Monorail resort or Epcot resort?

[librarymom2007]

In August we stayed at GF and I fell in love. Previously we stayed at AKL and POR which was fine but the monorail, I mean come on! lol. So convenient since we spend most of our time at MK anyway. So, thinking about our next trip... do I want to stay with the convenience again? Or stay at BC or Boardwalk? I think it would be pretty cool to be so close to the boardwalk... Anyone stay at both areas and have a fair comparison? How are the buses at BC/Boardwalk? We'll be going in December 2016 if that matters.

 

[dkrauss]

My wife and I stayed at the Yacht club in 2013. Loved the walk to Epcot.....didn't really visit the Boardwalk that much. The one thing we really liked about YC/BC is the pool, Stormalong Bay. It is the best pool on property

In the end it all comes down to the park you'll spend time in............if MK is your big park...........GF or Poly is the choice. If you like Epcot more........stay BC! One point, if you have hopper passes........you can use the monorail in Epcot to get to the MK. We did that and it added some fun to our trip.

Have a great trip no matter where you stay.

Doug

 

[LisaCM614]

In August we stayed at GF and I fell in love. Previously we stayed at AKL and POR which was fine but the monorail, I mean come on! lol. So convenient since we spend most of our time at MK anyway. So, thinking about our next trip... do I want to stay with the convenience again? Or stay at BC or Boardwalk? I think it would be pretty cool to be so close to the boardwalk... Anyone stay at both areas and have a fair comparison? How are the buses at BC/Boardwalk? We'll be going in December 2016 if that matters.

You had me at December! I think in your case I would really lean towards staying at Grand Floridian again for a few reasons. The first is that you'll be spending most of your time at the Magic Kingdom. Vacation time is precious and even though transportation is painless from Beach Club or Boardwalk Inn to the Magic Kingdom it will still be longer then the hop, skip and a jump of a monorail ride! I feel so strongly about staying at the Grand Floridian in December because of the gingerbread house in the lobby and all of the lovely Christmas decorations. Scrooge would not have needed the visit from the 3 ghosts if he had gone to the Grand Floridian! It is beautiful.
Now, if you said you were not going to spend most of your time at the Magic Kingdom, and were going to be enjoying the holiday story tellers at Epcot or needed a daily dose of the Rock n' Roller Coaster then I would have said Beach Club or Boardwalk Inn would have been excellent choices. We love staying in the Epcot resort area because we spend so much time at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. If we spent more time at the Magic Kingdom, we would stay more frequently at the Magic Kingdom resorts.
Hope that helps! Have fun choosing and let us know if you have more questions.

 

[sharadoc]

We stayed at Boardwalk in December, and have stayed at the Contemporary in a theme park view room.

I would recommend the Contemporary first - you have a wonderful view of Magic Kingdom all day and night. You can watch the fireworks from your balcony every night if you're early to the room, you have the monorail convenience and you won't have as much foot traffic, since the CR doesn't have a huge holiday display like the GF. You can visit every other monorail resort on a whim.

Epcot overall has the most special holiday activities, with the storytellers, Candlelight Processional, and each country has a holiday shop.

Osborne Lights will be gone in 2016 so nothing really special known at this time for DHS.

If you stay on the Boardwalk, you always have something to do, and will want to go into Epcot all the time lol. Magic Kingdom is always the most popular park and you may get tired of the crowds there, depending on exactly when you go in December.

So, I didn't answer your question, did I? I say Contemporary, theme park view room or Boardwalk.

 

[TeamSy]

We typically split stay at a MK and Epcot resort, mainly for the convenience factor. Despite visiting MK more, we prefer the Epcot resort area. For us, it's much more calm and relaxed and we just prefer it. We like walking between the resorts (BC/YC/BW) vs the monorail between resorts... Epcot resorts are just a more laid back vacation feel for us, but you really can't do better than the MK resorts when it comes to proximity to that park.

