Question for first time WDW visitor

[jasonpbyu]

4 weeks until my WDW honeymoon! very excited. I'm from the west coast and have been to DL many times, but never WDW. Question, how close are the various attractions? Like WDW to MGM, is that walkable? I assume they have monorail or some type of transportation back and forth from one to another so you dont have to waste time getting your car from parking lot and driving to another location. Does the monorail run later than the rest of the park? For example, one day we'll start in WDW but end up in MGM for Fantasmic. Will we be able to get back to WDW easily where our car will be parked?

thanks for any tips!

 

[Disney owl]

The monorail links Magic Kingdom & Epcot.

For MGM & ANIMAL kingdom it either Disney bus or move your car.

We've never used Disney buses & have always moved our car as we sty off site & at the end of the day don't want to waste time waiting for buses.

you only have to pay 1 car-park fee per day just keep hold of your ticket.

 

[vacationwoman]

WDW is made up of 4 parks, MGM, MK, Epcot/WS, AK.
also various water parks and downtown disney with various shops and restuarants, and WDW on property hotels.

When you say WDW I'm thinking you mean MK.
There are 2 monorails, one runs between 3 of the MK hotels and the ticket center and the MK. The other runs from the ticket center to Epcot.

There is various transportation in WDW, boats, buses, monorail.
Where are you staying?

 

[Castillo Mom]

Keep in mind that if you're staying at a WDW resort, you won't have to pay for parking.

 

[ES0412]

I've never been to DL but I do know it's ALOT smaller than WDW. Just to give you a sense of how large WDW is, I was riding one of the buses and the driver was telling little trivia bits and he mentioned that the entire DL complex, hotels and parking INCLUDED would fit into the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom!!

That's very impressive! So to answer your question - NO, you can't walk from 1 park to the other. They're literally several miles apart.

 

[Safari Steve]

At DL, parking trams, monorail to hotels, etc. runs until everyone is out of the park and back where they need to be. The same is true at WDW. Even with all the growth of the last 32 years, we are still quite remote and it would be totally useless for us to stop our transportation with people still in the parks.
WDW is very spread out, the size of San Francisco.
You will take a monorail or ferryboat to/from MK and busses or your car everywhere else.
The only parks you can walk between are Epcot and MGM Studios, and that's about a 20 minute walk.

Busses generally run up to 2 hours after each park closes (last bus to Animal Kingdom runs at 7pm if AK closes at 5pm, but other busses keep running till 11 for Epcot (which always closes at 9), and they vary for MK and MGM, but always 2 hours after park close.
Parking lot trams run about an hour and a half after the park closes.

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION:
MK open till 9, MGM Open till 10

If you park at MK, and MK and you finish your day at MGM Studios and you see the second Fantasmic at 10:30, it will be 11pm when you get out of MGM. You will be able to get transportation back to MK (even if the last bus has gone, there are always CMs who can make arrangements.) the parking trams will not be running when you reach TTC. You will either walk to your car or you may get a ride from security. It could be after 1 am when you reach your hotel.

Bottom line is: we can handle just about anything- there's not much that hasn't happened before. Plan ahead, be prepared, but it's silly to play "What if?"
Also: if the park you're starting at closes before the park you're finishing at, it makes more sense to just drive your car between them. Your parking pass is good all day at all 4 parks.

Make sure your worries are in order. I can't tell you how many people I've seen who stress over "what-if's?" about our internal transportation system but don't even know the name of their own off-site hotel or how to get there.

If you're staying off-site, go to Mapquest.com and map out a route from your hotel to WDW.

Have fun.
Congratulations.
Best of luck!

-Steve

 

[zcomic]

When going from park to park we've found it's easier to move our car. That way when we're leaving we don't have to wait for busses to take us back to our car then drive home. It will be much quicker if you use your own car.

 

[crazymomof4]

Originally posted by ES0412
I've never been to DL but I do know it's ALOT smaller than WDW. Just to give you a sense of how large WDW is, I was riding one of the buses and the driver was telling little trivia bits and he mentioned that the entire DL complex, hotels and parking INCLUDED would fit into the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom!!

That's very impressive! So to answer your question - NO, you can't walk from 1 park to the other. They're literally several miles apart.

I think I rember hearing that all of DL could fit into the World Showcase Lagoon!