Transportation Questions (Theme Parks to Resorts)

[Burgundy Rose]

Hello everyone,

My boyfriend and I are going to Disney World next year in July (13-27, I know, but we had no choice) for the first time and I'm the main planner. Our ADRs are a few months away but I'm starting to worry about transportation. It sounds like a nightmare.

We will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside and have park hopper tickets. However, I'm a foodie. That's when things get complicated. I'm worrying about how long it will take us to go from the theme parks to the resorts (which sounds, from everything I've been reading, like where most of the best table service restaurants are) when we have ADRs (which is going to be most days).

I'll take an example. We've planned to spend 2 days at each park (but 1 at Hollywood Studios).

Magic Kingdom Day 1
Breakfast: Kona
Lunch: Peco's Bill
Dinner: Artist Point​

This isn't set in stone, I have a list of places I'd like to eat at but the days are flexible. For example, we might not do Kona and Artist Point on the same day but I wanted to give an example where we'd have 2 restaurants at two different resorts on a park day to see what the strategy would be.

For this example, would you do Port Orleans Riverside BUS TO> Magic Kingdom MONORAIL TO> Kona, eat, then MONORAIL TO> Magic Kingdom? Which means that you'd hit Magic Kingdom at what? 11? Assuming you grab the earliest possible reservation and eat at a relatively speedy pace, how long would that all take? Do we need to choose between good food or enjoying the parks to the full?

I've tried to think about resort restaurants which are close to the parks we're going to that day, but still. Can you have breakfast in a resort that's not yours every day of your stay and still enjoy the parks? (We also want to go to Tusker House, Boma and Whispering Canyon Cafe for breakfast, and Trail's End would be awesome too).

At night, we absolutely want to prioritize seeing night shows, so for MK that would be Happily Ever After, Once Upon a Time and the Electrical Water Pageant. Right now, looking at the calendar, it would mean that we'd be busy from 8:30 to 11 with those. I know the hours will be a bit different for July but I assume not by much.

Option 1
We have a table service reservation for lunch, and a quick service meal for dinner so we can stay in the park to enjoy the nighttime shows.
Problem: Most table services restaurants I'm interested in are in the resorts, not in the theme parks. Another problem is that some of them (I'm looking at you, Jiko, Yachtsman Steakhouse, or V&A) are only open for dinner.​

Option 2
We have a table service reservation for dinner and a quick service meal for lunch so we can leave the park to have dinner and then come back.
Problem: It seems impossible to me to book for dinner (even at, say 6, which means that we'd leave at what? 5?), have dinner, and then come back in time for the night shows.
Another problem is the dress code. How can we even go back to the hotel and change on top of that without losing too much park time?​

This is an incredibly long message, I'm so sorry. I think it all boils down to - is there a balance to be found between enjoying the parks to the full (we don't know when we'll be able to afford to come back) and enjoying the great restaurants we want to visit too? Our local park is Disneyland Paris where everything is within walking distance so we've never had this problem before. We've visited other theme parks but they closed way earlier so we were able to enjoy the parks completely and then leave and go to any restaurant we wanted.

Thanks for any help!

 

[paradesintherain]

For Kona you'd have to take a bus to MK and then monorail to the Poly. Artist Point would actually make a lot of sense on an MK day too. There's a boat from MK to WL, and it's a very pleasant ride. Also I think Kona opens at 8 (possibly earlier) so it's feasible for you to be in MK by 10ish.

As far as places like Jiko, you could also use Uber to get to AKL. It would be a lot faster than Disney transportation

 

[adelaster]

It's a drag, but it may not be as bad as you think. There is always the option of using a ride service too. I did a character breakfast at Ohana and still made rope drop at MK last year when people on this board said it would be impossible. It really depends on when you are traveling between places and how the crowds are that day. Disney food is slowwwww. Which is why we mostly do quick service.

You can definitely do the best of both but it will require compromise and planning. Like, eat at off times. For your day one example I'd be wary of an early adr. We were told there would be breakfast buses, but even at the bus stop by 6:30 we didn't get a bus until after 7, got stuck in traffic, and then couldn't use the monorail yet. Thankfully the bus driver was super kind and took us to the resort. For my next visit we plan to use a ride service that early. Stupid, as they promise transit-but it isn't always reliable. You could luck out and have both buses and monorail working before 7, but I just won't count on that again.

The rest of your day would be fine. Hang out at MK, eat Pecos at 11:30 or after 1. Bus back to your resort, relax, change for dinner. Bus back to MK, spend a bit more time in the park and/or use the boat to go to WL for dinner at 4 or 7. Boat back to MK for evening fireworks or watch them from the distance elsewhere. Hopefully that makes sense.

Florida is no France, but I'm sure it will work out. We stay closest to where we eat the most, which is Disney Springs. In the future you'll know what you like and will be able to do the same! If you are staying at POR, the boatride to Disney Springs is lovely. I should also add that all of this will be a little harder with more people and/or children.

 

[Burgundy Rose]

Thank you both for your thoughtful replies. After further consideration, I've decided that the best option for us would be to use either Minnie Vans if they're available at POR by then, or Uber (as you suggested, paradiseintherain) and use the lockers at the entrance of each parks on days when we have dinner at a restaurant that requires a dress code. This way we'll be able to circulate freely between the resorts and not waste time going back to our hotels. We do have 1 day when we're planning on taking our time to stroll, visit, take boats, etc and just soak up the atmosphere, but I think private transportation will save us a lot of headache on park days.

Thanks for the encouraging words, adelaster I wanted to stay at AKL originally at it seems like it'd be the best food-wise but our budget didn't stretch that far. I'm excited about visiting it, though!