Getting to and from the parks easily and quickly with 2 young children is one of our biggest concerns. We will be flying in and won't be renting a car so we will be relying solely on Disney transport. We are already booked at the Poly, but would consider somewhere different if transportation is better elsewhere, ie BC or elsewhere. Please give me your comments about how long you had to wait for buses, monorails and boats, etc and how long approximately the rides take. Thank you so much. I really feel that the convenience of great transportation has so much to do with making the final decision about where to stay. Jackie
At BC you can walk to MGM and EPCOT (or take a slow boat. No buses to those 2 parks.) Bus to AK and MK. At Poly, it's boat, monorail, or ferry to MK, monorail to EPCOT. Bus to MGM and AK. So it seems like a draw, but my vote would be for the Poly.
I think the Polynesian has the best transportation overall. * You can take the monorail to the MK or take a boat. * You can take the monorail to the TTC and then to Epcot or to any other park. * You can easily walk to the TTC to get transportation to any park. * Or you can wait at the Polynesian's bus stop which is right at the GCH. NO other resort has all those options. -Steph
That is so hard to tell because even if you have a really speedy trip to one park, doesn't mean it will be the same to all of the rest. You need to figure out which parks are the most important, and plan your stay accordingly. If MK is your focus, you would be best with a monorail resort. If MK and Epcot are your focus, think about staying at either the Polynesian or the Contemporary. If a moderate is your focus, then Port Orleans has the best bus service to the MK and Epcot. If Epcot and Disney Mgm are your focus, then you may want to stay at the Epcot resorts. Do note that the Friendship boats do take a bit of time going to the resorts, but Epcot is a short walk, and there are busses to MGM from those resorts. If MGM is your focus, CBR is only a very short bus ride away. AKL, CSR and All Stars are all pretty close to the Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom from some of these resorts may share a route with BB. We always try to plan our resort according to the park we will be concentrating on most, and our budget, of course. This past fall, we only went to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and had budgeted accordingly, so we stayed at the Polynesian... it was great!
I was not aware that we could walk to the TTC and take buses from there. Please explain. Do other resorts buses make stops at the TTC, then go to the parks? If that was the case there would probably very frequent buses leaving from the TTC to the other parks. It looks like I made the right decision about the Poly and I am relieved of that. Just hope I would be able to save a little more money if a code comes out for value season in late November / early December. Also, do buses run less frequently in value season due to lower crowds? Thanks again. Jackie
I have never been on a bus that stopped at TTC. I have heard some reference to Wilderness Campground buses stopping there. Also, the local Orlando LYNX buses go there. When there were only two parks, TTC was a centralized location. That is not the case anymore. From Poly, buses to AK, MGM, and DTD stop right in front of the hotel's main entrance. They may also stop at the Grand Floridian. Yes, you can walk to the TTC. That makes it easy to catch the monorail to EPCOT without first taking the Resort loop monorail four stops to make the connection.
If the Magic Kingdom is the park where you expect to spend most of your time, the Polynesian absolutely can't be beat for ease of getting around!Getting to the MK from there is a dream. From the Poly, I would only use the TTC to catch the monorail to get to Epcot- very easy, and you can stroll to the TTC or take the monorail from the Great Ceremonial House. To get to the other parks (MGM, Animal Kingdom, the water parks or Downtown Disney), catching a bus at the bus stop at the Great Ceremonial House is the easiest way. To catch the other resort buses, you'd actually go to the MK bus stop (which is not at the TTC, but near the MK entrance.) You'd take the boat or the monorail to the MK, then walk to the bus stop area there. Especially with little kids along, the Poly is great. You can get back to the hotel in a hurry if someone needs a break.
The Poly is great, but I also have to get my vote in for CR! To us/our family it has the best of everything! You can either walk or monorail to MK. Granted MK will be your 4th stop, but the monorail just is SO Disney in my opinion. Then after a long day at the park you can just walk back to CR or hop on the monorail and be the first stop there. Then on your way to TTC it's your very first stop. Hop off and jump on to the Epcot monorail and away you go there. Again on your way back once you switch monorails you'll be the 4th stop, but hey again, you're on the monorail so how bad can it be?! Of course you do need to take the bus to MGM and AK, but the bus rides aren't too bad and there and back pretty quickly. The busses do share with the other resorts, but for the most part you usually get a seat. Hope this helps! Deb*
The busses do not pick up at the TTC. You can walk from the Poly to the TTC in about 5 minutes to catch the monorail to Epcot.\ Your best bet, if staying at the Poly is to take the busses any of the other places not connected by monorail or boat (sometimes riding the boat back from the MK is faster than the monorail). Pretty much the same can be said for the CR, except you must take a monorail to the TTC and transfer to the Epcot monorail. You cannot walk from the CR to the TTC. You can, however, walk from the CR to the MK!
After staying at the Swan/Dolphin, I realized how much I love walking to parks--especially if kids are still in a stroller. That's one of the reasons we are staying at CR, so we can walk to MK. I also think Poly would be great--the nice thing about monorail or boats is you don't have to fold up the stroller.
Not true - you can catch buses from TTC to MGM and AK. That's how you get to those parks from the MK. I don't think they come from another resort, I think they just go between the parks, just like the AK bus that leaves from Epcot and MGM. You can not catch a bus from TTC to the other resorts (except possibly the WL and FW bus) Shelly
I agree that the Polynesian has the best transportation options. Besides all the options other have talked about there is also a bus from the TTC to FW/WL if you want to go to the Hoop, Artist Point, Trail's End, etc.. The buses from the TTC to MGM and AK are direct going both ways. Those buses run every 20 minutes. There are no buses from the Epcot resorts to MGM so it is either walk (and it is a fairly long walk from BC) or take a very slow boat. There are buses from MGM to the front of Epcot but that doesn't help you get to the resorts. And Epcot is as easy and fast to get to from the Polynesian as it is from BC...you just ride the monorail from the TTC rather than the pleasant but longer than you think walk from Epcot area resorts. Tikiman has even timed it.
I really depends on what park or parks you plan on spending the most time at. The POLY is the best for the MK followed by EC with MGM in fourth and AK bringing up the rear. The BC will put you in easy walking distance to EC a short/slow boat ride to MGM and then equidistant bus rides to the MK and AK. So if you are going to spend most of your time at the MK go with the POLY if not then go with the BC.
No resort has quick and fast transportation to all parks. The TTC has bus transportation to the theme and water parks, not to other resorts or to Downtown Disney (with the exception of the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness). To go to other resorts from the Magic Kingdom area, use the Magic Kingdom bus stops or transfer at another park or Downtown Disney. Magic Kingdom area: The Polynesian, as specified, has monorail and boat transportation to the MK, and guests there can walk to the TTC to take the monorail to Epcot or buses to other parks. Buses to other parks can be taken directly from the resort, too. To visit other resorts, ride the monorail or boat to the MK and take a bus from there (if the MK is closed, transfer at Downtown Disney). If you take the boat from the Polynesian to the MK, remember it is a small boat. You will have to fold a stroller if you have one. Epcot area: The Boardwalk, in my opinion, has the best location for walking distance to both Epcot and MGM. The boat to both parks also picks up and drops off there in the middle of its run. To get to other parks or other resorts it would be necessary to take a bus from the resort (switching at another park or Downtown Disney to get to another resort). AK: Animal Kingdom Lodge is close to AK and a short bus ride away. The Lodge also does not share buses with other resorts, which in my opinion makes it easier to ride to the other parks.
