wait for a bus at the main bus stop [usually located nearest the lobby of small resort hotels] or one closest to them [in the case of larger resorts] to their desired location. At the parks, or Disney Springs, guests can reference signage that will direct them to a stop for their specific destination [resort hotel, theme park, etc.] and wait there.
Generally speaking, Disney buses run about every 20 minutes from all Walt Disney World Resorts starting 1 hour before the park opens and ending up to 2 hours after the park closes. However, the actual time you may have to wait may vary. We’ve noticed, during a recent trip to Walt Disney World, that you may find yourself waiting longer if you’re at a resort that has other means of transportation [such as the Disney Skyliner]. The time of day can also impact the wait times for Disney buses as can your intended destination.
There are a lot of mixed reviews of the bus transportation at Walt Disney World out there. There are some people who feel as though it’s an inefficient system that has you waiting excessive amounts of time to get where you want to go. On the other hand, some think that it’s just the right combination of convenient and affordable. We tend to lean towards the latter. Though the bus transportation at Walt Disney World can sometimes be less than ideal, for the most part, it’s worked out for us during each of our visits.
Boats
Another fun and interesting way to get around select parts of the Walt Disney World Resort is taking a boat. There are a lot of different boats at Walt Disney World that bring passengers to and from Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Disney Springs and Disney Resorts that sit on the waterfront. Some of these resorts include Disney’s Boardwalk, Disney Yacht & Beach Club and Saratoga Springs.
Photo Credit: Greg Goebel from Loveland CO, USA - Ygdoz_1b
In many ways, the boat transportation at Walt Disney World is very much like the bus transportation. [Although it’s not as widely available as buses are.] Boats run on somewhere in the ballpark of every 15 to 30 minutes, but location and time of day can have an impact on how long you’ll find yourself waiting.
Though there are some cases where taking a boat is the most convenient way to get where you’re going, such as traveling from Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness for a dinner reservation, we don’t know if we’d call taking boat transportation a go-to option. Unless you happen to be near the boat dock and you see a boat heading your direction, and the line isn’t that long to board, you may have better luck simply walking to your destination. We often find this to be the case when staying at Disney’s Boardwalk as well as Beach Club. We also found this to be the case when staying at Saratoga Springs and getting to Disney Springs.
Disney Skyliner
Launching in September of 2019, the Disney Skyliner is Walt Disney World’s newest form of transportation. The gondola style lift system takes guests along 3 routes which have a total of 5 stations. This allows guests to travel, with relative ease, between previously out of the way resort hotels and theme parks.
The 3 lines consist of the Epcot Line, Hollywood Studios Line and Art Of Animation and Pop Century LIne. The Epcot Line travels between the Caribbean Beach Resort, The Riviera Resort and Epcot. The Hollywood Studios Line travels between the Caribbean Beach Resort and Hollywood Studios. Finally, the Art of Animation and Pop Century LIne takes guests to the Caribbean Beach Resort, Art Of Animation Resort and Pop Century Resort.
Though we were skeptical when the Disney Styliner first launched, having taken a few flights we quickly changed our tune. Though the vehicles themselves are rather small to fit the suggested capacity of 8 guests, we found that we weren’t subjected to being crammed in like we anticipated [even though it was the very busy Christmas season] and only ended up sharing a ride vehicle once. There was also a significant amount of airflow, despite the vehicles not having air conditioning. Transfers were also a breeze and made it possible to get anywhere we wanted to go without having to think too much about it.
Monorail 🚝
One of the icons of Walt Disney World, at least as far as we are concerned, is the monorail. In fact, we think it’s such an iconic part of visiting Walt Disney World that we recommend taking a ride if you can spare the time during your next trip. Though a ride on the monorail is run and gives you some great views of Walt Disney World from above, it’s also a mode of transportation to get around the parks.
There are three monorails lines that operate at Walt Disney World, all of which originate from the Transportation and Ticket Center or TTC. The first is the Resort line which travels on a loop between the Magic Kingdom and TTC. As the name suggests, the Resort line makes stops at the Polynesian, Grand Floridian and Contemporary Resorts. The second monorail is the Express line and travels directly between the TTC and Magic Kingdom. This particular monorail does not stop at any of the resorts. Finally, the third monorail is the Epcot line and travels between the TTC and Epcot.
We enjoy the monorail, but we don’t often find ourselves utilizing it as a way to get around Walt Disney World. This isn’t for any reason other than that we don’t stay on the resort loop of the monorail and so other forms of transportation are usually more convenient. However, we do find it handy when traveling between Magic Kingdom and Epcot or when visiting the resorts.