 

[havoc315]

In August we stayed at GF and I fell in love. Previously we stayed at AKL and POR which was fine but the monorail, I mean come on! lol. So convenient since we spend most of our time at MK anyway. So, thinking about our next trip... do I want to stay with the convenience again? Or stay at BC or Boardwalk? I think it would be pretty cool to be so close to the boardwalk... Anyone stay at both areas and have a fair comparison? How are the buses at BC/Boardwalk? We'll be going in December 2016 if that matters.

I've done Poly, Contemporary and Beach Club, and doing Beach Club again next year:

If you plan on spending 50% or more of your trip at Magic Kingdom, then the convenience of the monorail resorts are really great. Plus, they feel more "Disney-ish", plus arguably the monorail resorts have the best signature restaurants (California Grill, Artist's Point, and Narcoose's, not to mention V&A if you really want to to splurge).

But the Epcot resorts, especially Beach Club/Yacht club have a LOT of advantages as well:

-Beach Club/Yacht Club have the best pool of any Disney resort. I think it's a bit over-rated, but it's definitely a selling point.
-The Epcot resorts are much cheaper than most of the monorail resort rooms. The only "cheaper" rooms on the monorail really are the Wilderness Lodge (which isn't on the monorail) and the Contemporary Garden building.
-The Epcot resort area is a much nicer area to WALK AROUND. At the Magic Kingdom resorts, you basically have to take a boat or monorail to get from one resort to another. And there is no place interesting to walk, in between anyway. But you can easily walk from the Boardwalk to Beach Club to Yacht Club to Swan and Dolphin. The Boardwalk area is scenic with stuff to do on the Boardwalk itself. Lots of restaurants you can WALK to. You can almost feel like you're in a seaside community, instead of just locked into a single resort.
-Unlike the monorail resorts which give you easy access to just one park, the Epcot area resorts give easy access to TWO resorts -- Epcot AND DHS. Even the distant locations -- Beach Club to DHS is a fairly long walk -- nice to have the option. For example, after Fantasmic, while everyone lines up for busses and boats, nice to have the option to just WALK back to your hotel.
-Combined with the above points, the Epcot NIGHT experience is very different than the MK night experience. Magic Kingdom is a party at night, with fireworks and night time parades... And then a huge crowd going to the exits at the same time. Epcot is far more civilized at night... There is a fireworks show, but its not as late at night. The International Pavilion is very pretty at night, with lots of restaurants and activities. Far more dinner options at Epcot than at MK. And when the park does close, instead of following a mob to the same exits, Epcot resort guests walk back to the hotel from the "back door." Last time we stayed at Beach Club, I was able to decide just 30 minutes before the fireworks began, "hmmm, I think I'll walk over to Epcot and take pictures of the fireworks"... and I was back in my hotel room within 15 minutes of the fireworks ending. Even staying at a monorail resort, you can't get back to your hotel room that quickly after fireworks. While less of an issue, rope drop in the morning is also very different when you are entering through the much-less crowded Epcot "back door."

Comes down to this.... Epcot resorts, especially Beach Club/Yacht Club, have a lot of advantages over monorail resorts, PLUS they are much cheaper.

Still, if planning a MK-heavy trip, I'd be biased towards the monorail. But if you are balancing all the parks a bit more, and especially if you like the sound of evenings at Epcot, the Epcot resorts are fantastic.

To address your question about busses, they are "ok." No different than taking the bus from GF to DHS.

Except, you do have more options for more parks from the Epcot area. To get to Epcot -- walk or boat. To get to DHS -- walk, bus, or boat.
And if you are going casually, to get to/from MK, if you have park hoppers, you can cut through Epcot and take the monorail. This takes a LONG time, because you have to walk across Epcot to do it. But if you aren't rushing, it's a nice "scenic route." For example, when coming back from an MK morning, I may take the monorail to Epcot, get lunch or a snack at the International Pavilion, and then walk back to the resort.

