Challenging day at MK

[meat37]

Sorry i assumed you could. At night on the monorail I always look at that well lit pathway and just assumed it countinued all the wat to the Floridian.

 

[ConvenientTruth]

Wow....

The Monorail is one area that could use a major upgrade. I'm not sure how feasible it is to undertake such a large project, but it has to be better then these breakdowns) I encounter one over memorial weekend...luckily we had no where near the issue the OP had.

 

[darnheather]

What a bummer. The monorail used to be so cool back in the day. Glad you managed to have a good day nonetheless.

 

[rwdavis2]

Sorry i assumed you could. At night on the monorail I always look at that well lit pathway and just assumed it countinued all the wat to the Floridian.

It does look that way. If you find an overhead view you will see that the path is interrupted by a canal.

 

[asta]

The people who should really be upset are the guests staying at the GF. Before I get beat up by all of the non monorail resort guests let me point out that I know WDW changed their policy several years ago and do not now check resort IDs at the TTC before letting people on the resort monorail. I am old nough to remembers hen they did that.

I am upset that WDW would expect that small boat to seve that big of a crowd. This boat is designed to serve guests at the GF and Poly. There is no way it could handle a resort monorail that was loaded at the TTC with guests only headed to the MK. The system is not designed to work the way it is now being used.

Guest staying at a monorail/MK resort pay more for better access to the MK and Disney is taking that benefit away. Most people understand and accept that you can't park at the Cont, Poly or GF for quicker access to the MK unless you are a guest. WDW has guards that enforce this. I don't understand why the resort monorail or resort boats are not reserved for guests dining or staying at those resorts.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

First sign of trouble was a HUGE line that looked like it was for the monorail, so we say, no problem, we'll take the ferry. Whoops, that line was for the ferry; the monorails were down. The ferry line wound all the way back to past the entrance to the monorail.

My heart stopped when I got this far in your post - this is my LEAST favorite sight at MK..... walking through the gates at TTC & seeing the ferry line stretttttttttttch out past the monorail.

OP - good for you for keeping your humor & good spirits during this challenge! I hope you get a major sprinkle of pixie dust before your trip is over!

 

[capegirl]

Good grief! My hat is off to you OP for getting through such a challenging, and frustrating situation. When I saw those lines at the GF, I think I would have taken a taxi to another park until the dust had settled. Too bad about the rude CM's. Granted they have bad days too, and this day was off the tracks, but that does not give them a license to be snarky with guests.

 

[mm1971]

Good to see you handled it well. I'm not sure what we would have done. Probably headed to a different park. I can imagine how a lot of people were treating the CM's with those kinds of issues. Probably why the CM's were a little out of sorts as well. No excuse, but we are all human and have bad days.

Without sounding like an apologist, these things are mechanical and they break down. It sounds like they did everything they could, but did not have the capacity to solve it completely. The bigger issue is that they need to update the monorail, but not sure I see it happening with the costs.

I am happy that you had a good overall vacation and didn't let your negative experience ruin it.

 

[eticketride]

The people who should really be upset are the guests staying at the GF. Before I get beat up by all of the non monorail resort guests let me point out that I know WDW changed their policy several years ago and do not now check resort IDs at the TTC before letting people on the resort monorail. I am old nough to remembers hen they did that.

I am upset that WDW would expect that small boat to seve that big of a crowd. This boat is designed to serve guests at the GF and Poly. There is no way it could handle a resort monorail that was loaded at the TTC with guests only headed to the MK. The system is not designed to work the way it is now being used.

Guest staying at a monorail/MK resort pay more for better access to the MK and Disney is taking that benefit away. Most people understand and accept that you can't park at the Cont, Poly or GF for quicker access to the MK unless you are a guest. WDW has guards that enforce this. I don't understand why the resort monorail or resort boats are not reserved for guests dining or staying at those resorts.

I don't really disagree with you. They should be mad because they pay extra and their special perk is broken. Also, they should be mad because once the express monorail broke, only half the people in line at the Poly could get on the resort monorail because it was already full from the TTC. I told my wife I can't imagine how ticked I would be to spend that much to stay on the monorail line and not be able to get on.

As for the person who thought it was ridiculous that my wife asked if they could move or turn off the generator, it's not like they were using it to pump out a flooded basement at an orphanage. They were doing not-critical cleaning and the thing was literally 6 feet away from the line. There was only about 2 acres of other available space to move it to.

And finally, I get that the CMs are tired and grumpy because the guests are rude (and seemingly ignorant as well). But still, I deal with rude and ignorant people every day of my life at work. I can't get away with yelling at them like they are misbehaving 5 year olds. As to the friendly CM's, I go out of my way to hopefully spread cheer their way because I know they are probably sick and tired of dealing with all the rude guests.

Oh well, again, thanks to those who have read and commented. I think it will be a long time before we choose monorail over the ferry.

