I just booked a bounceback vacation for next year with
free dining at the Poly. We normally stay at one of the values but decided to splurge for next year. We usually rent a car because we have a 4 yo and don't like waiting for the buses. However, it is always such a pain getting to and from the Magic Kingdom. It takes up to an hour between leaving our resort and actually entering the park. The reason we chose the Poly was due to the convenience of the monorail.
I have been looking at prices for the Wilderness Lodge and found we can save quite a bit of money by staying there instead of the Poly. My question is, how frequent are the boats to the MK and how long do they take to get there compared to taking the monorail from the Poly?
We just returned from the WL on Saturday the 27th- ohh a sad day indeed-
and we took the boat to the MK 4 or 5 times from the 21st to the 27th... I think the longest we waited ever on the WL dock was maybe 10 minutes, we traveled with a 10mos old and a 5yo and for us even the 10 minutes was an easy wait as we talked with other kids and families in line and hey we were on vacation and in no hurry.
If you stay at the Poly you board the monorail and then stop at GF before you get to MK, I would guess that the trip from the Poly to MK is longer via monorail than the boat from WL as you board and you go, no stopping once the boat leaves the dock, no waiting once you leave the dock for others to board at the next stop and no waiting for other monorails to leave the station at MK before yours can pull in (this happened to us twice when we were there last week- so odd). Also at the end of the day- the Poly is stop #3 on the loop, I board the boat and I am back the the WL within a few minutes.
On the size of the boat we always used the boat to MK- a few times it was a small wooden type boat- think like a sail boat in shape- very cute- was DD (5) fave cause "it's just a cute little thing"

, we had the "Mermaid I" and "II" a few times and it was a big ole beast of a boat- we didnt even have to take the baby out of the sit and stand stroller and fold it up, we rolled it right on and Thank the Lord that was the boat that we got the night after the
MNSSHP cause both were asleep and ohh it was so nice

and we had the mid size boat several times, bigger than the little cutie, but you still had to fold down the stoller to board... the boats were all awesome!
I will comment on the Poly further- we had breakfast at Ohana and then used their bus for AK-- we waited for the bus for 25 minutes, the family that was waiting with us, had been there 45 minutes total when the bus finally arrived. And it was full from a pick up at the CR when it arrived- then it stopped at BB before going on to AK-- I know that is the same for most routes to AK, however to have to wait that long in my opinion is INSANE! (espically for the amount of $$$ that you are paying to be there- again IMO)
We used the bus from WL to DHS and to Epcot several times and then from AK back to WL and we never once had to stand or wait more than 5-10 minutes for a bus.
And finally my DD (5) loved the WL- this year when we were at the Poly for our Ohana breakfast she didnt like it at all as it was so busy and noisy (and she sure isnt a quiet girl herself) but the atmosphere at the Poly can be overwhelming even to me, the WL I swear was like pure heaven.
