MONORAIL CLOSURE - What a BUMMER!

[rustyanchor]

Well, I think it really sucks. If I were dropping that much cash on a monorail resort, I'd expect to at least be notified of a planned closure at the time of booking. I think whether or not you cancel depends on if there's somewhere else you'd rather stay that isn't a monorail resort. Like, did you want to stay at AKL but chose CR because of the convenience? Maybe you should now consider AKL. (Just for example.) Good luck. I'm sure your trip will still be magical.

 

[robinb]

If it makes you feel any better, the transition from the Resort Monorail to the Epcot Monorail is a pain in the butt. You need to go down a long ramp and back up a long ramp each way. Plus, there is another really long ramp at Epcot itself. Taking a bus may be actually easier and it's really not a big deal. I have stayed at all the MK resorts and I have to say that I think the whole "be on the monorail!" thing is completely overrated. IMO the convenience is not worth the boatload of money that Disney charges for those resorts.

 

[Mkrop]

So how would you recommend getting from the monorail resorts to Epcot when the monorail is down? We are staying at BLT so walking to the MK is what we planned on anyway. I am just at a loss as to getting to Epcot. Should we even bother with the monorail or are we better off just busing/cabbing it to Epcot?



ALL the articles have stated that there will be more buses and boats running while the monorail is down so over crowding (in February & March) shouldn't be issue.

The monorail is a big convenience yes, but you are not paying the Deluxe resort price just for the monorail. Remove the monorail and compare The Polynesian to All Star Music. You're still getting deluxe resort accommodations.

The lack of communication is one thing and yes, that is rediculous and Disney should be ashamed. But come on people, how many people would kill to go to Disney? Here we are (myself included) crying about a line on the monorail being shut down. It could always be worse.....

I absoultely hate when people pull out this line...if I am paying for something I excpect it to be operational, if it is not I excpect to be informed. Of course there are worse things in life...but this is a Disney forum where people discuss the good and BAD about Disney.

Aside from the lack of disclosure and notification, with which I agree should have been more forthcoming, here are my thoughts on this situation and this thread.

1. Entitlement issues. How is this entitlement, the OP paid for a MONORAIL resort...most people expect to get what they paid for. If I bought a hamburger, I am not excpecting a chicken sandwich.
2. Uneducated travelers. How is the OP uneducated...BECAUSE Disney did not bother to tell him about the closure. He/she is educated because they found the info elsewhere3. People spending money on what they really can't afford. And pretell can you tell the OP can not afford this...just bc one has money doesnt mean they want to waste it.
4. Busses are NOT for any one other than the unwashed masses. Who said that??? But when traveling with the stroller set there are a royal pain and not my first choice of transportation for sure5. Children in need of naps can only be transported by monorail. See above statement..it is easier on the monorail, just wheel them in, esp if the child is sleeping.6. People have planned their vacation around, and paid way too much for, what amounts to a couple train rides back and forth to a single park. They paid for the convience of being on the monorail resprt...isnt your time worth something???
7. This construction event is going to cost Disney millions of dollars in comps. WDW's fault for not being upfront to its guest and letting them make an EDUCATED decision on where to stay
8. People generally don't venture into other forums on this board, i.e. Transportation. And your point is...9.Perhaps there is a reason for the 35% discount this winter/spring. Perhaps but as others said that discount in in other places as well10. Heaven forbid someone has to WALK at Disney World! Be grateful if you can walk around WDW. Some people can not handle all that walking and need to find the easiest way from point A to B

One of the rudest posts I have seen



OP the walk from CR to MK is not that bad, although I am not sure if your parents can handle it, but to get to the monorail they would have to hike it up the big ramp.

I would ask what kind of boats are being used, if they are they type you can just wheel a stroller on no big deal, if they are the kind you have step up or down into then you have to break down the stroller. The boats that go around Epcot resorts you can wheel kids right on, so I am not sure if that is option, but once again your parents have to be able to walk to the docks.

We were at BLT one time when the monorail broke down, actually it broke down a lot that week. They bussed us from BLT, and stopped at Poly and GF right to the gates of Epcot. We did not go to TTC. I dont know if that was just the one day.

If I were in your shoes, OP, and I had little ones that needed naps and strollers, I might be tempted to switch to an Epcot resort and then rearrange ADRs.

Good luck with whatever decision you make and let WDW you are unhappy with the lack of communication.

