Resort Thread Disney's GRAND FLORIDIAN Resort & Spa + Construction Updates!! **LOBBY REFURB STARTED 4/14**

[nursejackie]

These are usually high level luxury complaints

What does that mean?

 

[walt34]

What does that mean?

Some people associate luxury hotels (and Disney has the price point, though perhaps not the service quality - it's more about theming and location) with particularly high expectations of all services. I would say the transport options at the GF (monorail, buses) work very well (compared to other Disney hotels). But the buses remain Disney buses. For those, they work well. But it's not a limo service.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Will also be staying here for the first time shortly. Is the transportation a concern? I’ve read that the monorail can be a pain because GF is the last stop. And the bus transportation is shared with other resorts so sometimes you are waiting a while. Is that true? If it is, I am wondering if we are better off renting a car and driving to the parks (besides MK of course).

The GF will have a dedicated bus to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom in the morning. Then it will share with the Polynesian starting around 11am. Buses for AK and HS are fine.

Magic Kingdom is the easiest to get to because of the three options - walking path, monorail and boat.

The Disney Springs bus shares with the Poly.

The park that we find the most inconvenient is Epcot. You have one option, the monorail, and the ride and lines can be long. You have to change monorails at the ticket and transportation center. The line for the monorail back to the GF can be long at park closing.

 

[nursejackie]

Some people associate luxury hotels (and Disney has the price point, though perhaps not the service quality - it's more about theming and location) with particularly high expectations of all services. I would say the transport options at the GF (monorail, buses) work very well (compared to other Disney hotels). But the buses remain Disney buses. For those, they work well. But it's not a limo service.

We always stay on site (split stay this year with GF) and always drive to the parks, except if nearby e.g. MK this year. We don't like Disney buses and never use them. Personal choice.

 

[lowlight]

Some people associate luxury hotels (and Disney has the price point, though perhaps not the service quality - it's more about theming and location) with particularly high expectations of all services. I would say the transport options at the GF (monorail, buses) work very well (compared to other Disney hotels). But the buses remain Disney buses. For those, they work well. But it's not a limo service.

True words here. Have you seen the shuttle bus that the Four Seasons uses to shuttle their guests to the parks? Those are as close as you’ll get to a private limo bus.

 

[walt34]

The park that we find the most inconvenient is Epcot. You have one option, the monorail, and the ride and lines can be long. You have to change monorails at the ticket and transportation center. The line for the monorail back to the GF can be long at park closing.

Yes, EPCOT takes the longest but even including wait time (if we just missed one monorail) it usually takes us about 35 minutes door to door. Switching trains at the TTC is more cumbersome than staying on a bus but in terms of overall travel time one tends to forget that taking the monorail also includes security and that the monorail runs more frequently than buses so the wait time for the next one is shorter.
If I take all of this into account, I'm happy to use the monorail to EPCOT (if I'm not staying at Crescent Lake).

What's the longest you've waited to get on the monorail at EPCOT at park close? I had to wait for the next one once but never longer than that.

 

[walt34]

True words here. Have you seen the shuttle bus that the Four Seasons uses to shuttle their guests to the parks? Those are as close as you’ll get to a private limo bus.

I haven't but occasionally I use transport services from "real" 5-star-hotels and that's quite a different experience so I can imagine what the Four Seasons can do. But at Disney, the monorail and the buses are part of the experience for us.

 

[kylenne]

Yes, EPCOT takes the longest but even including wait time (if we just missed one monorail) it usually takes us about 35 minutes door to door. Switching trains at the TTC is more cumbersome than staying on a bus but in terms of overall travel time one tends to forget that taking the monorail also includes security and that the monorail runs more frequently than buses so the wait time for the next one is shorter.
If I take all of this into account, I'm happy to use the monorail to EPCOT (if I'm not staying at Crescent Lake).

What's the longest you've waited to get on the monorail at EPCOT at park close? I had to wait for the next one once but never longer than that.

This is exactly my take on it. We've stayed at Poly more times than GF, but going home on the monorail at night from Epcot is fine. They do come faster than the buses so missing one isn't a huge deal, but I've never found the lines to be awful. There's just not as many people arriving to Epcot via monorail as MK because you don't have all those additional people coming in from the parking lot on it. It's pretty much only monorail resort guests and the occasional park hopper from MK. Once in a while if we're too tired after fireworks to walk clear across the park we might walk to BC and catch a rideshare home. We did that on our last trip, when we were at GF. But leaving Epcot at night via monorail is way less stressful and irritating to me than leaving MK at night and dealing with buses, so that's why I prefer Poly or GF if I'm not doing a split stay.

I will say the ability to catch the Epcot monorail direct is a big reason Poly still pips GF as my favorite resort though. But it really wasn't awful switching, especially if you know the shortcut at the TTC to get to the other platform. I'm always careful to say that my views of Disney transportation are through the lens of someone who uses public transit daily at home and is used to the inherent quirks, though. That's why I really don't find Disney transportation onerous. I do far worse transfers at home than between the resort and Epcot lines. And at least the resort line has never randomly decided it was going express and skipping straight to MK when I was trying to get to a resort for lunch!