Does it really take an hour to get from point A to point B?

[Angela&Kayla]

I've never been to Disney, and while I understand that the park is big, is it really true that it takes about an hour to get from one park to another, or from your hotel to another hotel, etc? I realize that the time depends on whether or not the bus leaves right after you board or right before, but I am a little nervous about spending SO much time on the busses. For example, one day I'll go to a park, go back to the hotel, go to a different hotel, then back to a park, and finally back to my hotel - will I really be on a bus 5 hours?!? If so, what would I be looking at time wise if I rented a car, or took a taxi?

Thanks for your help!

 

[betterlatethannever]

I've never been to Disney, and while I understand that the park is big, is it really true that it takes about an hour to get from one park to another, or from your hotel to another hotel, etc? I realize that the time depends on whether or not the bus leaves right after you board or right before, but I am a little nervous about spending SO much time on the busses. For example, one day I'll go to a park, go back to the hotel, go to a different hotel, then back to a park, and finally back to my hotel - will I really be on a bus 5 hours?!? If so, what would I be looking at time wise if I rented a car, or took a taxi?

Thanks for your help!

Yes, the extra time is waiting for the busses. The typical wait time is 20 minutes. So for a round trip, the car rental will save 40 minutes.

The actual travel time averages out to be 15-20 minutes. Driving typically won't save much time there. If you are staying at a resort where the bus makes multiple stops, driving might save 5-10 minutes.

Going from resort to resort typically takes two busses or other forms of transportation.

So for your example day,

to park 20 minutes wait, 15 minutes ride
to you resort 20 minutes wait, 15 minutes ride
to other resort 40 minutes wait, 30 minutes ride
to park 20 minutes wait, 15 minutes ride
to your resort 20 minutes wait, 15 minutes ride

You won't be on the bus for 5 hours, but you could easily have two hours of wait time.

Ed

 

[Uncleromulus]

I saw somewhere that Disney suggests for certain bus trips from "A" to "B "that you allow up to an hour and a half to reach your destination----
But from just resort to a park and back it is usually fairly quick.
And don't forget--you might find yourself standing up w/o a seat on some of those bus trips----.

 

[OKWAnneMarie]

I've never been to Disney, and while I understand that the park is big, is it really true that it takes about an hour to get from one park to another, or from your hotel to another hotel, etc? I realize that the time depends on whether or not the bus leaves right after you board or right before, but I am a little nervous about spending SO much time on the busses. For example, one day I'll go to a park, go back to the hotel, go to a different hotel, then back to a park, and finally back to my hotel - will I really be on a bus 5 hours?!? If so, what would I be looking at time wise if I rented a car, or took a taxi?

Thanks for your help!

Having been to Disney many times, I've learned my lesson and I take a taxi when I am going from resort to resort. It just saves soooo much time.

 

[abner1776]

Keep in mind that while the transportation system at WDW is great, you are dealing with a very large property...WDW is not Disneyland.

Also, Disney does not provide resort to resort trans(at least not officially) so moving between resorts can entail two bus trips.

If you are lucky enough then a trip from a park to your resort could be as little as 15minutes...but it could also be 75 minutes. Leaving at the end of the day could entail a 45 minute wait just to get on a bus and then with multiple stops, it could take another 30 minutes to get to your stop for a total of 75 minutes.

Sometimes advanced planning can work to your advantage, as an example...when leaving MK at closing and going to CR, you could wait for the monorail with thousands of other people...or you could spend 5 minutes walking over to the CR...your choice !!!

 

[NotUrsula]

If you drive from resort to resort, it normally takes 15-20 minutes, not counting the walking time from your room to your car and from your parked car to the restaurant, etc.

The entire resort covers 46 sq. miles and has about 125 miles of paved road. Some of those roads are not in public areas, but it gives you a real idea of how much ground there is to cover.

 

[CleveRocks]

Yes, the extra time is waiting for the busses. The typical wait time is 20 minutes. So for a round trip, the car rental will save 40 minutes.

I strongly disagree that the typical wait time for a bus is 20 minutes. I will agree that the typical time between buses is 15-20 minutes. There's a big difference.

In your scenario ... if buses run every 20 minutes, and the typical wait time is 20 minutes, then what you're really saying is that the typical passenger gets to the bus stop just in time to sniff the exhaust of the bus they just missed.

I DO agree that if you will be doing a lot of resort-to-resort traveling then you are much better off renting a car.

 

[clkelley]

I do a lot of resort hopping myself, but rarely resort to resort.

I generally stay at the values, but only have breakfast there first thing in the morning.

What you have to do to avoid the transfers is to plan around park times and the transportation.

For example, if I want to have a late dinner in the Epcot resort area after Illuminations, then I make my ADR on a night when the Studios is having evening EMH and will still be open when my dinner is through.

That way I leave Epcot out the IG, then walk to my dinner ADR, then when dinner is over walk over to the Studios and take a bus back to my value resort.

If I want to experience a different resort for lunch, then I take bus directly to that resort from a theme park, have lunch, stroll the grounds, find a comfy chair in the corner of the lobby for a rest, or find a shaded bench on the grounds for a rest. I rarely go back to my value resort for lunch.

If I do go back to my value resort for lunch, then I make my dinner ADR in a theme park, or at a resort that I can walk/monorail to/from a theme park.

For example, if I go back to the resort and rest, then my dinner ADR will either at one of the Epcot resorts, or one of the Magic Kingdom resorts, then I just take a bus to either the Studios or Magic Kingdom, then walk to my dinner, then after dinner, go to either MK, Epcot, or the Studios.

So with a little advance planning it is quite possible to experience lots of good meals at many of the resorts and not spend a lot of time on transportation.

I have never understood why folks are trying to get to another resort for dinner in the evening from "their" resort. Just go directly from the park. For 95% of the restaurants at WDW, there is no need to go back to "dress" for dinner.

Now, if you are planning a nice dinner, then yes, go back to the room and change. But allow plenty of time for that. Don't go to a theme park at all that afternoon, get ready for dinner, and plan your dinner time for when you can get easy transportation there.

 

[snowy76]

The entire resort covers 46 sq. miles and has about 125 miles of paved road.

These numbers always say it all! Especially if you've never been to WDW, it's hard to imagine how big the property is. It's actually twice the size of Manhattan! Luckily not as much traffic though...

 

[erikthewise]

What takes a long time are the things people don't think about. Even though the property is large, there is no NONSTOP bus or monorail trip or in WDW that takes longer than 15 minutes (on a good day). But waiting for transportation and multiple stops add up to a lot of time, and there is sometimes walking involved at both ends. Downtown Disney on a bus is especially bad because of multiple stoplights and multiple stops.

Let's suppose you're at Tom Sawyer Island at MK and you want to get to a dinner ADR at France in Epcot. How long will it take? The Epcot monorail is less than 10 minutes. But you have to get there first!

Let's see --
walk to boat dock, wait for boat, and take boat off island: 10 min
walk to MK exit: 10 min
wait for express monorail: 5 min
take express monorail to TTC: 5 min
switch to and wait for Epcot monorail: 5-10 min
monorail to Epcot: 10 min
enter Epcot and walk to France: 15 min
(you can take the boat but it will take even longer)

As you can see it takes roughly an hour, if you are a reasonably fast walker and nothing goes wrong! If you are a fast walker with good timing and good luck, of course you can get there faster. But if you want to be early for your ADR (as you are supposed to be), better give yourself at least 75 minutes, maybe more if you are a slow walker!