Monorail Tour on Thanksgiving Day

[Surgie2]

We (family of 11 - 6 adults, 5 kids ages 4-11) have breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's on Thanksgiving at 10:45 am. If we are all up and ready to go (after MVMCP the night before) we may go to resorts in this order. Please advise on changes you would make. I think we can park at CR since we have a meal reservation but could we leave the cars there while we go to GF?

Drive and park at TTC (or CR?)
Monorail to GF
(Thinking we will skip Poly decorations - thoughts?)
Monorail to Contemporary by 10:45
Monorail to MK stop - get off and boat to WL

For those wanting more....
Bus from WL to HS and catch Skyliner
Are there especially well decorated resorts we can get to from the Skyliner?

 

[CarolynFH]

Your ADR at Chef Mickey's will get you in to park at CR, but I'm not sure it will get you in early enough to walk from parking into CR and up to the monorail station, monorail to GR, disembark and enjoy GF decorations, gingerbread house, etc., reboard the monorail and ride to GF in time for your ADR. People have reported being turned away if they tried to park more than an hour or even 30 minutes before their ADR. CR is one of the strictest resorts when it comes to parking, due to its proximity to MK (many guests want to park there and leave their cars there until MK closes for the night).

So if I really wanted to visit GF in connection with an ADR, whether before or after my ADR, I'd just park at TTC. I'd hate wondering whether I'll be turned away from CR because I'm too early and then have to drive all the way back around to TTC to park.

 

[Marthasor]

You may want to consider parking at DHS and then just using Disney transportation from there. You could do:

DHS to GF
monorail to CR
Boat to WL (if the blue flag launch is running from CR to WL) otherwise walk to MK, boat to WL
WL to DHS
Skyliner to RIV and Boardwalk area - tour resorts
Boat or Skyliner back to DHS

If running late, you could bus from DHS to CR, then monorail to GF, monorail to MK, boat to WL, etc.

As PP noted, I just wouldn't count on being able to park at CR all day long.

 

[Surgie2]

Thanks for suggestions. No we are definitely not considering leaving the car at CR all day.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thanks for suggestions. No we are definitely not considering leaving the car at CR all day.

I didn’t think you were. I do think they might not let you park there early enough before your ADR to do what you hope to do. Even if they let you park there one hour before your ADR, it will be difficult to ride the monorail around to visit GF and then get back within the hour, and I’m not sure they’d let you in 2 hours before.

 

[Surgie2]

Even if they let you park there one hour before your ADR, it will be difficult to ride the monorail around to visit GF and then get back within the hour, and I’m not sure they’d let you in 2 hours before.

Yes, that's good to know a realistic look at time needed for travel. Not knowing how early the kids will be up and moving, I think we may drive to CR for our ADR, then move cars afterwards to TTC. If we end up with plenty of morning time, we'll park at TTC for our ADR to eliminate the car moving and get the monorail to CR.