Poly to Fort Wilderness by 8:15a

[thorphin]

Can we do this using Disney transportation?

If understand this right, we'd need to get to contemporary by monorail or boat and then boat over to fort wilderness? But the real question is whether transportation will operating early enough...

 

[monarchsfan16]

Someone else is going to have to tell you how early the monorails start running. But if you can get to the Contemporary, the boat between there and Fort Wilderness starts running right at 7am. I know the monorails used to run beginning at 7 also, but I don't know if they still do. Could you take a taxi from Poly to the Contemporary, and then use the Disney boat from there?

 

[DebbieB]

When I was there last week, the resort monorail ran from 7:00am to 11:00pm (MK closed at 10:00pm).

 

[thorphin]

Some good news here! Of course, we'll ask at the front desk when we are there, but it sounds like we should be able to make this happen, which means 8:30 tour at Ford Wilderness is actually doable since we'll be in the monorail loop this time!

 

[thorphin]

Old thread, but I started it, so there!

Getting closer to our trip, and I'm thinking about this again. Mainly because I had not considered the need to take internal Fort Wilderness transportation (never used it) to get to the Bike Barn.

Is this whole trip likely to take at least an hour? If so... we might be cutting it too close to make it to the tour on time.

 

[Q-man]

I'd take the launch to MK as the FW boat is right there too, faster and way less walking than the Monorail to the Contemporary and walking to the MK dock. Actually the MK monorail stop should be going after 7am to get off there.

Cab should take 10-15min but allow 30min as my experience is not all cabbies will drive into the campground, or they will need directions from you once in the campgrounds, and you may have to take the internal bus from the Outpost the the Meadow Trading Post where the bike barn is. Or stipulate the Meadow Trading Post with the driver before getting in the cab.

The OLP Transportation Wizard is a great resource. http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx#.Ucp-jJymWyl

 

[joelkfla]

I'd take the launch to MK as the FW boat is right there too, faster and way less walking than the Monorail to the Contemporary and walking to the MK dock.

Neither boat service from GF to MK nor from MK to FtW operate at that hour. Do not rely on the Laughing Place planner; it has much incorrect or outdated info.

 

[Kimberle]

Yes, you can. It's quite easy. Take the monorail to CR. Trains start running at 7am. Walk to the CR boat dock and take the launch to FW. The CR/FW/WL loop begins at 6:45 am. The entire boat loop takes about 20 minutes.

I would probably leave my Poly room about an hour before I needed to be there to allow for extra waiting time.

 

[Alesia]

The OLP Transportation Wizard is a great resource. http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx#.Ucp-jJymWyl

I never recommend the OLP wizard. It suggests some routes that don't even exist.

 

[joelkfla]

Yes, you can. It's quite easy. Take the monorail to CR. Trains start running at 7am. Walk to the CR boat dock and take the launch to FW. The CR/FW/WL loop begins at 6:45 am. The entire boat loop takes about 20 minutes.

I would probably leave my Poly room about an hour before I needed to be there to allow for extra waiting time.

I think an hour is optimistic. Here are my calculations, assuming what I think would be max wait time for each mode of transport:

0:10	Monorail wait	0:10	Monorail wait
0:10	Monorail ride	0:10	Monorail ride
0:05	Walk to CR dock	0:05	Walk to CR dock
0:20	Boat wait	0:20	Boat wait
0:10	Boat ride	0:10	Boat ride
0:05	Walk to bus		
0:15	Bus wait		
0:05	Bus ride		
[U]0:05	Walk to Barn[/U]	[U]0:15	Walk to Barn[/U]
1:25	Total w/ bus	1:10	Total w/o bus

You can walk directly from the FtW boat dock to the Bike Barn, a distance of about 2/3 of a mile, as shown in the right column. When you come off the dock, instead of turning right towards Pioneer Hall, continue straight past the Settlement Trading Post (store). This should put you on the main north-south bike trail. After about 5 minutes, you'll cross a road. Continue straight ahead, and look for a sign to a side trail to the left to the Campfire. This will cross the creek, and then you should turn right to the Bike Barn. If you miss the side trail, you'll shortly come to the Meadows Trading Post; you can also cross the creek there to the Bike Barn (it's just slightly longer.)

So if you've had bad luck with wait times, you can pick up some time by walking fast to Bike Barn. If you've got plenty of time, take the bus and save your feet for the Segways.

Everyone: feel free to question my time guesstimates if you think they're off. I've probably erred on the side of caution for the walk times.

 

[thorphin]

joelkfla: Wow. Thanks so much for the break down and thoughtfulness here. Kind of amazed at the helpfulness of your post.

I really hadn't considered that you could actually walk to the Bike Barn. Thanks very much for the detailed directions - no way I'd attempt that walk on a tight schedule without specific instructions.

I was hoping that being on the monorail loop for once would make the early tour accessible, but your timings (even though they are generous) suggest that it's probably not the best idea to rush around (at 7am no less) to make it happen. Bah.

I think it's back to the planning drawing board to see if I can make a 11:30am tour fit (hopefully there's still availability)... and if not, we'll probably just drive over to FW about 45 minutes early. Really would rather leave the car in the lot for the entire trip, but I don't want to miss the tour.

Thanks again.

 

[joelkfla]

joelkfla: Wow. Thanks so much for the break down and thoughtfulness here. Kind of amazed at the helpfulness of your post.

I really hadn't considered that you could actually walk to the Bike Barn. Thanks very much for the detailed directions - no way I'd attempt that walk on a tight schedule without specific instructions.

I was hoping that being on the monorail loop for once would make the early tour accessible, but your timings (even though they are generous) suggest that it's probably not the best idea to rush around (at 7am no less) to make it happen. Bah.

I think it's back to the planning drawing board to see if I can make a 11:30am tour fit (hopefully there's still availability)... and if not, we'll probably just drive over to FW about 45 minutes early. Really would rather leave the car in the lot for the entire trip, but I don't want to miss the tour.

Thanks again.

My pleasure. It's the old computer programmer coming out in me.

I think you'd make it by 8:15 if you're willing to walk that last part, but I can understand not wanting to feel rushed. As usual, whenever 2 or more modes of transport are involved, it's the uncertainty of the wait times that's the killer.

Drive time Poly to FtW should be around 10-15 minutes, followed by up to 15 minute wait time and a 10 minute bus ride. The Orange bus to the Meadows Trading Post stop will get you closest; you can also take the Yellow bus to the Meadows Recreation Area with a slightly longer walk.

 

[thorphin]

My pleasure. It's the old computer programmer coming out in me.

I think you'd make it by 8:15 if you're willing to walk that last part, but I can understand not wanting to feel rushed. As usual, whenever 2 or more modes of transport are involved, it's the uncertainty of the wait times that's the killer.

Drive time Poly to FtW should be around 10-15 minutes, followed by up to 15 minute wait time and a 10 minute bus ride. The Orange bus to the Meadows Trading Post stop will get you closest; you can also take the Yellow bus to the Meadows Recreation Area with a slightly longer walk.

Thanks. I'm still on the fence since we have to be there by 8:15. Having to hoof it to the bike barn would not be the end of the world - it's a good contingency plan. I have been looking forward to an early morning boat ride across Bay Lake, so in the end we may take a chance and just hope that we don't get a perfect storm of transportation delays.