 

[kidsgobears]

OP, if you downgrade to a moderate resort, that will more than pay for a rental car and an occasional taxi. Will your toddlers nap in the stroller? If you don't cancel, I'd get a car and drive everywhere except MK where I'd take the bus or drive to TTT and monorail over (assuming this monorail is working). If toddlers will nap in stroller, I'd plan to just stay at the park on MK days. Good luck whatever you do?

My 2 cents: I'm sure Disney knows about these big refurbs at least a year ahead of time. When someone books either online or over the phone, they should be notified at time of booking if something major will be closed at that particular resort (monorail, pools, construction noise) and asked if they'd like to proceed with that resort. Anyone who had booked prior to Disney adding something to the refurb list should be notified immediately. I know sometimes things break without warning and need maintenance immediately, but this is not what we're talking about here.

 

[JillShari]

I've been to Disney may times and done offsite 2x, CBR (in the 80's) and Dolphin(90's). Then when we became parents and took our then 3.5 year old and my 20 week pg body... we splurged. We stayed at the poly because they had an incredible deal at the time because we were going around the time the economy sank. So, it was a stay for 4 nights get 3 more free. We enjoyed our stay there a lot. And it was a pain even then, to have to walk to/from the TTC with Epcot... especially with my swollen feet and a whiny 3.5 year old. We were across the resort from where the TTC was and when we were exhausted it seemed even farther. But, we loved being on the monorail and being able to resort hop when we wanted to see what the other places were like. And my DS LOVED the monorail and it was truly a highlight for him.
Now, it's 4 years later and they are now 8 and 4. My youngest is a HUGE cars fan, so, without a doubt we had to book AoA.

I have to tell you that I waivered just a tiny bit. We loved being so close to MK and being able to go back take a nap and get to MK in such a few minutes. And once I saw the monorail shut down...it made me sure of my decision. We do plan to go back to our hotel in the afternoon. We do plan to spend a bit of time at the resort. And without the convenience of the monorail.... one time a bus to HS took 35 minutes to arrive, I don't think the Poly is worth it.

Now, if they would have discounted the rooms to reflect the inconvenience, that would have been a proper thing to do.

 

[bonjovi]

OP- here is some food for thought:

we will be there at the end of Feb., also with 2 year old twins, and two more kids ages 6 & 8. Easy travel is a must for us and I get bus sick (in less than a mile, I can not function on buses). so, we stay at monorail resorts.

any of the monorail resorts willl still leave you taking buses to AK, DTD , or DHS. that won't change.

the poly is a great option, because you will still be able to get to MK in the morning and night and just boat from MK for naps at the resort. and the poly is very easily walkable and , a nice walk, to the TTC which is the monorail taht will take you to epcot direectly. any of the other monorail resorts would make you take the MK loop all the way around to the TTC , where you need to switch to get the epcot line but the poly , you can walk there. then, take the monorail home for naps from epcot. if the construction has you worried at the poly, try this:

we are staying at GF because I got the best room rate for our stay there. I'm boating home for naps from MK. BUT, WE ELECTED TO DO EPCOT ON OUR WEEKEND DAYS! the monorail will be running. try to compare your weekend days with a crowd calendar and see if thsi works. It mininimes the issues with monorail outage for the the CR and GF hotels. hth

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

FWIW, I totally understand the need to refurb the monorail. But shame on Disney for not giving guests full disclosure about an issue that they know is a huge factor in choosing to stay there.

This. Exactly. I would be livid if I were the OP (or anyone else in her situation). I understand that the monorail needs a refurb, but is is DISGRACEFUL that Disney is not notifying guests in advance/when they book.

I honestly can't even believe that some people are essentially defending Disney in this thread saying "Meh. Too bad. Walk or take a boat." Ugh. She didn't book CR to take boats and busses everywhere.

Btw...how long is the closure scheduled. Do we know?

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

I recently made a reservation at another resort in Orlando for August. I got an email right after I made the reservation stating that there would be construction noise due to a roofing project. This is for a trip that is seven months away. Full disclosure. I think it's just slimy for Disney not to notify customers of a major inconvenience like this.

I agree. Totally slimy!!!

 

[awilliams4]

I am new here to the disboards and I need some advice.

Our family booked our vacation over 6 months ago and we are staying at the Contemporary Resort for 10 days in early March.

I just found out today that the monorail will be closed weekdays from 11:30AM-7PM during our stay. I have 9-month-old twins and we needed to rely on the monorail for our mid-day breaks. And feedings/naps. And for our transportation to the Poly and Grand Floridian for lunch & early dinner meals. And for park hopping to Epcot, etc. And my elderly parents needed to rely on the monorail too.

