Monorail lounges

[Finerfam]

Hi all! Heading down to WDW later this week for a girl's trip and planning to do a monorail lounge crawl on Friday 12/10 (also to see the holiday decorations at the resorts). The plan is to hang out at Disney Springs in the morning/afternoon and then relax at our resort before going out to MK area in the evening.

My question is: do you think the lounges will be crowded if we plan to do our crawl between 5:30-8:30ish? MK closes at 8pm that night due to the after hours party starting at 9pm so my thought was to at least go before the regular crowds let out of MK. We are only a party of 2 so I'm hoping it's still easy enough to get seats at the lounges even though it's during the dinner rush. I'm thinking of starting at GF with Enchanted Rose and then heading to CR for Steakhouse 71 and finishing up at Poly with Tambu Lounge and/or Trader Sam's.

Thank you for your feedback! Getting super excited about the trip, but currently in the "overthinking it" phase haha.

 

[CBMom01]

Hi all! Heading down to WDW later this week for a girl's trip and planning to do a monorail lounge crawl on Friday 12/10 (also to see the holiday decorations at the resorts). The plan is to hang out at Disney Springs in the morning/afternoon and then relax at our resort before going out to MK area in the evening.

My question is: do you think the lounges will be crowded if we plan to do our crawl between 5:30-8:30ish? MK closes at 8pm that night due to the after hours party starting at 9pm so my thought was to at least go before the regular crowds let out of MK. We are only a party of 2 so I'm hoping it's still easy enough to get seats at the lounges even though it's during the dinner rush. I'm thinking of starting at GF with Enchanted Rose and then heading to CR for Steakhouse 71 and finishing up at Poly with Tambu Lounge and/or Trader Sam's.

Thank you for your feedback! Getting super excited about the trip, but currently in the "overthinking it" phase haha.

I had a free night and did that as a solo in 2019, but has a reservation at Kona to start. The Poly was wall to wall people so Kona was my only stop there. I went to Enchanted Rose which wasn’t super crowded and to Outer Rim at CR then took a drink up to watch the fireworks on the 4th floor terrace. I was lucky enough to find people to chat with everywhere but GF. It was fun but being solo those 4 stops were more than enough for me. The monorail itself was really crowded.

 

[Finerfam]

I had a free night and did that as a solo in 2019, but has a reservation at Kona to start. The Poly was wall to wall people so Kona was my only stop there. I went to Enchanted Rose which wasn’t super crowded and to Outer Rim at CR then took a drink up to watch the fireworks on the 4th floor terrace. I was lucky enough to find people to chat with everywhere but GF. It was fun but being solo those 4 stops were more than enough for me. The monorail itself was really crowded.

Thank you! I was debating starting with a regular dinner reservation (actually have a 5:10pm at Steakhouse 71) but worried about overdoing it with food from our lunch at DS and then not having room to enjoy all the drinks and apps at the lounges! I'm always overambitious when it comes to food lol.

Good to know that Poly was crowded - I was most worried about Tambu lounge since I know the space isn't huge. Also why I'm thinking maybe that empties out a little bit after the regular dinner crowd and would be easier to enjoy around 8pm or so? If not, I feel like we'd be perfectly happy just ending the night at Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace (which seems to have a lot more space) since the weather looks like it will be wonderful!

 

[CBMom01]

Thank you! I was debating starting with a regular dinner reservation (actually have a 5:10pm at Steakhouse 71) but worried about overdoing it with food from our lunch at DS and then not having room to enjoy all the drinks and apps at the lounges! I'm always overambitious when it comes to food lol.

Good to know that Poly was crowded - I was most worried about Tambu lounge since I know the space isn't huge. Also why I'm thinking maybe that empties out a little bit after the regular dinner crowd and would be easier to enjoy around 8pm or so? If not, I feel like we'd be perfectly happy just ending the night at Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace (which seems to have a lot more space) since the weather looks like it will be wonderful!

I couldn't say. My plan that night was to start and end at Poly, but I sort of made friends at Outer Rim and watched some football then went to the terrace for fireworks. My guess, however, is that if you're at Poly on a Christmas party night right when MK empties out that it will be a zoo. Just a guess though.

Because I was solo I sat at the sushi bar at Kona and really enjoyed it. There are lighter options there (I think I had sea bass. Some kind of very good fish, anyway).

 

[Missmaureen78]

Are the lounges usually super busy when MK closes? Probably a dumb question. But we’re trying to figure out where to grab a drink after the Dessert Party and thought we could walk to Contemporary. Maybe the answer is back at our room at Pop .

