Transportation in the City of Disney World

Covering about 40 square miles, Walt Disney World is the size of two Manhattans, or one San Francisco. Due to its massive size, multiple transportation options are a must. I didn’t get to experience all of the transportation options at Disney, but I definitely hit up most, and here’s what I discovered.

Before your trip even begins, Disney nails the transportation from the airport. As soon as you have your flights booked, make sure you ask your travel agent to book your Magical Express. Magical Express is Disney’s airport transfer service, and it is complimentary for all guests staying on site. However, as you may recall from this post, this is not just a human transport service. It is also a luggage transport service. Well of course it is, Arden, what kind of airport transportation would make you leave your luggage behind? Sorry, let me explain. They do not only transfer your luggage to your hotel, but they PICK UP YOUR LUGGAGE FROM BAGGAGE CLAIM. Let me say that again. You do not have to wait for your bags when you land in Orlando. You can go straight to the bus, and within 3 hours of your arrival your bags will magically appear in your hotel room. Because Disney is magical.

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I’m going to be honest. When I booked my trip I did not immediately book my Magical Express. I was raised by Brian Finn, and if you know him, you know he will do anything in his power to avoid any form of public transportation. I’m a pretty big fan of the NYC subway, because it gets places faster than taxis and it’s much cheaper, but other than that I also tend to avoid public transportation and prefer to use my own car or an Uber. However, after thinking about it and realizing the nature of this trip was part research, and the service is free, I decided to book Magical Express. And if I’m still being honest, my thought process behind this was not to book it to use it. I wanted to see what the luggage tags looked like, and what the information packet came with, so that I could better answer questions about the service if clients asked. I truly had no intention of landing at Orlando airport and getting on a bus instead of into an Uber, and as two adults traveling for four days we did not check bags so that super cool perk was worthless to us. 

And then we landed, and I said to Eric, “do you want to take the bus or an Uber?” and he (somewhat surprisingly) said “the bus is free, let’s just take it,” and I said “okay, this sheet says the bus makes multiple stops and could take 45-75 minutes to get to our resort,” and he said “okay never mind, I’ll call an Uber.” 

And then we started walking to the train to the main terminal and ground transportation as Eric looked on his phone and saw that an Uber would be over $50 and also take about 45-50 minutes. So we decided right there at the airport to follow signs to Magical Express instead, and I’m so glad we did (and not just because of the research). 

When we got to the entrance, they scanned our magic bands and directed us to a specific line. From there, they showed us to our bus, the Yacht Club, Beach Club, and Boardwalk Inn bus. Five minutes later, we were rolling. I need to specify that the magical express lines and bus were empty, so it might not always move this quickly, but based on our return trip I would assume it usually runs this smoothly. 

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For the return trip, we got a notice in our hotel room the day before we left listing our departure time. We went down to the bus pick up, and waited about five minutes. When the bus got there we got right on and the driver put our bags under the bus. We made two more pick up stops, and the bus was pretty full. It was still smooth and quick, and when we got to the airport even though our bags were the last off the bus, the driver got everything off within five minutes. 

Okay, we liked Magical Express, enough about that. 

Within Disney World, there are four types of complimentary transportation: buses, monorail, boats, and the brand new Disney Skyliner. 

Every hotel has bus transportation at the resorts to and from the parks and Disney Springs, and it begins about 30-60 minutes before park opening. The buses are reliable in the sense that you know they will always be operating, and every hotel has them. However, they can definitely get crowded and you can definitely run into some long waits for them.

We did not have any issues while we were there, but because we were staying at the Yacht Club, we did not have to take buses to most of the parks. We did take it to Animal Kingdom right at opening though, and it was pretty simple to just walk out and hop on the bus. There weren’t too many people, so we didn’t have to wait in line. We also took it from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios which was also super quick and not too crowded. Our last bus ride was from Magic Kingdom back to the Yacht Club. This was probably the most crowded and had the longest wait time, but we still got on the first bus and didn’t really wait more than 10 minutes. However, we did NOT take any buses at the end of the night at park closing, partially because I do not stay out until those insane hours, but mostly because we had dinner reservations, and if you know me you know that food is VERY important to me (look out for my dining plan post coming soon!). I would imagine, and I’ve heard, that the buses could be a bit trickier at that time though.

The second form of complimentary transportation is the boats. There are boats to and from Epcot and Hollywood Studios from some of the Epcot area resorts, and to and from Magic Kingdom from some of the Magic Kingdom area resorts. There are also a few resorts that have boats to Disney Springs. This is definitely a low stress transportation option (unless you’re scared of boats – more on that in a minute). I’m not actually sure about the frequency of this option, but I stayed at the Yacht Club and I saw boats coming and going all day. It seems pretty frequent, although I’m sure it depends on time of day, crowds, location, etc. My guess is they run about every 15 minutes, similar to the buses, but the comfortably fit way more people.

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I did take the boat one time from Hollywood Studios back to the hotel. I have a pretty serious boat phobia, but this is mostly under control in a situation like Disney where the water is super calm and the boat is super slow. However, as we approached a bridge, the boat stopped. The cast member on board got on the mic and said “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are stopped because our engine has broken down, and we’re waiting for someone to come and get us. We are not sure how long this will take…” …insert long pause… “just kidding. We can’t have two boats under the bridge at once, we’ll be moving in a minute.” FYI my heart stopped for a second and I did not find this funny. Other than that, the boats were uneventful. 

The third form of complimentary transportation is the Disney Skyliner. This was my favorite option. Sure, some people are scared of this, but like I said here, this is a ski gondola. And let’s be honest, it’s way less scary than the boat. The Skyliner is the best option because it is continuous. You don’t have to stand in line with no way of knowing when the next car will come, because it keeps moving and so does the line. Something about moving continuously makes waiting easier, and feel shorter, even if it’s not. The Skyliner connects Epcot and Hollywood studios to multiple resorts, and to each other, and I hope Disney decides to expand this one day soon. If I were in charge, I’d try to connect it to Animal Kingdom, as this is the only park with only bus transportation, but it’s also pretty far so maybe not so easy logistically. Also, no one has put me in charge yet.

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The fourth form of complimentary transportation is the monorail. It’s also the only transportation option that I did not take while there. And here’s why. On our last morning there, we decided that since we were so close to Epcot we’d pop in for one more meal and a couple of rides before our flight. I woke up earlier than Eric (obviously) and thought I’d go take a look at the monorail hotels. My plan was to Uber to the Grand Floridian, then walk to the Polynesian, then hop on the monorail to get to Epcot for breakfast. When my Uber pulled into the Grand Floridian, the driver, who was also a Disney Cast Member, said “Uh-Oh, why is the monorail stopped again?” And I looked up to see a stopped monorail in the middle of the track, with no way on or off. Although the monorail is pretty reliable, it’s also super old so I believe this is not a super uncommon occurrence. Also, the Uber driver’s “again” was pretty telling. By the time I left a few minutes later, the monorail was moving. If it wasn’t flight day, I would’ve risked it and got on. But I had two adorable monsters to get home to, so I wasn’t interested in getting stuck on a monorail. 

All in all, if you want to go from hotel to park, hotel or park to Disney Springs, or park to park, Disney transportation is pretty easy, quick, and reliable. Hotel to hotel is trickier and you may need to transfer, so keep that in mind when making dining reservations at other hotels if you don’t want to Uber. Speaking of dining reservations, stay tuned or subscribe to read all about all of the awesome food I got to experience on the Deluxe Dining Plan!