As much as I LOVE the monorail, I too have found that it is pretty unreliable, which is especially disheartening since they went to the abbreviated schedule for the monorail supposedly to allow time for maintenance. I am beginning to wonder if those abbreviated hours are really for maintenance, or just money saving, or perhaps more a move in the direction of ending the monorails all together.
At any rate, I have found that when things are really busy, like at park opening, or closing, it is best to use the ferry. We will on occasion ride a monorail to one of the resorts for dinner, but never when it is in peak demand.