silly question

[Rippington'sFan]

We have never been to Disney. This year will be our first time and we have decided to pick a few restaurants for lunch.
My question is if we are at let's say the Magic Kingdom and we wanted to eat lunch at a restaurant at Epcot can this be done? I know it can be done but how long does it take to get to Epcot from Magic Kingdom via the monorail? I have no idea. Is it worth the effort to do it that way? Will it waste too much time travelling back and forth? Should we only consider restaurants that are in the park we are visiting or do some people do exactly as I mentioned? Any thoughts or suggestions?
thanks,

 

[Forever42]

It might take out too much of your time from the MK. You have to leave the park, get on the monorail to the TTC, go over to the Epcot monorail, and enter the park there. We always budget an hour of time to park hop, and usually only do it if we're planning on spending the rest of the day in the second park.

I personally would stay in the park you're visiting for lunch. I've heard that LTT's lunch is great, although I've only been there for dinner.

Are you going to Epcot another day?

 

[piratesmate]

Our vacations are never long enough to suit us, so we don't spend that much time traveling. However, we like to go to MK on early entry day & then go to 1900 Park Fare or Whispering Canyon for a late breakfast. We grab something quick at the resort before leaving & then this serves as our lunch. The parks tend to get more crowded on EE days anyway, so it suits us fine to leave at that point.

 

[webray]

It does take a lot of time to travel from park to park..just for restaurants. We plan our days..what park on what day..and then choose great restaurants from each park for our meals for the day.

It can be done, lots of people do it...but, I don't like to waste precious park time...getting back and forth.

 

[mommystieg]

Like the other posters have said, it does take up a lot of time traveling between parks. On our first visit we took the monorail to Epcot and then caught the bus to POR--it took us over an hour! Depending on where you eat in Epcot it can be a really loooonnngg walk from the monorail station. You might want to check the restaurants in the MK resort area, those are a lot closer and offer a nice break from the park.

 

[Rippington'sFan]

Originally posted by Forever42
It might take out too much of your time from the MK. You have to leave the park, get on the monorail to the TTC, go over to the Epcot monorail, and enter the park there. We always budget an hour of time to park hop, and usually only do it if we're planning on spending the rest of the day in the second park.

I personally would stay in the park you're visiting for lunch. I've heard that LTT's lunch is great, although I've only been there for dinner.

Are you going to Epcot another day?

Well we are still in the planning stage. We are only going to have 4 full days for the parks since we arrive on a monday afternoon and depart on a saturday morning. So right now our plan is to visit the parks in this order Tues. thru Fri: MK...MGM...MK/Epcot?...AK (we know we can't do it all)

So yes we will be at Epcot on the 3rd day if we finish up at the MK. I'm thinking that we can do the MK in 1 1/2 days and then get over to Epcot sometime on the 3rd day and plan a lunch somwhere there for late afternoon. This way we don't have to worry about park hopping back and forth. We are considering Le Cellier. Anybody know if it's good? Any other suggestions?

The main reason I asked about leaving a park for lunch and then returning is just that I was mainly curious about the time involved and hassle of doing so. I have no idea how long it takes the monorail to make it's loop etc...

 

[Chuck S]

People that have never been to WDW often have a hard time visualizing just how large and spread out the overall property is. With only 1 day budgeted per park, I would avoid park hopping as much as possible. Not only do you have to allow ample time for the monorails, but depending on the restauraunt you choose at EPCOT, the walk from the monorail station to the restaurant could be the better part of mile.

Someone has already suggested Liberty Tree Tavern at MK for lunch. It is one of our favorite lunch spots, since we aren't Character Meal fans. They have a fairly comprehensive menu, and everything we've tasted we enjoyed. Then we tend to enjoy a counter service meal for dinner at MK, or if we're very hungery, we make a PS at the Plaza (Ice cream parlor) restaurant for dinner.

 

[Forever42]

Originally posted by Rippington'sFan
Well we are still in the planning stage. We are only going to have 4 full days for the parks since we arrive on a monday afternoon and depart on a saturday morning. So right now our plan is to visit the parks in this order Tues. thru Fri: MK...MGM...MK/Epcot?...AK (we know we can't do it all)

So yes we will be at Epcot on the 3rd day if we finish up at the MK. I'm thinking that we can do the MK in 1 1/2 days and then get over to Epcot sometime on the 3rd day and plan a lunch somwhere there for late afternoon. This way we don't have to worry about park hopping back and forth. We are considering Le Cellier. Anybody know if it's good? Any other suggestions?

I adore Le Cellier, it's my favorite restaurant on Disney property.

I personally wouldn't split a day with MK and Epcot - I'd say do MK/MGM or MK/AK. Epcot has so many things to do that you could spend multiple days there.

 

[Disney Fool]

Disneyworld is roughly the size of Manhattan. Would you travel from the East side to the West side of Manhattan for lunch? The monorail from the TTC to Epcot is about 7 minutes. That's not counting the time it takes to wait for a monorail from MK to the TTC and switching over and waiting again. Then standing in line again and waiting to go through the turnstiles for Epcot. As you can see, you'd be wasting precious time just to eat and repeat the process to go back to the MK.

I agree with the other poster, Epcot needs its own day, so does MK and more. I'd go for AK in the morning (before it gets hot) and MGM in the afternoon and evening. Just a thought.

 

[Disney Fool]

P.S. No question is "silly".

 

[Rippington'sFan]

Thank you all for your excellent recommendations. That's why I love this website. It makes planning so much easier. Now I'll have to go "back to the drawing board" so to speak for my planning.
thanks again,