Monorail resort hopping day!

[pho3nix]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right place to post my question!

We are heading to Orlando from Tampa on 1st Jan and my thought for this afternoon is to get a disney fix before we start our time at Universal - I was thinking of resort hopping on the monorail? Will the Christmas Decs still be up? What's the best route? Where to stop for snacks? Drinks? We are heading for dinner at 7pm to the Melting Pot so will have all afternoon!

All advise and options appreciated!

Thanks,

Stacey

[nothingless]

We did a resort hopping day last year but actually made it a Skyliner one just for a change! We parked at Disney Springs, walked to SSR and had a snack and nosy there, took the bus to Hollywood Studios, and the Skyliner to AoA, where we stopped and ate proper lunch and checked out the lobby, the shop, and all the life sized figures everywhere, then to Caribbean Beach where we had coffees and another nosy around (the pool looks so great!), and we were going to go to Riviera too but we kind of ran out of time so took the bus back to Disney Springs from CBR - but if you have more time, you easily could have walked over to Riviera, and then bus back to Disney Springs from there. This was not at Christmas time though, so I can't speak to the decorations etc, although as far as I know, every single resort has a nice tree up!

If you definitely want to do monorail instead of Skyliner, you can take a bus from DS to either the Poly, GF, or Contemporary, and then do a monorail loop there. If you get off at MK, you could also hop on the boat to Wilderness Lodge and/or Fort Wilderness there too to expand your loop - the holiday decorations and holiday food at both resorts are definitely worth the detour, usually - they 100% were for us in 2019!

[juless77]

Ooo this sounds a good idea

[mick]

Every visit (sometimes twice) we park up at DS and do a tour of the resorts and will, negative test permitting , be doing the same next month.

Never been in Jan but fairly sure that the decorations will still be up. Here's the gingerbread house at the GF for example.

One note of caution though. Buses to the monorail loop resorts (and the Boardwalk area) don't start running until 11am. This is to deter people bussing it to the Contemporary and walking to MK to avoid parking charges.

Look for the right bus here

Mick

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by nothingless

We did a resort hopping day last year but actually made it a Skyliner one just for a change! We parked at Disney Springs, walked to SSR and had a snack and nosy there, took the bus to Hollywood Studios, and the Skyliner to AoA, where we stopped and ate proper lunch and checked out the lobby, the shop, and all the life sized figures everywhere, then to Caribbean Beach where we had coffees and another nosy around (the pool looks so great!), and we were going to go to Riviera too but we kind of ran out of time so took the bus back to Disney Springs from CBR - but if you have more time, you easily could have walked over to Riviera, and then bus back to Disney Springs from there. This was not at Christmas time though, so I can't speak to the decorations etc, although as far as I know, every single resort has a nice tree up!

If you definitely want to do monorail instead of Skyliner, you can take a bus from DS to either the Poly, GF, or Contemporary, and then do a monorail loop there. If you get off at MK, you could also hop on the boat to Wilderness Lodge and/or Fort Wilderness there too to expand your loop - the holiday decorations and holiday food at both resorts are definitely worth the detour, usually - they 100% were for us in 2019!

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Thanks Nothingless. Skyline tour sounds amazing - wish we had time for both! I think I would likento see the Poly and the GF. How long did you take in 2019 - trying to judge if we have time for Wilderness Lodge too!

[pho3nix]

Originally Posted by mick

Every visit (sometimes twice) we park up at DS and do a tour of the resorts and will, negative test permitting , be doing the same next month.

Never been in Jan but fairly sure that the decorations will still be up. Here's the gingerbread house at the GF for example.

One note of caution though. Buses to the monorail loop resorts (and the Boardwalk area) don't start running until 11am. This is to deter people bussing it to the Contemporary and walking to MK to avoid parking charges.

Look for the right bus here

Mick

See more...

Thanks Mick! That's super helpful!
We will be driving over from Tampa in the morning so will aim to arrive at DS, have a wander and be ready to start our resort hopping at 11am! How long do you usually spend?

[nothingless]

Originally Posted by pho3nix

How long did you take in 2019 - trying to judge if we have time for Wilderness Lodge too!

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We didn't do the proper loop in one go in 2019 - we did a monorail loop one day but didn't actually get off anywhere lol, and we took the boat to Wilderness Lodge on Dec 26, to escape the MK crowds for a while. The boat ride itself is maybe 10 minutes or so? We just looooved seeing the huge Christmas tree and all the decorations at WL, we spent maybe an hour or two there. Sat down in the lobby, got drinks from the bar and cupcakes from Roaring Fork and just relaxed and took it all in. The boat to WL leaves from the dock just below the MK monorail station.

We were at Fort Wilderness that year for Mickey's Backyard BBQ on Christmas day, and we loved the decorations there too, so if you like the boat and you have plenty of time, you could travel on to there from WL too. But if you have limited time, I'd take the boat back to MK from WL and focus on Poly and GF, as they have awesome decorations too.

[mick]

Originally Posted by pho3nix

Thanks Mick! That's super helpful!
We will be driving over from Tampa in the morning so will aim to arrive at DS, have a wander and be ready to start our resort hopping at 11am! How long do you usually spend?

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It's a pleasure. Just nice to get back to talking about people's real plans again.

If you just did a circuit of the three resorts without getting off I guess it takes around 15-20 minutes as it also stops at the MK entrance and the ticket centre.

How long you spend at each is up to you really. We never eat anywhere but maybe have a soda at one and do a bit of people watching or a mooch round the shops.

Maybe spend up to an hour at GF because the grounds are massive as well but less at the Poly and Contemporary.

You can also spend at least an hour at DS just wandering and spending nothing. In 2018 and 2019 there was a Christmas Tree walk through there and all the trees were decorated in Disney film or park themes.

Enjoy

[caj]

I remember, back on jan 1st 2015, having been there for Christmas, how many decs had begun to come down. Will it be Christmassy? Yes. Will it be AS Christmassy? I think slightly less so.

Would I do this regardless? 100% YES !

[mick]

Originally Posted by caj

I remember, back on jan 1st 2015, having been there for Christmas, how many decs had begun to come down. Will it be Christmassy? Yes. Will it be AS Christmassy? I think slightly less so.

Would I do this regardless? 100% YES !

See more...

caj

We've arrived in Florida on 31 October a couple of times and visited Celebration the next day. By mid-afternoon about 75% of the house's Halloween decorations were being removed to be replaced with inflatable Thanksgiving turkeys.

Mick