How to get from the Dolphin to Animal Kingdom

[Sun Lover]

We'll be staying at the Dolphin next week. The day we check out is an early entry day for Animal Kingdom. We want to get up very early and be at that park at least 30 mins. before early entry at 8 a.m. Then after we're done at Animal Kingdom around mid-day, we want to go to either Magic Kingdom or Epcot for the rest of the day until approximately 8-9 p.m. If we take the bus from the Dolphin in the morning, do they run early enough for us to be there before opening even on an early entry day? If not, we'll have a rental car so we could drive to Animal Kingdom but I'm wondering how easy it would be to get there without getting lost and how much time we would need to plan to do that to allow for driving, parking, etc. Also, later we'd then have to drive to the other park and I don't know how easy it would be to park mid-afternoon if it's crowded. We could leave the car at the Dolphin for the day and take Uber to Animal Kingdom but the hotel will charge us another $20 to leave the car there on top of paying for Uber. What would be the best way to do this? Is it too far to walk from the Dolphin to Animal Kingdom? Thanks for your help.

 

[MrKnight]

WDW bus transportation normally starts running AT LEAST 45 minutes prior to park opening, sometimes earlier, if you are able to board one of the first buses that leave your resort you should be able to arrive 30 minutes prior to park opening as you wish.. The alternative would be to take an Uber/Lyft just for park opening and then use WDW transportation the rest of the day.. There is no need to rent a car/drive if you are staying on WDW property, the Dolphin is on WDW property and is considered an on-site hotel even though it is not operated by Disney..

As far as walking from the Dolphin to AK, unfortunately this is not very feasible, there is no pedestrian friendly way to get there, all of the roads leading to AK are designed for vehicle-use only, not pedestrians unfortunately.. The only parks that you can actually walk to from the Dolphin is Epcot and DHS..

 

[CAS239]

Buses start about 6:30am daily. It's not 45 min prior to a park opening time like a lot of sites say. And if a park is opening at 7am then buses will start even earlier

Driving is super easy. Up to you if you'd rather drive or take the bus

 

[TammyC]

It is about 4 miles between the two, but would be a 10-15 minute drive time to park and make it to the entrance. If you take the car to Magic Kingdom you would then have to boat or monorail from the lot to the entrance. I would suggest the bus. You might want to check with the Dolphin about parking as it may be charged per night in which case you would not pay any extra for the last day.

 

[JerseyJanice]

i suggest asking at the Concierge desk what time the earliest bus is. They can call resort transportation to confirm the time. The bus ride between the Dolphin and AK is easy and fast enough.

If you are checking out that day, your resort card is good for parking free in any of the parks. You may consider parking at the park where you expect to be at the end of your day and spending the $20 you’d have paid at the Dolphin on an Uber to AK.

 

[gogiantsfan11]

I will also be at the Dolphin and will will be parking hopping all 4 parks that day. I'm just planning on driving my car there easy enough and parking covered already. From what I read people still say we should arrive 1 hour prior to park opening. So, I figure I would leave the resort around 6:45am.