Hi Joe
As always, there seem to be many opinions here on Dis. I will simply add my personal (recent) experience, and you can make up your mind at your leisure.
On 21 Nov 2006, DW and I were leaving MGM after a wonderful Brown Derby dinner/Fantasmic/Osborne Lights experience. We were staying at the BCV. As we exited MGM, and looked to our left, we saw a very large crowd waiting for the Swan/Dolphin/YC/BC boats. Based on the size of the waiting crowd, we guessed that we would not get on until the third boat, so we decided to walk.
Mitigating factors which may have helped us walk faster:
1. We did not spend all day at the parks, in fact we arrived (by boat) at MGM at about 3:30-3:45. All we did was have an early dinner at the Brown Derby, stroll to see the 6:00 PM “opening” of the Osborne lights, stroll to see Fantasmic, stroll back to see the last “dancing” lights segment of the Osborne Lights, then left the park at about 8:00. Not exactly “commando” touring.
2. It was COOL. In fact, this was the night that snow flurries were reported in Orlando.
3. It was just the two of us. No small children in strollers or walking/being carried.
Mitigating factors which may have made us walk slower:
1. I am 53 years old.
2. I am only 6’ tall, but weigh 240+ pounds.
3. I was (am) dealing with a knee problem (torn cartilage, arthritis). I seem to move fast enough (once I get started), I just “feel” every step, so if I get tired, this can slow me down.
That being said, we stepped out smartly, and the approximate time from the gates of MGM to arriving inside of our room at the BCV (4th floor, room 406) was about 25 minutes.
As far as the “path” itself goes, it is a sidewalk, made of concrete/cement or some similar material. DW and I discussed it on the way back, and we believe it was 8-10 feet wide. We found the walk to be mostly flat (a little downhill as you leave MGM, a little uphill when you get to the Boardwalk). It was well lit, and although I could not actually measure the distance between light posts, I counted 20 “normal” (for me) steps between lights (I did this 4 or 5 times, and came out with the exact same count each time – no I’m not all that anal about walking distance, I was thinking that this information might come in handy for a message on DisBoards someday, so I counted).
Also, on a different night, I timed how long it took to get from the main lobby of the BC, to the International Gateway, and that was 5 minutes. So I think that a reasonably healthy adult can make it from MGM to EPCOT in about 25 minutes.
Sorry to be so long winded. You have posted so many pictures that I have enjoyed so much, I just wanted to give you as complete and accurate an answer as possible.
As an additional note – We were about 5 minutes into our walk (once we hit the actual walkway – it’s almost 5 minutes from the gates of MGM until you hit the walkway), we saw the first boat headed toward the waiting masses outside MGM. We continued at our same pace, and this boat did not catch up to us until we were at the big archway sign for the Boardwalk. We got back to our room MUCH faster by walking.
Happy Holidays.
It passes under several bridges with spiders and it isn't the best maintained.
