Whether you are a seasoned traveler to Walt Disney World or you are planning your first visit, you know that time, timing, and time- saving are a priority when trying to plan out your perfect Disney World trip.
Walt Disney World
We are here to tell you that not all Walt Disney World Resort hotels are the best choice in terms of time-saving strategies. In fact, some may be a complete waste of your time!
Walt Disney World is a MASSIVE destination that is home to dozens of resort hotels with a total of over 30,000 hotel rooms! That doesn’t mean each and every resort is walking distance from the parks. Some hotels can be a complete waste of your time while staying on property, and here are some reasons why!
Walt Disney World Dolphin
Some Hotels Are Just Too Far From The Parks
One of the biggest wastes of your precious Disney fun time could be going from your resort hotel to your favorite Disney World park. For example, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is roughly 12 miles from Magic Kingdom. 12 miles can mean a good 30-45 minute bus ride from the entrance of the hotel to the entrance of Magic Kingdom.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Another hotel that is nestled far from some of the parks is Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. At about 11 miles from Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you can expect another 30-45 minute bus ride.
Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
Some Hotels Are Just Too Spread Out
As mentioned above, the Fort Wilderness Campground is a far bus ride to Animal Kingdom, and is also one of the most spread-out resorts on Walt Disney World property — at about 750 acres.
Fort Wilderness
In fact, guests that stay at the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds often opt to rent a golf cart to make it easier to get around the resort. You can imagine how time-consuming it would be to make your way to a Disney bus station and to your favorite Disney World park if you decided to stay here!
Another spread-out resort that can waste your time is Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside.
Port Orleans Riverside Pathway
With its windy pathways, bridges across the river, and several guest room buildings spread out, Port Orleans Riverside comes in at about 325 acres of land.
Port Orleans
While the grounds are just beautiful, getting to a bus station or the main building, Sassagoula Steamboat Company, can prove to be time-consuming. Some guests have mentioned that it can take 10 minutes or more to walk from their room to the entrance of the hotel.
Port Orleans Resort
Difficult Transportation Systems
Arguably, the transportation systems at Walt Disney World are one of the best and worst-thought-out systems on earth. Well, that may be a little dramatic, but we can honestly say that with Walt Disney World being such a MASSIVE property, transportation is important!
Disney Transport Bus Stop Times
Walt Disney World has transportation options to suit every guest’s needs. That doesn’t mean that the options available to guests are easy or fast. Some work better than others in terms of getting guests to their destinations faster than others, but some resort hotels only offer bus transportation, which can really hinder getting to the parks quickly.
Disney Bus Transportation
If you are staying at a bus-only resort hotel, like Animal Kingdom Lodge, we suggest giving yourself a good 60-90 minutes during park opening and closing times to get to and from your resort.
If you are staying at a resort hotel like Caribbean Beach Resort, be sure to set aside even more time because that resort hotel has EIGHT bus stops within the resort! Depending on where your room is located, you could stop SEVERAL times before making it to your stop.
Caribbean Beach has an internal shuttle!
During peak operating times, buses could arrive every 15-20 minutes; however, if you leave a park in the middle of the day to go back to your room for a sweater or a snack, you could be looking at a 1-2 hour process.
Crowded Bus Stop
To make sure you are staying at a resort hotel that will not be a complete waste of time, there is only one thing to think about. What parks will I be visiting (if all parks, what parks will I be visiting the most)?
Skyliner Transportation
Why do you ask? Well, if you’re planning to spend the most time at EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we suggest that you try to stay at a resort hotel that has Skyliner transportation, as that will be your quickest transportation option. Taking the Skyliner can be one of the most fun, easiest, and quickest transportation options on Disney World property.
Likewise, if you’ll be spending more time at Magic Kingdom, a Monorail resort, like Polynesian Village or the Contemporary will save you tons of time. And if you love, love, love Disney Springs, you might want to stay at Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, or Port Orleans, where there is boat transportation to get to Disney Springs and back.
There’s no “bad” Disney resort or “bad” Disney vacation, but it an be hard to choose a hotel, so we hope these tips help!
To make sure you know the ins and outs of Walt Disney World, make sure you check this out!
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Though Port Orleans Riverside, is massive and spread out, it is the feel you get of not being in a close and jumbled or high rise resort. Or, with a bunch of loud or rambunctious kids.
The only real problem is of course, the bus transportation. With it being so large and having few buses to service it, wait times, can be quite long at times. However, for relaxation, and atmosphere it cannot be beat.
I absolutely LOVE the SkyLiner! It’s so peaceful and relaxing. I won’t go so far as to say it’s therapeutic, but I will say ‘soothing.’ Pair it with a frosty coffee drink from Joffrey’s and it’s pretty close to heaven :).
I’m in total agreement about the transportation time wasting. One thing I miss in this article is the fact that the monorail has no posted schedule; you can’t predict how long you’ll wait for one so it always feels like a frustrating and unnecessary gamble to me. I like taking the boat over to MK, etc., but I wish there were more of them so the wait wasn’t so long.
For better & worse, our DVC home resort is AK Lodge. Looking at google maps, they say if I want to take the Disney Bus to Hollywood Studios it will take a total of *55!* minutes. Also, you might have to wait at the hotel bus stop or at MK bus stop, either which can be up to 30 (!!!) mins. And, what’s worse is that although the bus ride itself is only 14 minutes of that travel time from the hotel, the last 14 minutes is walking from the bus stop to MK gates. If it’s 88F and 90% humidity (or actually raining) that’s pretty un-fun, if you ask me. I know: I’m going to a park to walk around most of the day, anyway. I guess I resent getting myself pre-tired and pre-sweaty before I even get to the park gates. What’s worse (or better?) is that the drive in a regular car (like your own, Lyft, Uber, etc.) is only 9 short, air conditioned minutes door-to-door (or, door to SkyLiner top, if you will).
This is why I wish I could pay less for hotel, not have access to the free bus and just use that money for Lyfts. I know that’s not an option, so I’ll just selectively pay for those shorter car rides (if I can convince my family, who for some reason will die on a hill of loving the bus from AK lodge to wherever – god bless).