I don't want to take buses and boats. We are paying a premium for the convenience of the monorail at a DELUXE MONORAIL RESORT, which is why we selected a monorail resort over 6 months ago.

And I am confused why Disney hasn't notified us of this monorail closure information? A letter or an email or something. Anything. It was upsetting to read about it on another website.

And they just announced this closure 1 month ago? That is ridiculous considering they encourage customers to book dining reservations 180 days out and FP+ 60 days out.

Is anyone else affected by this? Have you complained? I understand the monorail needs maintenence. But the LACK OF NOTICE and SHORT NOTICE is frustrating and unacceptable.

We are considering cancelling our trip. Our infant twins won't remember the trip anyways.

It is posted right on their website.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/monorail-transportation/

If you fault them for not doing more, you will need to fault 95% of the rest of the companies that post most of their communications on the Internet.

 

[Spunky946]

This. Exactly. I would be livid if I were the OP (or anyone else in her situation). I understand that the monorail needs a refurb, but is is DISGRACEFUL that Disney is not notifying guests in advance/when they book.

I honestly can't even believe that some people are essentially defending Disney in this thread saying "Meh. Too bad. Walk or take a boat." Ugh. She didn't book CR to take boats and busses everywhere.

Btw...how long is the closure scheduled. Do we know?

It's closed January to March
Monday-Friday 11:30 am to 7pm.

 

[awilliams4]

I absoultely hate when people pull out this line...if I am paying for something I excpect it to be operational, if it is not I excpect to be informed.

So Disney should shut down the resort when the Monorail is not operational? If so, I suspect there are thousands of other reasons they should shut down as well.

As far as being informed, go to Google and type in Disney World Monorail Schedule. The first hit will inform.

 

[awilliams4]

Hey look, Typhoon Lagoon is closed today due to cold weather. I can't believe Disney is not mailing everyone a letter or going door to door to communicate this to all the resort guests.

 

[jbish]

We are also upset. Staying at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort in March. Fully booked our trip on/at a monorail resort for a REASON. Paying big money for the location and convenience of the monorail. We haven't even started our vacation and we already feel irritated and inconvenienced.

For whatever it is worth, if you stay at Bay Lake, walking is definitely the easiest (and our preferred) way to get to MK. When leaving MK, you would have to turn right and go up to the monorail station. For the length of that walk, you can turn left out of MK and I think you'd be at least halfway to Bay Lake or CR. And when going TO MK, you would have to walk from Bay Lake into Contemporary (taking the elevator to the 5th floor unless that's where your room is), walk to the monorail elevator/escalator and take that up (with strollers, you have to take the elevator), wait for the monorail and then take the full loop to TTC, Poly, GF, and then to MK. That definitely takes longer.

To the OP and others that will be affected by this closure, I'm not defending the lack of communication in any way. I have little kids and am completely sympathetic to the inconvenience this brings. And my explanation above does not solve your needs to get to Epcot or to the other resorts for your ADRs. Just hoping that, for those that still end up going, I can at least make a case for walking to/from MK. Good luck.

 

[Mkrop]

So Disney should shut down the resort when the Monorail is not operational? If so, I suspect there are thousands of other reasons they should shut down as well.

As far as being informed, go to Google and type in Disney World Monorail Schedule. The first hit will inform.

Really??? No Disney should not shut down the resorts bc the Monorail is not operational, and yes maintenance needs to be done. What an honest company would do, is inform the guest when they booked that" this type of maintenance is being done at your resort, are you ok with that? If not then can I book you at an Epcot resort or AKL." For some people, the monorail will not be a big deal so they will stay put. For others like the OP, it is a bigger deal due to mobility issues with aging parents and strollers. But WDW should give the consumer all the information and let them make an informed decision on their vacation dollars. And if this maintenance was scheduled after booking, than an email or letter should be sent informing the guest this is happening and giving them options of staying put, switching or cancelling. Once again an informed consumer can make a this decsion. Anything less than that is deceptive and sneaky.


And I should not have to resort to google to find out the Monorail is not running per its normal schedule. I should be informed by WDW. If the boats were not running at the Boardwalk I would expect to be made aware by WDW since that is the primary transportatin mode (besides walking) to DHS and Epcot. I should not find this out when I arrive. WDW does not know if there are mobility issues of the guests that might make this mode of transportation issue not feasible.

