Time from airport to castle

[cmcvean]

Great question. We land at 11:30 - taking DME to POP, have dinner reservations at O'Hana at 3:55.

 

[rebekahw]

You should be fine. Last summer my 8 year old niece and I landed at 11:50, took DME to Contemporary (our second stop, WL was first), checked in at the desk, went to our room which happened to be ready, changed clothes, face timed her mom, walked to MK, met Tinkerbelle standby, watched the parade from in front of the train station and then took the boat to GF for dinner at 1900 Park Fare at 4. You will, obviously, move slower with a group of 11 than we did but you should still have plenty of time barring any major delays by the airline.

 

[Minnesota!]

You will be fine. Enjoy!

 

[pens4821]

We really lucked out when we just went. Our plane landed around 930, and we were sitting down at Rainforest Cafe for lunch about 1130. We went right down to ME, waited maybe 5 minutes. We were the first stop at AS Sports. We got a text while in line for ME that one of our rooms were ready, so we dropped off a couple things, and as we got to the bus stop the DS bus was there. Couldn't have worked out any better.

Now, I wouldn't recommend planning it that way, but you'll have plenty of time (barring any unforeseen circumstances).

 

[Bullseye]

You have plenty of time. Go check in and head to the MK.

 

[larryz]

What happens if we are late?

If you're eating at CRT, you've already paid for your meal, and you know how much THAT cost!

If you're eating at another TS location, they'll charge you a $10 per head no-show charge if you miss your meal.

That's why it's sound advice if you're running late to be sure to call and let them know. They may not be able to flex, but WDW is good about working with guests who have extenuating circumstances.

 

[5kidsmommy]

You will be fine, I'm one of those always early people too but this wouldn't stress me out too much. You'll have plenty of time.

 

[LoKiHB]

You will have plenty of time. Even with an average DME wait, you'll be in the lobby of WL by 1-1:30 the latest. If your room is not ready, they will hold any carry on's you have with you at the hotel. Best part of staying at WL... the boat from the resort to the MK. It's about 10-15 minutes, and the boats come pretty frequently, maybe 15-20 minutes at most? So, by that timeline... 11:30 at MCO, 1:30 at WL, 2:15-2:30 at MK, let's say 3:00 since you have a big group. You're good. It won't take you an hour to walk from the entrance to the castle.

Relax, and enjoy. The DME ride from MCO to the resort is always one of the best parts of the trip.

 

[WEDWDW]

My flight was moved two hours later.

If the plane touches down at 11:30 can we still make 4:15 dinner at the castle?

Barring mechanical breakdown on the DME bus or natural disaster,you have P-L-E-N-T-Y of time!

 

[Nancyg56]

I only worry about flight delays. This is a prepaid meal and it takes time to have that money refunded to your account. Unless it is DDP, then it is credits and the $10 per person cancelation fee, which is easier to deal with financially that 11 people times $$YIKES$$!!

If nothing goes wrong you have time. If you are delayed, you need to call and see if they can help you.

 

[whtyger97]

Thanks everyone for the help, we made it to the hotel by 1pm so plenty of time. Check-in at the hotel took almost an hour because our travel agent had booked the wrong people in each room, asked for a fast pass to make up the time and it was granted, took boat to magic Kingdom and went right on space mountain, people mover and even Indy cars before dinner!

 

[MlWinans]

Id be very surprised if you didn't have more than enough time. Last month my wife and got into MCO around 1150am and were at Disney Springs (which generally takes long to get to than a park) by 345, and we took our time, including making a stop to our room before heading over. We waited on the MDE bus for about 30 minutes before leaving MCO and it made 3 stops before getting to our resort.

Without something unexpected going wrong it couldn't have taken much longer that it did for us and we still would have been able to make a 4pm or later reservation to pretty much anywhere. And if we didn't stop in our room we could have made it by 330 to just about anywhere.

HAVE FUN!!! And as for "what if we miss the time"; if you think you are running late give them a call and let them know. Generally speaking they will work with you if at all possible.

 

[MlWinans]

Thanks everyone for the help, we made it to the hotel by 1pm so plenty of time. Check-in at the hotel took almost an hour because our travel agent had booked the wrong people in each room, asked for a fast pass to make up the time and it was granted, took boat to magic Kingdom and went right on space mountain, people mover and even Indy cars before dinner!

Wow just saw this post after I responded.........

Glad you had more than enough time, have a great trip!!!!!

 

[Micca]

Thanks everyone for the help, we made it to the hotel by 1pm so plenty of time. Check-in at the hotel took almost an hour because our travel agent had booked the wrong people in each room, asked for a fast pass to make up the time and it was granted, took boat to magic Kingdom and went right on space mountain, people mover and even Indy cars before dinner!

Thanks for the follow-up, so glad you made it! The thing that scares me is a delayed flight, you could be pushed back several hours from your original arrival time.
You paid hundreds for that meal (close to a thousand?) that would have had my stomach in so many knots I couldn't have eaten even if we made it with time to spare. Still it ended well for you, enjoy the rest of the trip.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Thanks everyone for the help, we made it to the hotel by 1pm so plenty of time. Check-in at the hotel took almost an hour because our travel agent had booked the wrong people in each room, asked for a fast pass to make up the time and it was granted, took boat to magic Kingdom and went right on space mountain, people mover and even Indy cars before dinner!

Fabulous!
I love Disney magic!

 

[cindyfan]

just realized you made it!! yay! have fun!!

 

[nicki.momof3]

If your admission tickets are part of your resort package then you will have to stop at the resort check in desk. There can be a long waiting line here.

Be prepared to take a taxi from your resort to the Contemporary Resort where you walk the rest of the way to Magic Kingdom (you will pass the MK bus platforms perhaps 5 minutes from CR).

Is this really true? I thought with Magic Bands and online check-in you can go right to the park if you want?? P

You DO NOT have to stop at the desk to check in. If you link your magic bands to your park tickets and do online check in you NEVER have to visit the front desk. They will text you when your room is ready and your magic band will unlock the door.

We are DVC members and we link everything to our magic bands ahead of time. In April we stayed at the Boardwalk for a week and we NEVER went to the front desk. They texted us our room #, all charges were linked to our credit card and magic band, and magic express infor is slipped under your door the day before you leave.

Don't worry you will be fine with your reservation time. ENJOY!!

 

[whtyger97]

You DO NOT have to stop at the desk to check in. If you link your magic bands to your park tickets and do online check in you NEVER have to visit the front desk. They will text you when your room is ready and your magic band will unlock the door.

We are DVC members and we link everything to our magic bands ahead of time. In April we stayed at the Boardwalk for a week and we NEVER went to the front desk. They texted us our room #, all charges were linked to our credit card and magic band, and magic express infor is slipped under your door the day before you leave.

Don't worry you will be fine with your reservation time. ENJOY!!

My uncle - who was responsible for the reservations booked through a travel agent. The travel agent had put us in the wrong rooms - there were 4 rooms - Disney couldn't move us without talking to the travel agent - took them an hour to decide to issue us key cards for the rooms. Magic bands worked on the original rooms but the key cards allowed us to open the 'right' rooms.

My uncle thought Disney would just let all of us open any one of the 4 rooms.

 

[ArmyVet80]

As others have posted we plan 2 hours from the time we arrive to get to our resort. From there if the room is available we drop our bags off in the room. If the rooms are not available we drop them off at the bell hop and head to the bus stop. Our flights normally arrive between 0900 am and 0945 am. and we make a lunch ADR for 1300-1330 pm. We have never felt rushed like we were going to be late even when we waited 30 minutes to get onto a ME bus. We still arrived at our resort 40 minutes later and had ample amounts of time to make it to our ADR.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

You DO NOT have to stop at the desk to check in. If you link your magic bands to your park tickets and do online check in you NEVER have to visit the front desk. They will text you when your room is ready and your magic band will unlock the door.

We are DVC members and we link everything to our magic bands ahead of time. In April we stayed at the Boardwalk for a week and we NEVER went to the front desk. They texted us our room #, all charges were linked to our credit card and magic band, and magic express infor is slipped under your door the day before you leave.

Don't worry you will be fine with your reservation time. ENJOY!!

Great info!!!