 

[GAN]

I would just keep your options open -each resort has multiple lounges, so move to Plan B if A is too busy. You should be able to get a drink at Tambu(and if it's not too crowded grab a little something off the 'Ohana menu). Contemporary Outer Rim is usually not too bad, but you also have Steakhouse '71 lounge or Cali Grill if you can sneak up there. I'm still bitter about Mizner's so Enchanted Rose will never be on my list ...other than Citrico's and Narcoossee's I'm not sure about the other options.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

at Tambu you can usually catch a seat when someone gets up to go to Ohana, and Enchanted Rose is pretty large (it has three rooms). Citricos has a lovely bar. I'm not sure about Steakhouse 71, it isn't extra small but when I went there you had to check in to visit the bar and they'd seat you. Tiki Terrace is great if the weather cooperates!

Will be doing this tomorrow, starting at Steakhouse 71 for food.

 

[Finerfam]

Are the lounges usually super busy when MK closes? Probably a dumb question. But we’re trying to figure out where to grab a drink after the Dessert Party and thought we could walk to Contemporary. Maybe the answer is back at our room at Pop .

I'll report back next week to let you know how we make out! We're staying at Pop too!

 

[Finerfam]

at Tambu you can usually catch a seat when someone gets up to go to Ohana, and Enchanted Rose is pretty large (it has three rooms). Citricos has a lovely bar. I'm not sure about Steakhouse 71, it isn't extra small but when I went there you had to check in to visit the bar and they'd seat you. Tiki Terrace is great if the weather cooperates!

Will be doing this tomorrow, starting at Steakhouse 71 for food.

Have fun on your lounge crawl tonight!!!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

it's tomorrow, I have to fly there first... hoping to end up at MK for extra evening hours after getting food and drinks

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We did something like this back in 2014. Yes, it's been a while! When we did it, Tambu was oddly quiet. On the flip side, I think there was a convention going on at the Contemporary and Outer Rim was packed with business travelers. All in all, it's a really fun experience.

 

[Finerfam]

it's tomorrow, I have to fly there first... hoping to end up at MK for extra evening hours after getting food and drinks

How did it go @MakiraMarlena?

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Sorry to jump on this thread but what time do the lounges/bars usually open?

 

[bookgirl]

I was at a conference in Orlando with some coworkers who are also friends and we did a Bay Lake Crawl. They were not Disney people so we wanted something Disney without needing tickets. This was mid summer so it was crowded everywhere we went.

We all met at Wilderness Lodge had a drinks and then headed out.

We took a boat over to Fort Wilderness and walked around. Crocketts was packed and I think we may have skipped ordering but we did wander around before catching the next boat.

Next was the Contemp. Here is where I did do a bit of strategy to try for some Disney pixie dust. We purposly went later in the evening because we were planning to watch fireworks from outside the park. So when we got to Contemp I asked if we could do the lounge in the California Grill. We did get a walk up slot after a short wait. We started at one area but then we moved as people left so we could get closer to the windows.. We spent the most time here about 45 minutes, both to give us a space inbetween drinks I think we got some snacks here as well, so we hung out till the fireworks since we got a good view. The music is piped in and even from a slant the fireworks from up there are awesome to watch.

After that we took the monorail to the Poly and went to Trader Sam's where were lucky to get in without a wait.

Last up was the GF. This is the only place we couldn't get into the lounge even to just stand. It was late and after park close so we gave up on that. But honestly by that time we had lost half the group, who left after the fireworks, and we were actully kind of over the alcohol since we'd Trader Sam's drinks are large and heavy on the spirits. We ended up getting cupcakes at the quickservice and that was very close to closing time so then we went walking around the grounds before grabbing an Uber back to the conference hotel.

It was a blast and they still talk about that experience, but we did get really lucky with the availability at Cali Grill and no wait at Trader Sam's.


PS: If we hadn't been able to get up to California Grill we would have had a quick drink downstairs and then taken the monorail over to the Poly and watched the fireworks from the beach.


I always recomend this to people. It really is a fun little evening. I have also done a transportation crawl where we just go and try to do as many boats/monorails/trams/and now skyliner as possible in an afternoon or evening.

 

[nolypops83]

Did a monorail crawl last week and it was packed. Started off at Outer Rim which was fine, then went to Enchanted Rose which was queueing out the door. Managed to get a table but the wait for drinks was horrendous. Went to Poly next, it was 75 mins for Trader Sams, the outside terrace was full and there was a queue to get in Tambu Lounge. Ended up getting a walk-up at Kona for dinner. To be honest all the bars were like this on property. 70 mins for a Nomad Lounge walk up, all the Epcot bars were huge queues. We kind of gave up after a few days.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Steakhouse 71 also has a nice bar/lounge area now for another CR option.