It is called good customer service. If I was a business owner and my customer excpected X +Y and I suddenly said oops now I am only giving them X. I should let them know, maybe they dont want X without the Y. I should let the customer know the details and they can than make an informed decision. Maybe they chose X for other reasons and not having Y is ok. But others want it only together bc Y helped than make that choice. As a good business owner who wants my customer back I should let them know

 

[Mkrop]

I love going to WDW with every fiber of my being, I love talking WDW, I recommend WDW, I bought DVC based on my love of WDW....BUT it amazes me the amount of people who think this company can do no wrong The good outweighs the bad most of the time or I would not go back...but there are still times when WDW does not do things the way they should.

 

[Angel Ariel]

So Disney should shut down the resort when the Monorail is not operational? If so, I suspect there are thousands of other reasons they should shut down as well.

As far as being informed, go to Google and type in Disney World Monorail Schedule. The first hit will inform.

Pretty sure that poster put what his expectation was if the monorail was down...that, as a guest of a monorail resort, he be informed of the down time. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation Monorail resort guests are paying a premium to be on the monorail line - they shouldn't have to find out the monorail will be unavailable from online sites, Disney should be up front about it.

 

[morethananyonex]

I love going to WDW with every fiber of my being, I love talking WDW, I recommend WDW, I bought DVC based on my love of WDW....BUT it amazes me the amount of people who think this company can do no wrong The good outweighs the bad most of the time or I would not go back...but there are still times when WDW does not do things the way they should.

That's how I feel too.

One of the biggest issues I have with WDW is their inability to communicate things clearly to their guests. If I were to call today and talk to 3 different people about something I would get 3 different answers, possibly none of them correct. Their phone CMs are notorious for giving out bad information, to the point that I don't trust anything I hear on the phone if it conflicts with what fan sites say. That is poor guest service IMO, and Disney has been lacking in that area for quite a while.

I found it interesting that after booking our trip one if the questions asked on a survey we received was specifically "did your trust in Disney increase or decrease as a result of this phone call?"

 

[cseca]

It is posted right on their website. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/monorail-transportation/ If you fault them for not doing more, you will need to fault 95% of the rest of the companies that post most of their communications on the Internet.

I don't know if this is really how you feel about all companies or just Disney.


I don't think blaming the customer for not checking 5mo after the fact is fair.
Disney or any other honorable company SHOULD be notifying their customers about changes like that.
They have customers names in the system, they could easily send out a mass email with the info.
But yet, they don't. It is a poor PR decision but they would do it over and over because there are still people who thinks Disney can do no wrong and people will still go even when they do things like this.
Also because as another PP already mentioned, the fallout from notifying all guests with booking would cost them too much money in the end.
It'll cost them less money to just put a note in their monorail section site and then deal with upset people after the fact then dealing with a pile of guests trying to switch resorts.

 

[MrsSilvaStrat]

We were sad when finding out too. We booked VGF many months ago, really looking forward to being on the monorail line. I had a rough reaction to this news at first as well. But, we can still take it to and from parks, but as another mother of young twins, I understand your concern with afternoon breaks. Being able to roll on and off the monorail in the double stroller is nice! But on the larger ferries you can do that too. Perhaps the walk from MK to Contemporary in the stroller will help them fall asleep Now 2.5, our twins are going to love taking the boats midday - so really not so bad after all.

 

[maxiesmom]

Going by information I got the first time this subject came up, the monorail won't be closed every day or for even most of the time that is listed. They give a wide time frame just in case. They won't warn people not to book because they don't know ahead of time that the monorail will be down for sure on what day and for what exact time frame.

I would be bummed too, but odds are good that the closure will hardly affect you, if at all. Keep in mind too that the monorail hasn't exactly been dependable of late. Even if they were not warning of closures it could break down and not be working during your stay. If you will only take a trip to WDW when you are guaranteed the monorail will be operational, then you will never go. They simply can't guarantee it.

I want too say too that while they have a way to go as far as notifying guests about closures, they have come leaps and bounds from where they used to be. Which was no notification about maintenance at all, not even when you were at the resort. They have the notice about the monorail posted on their web site. I wouldn't expect a personal note or phone call about any closure.

As someone who has stayed at the Contemporary, walking to/from the MK is much quicker anyway. If the monorail is busy you may have to wait a while to get on one that has space, or you may be told you have to fold up your strollers. If it isn't busy the wait for the next monorail can be long, as they don't run as frequently as they do during peak seasons. Take a deep breath, and ask yourself if the chance of the monorail not working right when you need it is really worth canceling your vacation over.