Getting from Saratoga Springs to MK for an early tour???

[nzdisneymom]

My son turned 10 in the summer so we're going to WDW this weekend to celebrate his b'day (belatedly) and my other DS's 9th birthday (on Sunday). We're staying at Saratoga Springs.

My question is this... we have tickets for me and DS#1 to do the Behind the Magic of the Steam Trains tour at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday morning. It starts at 7:30 a.m. Do we have any transportation options besides just driving over to the Ticket and Transportation Center and getting the monorail over to MK? Or will buses be running early enough to get us to MK that early? I'd rather not drive if we don't have to drive as DH and DS#2 will be meeting us at MK later in the morning.

 

[whiplash]

No problem, the busses will run early, just ask MS at the desk, they'll tell you what time they start. DW and I had early breakfest at MK and bus got us there before anything opened. We walked in with the cast members. Have a great time!!!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thanks for the quick reply! We've been waiting for DS to turn 10 so we could do this tour for him ~ ever since he was 3 yrs old, he's said when he grows up, he wants to "drive the train at the Magic Kingdom" - so you can see why we want to do this tour! He turned 10 during the summer while our season passes were blacked out, so we waited til now to do it so we could do a "joint" celebration for his younger brother, too. Younger brother is taking Dad over to Animal Kingdom for Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids - two rides that DS#1 doesn't want to do - and then they'll meet us over at MK for the rest of the day

 

[disneybride96]

We ran into a problem with busses in January from YC. We were doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour at 8:00 am. If the busses were really running, they were few and far between. We were going to use a cab as our backup plan, but of course no cabs outside YC that morning! Make sure you know a bus will be coming for you. Those tours are great!

 

[nzdisneymom]

I've decided our plan of attack will be to check with guest services at check-in to see what time the buses start running and then make sure we're at the bus stop EARLY so we can get the first one -- BUT if it hasn't come by 7:05, we'll drive our car over to the Contemporary to park and walk from there up to MK (I posed this same question on the Theme Park strategies board and someone there replied that they had been told to do that... although I'll confirm with the concierge desk at Saratoga Springs that it is acceptable to do that). I just don't want to be late, KWIM?

DS is so excited about this tour - in fact, it wasn't until the spring that I read where you have to be 10 for it - I thought it was 16... so when I saw it was 10, we agreed that it would be part of his 10th birthday celebration, but his b'day in mid-June, just days after our season passes blacked out for the summer - and we checked to see if he could go as an "almost-10-yr-old" but after asking three or four different times AND having our TA also check, they consistently said NO. I didn't want to fudge on it so we've been looking forward to this all summer.