Travel Times from Magic Kingdom to Hotels (for Toddler Naps)

[drobison]

How long does it take to travel between MK and the various hotels (both onsite and offsite)?

We are planning a trip with a 2 and 4 year old and trying to figure out what to do with naps. What does and does not work seems to vary from family to family. The three most popular options seem to be nap in the stroller, go back to the hotel and have the nap work, and go back to the hotel and have a huge meltdown.

In trying to figure out what will work for my kids, I'd like to know how long the trip back to the hotel will take, but I can't find any good information about that. I would really appreciate some ideas of approximate travel times from the experienced members of the forum.

Some of the hotels we are considering are CR, PO, SD, Doubletree Suites, Caribe Royal (offsite). Travel times to these, and any other hotels or general areas, would help us a lot (I think!).

Thanks!

 

[disprincessatheart]

We are driving home as I type. Best case for any Disney resort via bus is about 10 min to get to a bus and 10 to your resort, but for us yesterday it was 1 hr from when we started out of mk until we got to our room. Non Disney hotels will take longer for sure.

 

[partypa]

CR being the Contemporary, it's a 10 minute walk
PO being Port Orleans, about a 10 minute Bus Ride
SD ?
Here is a list of distances between Parks and Disney Resorts
www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/Resorts/resort-distances.htm
If staying outside of Disney, it will take quite a bit of time to leave the Park for a nap. Once you exit the Park you will have to take the Ferry or Monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then walk or take the Tram to your Car,then get out of the Parking Lot and then get to your Hotel. We only stay at Disney Resorts, never rent a car, only use Disney Transportation, so have no idea of real time to off site Hotels

 

[amylynne01]

Not that this resort was on your list, but we found it took FOREVER to get from Animal Kingdom Lodge to MK, like 25-30 minutes plus waiting at the bus stop for a bus (which of course we just missed everytime and waited 15-20 minutes). So that's nearly an hr one way, so we never napped in the room because of the travel time. In my Disney book (Unoffical Guide to Disney), it has a huge chart of travel time from any resort to any park, both car travel and WDW busses.

What time of year are you going? If you're going in a quieter time where the parks close early, you might consider stroller napping. My DD1 was barely 3 when we went in January, and she really only needed an hr nap to make it through the day. DD2 was 19 months, and she would typical sleep longer or take 2 naps (which she didn't do at home). For our next trip in 2013, the girls will be 5 and 3.5, and we will also not be heading to the room for naps. If we were going in July when it's blazing hot, you can bet we'll be doing naps in the room.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

The monorail hotels (like the Contemporary) are the fastest and easiest to get back to because you can just leave the park and get on the monorail. The Contemporary you can even walk to. But that only works for Magic Kingdom.

Going back to, say, Port Orleans in the middle of the day should only take 10 minutes or so. BUT, you have to walk from the park to the bus stop (and, if you've rented a stroller in the park, you have to leave it in the park), wait for the bus - which can take quite a while, especially during mid-day which is a slower time - take the bus back to the hotel, walk from the bus stop to your room. POR is quite spread out as a resort. None of this is a huge deal, but if you have a tired and cranky child it can seem like forever.

I go quite frequently with my grandkids (ages 9, 6, 3 and 1 on our last trip in February) and we've kind of mastered finding quiet spots for kids to nap without having to leave the park. A bench that's a little off the beaten track, a table in a quiet area of a restaurant (they're all less busy by mid-afternoon), a ride like the Carousel of Progress or the Hall of Presidents or the People Mover (I think it has a different name now) or the train that circles the park in MK, or even the monorail, plus an adult who is happy to snuggle with the child as he sleeps. It's worked well for us.

Teresa

 

[bronzebrunette78]

http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx


Good site for playing with travel times

 

[brightspark]

It certainly depends if you are using Disney Buses etc or not.. we've only done it the once with a little one (trip 2 in November) and our ds was 18months when we went. We generally did the nap in the stroller, despite plans to the contrary before we left. Leaving the park is a big deal and uses so much time up. We were at Saratoga Springs and used Disney Buses, so there was the exit, the wait for the bus, the bus journey (in itself not that long), then the walk back to the room from the bus stop carrying all the stuff. I can't be exact, but I would think it takes best part of an hour to get back... (husband just suggested an hour also) and then you have to do it in reverse when going back to the park.

Ds slept in the stroller often. We took one that went almost flat and he slept happily in it. Once asleep Dh and I would wander around shops, or take it in turn to do the big rides...

We went when the weather was cool, so that helped, of course if it's hot, you may all feel the need for a rest somewhere cool such as the hotel...

Good luck with the decision, but I would advise that, although you go with a plan, you remain flexible and see what works for you all once you are there

 

[momto2js]

If you have a car 10 minutes from parking lot to hotel is reasobable. The nice thing about a car is if they fall asleep and your kids don't transfer well is you can just drive around a while. If you are dependant on the disney transit then I'd assume at least 40 minutes from parking lot to hotel, that assumes that often you will have just missed a bus. We have done a few side by side comparisons and the person in the car has beat the person on the transit (eithor bus or boat) by at least 30 and sometimes more like 45 minutes.