 

[eticketride]

Another thing to add, leaving and going to another park wasn't really an option. We were on day 4 of the FL Wild pass and had already been to the other parks this year. You can't really tell a 3 year old that we are going back to Epcot instead of going to ride Dumbo. Also, by the time I realized we were in deep poop, it was almost 10. The optimist in me kept saying, "Surely this line is going to move soon. Right? They guy said they had extra boats...." So even though we were late, I didn't think we could do any better getting to another park, even if that was an option.

We did seriously debate just going home (Tampa) and coming back today, but the tropical storm and the EMH at MK on Thursday eliminated that option. We even talked about trying to find a room on-site to stay the day and come back for the EMH, but the 3 dogs at home wouldn't have appreciated being left alone for 36 hours.

Finally, our 4-day passes expire tomorrow, so we had to use them when we could. Friday was not an option for us because of our work schedules.

Really though, it was not that bad once we got inside and we started re-working the plan. It was sort of gratifying to know that we did everything we wanted by making a new touring plan on the fly in spite of getting the late start.

 

[DisneyChristmas]

Sorry i assumed you could. At night on the monorail I always look at that well lit pathway and just assumed it countinued all the wat to the Floridian.

For a really long walk (probably not with kids), you could walk from GF to Poly. Then take the highway/road into the CR (as if you were traveling by car) and then the walkway to MK...But only if you'd known that it would be two hours. Otherwise it's nutty. But do-able.

 

[TJBerry]

For a really long walk (probably not with kids), you could walk from GF to Poly. Then take the highway/road into the CR (as if you were traveling by car) and then the walkway to MK...But only if you'd known that it would be two hours. Otherwise it's nutty. But do-able.

Walking the road from the Poly to the CR would be very dangerous and not very smart. There is no sidewalk and there is a very real possibility you would be hit by a bus or car. There are no shoulders.

I wouldn't advise anyone to be so foolish.

 

[maxiesmom]

That is really horrible! You kept your cool pretty darned well, I think.

I will say as far as the CMs yelling goes, I can kind of understand that. Some people just don't listen to them unless they are yelling.

 

[tmarquez]

Wow what a pain!

We would have just said forget it and went pool hopping at the Poly instead.

 

[SoonerSean]

Did they offer to bring buses to the GF? When we had monorail issues a couple of years ago they said that they were bringing in additional buses. We stood in a line that would have filled 10 buses trying to get from the transportion center to EPCOT. We finally gave up after almost an hour of waiting for the mystery buses to appear.

We have stayed all over Disney but now splurge on the Contemporary just to be within walking distance of MK to be sure no transportation mishaps can derail our plans. We've even learned to take a bus to the next available park and then a bus from there to reach EPCOT vs. taking the monorail.

And once we simply took a taxi as it was quicker.

Can't imagine the day the OP had. What a stunning string of bad luck.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

Did they offer to bring buses to the GF? When we had monorail issues a couple of years ago they said that they were bringing in additional buses. We stood in a line that would have filled 10 buses trying to get from the transportion center to EPCOT. We finally gave up after almost an hour of waiting for the mystery buses to appear.

We have stayed all over Disney but now splurge on the Contemporary just to be within walking distance of MK to be sure no transportation mishaps can derail our plans. We've even learned to take a bus to the next available park and then a bus from there to reach EPCOT vs. taking the monorail.

And once we simply took a taxi as it was quicker.

Can't imagine the day the OP had. What a stunning string of bad luck.

So glad to be staying at CR for our upcoming visit...just a short walk to MK!

 

[DizBelle]

Part of the problem is that every single person going to the MK (except those that can walk from the Contemporary) have to use some form of WDW transportation to get to the gates - either the monorail, the ferry, or a bus. There is really nothing you can do to make it better. You are dependent on WDW to get you to the gate.

 

[Cafeen]

Part of the problem is that every single person going to the MK (except those that can walk from the Contemporary) have to use some form of WDW transportation to get to the gates - either the monorail, the ferry, or a bus. There is really nothing you can do to make it better. You are dependent on WDW to get you to the gate.

Adding a small drawbridge* to bridge the canal between GF and MK would help a bit, as it would offer an alternative (albeit, a long alternative from Poly). Beyond that though, while Walt may have wanted the show, the realities of breakdowns are showing the major flaw in his MK parking lot idea

*This would have to be a drawbridge, since that canal is used for the Electric Boat Pageant (or whatever it's called) so the floats can get backstage.

 

[rolliev60]

Wow, what a day you had. With the hundreds of trips I've made to WDW I've never seen anything like that. You really exhibited extraordinary patience to get to the MK and the fact that GS could care less was terrible. I'm glad you can find the humor in the situation and made the best of a bad start to your day.

 

[vdub322]

Wow. I would be super annoyed at that whole situation. And I have to say...we noticed way more unfriendly CMs on our 2012 and 2013 trips. Of course there were good ones, but there were some horribly awful and indifferent ones. Just downright unhappy. It's unfortunate. Hope the rest of your day was magical!