The Expert
Has been to every Disney park in the world
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2009
- Messages
- 5,408
We just returned from our annual trip for Food & Wine and our experience this past week with the monorails was atrocious! We stayed at Boardwalk the first three nights, then moved to Bay Lake. On the day we moved resorts, we had time in the morning before we needed to be at Epcot, so we checked out, took our luggage to the car and drove over to Bay Lake. We stored our luggage and went over to grab the resort monorail at the Contemporary, planning to go to the TTC and switch to the Epcot monorail.
As we got to the loading platform (about 10:30am), there was quite a line to load but a train was approaching. It unloaded and loaded, and there were six of us left on the platform to wait for the next train. (First annoyance - yes, it's full and people are standing, but there was room for six individual people with no strollers or anything. But whatever.) Doors close, then re-open. Repeat about four times, with CMs arguing about what the problem is. They finally decide to unload the monorail and take it out of service. Squish everyone from the full monorail into the loading area (now grateful we didn't get on), CRAWL the monorail out of the station.
This took long enough you would think the next one was holding at MK and would be right there, but it took quite a long time to arrive, by which time you now have the unloaded full monorail and another full load on the platform. (At this point, I said to my husband "maybe we should've gone to MK and caught the express to TTC" -- we should have gone when I said that.) After one more monorail comes and loads and leaves, we finally get on one, and it sits in the station with the "waiting for traffic clearance"... Bottom line, it took us 45 minutes to get from Contemporary to TTC on the monorail. Ridiculous!
We chalked it up to a fluke and moved on. BUT... coming back through TTC from Epcot to get to Contemporary that same afternoon, we walk over to the resort monorail ramp and find it cordoned off. No CM there, no announcement, nothing. So we go find a CM at the express ramp and ask and she says it is down and they don't know how long. But we can take a bus! Uh, no thanks. So we grab the ferry to MK and walk to Bay Lake. Strike two.
Going back to Epcot from MK on Friday for a wine tasting, we go to take the express from the park and now it's chained off. No CM, no sign, nothing anywhere, so we reroute to the resort loop. (One more stop, ok, no big.) Takes about 10 minutes to get there, and it's totally full and hardly anyone gets off - weird. Thankfully enough people make room for the two of us to stand and we make it in time. Strike 2.5.
Coming back from Epcot on Friday afternoon, we are heading to Poly to meet friends. Get to the TTC and the resort line is again chained off. No CM. We walk over to the other ramp and again, it's down "for probably 30 minutes" but there's "probably a bus" with a random gesture toward the bus area. Thankfully we know you can WALK to the Poly from TTC (which we probably should've done anyway, but would've liked the ride after a long trip and many days on our feet). Strike three.
It got to the point were avoiding the monorail whenever possible. Thankfully we usually rent a car and don't HAVE to use it, but it was kind of a joke. I can't imagine having booked a monorail resort and actually being reliant on it and having all of these issues! Was this a fluke or is this becoming the norm?
As we got to the loading platform (about 10:30am), there was quite a line to load but a train was approaching. It unloaded and loaded, and there were six of us left on the platform to wait for the next train. (First annoyance - yes, it's full and people are standing, but there was room for six individual people with no strollers or anything. But whatever.) Doors close, then re-open. Repeat about four times, with CMs arguing about what the problem is. They finally decide to unload the monorail and take it out of service. Squish everyone from the full monorail into the loading area (now grateful we didn't get on), CRAWL the monorail out of the station.
This took long enough you would think the next one was holding at MK and would be right there, but it took quite a long time to arrive, by which time you now have the unloaded full monorail and another full load on the platform. (At this point, I said to my husband "maybe we should've gone to MK and caught the express to TTC" -- we should have gone when I said that.) After one more monorail comes and loads and leaves, we finally get on one, and it sits in the station with the "waiting for traffic clearance"... Bottom line, it took us 45 minutes to get from Contemporary to TTC on the monorail. Ridiculous!
We chalked it up to a fluke and moved on. BUT... coming back through TTC from Epcot to get to Contemporary that same afternoon, we walk over to the resort monorail ramp and find it cordoned off. No CM there, no announcement, nothing. So we go find a CM at the express ramp and ask and she says it is down and they don't know how long. But we can take a bus! Uh, no thanks. So we grab the ferry to MK and walk to Bay Lake. Strike two.
Going back to Epcot from MK on Friday for a wine tasting, we go to take the express from the park and now it's chained off. No CM, no sign, nothing anywhere, so we reroute to the resort loop. (One more stop, ok, no big.) Takes about 10 minutes to get there, and it's totally full and hardly anyone gets off - weird. Thankfully enough people make room for the two of us to stand and we make it in time. Strike 2.5.
Coming back from Epcot on Friday afternoon, we are heading to Poly to meet friends. Get to the TTC and the resort line is again chained off. No CM. We walk over to the other ramp and again, it's down "for probably 30 minutes" but there's "probably a bus" with a random gesture toward the bus area. Thankfully we know you can WALK to the Poly from TTC (which we probably should've done anyway, but would've liked the ride after a long trip and many days on our feet). Strike three.
It got to the point were avoiding the monorail whenever possible. Thankfully we usually rent a car and don't HAVE to use it, but it was kind of a joke. I can't imagine having booked a monorail resort and actually being reliant on it and having all of these issues! Was this a fluke or is this becoming the norm?
