Downtown Disney to Contemporary Resort transportation- a direct trip?

[Ari37]

On our arrival day, we're scheduled to fly into MCO at about 12:30 P.M. We're staying at Art of Animation, and are hoping to go to Downtown Disney for a few hours in the afternoon before heading over to the Contemporary for a latish dinner (around 8:30). However, I just saw on the OLP transportation wizard site (perhaps not the most reliable source) that there is no longer direct transportation between Downtown Disney and the Contemporary Resort, and have seen a couple reports of really long trips lately from DD to the monorail resorts. Does anyone have any recent experience taking a Disney bus from DD to the Contemporary? Is it still the first stop on the bus route what with all the construction/ route changes going on recently? If not, are we better off just skipping the DD excursion, taking the bus to MK from AoA, and then the monorail to the Contemporary?
Thanks so much in advance for any experiences/ advice you can provide!

 

[joelkfla]

Depends on time of day:

• 8am-11am: no regular service to CR. You will probably be put on a bus that is going to a nearby resort and then to MK (or you might have to change buses at the first resort.) Then you'll have to walk or take the Resort Monorail to CR. If you're lucky and extra buses are available, they may dispatch a bus directly to CR.
• 11am-2pm: direct buses to CR, but stopping at TL first.
• 2pm-2am: direct buses to CR, usually non-stop. There's always the slight possibility a bus may be sent on a combined route stopping at another resort first, especially as 2am approaches. (The 1st bus or 2 after 2pm may stop at TL if there are Guests on board from it's previous run.)

 

[Ari37]

Thanks so much joelkfla for describing the bus patterns throughout the day! This is very useful information. Hopefully, since we will be heading to the Contemporary later in the day, the bus route will be direct/ the trip won't take too long!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Should you decide to skip DD, you can take a bus to MK and walk to CR. Its only about an 8 minute walk.

If you take the monorail you will get off the bus, walk over and you will have to go through bag check at MK in order to get to the monorail area. Walk up to the monorail, wait for it to come. By the time you do all that you could have easily walked to the CR by then.

 

[tobikaye]

I just saw on the OLP transportation wizard site (perhaps not the most reliable source)

Since I do not think that wizard has been updated in years, it really does have some outdated information.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I took the liberty of checking those results myself, just for fun:
"Bus directly to Disney's Contemporary Resort
Estimated Time: 27 minutes
There is no bus direct between Contemp and Dntwn Disney. There are several stops and the driver advised it is now a 47min trip. I can verify it is 40+ minutes.

Bus to Disney's Polynesian Resort
Transfer to Monorail to Disney's Contemporary Resort
Estimated Time: 53 minutes"

Very interesting contrast to joelkfla's firsthand knowledge, as well as common sense.

 

[msb578]

Should you decide to skip DD, you can take a bus to MK and walk to CR. Its only about an 8 minute walk. If you take the monorail you will get off the bus, walk over and you will have to go through bag check at MK in order to get to the monorail area. Walk up to the monorail, wait for it to come. By the time you do all that you could have easily walked to the CR by then.

I did this recently- I don't think I had to go through bag check.

You definitely have to go through bag check to access the Epcot monorail station though.

 

[Ari37]

Thank you all for your responses/ insight, and thanks kaytieeldr for posting the exact quote from the OLP site! It certainly was surprising to read, and I agree with everyone that this information must be outdated.