Disney Transportation

Disney transportation is a wonderful tool for getting around Disney property. Imagine, being immersed in a world where you can literally park your car on the day you arrive at your hotel, and never touch it again until you check out to drive home. Better yet, imagine parking your car at the airport near your house and not using a set of keys again until you land after your trip. This can all be done through the magic of Disney. It may take a little bit of planning, but it can be a relaxing tool to make your vacation stress free. Now to offer you a few tips to make it stress free.

If you are flying into MCO (Orlando) and staying on property, you get to take advantage of Disney's Magical Express. This is a wonderful service that will pick you up at the airport, bus you to your resort, and even pick up your luggage for you at baggage claim and magically make it appear in your hotel room. All you have to do is take your family, along with your carry ons, and check in at the magical express booth when you land. The rest is handled by Disney. My only suggestion is if you do take advantage of this service, pack a change of clothes in your carry on and any essential medications as it could be three or more hours before you get your luggage delivered to your room. We learned this the hard way the first time we used this service. Although it was August, some of us wore jeans for the flight thinking we would change when we got to the room. Since our luggage wasn't there yet and we wanted to go to the parks, we walked Magic Kingdom in jeans in 95 degree temperatures. Lesson learned and that mistake was not made next time :)

When you fly, unless you choose to rent a car after you arrive, you are forced to rely on Disney transportation. With a little planning, this can be a stress free way to go. Getting from your resort to any theme park is easy. You simply walk to the bus stops at your hotel, find the sign for the park you want to go to, and get in line. Once the bus comes, get on, ride to the park, and be deposited close to the main entrance. Easy peasie. My only recommendation is to allow plenty of travel time. If you are trying to get to a park for opening, chances are a lot of others are as well so the line will be long. There is a chance you may have to wait for a second bus if the line is too long. Disney is pretty good about sending buses in the mornings so you probably won't have to wait long for the next one, but if you are insistent on being there for opening, or if you have a breakfast reservation, allow an extra 10 to 20 minutes in to your travel time just in case. There is one other thing that can slow down the buses in the morning (or anytime). More and more people are using the motorized scooters to get around, which are great, but they can slow the bus loading procedures down. The bus driver gets off and helps the passenger load the scooter. No one else can be on the bus while this happens, so everyone else starts loading once the scooter passenger is loaded. It can add 5 to 10 minutes based on the experience of the bus driver, so another example of why you need to plan ahead if you need to be at the park at a certain time.

Getting back to the resort is pretty easy, and actually pretty relaxing at night. You walk to the bus stops at the park and find the one labeled for your resort. Then you get in line, wait for a bus, and collapse onto it while the driver worries about the traffic around you. There have been more times than I can count where this ride has been taken with my sweet angel sacked out in my lap. Those were the sweetest rides!

So getting to the parks is pretty easy. However, getting to another resort for a dining reservation can be a little trickier. The best thing to do is to find the closest resort to the hotel you are trying to get to for your meal. Then you ride the bus to that park and catch a bus (or ferry, or monorail) to the resort you are trying to get to. Reverse the process to get back to your home resort. A few examples. If you are trying to get to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary, ride your home resort bus to Magic Kingdom and then either walk or catch the monorail to the Contemporary. If you are trying to get to Whispering Canyon, again ride to the Magic Kingdom and catch either a bus or the water ferry to the Wildnerness Lodge. If you are trying to get to Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge, ride your bus to Animal Kingdom, then ride a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. For this one though, when you leave you will probably have to ride the bus to another park as Animal Kingdom park will probably be closed by the time you are done with dinner. The important thing to remember is that buses do not run from resort to resort so you have to find a theme park as a transfer point.

One final suggestion. If you do have a car and don't like the idea of using the bus system, you can park free at the theme parks when you stay on property. However, I would suggest using the bus system for your days at Magic Kingdom. When you drive to Magic Kingdom, you park in the lot, then everyone has to either take the ferry or monorail to the park entrance. This can really add time to your morning. However, if you take the Disney bus they will drop you off right outside the turnstiles and you only have to walk a short distance to the front gate. This can really save you time in the morning, and when you leave at night.