Is there any news on the Epcot monorail?

LAKid53

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
Nickp1983 said:
DAMN IT
Click to expand...

If the Epcot monorail still isn't running whenever your stay is, you can do 2 things:

1. Ride the bus from the MK bus depot to Epcot. I believe the park to park buses are operating again.

2. Walk over to the Contemporary and ride the bus from there to Epcot. When I was staying at Bay Lake, buses were operating, as the monorail wasn't.

I hope Minnie Vans return in the near future. My method of transportation from a park to Disney Springs. Or from my resort to Disney Springs.
 
DoleWhipDrea

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
JMcMahonEsq said:
As to Universal and WDW, that is like comparing apples and raisins. The attendance figures for Universal Studios vs. the 4 WDW Florida parks is not comparable. Universal sees an opportunity to try and increase market share, and is taking it. WDW is not concerned with market share, nor does it really see Universal as a competitor at the moment.
Click to expand...
If that's the case, then why has Disney been copying Universal's creative decisions since they opened up WWoHP? Universal also is currently operating (under their designation) 3 theme parks in Orlando, with a 4th on the way. Universal was also the first to announce they were re-opening or making changes to operations in light of the pandemic, to which Disney would have a knee-jerk response saying that they would make those same changes as well just hours after. Disney's problem is that they have in many ways stopped leading and keep reactively playing catch-up to Universal, while still being judged far more harshly under the microscope as opposed to Universal.

The Monorails are a quintessential part of the WDW experience. Having the various parks and hotels placed at significant distances away from each other means that reliable transportation between them is incredibly important if you want to give guests an incentive to stay on-property. Instead, Disney keeps cutting the perks. And they're dealing with a bus driver shortage and has recently had to contract out bus operations to a third party company. It's unfortunate to say, but IMHO it feels like Disney is banking on guests not doing their research before coming on vacation and not caring about the inevitable angry customers that will vent to CMs at Guest Relations.

I keep seeing long-time fans that generally spend thousands of dollars for their families every year for their annual trip to WDW finally crunch the numbers, look at all of the present cuts and changes, and decide that it's not worth it, instead opting to travel somewhere else, staying there longer than they would have at WDW, and still be saving a significant amount of money. There's definitely pent-up demand for people to come back to the parks, but the more they continue to take away from the guest that used to be the standard, the more that they will continue to lose the generations that have supported them.

In terms of business decisions, this hurts EPCOT, too. All those restaurants really need guests coming in for dinner to be profitable.

Everything has a domino effect.
 
B

BrerWayne

Well-Known Member
-vickimouse- said:
I am getting frustrated that the Epcot monorail is not re-opening. Everyone is anxious for resorts and restaurants, but I am anxious for this Epcot line to re-start. Any insider info? I know there is no "news" or announcements from Disney yet. I'm surprised, frankly, that they wouldn't have it up and running pre- Memorial Day!!
Click to expand...
I read today on Facebook today from another Disney site that the Monorail signage was removed at Epcot. I hope this doesn’t mean that the closure is permanent.
 
PirateFrank

PirateFrank

Well-Known Member
BrerWayne said:
I read today on Facebook today from another Disney site that the Monorail signage was removed at Epcot. I hope this doesn’t mean that the closure is permanent.
Click to expand...
Whut the??? Do you have a link? This seems crazy....

Post-edit: Disregard. I found a link....Quite honestly, I think they are probably just refreshing the signage and they aren't in any hurry to get the Epcot line up and running yet...
 
Last edited:
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
BrerWayne said:
I read today on Facebook today from another Disney site that the Monorail signage was removed at Epcot. I hope this doesn’t mean that the closure is permanent.
Click to expand...
Its not permanet. More likely this is a continuation of the new signage going all over Epcot as part of the refurbishment project.
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
DoleWhipDrea said:
If that's the case, then why has Disney been copying Universal's creative decisions since they opened up WWoHP? Universal also is currently operating (under their designation) 3 theme parks in Orlando, with a 4th on the way. Universal was also the first to announce they were re-opening or making changes to operations in light of the pandemic, to which Disney would have a knee-jerk response saying that they would make those same changes as well just hours after. Disney's problem is that they have in many ways stopped leading and keep reactively playing catch-up to Universal, while still being judged far more harshly under the microscope as opposed to Universal.

The Monorails are a quintessential part of the WDW experience. Having the various parks and hotels placed at significant distances away from each other means that reliable transportation between them is incredibly important if you want to give guests an incentive to stay on-property. Instead, Disney keeps cutting the perks. And they're dealing with a bus driver shortage and has recently had to contract out bus operations to a third party company. It's unfortunate to say, but IMHO it feels like Disney is banking on guests not doing their research before coming on vacation and not caring about the inevitable angry customers that will vent to CMs at Guest Relations.

I keep seeing long-time fans that generally spend thousands of dollars for their families every year for their annual trip to WDW finally crunch the numbers, look at all of the present cuts and changes, and decide that it's not worth it, instead opting to travel somewhere else, staying there longer than they would have at WDW, and still be saving a significant amount of money. There's definitely pent-up demand for people to come back to the parks, but the more they continue to take away from the guest that used to be the standard, the more that they will continue to lose the generations that have supported them.

In terms of business decisions, this hurts EPCOT, too. All those restaurants really need guests coming in for dinner to be profitable.

Everything has a domino effect
Click to expand...
The monorail will be back when they can operate at their normal capacity, they didn’t bulldoze it.
 
DoleWhipDrea

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
So Chapek indicated on the recent virtual conference the other day that he expects WDW to return to full capacity by fall (they would probably be getting there a lot sooner if it weren't for rules implemented by OSHA, and they're still working it all out.) If that is indeed the case, there may be a general goal for the EPCOT Monorail to return on October 1st (it would certainly be nice to have it running for their new attraction, anyway.)
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom