Contemporary Bus To Epcot?

[jhaig]

Does Disney routinely provide bus transportation to and from Epcot? Do they do so if the monorail is down?

This was a big problem for us last year at the Poly. Almost every morning the monorail was either not running or hadn't started yet (of course the front desk CM's has no idea). Then the CM at the bus stop said there was no bus to EP, so we had to walk to the TTC.

I always thought that when the monorail was not running that buses were provided for the monorail resorts. Maybe that has changed?

 

[BellsFam]

Yes or so was the case when we were there last year.

We found the buses were quick and doubled actually! We never waited for a bus to get somewhere the monorail could have taken us.

My only issue is that there was no direct transport to the Poly from CR...

 

[buzznina]

Yes or so was the case when we were there last year.

We found the buses were quick and doubled actually! We never waited for a bus to get somewhere the monorail could have taken us.

My only issue is that there was no direct transport to the Poly from CR...

Wouldn't you just take the resort monorail from CR to POLY?
There are 2 different monorail routes.

The first route makes stops at the following locations:

• Magic Kingdom park
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Transportation and Ticket Center (adjacent to Magic Kingdom parking)
• Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
• Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

 

[kaytieeldr]

Not when the monorail isn't running

 

[MouseketeerSinceDay1]

Does Disney routinely provide bus transportation to and from Epcot? Do they do so if the monorail is down?

This was a big problem for us last year at the Poly. Almost every morning the monorail was either not running or hadn't started yet (of course the front desk CM's has no idea). Then the CM at the bus stop said there was no bus to EP, so we had to walk to the TTC.

I always thought that when the monorail was not running that buses were provided for the monorail resorts. Maybe that has changed?

Short answer is yes they do. A bit more complicated answer is not all the time. For the MK resorts (Contemporary, Poly and Grand) Epcot will only run buses to those resorts if the resort monorail beam is down. If the Epcot monorail beam is down, you would board the monorail at your resort and get off at the ticket & transportation center (TTC). From there they will run buses from the TTC to and from Epcot.

 

[BellsFam]

Wouldn't you just take the resort monorail from CR to POLY?
There are 2 different monorail routes.

The first route makes stops at the following locations:

• Magic Kingdom park
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Transportation and Ticket Center (adjacent to Magic Kingdom parking)
• Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
• Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

My scenario was in response to the monorail not being an option.

When the monorail is down, unless you take a taxi or have a car, I could not find a direct route to the Poly for breakfast.

We bussed to the transportation center and had to walk, it didn't really seem (to us, hungry) like a short walk either!!!

 

[Mousemommy1]

When we stayed at CR last year, the monorail was down one morning. They provided a bus to the TTC and then we had to hop on a bus to Epcot. That morning was a cluster.

 

[brockash]

Does Disney routinely provide bus transportation to and from Epcot? Do they do so if the monorail is down?

This was a big problem for us last year at the Poly. Almost every morning the monorail was either not running or hadn't started yet (of course the front desk CM's has no idea). Then the CM at the bus stop said there was no bus to EP, so we had to walk to the TTC.

I always thought that when the monorail was not running that buses were provided for the monorail resorts. Maybe that has changed?

If the monorail is running like it's "supposed" to, then no buses to Epcot. If it's not running, we've had many times where we've had to take a bus from the CR to the TTC and then get on another bus to Epcot. Each time this has happened it's been a complete mess and we've always had to make a stop at MK to drop ppl. off before even getting to the TTC. I think it's completely unacceptable. - It should automatically be a dedicated route from the CR to Epcot since it's already an inconvenience of not having the monorail operating. I'd understand if it was the first time ever, but when it happens enough that a yearly guest experiences it more than once, then there's no reason to not be prepared for it. I think once they provided us a bus directly to Epcot from the CR. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and one of the main reasons we don't even bother trying to stay at a deluxe anymore. With stroller aged children the biggest reason I ever wanted to stay at a deluxe was to be on the monorail and know I didn't have to deal with buses for the 2 parks we visit the most, but we've been sadly disappointed a few different times/trips, so we just feel like it's not even worth it for us anymore as it's almost never the complete "perk" we intended it to be and is often a disappointment.

 

[brockash]

Short answer is yes they do. A bit more complicated answer is not all the time. For the MK resorts (Contemporary, Poly and Grand) Epcot will only run buses to those resorts if the resort monorail beam is down. If the Epcot monorail beam is down, you would board the monorail at your resort and get off at the ticket & transportation center (TTC). From there they will run buses from the TTC to and from Epcot.

This is not always true. On more than one occasion, the resort monorail has been down and there was not direct busing to Epcot from CR. It was transferring at TTC.

 

[AngiTN]

We were at CR a couple weeks ago and the Resort monorail line was not operating.
There was a bus that took us to Epcot

The CM at the Monorail escalator told us that we would be put on a bus to the TTC and then change to an Epcot bus but that was actually incorrect. When we got to the bus stop there was a bus directly to Epcot. It did stop at the TTC first but went on to Epcot.

This was on 4/18

 

[jhaig]

Seems like hit or miss. Why not just have a dedicated CR - EP route, especially with the reliability of the monorail being in the toilet?

 

[jhaig]

Also does this mean that there will be a bus to EP on the mornings (Mon and Tues?) that the monorail does not start until 830 or 900 am?

 

[StirlingSilver83]

In 2014 and 2015 we stayed monorail resorts...we always make early ADRs bc we eat 3 TS meals a day on the deluxe dining plan so we always booked the 8AM ADRs. Getting to Epcot was probably the hardest thing to do for both those trips. The Epcot monorail doesn't start working until 8AM...so in 2014 (we had a car) so we just drove to Epcot from CR for our early ADR. Later on in our trip we also had dinner scheduled for Garden Grill but the resort monorail was down. They had a bus take us from CR to TTC to board the Epcot monorail to get into Epcot. My hubby didn't want to go through all that with the infant we were traveling with so he drove the car again from CR to Epcot while my older son and I took all that Disney transportation. It was like we were racing to see who go there first, lol...it was a tie, we were walking to the gates of Epcot at the same time, lol. In 2015 ALL the monorails were down for like 3 days! Orlando had this HUGE storm blow in the night before we were due to check in and it blew out all the transformers or something in the monorails. We were staying at the Grand Floridian. Getting to MK wasn't a problem bc the boats were there, but our first day I had scheduled an early ADR at Kona. We had to walk from Grand Floridian to the poly to get to Kona. Then that day I had us scheduled again in Epcot but all the monorails were down. I thought we could catch a bus from poly to Epcot since all the monorails were down, but they said we had to catch the Epcot bus at TTC. So we again had to walk from Poly to TTC and then wait in this HUGE line for everyone else that was trying to catch a bus to Epcot.

I have come to the conclusion that monorails are great, but if you are staying on the monorail and it breaks down, getting to Epcot can be very difficult in some cases, lol...good thing we always have our car bc we drive down to Disney, but what about the people that really depend on the Disney transportation? That could be very very frustrating experience if that is your only mode of transportation. On our next trip in 2017, I don't even think its worth it to stay monorail anymore because of the 2 experiences we have had with the monorail being down. We are still considering Poly and CR for our next trip in 2017 but we are leaning more towards AKL. I think the bus transportation has been a little more reliable for us than the monorail.

 

[loves to dive]

Just a thought, if staying at CR why not walk over to MK and hop the Epcot bus from there. I'm not a fan of the monorail, which is one of the reasons I don't stay at the MK resorts (that and MK is just a half day park for us, we are Epcot people). I know they run buses from park to park don't they run them from MK to Epcot?

 

[MouseketeerSinceDay1]

Just a thought, if staying at CR why not walk over to MK and hop the Epcot bus from there. I'm not a fan of the monorail, which is one of the reasons I don't stay at the MK resorts (that and MK is just a half day park for us, we are Epcot people). I know they run buses from park to park don't they run them from MK to Epcot?

Unfortunately they don't run buses from MK to Epcot because of the monorail system. Even if all the monorail tracks went down, they would still only run a bus from MK to TTC, then from TTC to Epcot.

When using the Disney buses, you have to keep two things in mind. #1: it's FREE! Can't really complain about something that is free. #2: Always give yourself 1 hour of travel time. And that's 1 hour starts from the moment you step out of your resort room to the moment you're entering the park.

 

[jhaig]

Unfortunately they don't run buses from MK to Epcot because of the monorail system. Even if all the monorail tracks went down, they would still only run a bus from MK to TTC, then from TTC to Epcot.

When using the Disney buses, you have to keep two things in mind. #1: it's FREE! Can't really complain about something that is free. #2: Always give yourself 1 hour of travel time. And that's 1 hour starts from the moment you step out of your resort room to the moment you're entering the park.

I guess I don't understand how it is so difficult to get to EP from CR if the monorail is down. Maybe Uber is a better option rather than waiting an hour to get some where that should take only 10 minutes or so.

 

[CMNJ]

My scenario was in response to the monorail not being an option.

When the monorail is down, unless you take a taxi or have a car, I could not find a direct route to the Poly for breakfast.

We bussed to the transportation center and had to walk, it didn't really seem (to us, hungry) like a short walk either!!!

This just happened to us this week-monorail broke down and resort line was down until they could tow it-were at CR with an Ohana dinner reservation-took us an hour to get from CR to Poly-they did run a bus around the normal monorail loop but it took a while for the bus to show up (once we were advised to get out of the monorail line and head to the bus stop) and then it stopped at MK before going to TTC and then onto the Poly

 

[Kimberly9701]

Ok, so we are staying at CR...was at Poly last time- no monorail issues,

if the monorail does break down this time, can Uber or a Taxi get to the resort fairly quickly?

 

[Aurora0427]

In October there were busses to Epcot from both the CR and the GF WHILE the resort monorail was working. They ran them in the morning until early afternoon. We took them twice. Super fast.

 

[jhaig]

In October there were busses to Epcot from both the CR and the GF WHILE the resort monorail was working. They ran them in the morning until early afternoon. We took them twice. Super fast.

Did they share a route or were they direct to EP from CR?