Steam Train tour--best morning

[nemodeb]

Thinking about doing the Steam Train Tour. Is is better to do it on an EMH morning, to take advantage of the early bus service? Or is it better to do it on a non-EMH morning, to perhaps have a better tour experience because the park isn't open yet/trains not running yet?

We did it about 14 years ago, and I think we used the buses. But I'm not sure if buses are running at 7:00 am now unless it's EMH.

I know we could pick an EMH bus to Epcot and take the monorail over. Just wondering how the tour experience would differ.
Thanks!!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I've done it on a non emh day twice and not had a problem with buses getting to the parks. They run buses erly for the early chter breakfasts at the MK just stop by the front desk of your resort to confirm when one will be out. They typically just say chter breakfast on them rather than MK (at least they did at the time i last did it).

Something else to consider on a non EMH morning you may get to take a picture of an empty main street.

 

[katrina1122]

We did it on a non emh day and had to drive ourselves there, but the tour doesn't start until the train does the opening show, so it really doesn't matter for crowds. Regardless you are the first on the first train with no one else but the tour group. you'll add passengers after you go to the round house. Then you'll end up at the main street station for a talk where they will kick others out.

 

[nemodeb]

I've done it on a non emh day twice and not had a problem with buses getting to the parks. They run buses erly for the early chter breakfasts at the MK just stop by the front desk of your resort to confirm when one will be out. They typically just say chter breakfast on them rather than MK (at least they did at the time i last did it).

Something else to consider on a non EMH morning you may get to take a picture of an empty main street.

I hadn't thought about the Character Breakfasts, thanks, good thought.
I did think about the empty Main Street though. Always a plus.

 

[DisneyFive]

We did it on a non EMH morning. No bus problems. Seems like a EMH morning would have more crowds in the morning too, which I avoid if possible.

Not sure if it's any different than 2011, but you first go to the round house, get a tour, and then come back to the park. When you get back the park, there is a LONG history of Disney and his trains up in the train station. FAR too long for us, like an hour or more. I think the tour got over roughly at 11am. It could easily have been an hour shorter.

If I had to do it over again, I would have skipped the history lesson. Loved the first part. Being the very first guests in the park. Great photo op. The roundhouse and that portion was great behind the scenes stuff.

Dan

 

[ms tom morrow]

I booked this as a surprise for my DH on a non-EMH morning. The GF provided a cab voucher for him to get there.

 

[nemodeb]

I booked this as a surprise for my DH on a non-EMH morning. The GF provided a cab voucher for him to get there.

Anyone know how much a cab fair would be from CSR? We're just not sure about bus service reliability at 6:45am. I think we have to be there by 7:15? We'd like to do the tour, but I'm a little worried about getting there so early.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We did the tour on an EMH morning because we were concerned with the bus situation. I think that was in 2006 and I didn't have quite as much WDW knowledge as I do now. The busses do run early enough to get you there. I remember we were on a bus with two other families. The driver dropped one family off at The Contemporary, then us at MK, and was going to drop the last family off at the Poly.

It's been a lot of years, but I seem to recall that we were supposed to be there by 715 also. We got there before 7 and we were absolutely the only people there. I think things didn't really get going until 730, possibly a little later. I remember thinking that I could have slept a little later if I had known it wasn't going to start before that time.

 

[NancyIL]

I just booked this for a non-EMH morning. It starts at 7:30, but you have to be at the Magic Kingdom's front gate by 7:15. I was told that no Disney transportation would be running that early, so the options are to drive and park at the Contemporary or take a taxi.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I just booked this for a non-EMH morning. It starts at 7:30, but you have to be at the Magic Kingdom's front gate by 7:15. I was told that no Disney transportation would be running that early, so the options are to drive and park at the Contemporary or take a taxi.

they do have them running then but they aren't park specific they may say on them charter breakfast they use them fro people who have early breakfast at the MK and Contempory and other resorts. If you want to take Disney Transportation double check at the front desk of your resort they will have or can get the information about when it will be running.

 

[wdwrich]

I just booked this for a non-EMH morning. It starts at 7:30, but you have to be at the Magic Kingdom's front gate by 7:15. I was told that no Disney transportation would be running that early, so the options are to drive and park at the Contemporary or take a taxi.

Buses start running from the resorts to MK at 6:30am to accommodate folks with early ADRs. Should be no problem being at the gates by 7:15.

 

[NancyIL]

Buses start running from the resorts to MK at 6:30am to accommodate folks with early ADRs. Should be no problem being at the gates by 7:15.

Thanks for confirming that buses run that early. However, since I will have a car, I'd rather rely on myself to get there on time, rather than hope that the bus gets me there.

 

[Pappa Bear]

Thanks for confirming that buses run that early. However, since I will have a car, I'd rather rely on myself to get there on time, rather than hope that the bus gets me there.

That is what I have decided to do for our May visit. This seemed to me to be the safest alternative time wise for getting to the tour on time.

 

[soniam]

The tour page says that you can park at the Contemporary, so I assume that means you can park there for free. I can confirm that the buses do start running at 6:30am Even if the park doesn't open until 9am.