The demise of unrestricted resorts, by year.

[WinterSolider]

MK is more than double AK (Magic Kingdom area)
EPCOT/HS together is more than double AK (Epcot area)

MK - MK - Epcot - HS - AK

That is the 5 days. Yes the math does work and actually AKL is worse than the 1 time every 5 days because its less than half of the two other areas.

AKL is:

• 36 minutes round-trip to Magic Kingdom
• 34 minutes round-trip to Epcot
• 32 minutes round-trip to Hollywood Studios
• 30 minutes round-trip to Animal Kingdom
• 168 minutes total commuting time using your MK-MK-Epcot-HS-AK ratio

Contemporary is:

• 14 minutes round-trip to Magic Kingdom
• 81 minutes round-trip to Epcot
• 38 minutes round-trip to Hollywood Studios
• 50 minutes round-trip to Animal Kingdom
• 197 minutes total commuting time using your MK-MK-Epcot-HS-AK ratio

AKL is "bad" to Magic Kingdom but Contemporary is so bad to Epcot that it more than offsets it.

I don't dispute that the Crescent Lake resorts are the most convenient, that is indisputably correct. I'm strictly comparing Animal Kingdom Lodge to Magic Kingdom area resorts.

 

[sethschroeder]

One piece of data I'd love to know is the percentage of DVC guests who have a car, whether rented or their own.

When you have a car, resorts like Old Key West and Fort Wilderness move way up the convenience scale because you can literally park right outside your door and leave exactly when you want to. Still not quite as convenient as walking right to a park, but people often forget the 10 minutes it takes to walk to a bus stop or monorail station when calculating their transit times.

Couple things to point out:
OKW - Only has elevators in 3 buildings which can be an issue for people with mobility issues
Driving to MK has you dropped off at the TTC
Driving to other parks has you either walking or catching a tram from the parking lot
Traffic at key times could be bad (this is similar to a skyliner negative)


My best guestimates for walks to the bus beyond the outside your room parking:
BCV - Maybe 4 mins?
BWV - Maybe like 5 mins?
RIV - Maybe like 2 mins?
BLT - Maybe 1 min?
POLY - Maybe 3-5 (7-10 to TTC for Epcot)?
VGF - Closer to 10 mins
CCV/BRV - 3-5 mins?


If you are driving to the parks I have always said these resort then are good options including AKV as that has the parking right next to the elevators it seems.

 

[sethschroeder]

I think we were door to park a Epcot in like 15 min yesterday coming and going.

Just calling out you are replacing your wait/walk at the resort for one at Epcot where you are now in a parking lot away from the gate compared to a bus or skyliner drop off.

 

[jolynne28]

None of the discussion is about non-restricted owners of SSR. When people say resale they mean people who are not grandfathered points.

I understand that, but the concern about where all the SAP SSR buyers will be able to stay after 2042 is so overblown IMO. The resort itself is not bad, OKW traders will be gone as well, and even if resale buyers at the remaining OG "preferred" resorts don't trade out as often, or even at all, plenty of direct owners will be looking at swapping around to whatever the newer DVC's are at the time.

And someone on reddit drew this map a few years ago, I could see Disney expanding the skyliner at some point, assuming the maintenance/upkeep on it doesn't get out of hand financially.

 

[WinterSolider]

Driving to MK has you dropped off at the TTC

Yes, this is my number one advise to people when they ask about how to get around. Even if you have a car, never drive to Magic Kingdom.

 

[sethschroeder]

AKL is:

• 36 minutes round-trip to Magic Kingdom
• 34 minutes round-trip to Epcot
• 32 minutes round-trip to Hollywood Studios
• 30 minutes round-trip to Animal Kingdom
• 168 minutes total commuting time using your MK-MK-Epcot-HS-AK ratio

Contemporary is:

• 14 minutes round-trip to Magic Kingdom
• 81 minutes round-trip to Epcot
• 38 minutes round-trip to Hollywood Studios
• 50 minutes round-trip to Animal Kingdom
• 197 minutes total commuting time using your MK-MK-Epcot-HS-AK ratio

AKL is "bad" to Magic Kingdom but Contemporary is so bad to Epcot that it more than offsets it.

I don't dispute that the Crescent Lake resorts are the most convenient, that is indisputably correct. I'm strictly comparing Animal Kingdom Lodge to Magic Kingdom area resorts.

All those time don't take in to account the wait on a bus which is going to happen way more than a skyliner. I agree BLT is not great for other parks but you find people who post about BLT seeming go to MK much more often than the normal guest seemingly.

Again I will repeat this and I am moving on. The BUS is a crapshoot, with little information (especially away from the parks), does have massive long waits at random times in the day not just open/close, and can be at capacity (even at random times of the day). Another issue with the bus is if you are trying to do rope drop and the bus is at capacity you are missing out.

Regarding 81 minutes roundtrip to Epcot? Never stayed there because of the wonky way to get to Epcot so will take your word on it.

 

[sethschroeder]

the concern about where all the SAP SSR buyers will be able to stay after 2042 is so overblown IMO

I know where many will be staying. OKW or SSR.

The call out is specific to 2042 expirations are going to change up the availability of the near park resorts. Not that people won't be able to get rooms.

Who knows though maybe it works opposite and the low cost of OKW/SSR draws owners of the other resorts without restrictions to extend a stay.

Also if people love OKW/SSR that is fine stay there. This is really about pointing out a good number of people buy resale specifically to never stay at OKW/SSR.

