Son insists on Monorail ride first...

[TeamEvansGo]

My son is insistent that on this trip (April 25th to May 2nd) the first thing we do is ride the Monorail loop. Our first park day will be MK, and I would still like to be at the park for rope drop. (We have 9:45am res. for Pirate's League and want to get a ride or two in before that.)

My plan is to take an early bus from Pop to MK grab the express Monorail (if it's running!) and do a complete loop from MK to TTC and back. Park opens at 9am that day. So I have a few questions:

How long does this usually take? Will we be able to stay on the same train for the entire loop, or will we have to exit and board another train at TTC to return to MK?

 

[gap2368]

My son is insistent that on this trip (April 25th to May 2nd) the first thing we do is ride the Monorail loop. Our first park day will be MK, and I would still like to be at the park for rope drop. (We have 9:45am res. for Pirate's League and want to get a ride or two in before that.)

My plan is to take an early bus from Pop to MK grab the express Monorail (if it's running!) and do a complete loop from MK to TTC and back. Park opens at 9am that day. So I have a few questions:

1 How long does this usually take?

2 Will we be able to stay on the same train for the entire loop, or will we have to exit and board another train at TTC to return to MK?

1. I think it is about 10 minutes


2. I have seen people do this when they get on the wrong monorail

some times the express one is not running so you will have to take the resort one witch I think is about 15 minutes to do.


I have been on the resort one an hour before park opens ( I Ould get there as early as you can) I believe the express one runs 30 minutes before hand ( but again I would get there an hour early if you can

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=full+loop+on+the+disney+world+monorail

 

[sharonabe]

I don't know this for sure, but my guess is the only train running that early will be the resort loop which will stop at all the resorts. You won't have to get off the train until you return to MK. I'd give myself at least 30 min for it. It won't take that long, but you don't want to miss getting into MK for rope drop.

 

[Alesia]

The express monorail doesn't start until around 8:00.

The resort monorail starts around 7:00.

I would be at the bus stop by 6:45 at the latest.

 

[Klayfish]

Like others said, you'll probably have to use the resort monorail, which has several stops. Can't tell you what time to show up, because we don't do rope drop, but the loop itself is about a 15-18 minute ride (assuming it keeps the stops at each resort fairly short...I've had a few where the stop takes 4-5 minutes).

 

[brockash]

My son is insistent that on this trip (April 25th to May 2nd) the first thing we do is ride the Monorail loop. Our first park day will be MK, and I would still like to be at the park for rope drop. (We have 9:45am res. for Pirate's League and want to get a ride or two in before that.)

My plan is to take an early bus from Pop to MK grab the express Monorail (if it's running!) and do a complete loop from MK to TTC and back. Park opens at 9am that day. So I have a few questions:

How long does this usually take? Will we be able to stay on the same train for the entire loop, or will we have to exit and board another train at TTC to return to MK?

Would you consider doing it on your arrival night? The monorail is just so up and down, that there's a chance it either wouldn't be running yet or a better chance that it would get stopped while you're on it, which would up the amount of time it would take you to get around the loop. If it were us, we'd take a bus to MK our arrival night and do a loop - we'd include the epcot beem, because when you're going to Epcot, you actually go in the park, so the kids think that's cool.

 

[MrGoofy101]

Chances Are Somethings going to break down. We've had it before, If It was my personal decision, I would take the Resort loop. It may be long, but it opens earlier than the express.

 

[Karin1984]

How old is your son and how big is the meltdown when he doesn't ride the monorail as his first ride?
I vote for arrival day as well, precious park time is at stake!

 

[ghtx]

Doing it on your arrival night seems like a great idea.

If you can't do that, then I'd arrive 30 minutes earlier to take the full loop. Most probably you will be fine and the monorail will not be delayed, but there is a chance that it might and you might miss RD by a few minutes. If you are not planning on doing 7DMT or PP right at RD, then that shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[nicki.momof3]

My thoughts

1. Who is in charge here. If you have other plans than that's what the family should do. A child should not dictate your schedule.
2. Express is not open yet - you have to ride resort
3. If you ride the resort I highly doubt you will do that plus two rides before your 9:45 appointment.
4. If you insist on riding the resort monorail - I would be at your resort bus stop VERY early and get on the 1st MK bus to the park. Then get off the bus and walk the short distance to the Contemporary Resort monorail stop - get on. You are now one stop in on your ride around the loop.
5. Personally it is not worth it in my eyes if riding rides before your appointment is your priority.

