How does a monorail-less WDW operate?

T

tdjustin

New Member
Original Poster
The monorail is no doubt one of the biggest people-moving systems in place at WDW. With this mornings unfortunate news, and the monorails coinciding closure, how did things operate today at the parks?

Anyone visit today? Were bus wait times incredibly effected, or was the back-up plan a smooth transition? How was park hopping, especially from MK to Epcot?
 
heartodisney

heartodisney

Active Member
tdjustin said:
The monorail is no doubt one of the biggest people-moving systems in place at WDW. With this mornings unfortunate news, and the monorails coinciding closure, how did things operate today at the parks?

Anyone visit today? Were bus wait times incredibly effected, or was the back-up plan a smooth transition? How was park hopping, especially from MK to Epcot?
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Sorry...I was not there today...but it is very sad news coming from there. There are PLENTY of buses...taxis...water taxis...rent-a-wrecks..and private vehicles. No need to worry...but..with the monorail down...it is a very different feel to things that I can only imagine! :cry:
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Where is the Magic Kingdom bus drop off location? I would imagine that Busses would have to pick up a lot of the slack.
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
The busses pick up guests from the bus stop area normally designated for busses to DHS, DAK, and DTD resort busses, and drive past the contemporary and drop the guests off at the resort bus stops.

Obviously, they need a lot of extra busses for this.
 
EpcotServo

EpcotServo

Well-Known Member
They set up buses in the old bus plaza to the right of the Epcot Line-between the RestRooms. They usually only do it on crowded days, but I'm sure they will buy off the luxury buses they get for a long period of time this time.
 
Pioneer Hall

Pioneer Hall

Well-Known Member
EPCOT Explorer said:
Well...Don't buses already run to EPCOT from the TTC? I would think only the MK would be effected.
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No. The only transportation between Epcot and the TTC is the monorail.

They use a lot of extra buses and will probably be renting a bunch from Mears as well to help with the overflow.
 
G

glendroid

Active Member
i'm in the magic kingdom area staying at the contemporary and the buses are a bit more busy then usual. The Ferries were JAMMED.

thats all i can say for now. i'll give another update tomorrow. but monorail pink is still in the TTC and monorail orange is sitting in the poly station. purple has been removed i think.
 
a2grafix

a2grafix

Well-Known Member
Although I have not have the privilege of not being at WDW during a monorail outage like this, I have stayed at the Shades of Green the past two years. Shades does have a small fleet of buses, but I normally walk to the Polynesian and hop on the monorail to get to the Magic Kingdom or walk to either the Grand Floridian or TTC in the other direction and grab the monorail for Epcot.

Yes it does appear to be a logistical nightmare but if you plan for it (an many guests probably got the word early Sunday morning), that if you were still headed for Epcot or MGM/DHS, you could take a bus to the Studios and walk the path to the International Gateway to get into Epcot.

The ferry would be the answer through the TTC to get to the Magic Kingdom.
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
DisneyInsider said:
No. The only transportation between Epcot and the TTC is the monorail.

They use a lot of extra buses and will probably be renting a bunch from Mears as well to help with the overflow.
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I should have clarified, sorry...I meant on busy days with phased closings. Since the system is compromised, couldn't they just do that?
 
C

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
That is the theory of buses - flexibility. You can always add more buses, you can always send them to different locations. In this case fromn the resorts they will have to add busses to serve Epcot, and probably a few to also serve the MK although the boats probably take a large percentage of that traffic. And busses can also connect Epcot to the MK - bus stalls can always serve more than one destination. The real issue though is going to be getting from the TTC to the MK. Assuming they keep the adjoining loop line down for a few days, this will be a bit of a hassle.

Looking at the bright side, we will now get a bit more of an answer to the ongoing Monorail expansion debate - can more busses replace the Monorail?
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
cloudboy said:
.

Looking at the bright side, we will now get a bit more of an answer to the ongoing Monorail expansion debate - can more busses replace the Monorail?
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I had thought of that, too.:)


If anything, the silver lining in this, if anything, might be a reworking of the Monorail that not only makes it safer for guests, but more enjoyable, too.
 
bayoutinkbelle

bayoutinkbelle

Active Member
I had to catch a bus back to Pop tonight after dinner at Chef Mickey's, right around 10:30. Lots of charter buses being used and the ferry, as was said by glendroid, was jammed. The Pop stop, usually 18, was moved to 15, and everything beyond Pop was used for TTC.

Just what I observed ...
 
bayoutinkbelle

bayoutinkbelle

Active Member
Adding a few photos -

Yellow monorail sitting inside Contemporary while we were at Chef Mickey's.

ybt6pbipd0.jpg


Some of the crowd waiting to catch a bus to TTC. The line actually stretched back toward the park from this point.

mt9go01pbe.jpg
 
N234MM

N234MM

New Member
Do the ferry boats ever use the second docks by the main docks to speed things up? If they could use these I think it might be quicker. You would never have a boat waiting. They would just pull up into the second dock, unload, load and go.
 
EPCOTPluto

EPCOTPluto

Well-Known Member
I did recall yesterday that Dynamics Bus Lines and other charter buses had a hand in helping people in EPCOT to get to the TTC.
Otherwise, the only thing I noticed was the slightly longer wait at AS Sports for the bus.

Of course, those pics previously posted had MK at yesterday night, so I had only one part of WDW to observe.
 

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