If you read last week’s Disney post – I talked about staying off property. If you do decide to stay off property – here’s tip 2:
Use Google Maps. It sounds logical right? Disney is masterful at signage, customer service, and getting you to walk, drive, ride, eat, move, and experience the property in patterns and set rules. So, if you’re staying off property – the normal behavior is to follow the very clear and obvious signs to whatever park you want to go… Trust me, use Google Maps. They’ll show you the fastest way to get to your next park, and not necessarily the Disney way.
Tip 3:
If you are staying off-property, then you can park at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios in the parking lots for those 3 parks. If you’re going to Magic Kingdom, you actually park at the Transportation and Ticket Center. Walt didn’t want folks to be able to see the park from the parking lot – so he put the main parking on the other side of the 7 Seas Lagoon. So your options to get to the park are the monorail and the ferry. They (the Disney transportation folks) tell you that the ferry is just as fast as the monorail. Don’t believe them, AND hope that the monorail is functioning (the last 3 trips we’ve taken, it’s been down 50% of the time that we’ve been arriving or leaving the park – another factor to consider if you’re staying at one of the three very high-priced monorail resorts!)
If they are functioning properly – you still have two choices – the Express Monorail and the Resort Monorail. If there’s a significant line for the express monorail (extending down the ramp would be what I’d consider ‘significant’) then take the Resort Monorail. The signage makes it LOOK like it’s only for resort guests, but it’s open to anyone, and with significant lines for the express monorail – the resort monorail is usually empty and gets you there quicker…