 

[Alesia]

3. If you ride the resort I highly doubt you will do that plus two rides before your 9:45 appointment.

If they're at the bust stop by 6:45 they can do it easily enough, depending on what rides they want to do.

 

[TeamEvansGo]

My thoughts

1. Who is in charge here. If you have other plans than that's what the family should do. A child should not dictate your schedule.
2. Express is not open yet - you have to ride resort
3. If you ride the resort I highly doubt you will do that plus two rides before your 9:45 appointment.
4. If you insist on riding the resort monorail - I would be at your resort bus stop VERY early and get on the 1st MK bus to the park. Then get off the bus and walk the short distance to the Contemporary Resort monorail stop - get on. You are now one stop in on your ride around the loop.
5. Personally it is not worth it in my eyes if riding rides before your appointment is your priority.

1. My family are joining me on the vacation. Everyone has a right to want to do something, and everyone's requests are valid. I don't run my family like an autocracy, so I don't see a problem making time for my son's favorite ride on our first day. Maybe some people need to step back and calm down about how they plan their vacation. We are laid back and relaxed, enjoying what we can get to and not sweating the rest.

But thanks for your input anyway.

 

[Karin1984]

1. My family are joining me on the vacation. Everyone has a right to want to do something, and everyone's requests are valid. I don't run my family like an autocracy, so I don't see a problem making time for my son's favorite ride on our first day. Maybe some people need to step back and calm down about how they plan their vacation. We are laid back and relaxed, enjoying what we can get to and not sweating the rest.

But thanks for your input anyway.

After reading your initial post, I had the same thought as Nicki for point one, to be honest. Of course everyone in the family must be able to do their favorites, but does it has to be the first? The goal of getting up early for rope drop usually is to get short(er) lines for big rides, usually not to do something that doesn't have a line the rest of the day, that sort of defeats the purpose of getting up early. Hence my question if it would turn into a meltdown if he doesn't get to do it first thing. In certain scenarios with children (or some family members) I can understand you want to give in to his request first to avoid a bad start of the day/vacation.

If the rides and lines do not matter this vacation or have well planned FPs, I suggest to forget about rope drop, sleep in a little longer and do the monorail first, and then go to your 9:45 appointment.

If you do want to get on rides like 7DMT or Peter Pan with short(er) lines and don't have FP for later in the day/vacation, I would stick to your plans and promise your son to ride the full loop on the first day in the middle of the day. In April/May it sometimes can get hot and you would need an airconditioned break, you could perfectly combine it.

Nonetheless, whatever you chose, I would suggest as well to prepare your son for the monorail sometimes doesn't ride.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Can he be convinced to do it on the way out of MK? That way, you'll all enjoy relaxing on the monorail, rather than worrying about getting where you want to go.

 

[ktlm]

How late do you get in the day before? Starting your vacation with a monorail loop sounds like a lot of fun. I would take the bus from pop to MK-- take the express to TTC (or you could just hop on the resort loop at MK), then take the resort loop and take the express back. If you are early enough, you could even get off and walk around the resorts a bit. If you have enough time you could even grab the express to EPCOT and back to say that you did all the monorail routes. He could have a whole monorail arrival event!

The monorail is packed and not as fun in the mornings. Everyone is crammed in like sardines. When we stay at Poly or GF, we don't get on the monorail in the morning- we take the boat instead

 

[Eastern]

I would do the monorail -not before rope drop- just because I wouldn't be able to relax. If you do it another time you can relax and not mind when the monorail stalls or breaks down. Especially during pre rope drop, when I think Disney tries to exert some crowd control via buses and monrails getting to the park.

And you can do the Epcot line as well, for fun.

 

[srwarden1928]

Would your son be satisfied by riding the monorail from TTC to MK and then later from MK to TTC? When I first went to Disney MANY years ago, unless you stayed at Contemporary or Poly, you rode either monorail or boat to the park. We always rode the monorail. To me, it is an important part of the day at MK, and I drive to TTC to do it that way. It isn't the full loop, but it does make the monorail the first ride in MK.

 

[SaintsManiac]

DD6 thinks we are riding Small World first

 

[robinb]

I think taking the monorail on your arrival night would be fun! Maybe get off at each resort and walk around? Why not make a night of it and have dinner at one of the monorail resorts! If you really want to take the monorail in the morning, you can take the bus to the MK and take a loop or you can pay a bit to take an Uber to the GF and hop on there. I think I might be too worried that I would miss rope drop to really enjoy it but I think I'm more type-A/commando that you seem to be .

 

[Thing 1]

My boys loved the monorail when they were little. It was always part of our arrival evening plans. Fun way to start the trip.