Is the price of staying on the monorail loop worth it?

[acishere]

For $2000 I would be glad to stay in Riverside. I split MK into 2 days and only stay late for 1 of those so I'm fine with the buses. If you have kids that want MK all day, almost everyday, then it will save you lots of time. If you are balancing your time equally among all the parks, is that monorail really that important?

 

[BrittanyRose428]

I stayed at French Quarter and the buses were completely fine, no horror stories here. I would say if you have the extra money the monorail resorts are worth it, but if you are trying to save some money there was nothing wrong with Port Orleans.

 

[rnese]

When you stayed at the Contemporary Garden View 2 years ago, didn't' you take the buses to Studios and AK? or haven't you used the Disney buses at all yet?

We did use the buses for those. However, there was never more than 3 or 4 people at those bus stops waiting. Having 2 boys, age 9 and 6, the MK is the big park. We'll be there for a week and plan on going to AK for 1/2 day and DHS for one. The rest spent at MK and EPCOT...so we'd only use the buses for those 2 days. Hmm...guess I'm rationalizing the value here.

 

[zurgandfriend]

Simply put, it is to our family.

 

[Paul G.]

The family and I are heading to the World in late June. We've already reserved a room in the Contemporary Tower (Lake view). We have two boys, ages 9 and 6. We stayed in the Contemporary (Garden Wing) two years ago and absolutely LOVED that we could walk to and from the MK and take the monorail to EPCOT and to the Poly for dinner at O'Hana. Now, money is tight so recently the wife and I have been thinking about downgrading to Riverside in an effort to cut cost. We don't spend much time at the resort, which would make the move easy. HOWEVER, we have heard horror stories about having to take buses, especially back to the resort at the end of the day. If we do make the switch from the Contemporary to Riverside, we'll be saving about $2000!

My fear is that I'll be standing at the bus stop outside the MK after the fireworks, waiting for a bus, and just staring at the Contemporary, kicking myself. QUESTION, is the price of staying on the monorail loop worth it for my family? Your input is greatly appreciated.

Have stayed at Port Orleans 9 times in August and at Christmas, the bus system can be hit or miss.Never really been a big issue. The resort is beautiful and easy to get around.

 

[got2lovedisney]

When we stayed at the Poly, the 2 days we went to the MK, the monorail was down. The alternate boat service took FOREVER! So long that I called the front desk, found that the monorail was back online, walked back in to the resort and hopped over to the MK before the boat had even reached our dock. The Contemporary was a much nicer stay as we could walk over. Is it worth the extra cash? No, I don't think so. Wilderness Lodge is my favorite deluxe choice. For mods, POFQ...the bus truly is not as bad as people make out.

 

[Mukta]

Put a few hundred dollars from the $2000 aside and spend it on cabs. Take a cab from PORS to Contemp in the morning and walk to MK. Walk to Contemp at night and take a cab back to PORS. It will cost you $40 roundtrip and you won't have to wait for buses.

 

[Dog Ate Mouse]

Staying on the loop is strictly ones preferance or at times ones budget. Now the DW and I have stayed at PORs about 9 times so far and never had an issue with transportation to and from the parks. Now let's get real about the fireworks. The DW and I drive from South Jersey and we do use WDW transportation. There are two times that we will not use it. Saturday Night Fire works and Parade in the Magic Kingdom and Illuminations at Epcot. We have taken our time walking out of the park like everyone else and the crowd is huge. We get to the Bus stop and waited for 45 minutes due to a vast amount of people going back to the resort. Top this off with heat, kids crying and parents losing their patience due to heat and kids being tired and hot. So our last trip down we decided to experiment. We decided to take our car to the MK seen the Parade and then a little later the fireworks and then left the park again in a Huge crowd on a Saturday Night. This time we went right to our car and drove right back to PORs with no issues or crowds and simply parked the car and then proceeded to change and go swimming at the quiet pool. We also did this same thing on a Friday night at Epcot. We have taking this one step further and use it for times we wanted to go to another hotel or Park (Epcot) for breakfast in the AM. We do not have to rush or worry about will we get there on time or WDW transportation schedules. Now these are the only times that I mentioned that we prefer not to use WDW transportaion. Exclude these events and we are very happy taking WDW transportainon with no issues or complaints.

 

[bethymouse]

Love the monorail resorts. So far stayed at the POLY, but hopefully GF some day. I stayed at the CONT when I was little, but I don't remember it ( much smaller then w/ only 2 hotels and MK).