We have stayed off site and decided to leave a park and had the kids back in bed in less than 30 minutes. Mine are also 2 and 4 and staying in a place with a seperate bedroom is really nice when one needs a nap and the other doesn't. The non napping kid can still get some quiet play time without disturbing the sleeping kid. If we are in a standard (on-property) room then the awake one has to go to the pool and gets no rest at all.

We do make the nap decision based on the evening plan. If we have a dinner ADR or are planning to do the evening show then we go back mid-day for a rest. If the park closes before 9 and we don't have something special planned then we go as long as we can.

With our kids you have to be careful. You must time the nap just right or mine fall asleep in the stroller or car and then the older one thinks he is done with that 30 minutes. If you do the timiing right it can work well. But we only manage it about 1/2 the time.

 

[Meshell2002]

Last trip we stayed at POFQ....we averaged 30 minutes from park gate to hotel....that includes waiting for the bus....the MK bus runs more often that AK or DHS bus. That was in Oct. We left the parks around 1 and came back around 430-5 and stayed until 9-10pm. My kids nap at home so I didn't have problems....they took naps cause they knew if they did we would stay for fireworks.

This trip we are trying the CR....but traveling in Nov for cooler weather.

 

[hannahdrewmom]

We found that trips on monorail or walking to Epcot (think BC/YC/BW) average about 10-15 minutes from front gate to bedroom. This doesn't include getting to the front gate, but you can probably add 10 minutes depending at where you are at in the park.

We found that trips to hotels offsite or trips including buses to other onsite resorts average about 40 minutes from front gate because of having to either wait for the bus and then travel or make it to the parking lot, take a tram, and then drive to hotel.

With young kids I'd say CR is the best choice if you can afford it since most of your time will be spent at MK. It also is nice to be able to watch evening parades/fireworks and be home in 10 minutes We do love other locations though too..... you just have to plan for the breaks a little earlier than normal. We ALWAYS leave the park for naps as my kids wont nap in strollers. (Plus the middle of the day is really hot! Depending on when you travel depends on just how REALLY it is )

 

[Kat&Dom]

When we stayed at All Stars Music - it took about 35 minutes with waiting for the bus at Magic Kingdom then the drive. We ended up taking the All Stars Sports bus because we waited so long for the Music bus.

When we stayed off-site at Grand Beach Resort and Sheraton Vistana Resort - it was 20 minutes from Magic Kingdom to hotel - my son was just falling asleep when we arrived at the hotel.

On our trip in April 2010, we stayed out in Kissimmee and it was about 35 minutes so comparable to All Stars Music but without all the waiting in the heat - we were in an air conditioned car within 10 minutes of leaving Magic Kingdom.

I hope that helps!

 

[drobison]

Thanks for all the feedback--very helpful to us (and hopefully to future people who search the forum).

We are going at Thanksgiving, which helps with the heat being an issue. We are driving down, so we'll have a car.

We ended up going with the Doubletree in Downtown Disney. We liked the idea of a suite with a separate room to give us more options during nap time. We'll have both sets of grandparents with us, too, so there will two other rooms available if needed.

We anticipate taking the bus to Magic Kingdom, but I plan to keep the option of driving open.

 

[monorailsilver]

I'd plan for an hour. It might not take that long but you never know. I don't think it has ever taken us that long.

We stay at the Poly & we do the monorail to from MK/Epcot so we can easily be back in 15 min. Sometimes we do the resort boat from the MK too.

Going to/from AK & the studios took longer depending on the bus wait. But because we stay at the Poly, we tend to look for 2 buses-the Poly bus (combined with other resorts) or the TTC bus since we could easily walk back or hop on the monorail.

We go in the summer so a mid day break is a must for us. We get to the EMH park early, have lunch at the park & then leave by 1 & return at about 5. I have showered my kids before their nap (even my then 7 yo napped) so they were ready upon wake up. Those were the days that they were really sweaty or really wet from running thru one of the splash pad areas.

 

[Suzanne74]

If you are going in peak times, when it is hot and/or the parks are open late (fireworks won't be until 9pm) then I would highly recommend leaving for naps.

If you are there in winter, when it gets darker earlier, or the parks close early, then napping in strollers could work, although my kids never seem to do well with that.

When my kids are young and we leave for naps, I ALWAYS rent a car and stay onsite. I hated waiting for transportation. In the middle of the afternoon, they always seemed so slow and at the end of the night, you are sometimes waiting over an hour in line to get on a bus. Never fun with super young kids. I recommend Saratoga Springs, Old Key West, Animal Kingdom Kidani, Coronado, or Pop Century as places you can quickly get to your room from a parking spot. Usually quicker than getting to a bus stop. You can also stay on the monorail but obviously you are shelling out a lot of money for that perk. I would probably stay at Poly or Contemporary. I personally love the 1 bedrooms at OKW. Quiet for naps and you park right in front of your room.

I do find going back to the hotel soooooo nice. One parent would stay with the sleeping kids and nap/relax/shower. The other would go to the pool and relax. Once the kids got up we were all rejuvenated for the late afternoon/evening. The kids never melted and we always packed lightly at the parks.