The closing has been commented upon here on the DIS Boards quite a bit. To be clear, its only the resort and MK monorails (not the Epcot one) and is only for part of the day on week days, not a complete shutdown.
Yes your out of luck. The monorail system is over 40 years old and it's only been repeatedly repaired its an extremely expensive system. Currently disney is working on getting all of the trains automated so they don't need to be manually driven they will be run by a computer. They will still have a driver in the train to override the computer if necessary. During these times they will also probably repair anything that needs repairing. It doesn't seem to be anything major. Just some track work probably maybe some refurbishing of the trains as well. They probably picked these times because these times would be the least busy during the day after 11 the morning rush is gone and after 7 the night rush backtrack I the resorts in there. So in between 11-7 it's just average traffic people taking there time together to the parks or people just going for a ride on the monorail.
As said...
The system and trains are horribly over extended.
That ground is not stable... They've done an amazing engineering job on it (especially with bust A work in the late 60s)...but really the beams and pilings are probably due for at least some replacement.
The trains....we're replaced at exactly 20
Years before...I think it was 19. These are now 24 years old.
Even a ridiculously nice car or
Boat doesn't survive 25 years of daily 16 hour use.
I haven't thought about this in awhile...but now I'm thinking...dangerous.
They are selling grand Floridian dvcs and will be selling Polynesian by the summer...when those sell out - and certainly they will - do the trains stay in the roundhouse?
Crazy? Especially with those distasteful new bus stops going in?