 

[minijenny]

We just returned from a five night stay at BCV which has become our go-to resort. My family's favorite park is Epcot and the convenience of walking 10 min can't be beat. Each evening we would walk to World Showcase for dinner and maybe a ride or two. Plus the view of the Boardwalk and S&D across the lagoon is superb. We love the pools, the rooms, and the lobby of the BC, and can stock our fridge from the Marketplace for breakfast and snacks. If you get a room facing Epcot, particularly on a higher floor, you can catch some of the Illuminations fireworks from your balcony. I'm not a big fan of the Disney bus system, so walking/boating to two parks is a big plus. It's about a 30 walk to HS which is nice, especially when you've got a tired child trying to nap in the stroller. We did have some long wait times (20-40 min) for the MK buses this trip, but the AK bus was fine.

 

[maryj11]

I have been thinking of the same thing. We did GF this August and loved it. We have also done the Poly twice and loved it. I thought maybe we should try BC. So I'm following along

 

[StirlingSilver83]

We like to stay at the monorail resorts. We have 2 young kids and its just easier to stay there with the monorail, bc we mainly visit magic kingdom and epcot. I do on the other hand have a disney bucket list, LOL. On my disney bucket list I would LOVE to stay at beach club bc I love the resort and we are also avid ice cream fans so having beaches and cream right there to eat while the kids play in the amazing pool is just awesome to me, LOL. But we aren't going to plan on staying at beach club until my youngest (who is 2 right now) can handle the parks without a stroller. So it will prolly be in 3 or 4 years when he's 5 or 6. Right now we are at the beginning stages of planning our return trip back to the world in 2017 and we are hoping to stay at the Poly. We've stayed at the GF and we stayed at the Contemporary, and loved both, so I want to stay at the Poly so we can say we have stayed at all 3 monorail resorts, LOL. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Masonmj84]

We tend to split between both resort areas but if I had to choose just one, it would probably be a Monorail resort, specifically the Poly.

I like the theming of both the Poly and GF better than any of the EP resorts. In addition, we spend more combined days at MK/EP than EP/HS so a Monorail resort means less bussing. On top of that, even though an EP resort puts you within walking distance of tons of restaurants, the majority of our favorite restaurants are in the MK area ('Ohana, Citricos, Artist Point, Narcoossee's, Cali Grill, Hoop dee Doo).

Monorail resorts also have larger rooms. The big tradeoff is that they're also more expensive. And, as far as the EP resorts go, we LOVE being able to walk between our resort and World Showcase (especially after Illuminations). I guess that's why we usually split.

 

[wilkeliza]

If you spend a lot of your time at MK then stay at a MK resort. It would make the most sense convenience wise.

We absolutely adore Beach/Yacht Club and will stay there every time if it is available. That being said we spend most more time at Epcot and DHS and like have the Boardwalk close for some late night adult fun.

 

[KonaKaiTom]

We leave in 3 weeks and we are staying in Epcot because we are going for Food & Wine, yes we will probably hit MK at some point, but 75% of the time we will either be in Epcot or DHS. In February, we will be staying at the GF because we are going to be spending more time at MK due to the different travel pack for that trip. You can't go wrong with either but we like being in the closest proximity of where we are going to be the most.

Tom

 

[clapton]

We usually stay at the Epcot resorts because we love Epcot and the atmosphere at the BW area. We never find the buses to MK to be a problem and we enjoy the many dining options from the hotels and Epcot as well. Love walking into Epcot early in the morning and having a quick bite for breakfast in France. It's nice to try different resorts if you have never been, but if you feel you are going to go to MK more then I would stay at one of the monorail resorts. Since you are going in Dec have you thought about the WL? It's really beautiful at that time of the year. Have a great trip whatever you decide!

 

[mickeynut1]

We have stayed in both areas (Poly, GF, & BC) and we prefer the MK area. The BC was nice, but we like being close to MK (especially during the holidays) and for dining, we find there to be more of a variety among the monorail resorts than the Epcot resorts (just my opinion for my family). I think all of the resorts have great things to offer, but if you will be spending most of your time at MK, you can't beat staying on the monorail, IMO. Good luck.