 

[WinterSolider]

All those time don't take in to account the wait on a bus which is going to happen way more than a skyliner. I agree BLT is not great for other parks but you find people who post about BLT seeming go to MK much more often than the normal guest seemingly.

Again I will repeat this and I am moving on. The BUS is a crapshoot, with little information (especially away from the parks), does have massive long waits at random times in the day not just open/close, and can be at capacity (even at random times of the day). Another issue with the bus is if you are trying to do rope drop and the bus is at capacity you are missing out.

Regarding 81 minutes roundtrip to Epcot? Never stayed there because of the wonky way to get to Epcot so will take your word on it.

All times posted are hard data and not subject to interpretation. They represent average wait times.

 

[CastAStone]

I understand that, but the concern about where all the SAP SSR buyers will be able to stay after 2042 is so overblown IMO. The resort itself is not bad, OKW traders will be gone as well, and even if resale buyers at the remaining OG "preferred" resorts don't trade out as often, or even at all, plenty of direct owners will be looking at swapping around to whatever the newer DVC's are at the time.

And someone on reddit drew this map a few years ago, I could see Disney expanding the skyliner at some point, assuming the maintenance/upkeep on it doesn't get out of hand financially.

View attachment 960751

There really was a plan at Disney to expand the Skyliner to reach out towards Disney Springs at one point. But since the original Skyliner has opened, I’ve never seen a word more about it from any remotely reliable rumor source. I would guess current leadership doesn’t have any interest in it, but no plan at Disney is ever truly dead.

 

[Brian Noble]

Even if you have a car, never drive to Magic Kingdom.

Counterpoint: The upper deck of a ferry at sunset on the way to MK is spectacular.

 

[sethschroeder]

All times posted are hard data and not subject to interpretation. They represent average wait times.

Where is the data from I haven't seen it before would be interested in it for all the resorts just to have handy. I saw some estimates in the past but they were always fairly flawed as they didn't account for wait time for the transportation to show up. Sounds like this data set accounts for all of it.

Wondering how my Epcot crew does.

 

[jolynne28]

There really was a plan at Disney to expand the Skyliner to reach out towards Disney Springs at one point. But since the original Skyliner has opened, I’ve never seen a word more about it from any remotely reliable rumor source. I would guess current leadership doesn’t have any interest in it, but no plan at Disney is ever truly dead.

I think it could happen as part of a calculus to make SSR more appealing. We've stayed in the Paddock, and I'd be interested to know how long the walk from there to a potential skyliner station would be in relation to say a BWV room that's closer to Swan.

 

[Brian Noble]

TouringPlans used to have a chart of (measured average) transportation times between resort and each primary destination using Disney transport and via driving, but I can't dig it up.

 

[maui22]

I find the discussion of after 2057 expiration to be interesting.

1. My days of Disney will long be over by then.
2. That's 32 years from now. Guessing few remember, BCV was less than a 40 year resort (opened July 1, 2002 and expires January 1, 2024). A whole lot of unexpected events are going to happen in the next 32 years.

 

[sethschroeder]

I find the discussion of after 2057 expiration to be interesting.

1. My days of Disney will long be over by then.
2. That's 32 years from now. Guessing few remember, BCV was less than a 40 year resort (opened July 1, 2002 and expires January 1, 2024). A whole lot of unexpected events are going to happen in the next 32 years.

Who is talking about 2057? We are talking about 2042 which is 16 years and 9 months away.

 

[NVDISFamily]

We never have smelled pee on a monorail so zero clue about that piece but we are rarely on the monorail.

The first part of our stay was at poly and we used the monorail a bunch over those days. There is definitely an odor of something that smells like a poorly maintained festival plastic toilet in almost all of the various monorails we rode. Only one didn’t have this as a dominant smell. This is as an occurrence where @MrsNVDISFamily was glad that she had a hard time with smelling things. Our kids kept commenting on it.

Just calling out you are replacing your wait/walk at the resort for one at Epcot where you are now in a parking lot away from the gate compared to a bus or skyliner drop off.

No that’s inclusive of the parking lot hike. We were told to park up in HeiHei like 105 and that seems like a similar walk from those other options. It was actually my first entry from the front in years.

It was an awesome quick ninja trip at the end of a mostly resort/laundry day. We smashed all of the better rides less guardians plus some others and treats in 3 hours.

 

[WinterSolider]

1. My days of Disney will long be over by then.

I do different categories of vacations.

1. Theme parks
2. Somewhere warm without spending a fortune to sit by a pool or beach and relax
3. Nature-focused, like camping or National Parks
4. Exotic / major / expensive, like Alaska or Hawaii or International

DVC is really great for #1 and #2. And while I expect my use case for #1 will decline as I get older, if anything I expect I'll be doing #2 even more than I do now.

And when I have grandkids I'll be right back to doing #1 again.

 

[Brian Noble]

Disney is okay at #2, but there are others that are just as warm without being so expensive. Even resale, a DVC stay is on the pricey side compared to resale e.g Marriott.

 

[jolynne28]

The first part of our stay was at poly and we used the monorail a bunch over those days. There is definitely an odor of something that smells like a poorly maintained festival plastic toilet in almost all of the various monorails we rode. Only one didn’t have this as a dominant smell. This is as an occurrence where @MrsNVDISFamily was glad that she had a hard time with smelling things. Our kids kept commenting on it.

This is a very accurate description. My theory is kids have accidents and it seeps into the crevices of the monorail and can't be cleaned. We've never not smelled it, kids have never not commented on it.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Okay, with all the talk about the “smell” on the monorail, I will share that years ago on this discussion board it was mentioned that it was the GLUE used under the carpeting that caused the urine-like smell.