Saratoga Springs, afternoon break/change

[MinnieMallons]

My wife and I are visiting WDW and staying at Saratoga Springs, 1st -14th May.

I've made all our dining reservations but some are earlier in the evening than I might have liked, despite booking 190 days out.

We would like to return to our hotel and change before our meals when possible, as we like to get dressed up for a meal and will enjoy the shower.

My questions are:

1) Is it feasible to start at opening then leave the Magic Kingdom, get showered/changed and return for a meal there at 5:45pm?

2) Realistically, how long will it take to get from our room to each park?

3) Is it faster to go to MK on the bus all the way to to Epcot and then get the monorail?

 

[Cadbury]

you could consider a rental car.
That is what we did during our stay at Saratoga, saved us a lot of time.

 

[jimandami]

I usually allow about an hour to get to a park if we have an ADR. Worst case scenario, you wait 20 minutes for a bus and then get to the parks in 15-20 minutes. To get through bag check, gates, etc..another 15-20 minutes. It will likely be faster but you never now. To get to any park from SSR, direct bus is the fastest method.

 

[Disneyhabs]

It is easy to do honestly. To get back to MK do a trial run in the AM when heading there with the bus to Epcot then monorail.

 

[Jkpark]

We've stayed at SSR that time of year. We didn't find the buses bad at all. To be safe - I would account for an hour. We did take a taxi once or twice when we wanted more down time before heading back out and we loved that option. Cheaper than a car for the week.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

I just returned from a stay at SSR and the buses to MK were plentiful and the ride was no more than 15 minutes. The buses to Epcot were another story. We would see 4 MK buses come before 1 Epcot bus would arrive.

 

[TDC Nala]

Is it feasible to start at opening then leave the Magic Kingdom, get showered/changed and return for a meal there at 5:45pm?

You will lose a LOT of park time if you do this. If you are OK with that, no big.

Realistically, how long will it take to get from our room to each park?

Can't really say because there is no rhyme or reason to the buses. Directly from resort to park I'd give it at least 45 minutes to an hour, regardless of which park. Hour and a half at least, if you are going to a different resort.

Is it faster to go to MK on the bus all the way to to Epcot and then get the monorail?

This would entail: walking from the SSR bus stop to the Epcot monorail, waiting for the monorail, a monorail change at TTC so waiting for that monorail, and possible monorail stoppage. It's probably best to just take the bus directly to MK if you are going to MK.

 

[joe1946]

3) Is it faster to go to MK on the bus all the way to to Epcot and then get the monorail?

It is way faster to take the bus from SSR straight to MK than it is to go to Epcot and then take an Epcot-to-TTC monorail and then take a TTC-to-MK monorail.