Is it hard

[2manygirls]

I am making ADR & it is starting to feel like it might make the trip a pain cause we will have to make it here & there at certain times. How long does it take to get from one park to another?

 

[singingpixie]

I would try to spend at least part of your day in the park in which you've made the ADR- ie, if you have breakfast reservations at the Crystal Palace, plan to spend the morning in the MK, or if you have dinner at the San Angel Inn, head to Epcot after your afternoon break. Generally I don't plan to commute to a park just for dinner. There are a couple exceptions: It's relatively easy to commute between Epcot and the MK (monorail) or Epcot and MGM (Boat from international gateway entrance). This works for me, because I love to eat in World Showcase!

 

[madalex]

I am making ADR & it is starting to feel like it might make the trip a pain cause we will have to make it here & there at certain times. How long does it take to get from one park to another?

It is also a pain to not be able to eat where you want because you don't have ADR's. Believe me, scheduling ADRs for those places that you want to eat at (even though it means you have to make arrangements to be at a certain place at a certain time) will be well worth the time and effort.

 

[2manygirls]

I am just feeling overwhelmed cause I don't know how long it takes to get place to place & don't know where everything is located. This will be our first trip.

 

[singingpixie]

I am just feeling overwhelmed cause I don't know how long it takes to get place to place & don't know where everything is located. This will be our first trip.

Looking at the reservations you've mentioned in your other thread, I think you will be fine. You've only got one reservation per day, so it's not like you'll be bouncing all over the place trying to make it to reservations. I would make the breakfasts your first stops of the day. Either take the bus from Pop directly to the park where the breakfast is located, or in the case of the breakfasts in hotels, bus to the nearest park and then transfer to the resort for breakfast. (Example: bus from Pop to Magic Kingdom, then monorail to Grand Floridian for 1900 Park Faire, or monorail to Contemporary for Chef Mickeys). Just to allow for any possible delays and so that you can be relaxed, I'd try to leave Pop an hour and a half before your reservation time.

As for lunches, I'd probably plan to start my day in whatever park your lunch reservation is. Hang out at MGM all morning and then just head over to Hollywood and Vine when lunchtime comes around.

When you have a dinner planned, spend the morning wherever you want. I'd head back to the hotel for a rest/swim in the afternoon, and then head out to the park where dinner is later on.

It's really not as hard as you're worrying it will be. I have a feeling that once you're there, you'll get a feel for it and all will be well!

 

[ReggieB]

Singingpixie is spot on with her advice. Try and make ADR's at places you are going to be, or plan to be for the rest of the day. Some parks work better for hopping than others. I like to go from DHS to Epcot (using the resort boat, it takes about 20 -30 mins putting you at a back entrance to World Showcase)

Getting between MK and Epcot is okay, but remember that you have to switch monorails and you arrive at the main entrance. It can be a bit of a walk to any of the world showcase restaurants (15-20 mins) I would allow at least 40 minutes travel time, possibly a little more if I needed to get all the way to the back of World Showcase. I say that amount of time is probably right for all the parks. I hate being late, so I'm probably over estimating the time a little.

If you are at MK, a good plan for dinner is to check out one of the resorts on the monorail. The travel time is a lot less for that, maybe 20 mins door to door. You can also use the resort boat to get to The Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. Allow 30 mins, or so from MK.

I believe the Unofficial Guide has a good time between parks/resorts table in it. I'm sure if you dig around this site there might be something similar.
Personally, my family love using the transportation system. It can be a little slower than you might expect, but just allow for that in your travel time. We stayed at Wilderness Lodge one time. The buses run great from there, but DH & DS insisted we use the boats/monorails whenever possible. We could have gotten to a lot of places much quicker, but I was overruled.

 

[WillCAD]

I am just feeling overwhelmed cause I don't know how long it takes to get place to place & don't know where everything is located. This will be our first trip.

It might help you to get oriented if you take a look at my Maps page (click the link in my signature).

Learning the basics of how WDW is laid out can help you to plan your trip. And once you get a general idea, you can also take a look at individual park and resort maps to get an idea of where restaurants are located within each place.

It's also fun to look at the resorts and parks on the Live.com Birds Eye view (links included on my page).

 

[2manygirls]

ReggieB What does DHS stand for? Still learning.

 

[singingpixie]

ReggieB What does DHS stand for? Still learning.

Disney's Hollywood Studios, the park that used to be called MGM Studios.

 

[crisi]

Plan on travel from park to park taking an hour. It will likely take less. If this looks really cumbersome, suppliment with cabs and lots of planning your touring around your dinners (or your dinners around your touring).

 

[Pumbaa_]

Good question! Traveling between locations is hit or miss. Actual travel time will depend on your bus luck. Did you just miss one? 10-20 minutes wait.

Do you have to transfer? Did you just miss that one? add another 10-20 minutes. (Depending on location/season/timeof day could be up to 30 minutes)

How far are you from your final destination? If you just arrived at the front of Epcot and are dining in the world showcase, you have a hike.

I would allow 1-1.5 hrs to get to your reservation. ENough time to get there without stressing.

 

[EnnEss]

Travelling to resorts other than yours is the real hassle. That can take forever. If its not a monorail resort I really don't reccommend it, particularly if its your first time there.

 

[tina_la]

just a little reassurance. Our first year was last year and It is easy to figure out once your there we had it down after the first day. this is how we did it in case your interested. I picked the restaurants and tried not to plan two parks in a row. (example: Crystal Palace and Liberty Tree Tavern to eat would have put us at the MK 2 days in a row) We decided not to get park hoppers since we weren't used to the transporation but not a big deal now) After I knew where we were going to eat that is the park we went to that day. The night we ate at DTD we went to AK. Now that we know what to do we changed it a little this year but will prob stick close to this plan because you don't want to spend a lot of time traveling from one park to another.

 

[crisi]

How far are you from your final destination? If you just arrived at the front of Epcot and are dining in the world showcase, you have a hike.

A lot of people will forget about walking times. Also, we've been caught more than once by "oh, darn - the security line!"

The Passporter guidebooks have pretty good maps with walking times on them. Remember that if you are trying to leave the park during a parade, or right at closing, it will be much more time consuming.

Plan on missing every bus and needing to wait 20 minutes for the next one (you won't, but its a better bet than planning on making every bus no problem). Buses to DTD are notoriously bad.

And when push comes to shove, a cab ride will be $15-20 and will save a lot of aggravation - particularly if you are trying to get from resort to resort.

 

[mickeynut1]

We make our ADRs at the resort TS restaurants more than the parks, but either way, we just plan our day around where our ADR is. If, for example, we're at MK and have a dinner at the BC, we hop a bus to the BC from the MK. With a park ADR, just plan to be in that particular park around the time of your ADR......if you have a dinner ADR at the MK, just plan to spend the afternoon/early evening at the MK so your right there for dinner

 

[Hopefully]

We always plan our park days first, and then make ADR's either in that park, or a resort nearby. I don't want to be traveling from park to park just to make an ADR.
It really isn't all that hard. Use a calendar and the historical best days information and plot out your stay. For example: Monday will be MK, Tuesday will be DHS, Wednesday will be Epcot, Thursday will be repeat MK, Friday will be AK and then DTD etc.
Then make ADR's near where you will be. So on Monday you choose LTT in the MK or 'OHana at the nearby Poly. Do this for the whole week and your travel time will be greatly minimized.
I find the planning half the fun. Try to relax and enjoy the excitement.
Have a Great Trip

 

[Wendy5055]

When we went 2 years ago, we had a Grand Gathering w/DDP and I had made ALL of the eating arrangements!!!

We went to parks of choice in the morning and then met back at the resort (POP) for a brief & refreshing swim and shower and went to the park we had our ADR for the evening at (Park Hopper ticket HIGHLY recommended).

We would always try to leave at least one hour prior to our ADR and if we were lucky, we had a little time to kill at the park before our ADR. It was nice and not so very stressful (considering we had a HUGE group!!! ).

I am actually on the DlxDDP this year and just DH, DD6 and ME are going!!! Now that will really be STRESS FREE!!!!