Disney transportation: it’s the part of your vacation that we don’t always talk about. It’s the boring bus ride you have to “suffer through” to get to Magic Kingdom, or the boat you have to wait on to make your way to Hollywood Studios, right?
With all the anticipation that you’re feeling during the morning commute and the sadness you’re feeling during the evening commute (your park day is over!), emotions run high on Disney transportation. That means that transportation problems can be especially stressful.
Today, we’re discussing nine ways that Disney World could improve its transportation and prevent stressful travel in the future!
Disney Skyliner at More Hotels
Ever since the Disney Skyliner was introduced in 2019, it has been incredibly popular for guests at many of the Disney resorts. It has especially improved the transportation situation at Pop Century, Art of Animation, and Caribbean Beach. Because it’s so popular, we would love to see it connect to more resorts — there are still so many that only offer bus transportation (*cough cough* Animal Kingdom Lodge), and it would be great if those places could get an upgrade like this.
More Options for Animal Kingdom
Poor Animal Kingdom, of the four parks, it’s the only one that relies on buses alone. If you want to get here, you’ll either have to take the bus or drive, and it’s a HIKE out to the edge of the property where this park is located. It would be very helpful (and probably pretty good for business) if Animal Kingdom could get a Skyliner or monorail station. Pretty please, Disney!
Friendship Boats Should Move a Little Faster
Friendship boats are one of Disney World’s slowest form of transportation, and they’d probably get used more frequently if they were a little more time-efficient. At this point in time, if you’re on Crescent Lake, you might be able to WALK to the parks faster than it would take to wait on a boat, board the boat, take off, and hit the other stops along the way. Maybe Disney should kick up that speed a little bit!
Magical Express Should Return
Alright, let’s talk about the Disney transportation elephant in the room — Magical Express. Disney World discontinued the free service at the beginning of 2022. Without Magical Express, getting to the airport is a lot more complicated and costly, and many are pretty disappointed that Disney got rid of this perk forever.
Transportation Should Run Later
Have you ever been stranded in Disney World? Well, our team has a couple of times, and it can be really stressful. If you’re staying late in a park or dining late at a resort, your options are severely limited for transportation. There’s a chance that you could get “stuck” somewhere, especially if you parked at a place that you can’t get back to. It would be great if there were a shuttle you could use for free and it would just take you back to wherever you parked!
The Monorail Needs An Update
Disney World’s monorail has been around for 50 years now, and it could definitely use some love. We’ve seen quite a few breakdowns in the past, and while they updated the interior of the trains, the system itself is (at least in our opinion) due for maintenance!
Bring Back the Train!
Okay this one is for all you Walt Disney World Railroad fans out there — we want the train back! It has been closed for years due to the construction on the TROM coaster, and we still don’t have an opening date for that ride…or a reopening date for the train. Even if we can’t ride all the way around because of TRON, we’d love to just take a partial ride through the park. We just really miss it!
Switch Up Internal Bus Loops
One of the most annoying Disney World transportation problems is the internal bus loops. If you’re staying at a place with an internal bus loop, you may have to wait at several stops before getting to your room at the end of the night — it can take an uncomfortable amount of time. It would be nicer (from the guest’s perspective) if the bus would stop at one central location and then there would be shuttles/trams offered to individual buildings.
Post the Bus Wait Times
And finally, let’s talk bus wait times. Sometimes, there are screens at certain stops that tell you how long you’re waiting for the bus, but they’re not always in place everywhere. It would be helpful to see this implemented across the property at every single stop. It might even improve guest satisfaction so they can have realistic expectations about how long they’ll have to wait.
There you have it– some of the biggest transportation problems and how we would fix them! Some other minor problems you might want to look out for include being aware of what time the Skyliner routes are running, because late night transportation can get tricky! We suggest asking a Cast Member earlier in the day to know for sure.
And then, there’s the situation at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels. These hotels generally use Mears buses to go to Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Disney Springs, and they drop you off where the off-property resorts get dropped off (which is typically further away from where you need to go!). The Mears Magic Kingdom buses actually only take you to the Transportation and Ticket Center instead of near the entrance to the park.
So, a solution for this is to walk over to one of the nearby EPCOT resorts (Yacht Club or the BoardWalk Inn) and use their Disney buses instead! They will get you a lot closer to where you want to be, and using them to leave the parks or Disney Springs can save you some time as well (especially for Magic Kingdom!).
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What’s the biggest Disney World transportation problem? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
I loved when Disney had bus transportation from the parks directly to Disney Springs since many times we like to end our nights there rather than at the parks. Sometime before the park closures (I believe), they stopped that and now you have to take a bus back to your resort first and then transfer to a DS bus. Between that and how slow their bus service already is, it could take upwards of an hour to make it to DS from a park. I’ve asked multiple knowledgable people and cast members if they know anything about this, or if it will ever come back and no one has an answer.
I think the skyliner is an eyesore. I loved the old Skyway ride at Magic Kingdom, but it was in a limited location and didn’t interfere with the overall park experience. I cringe whenever I see the skyliner on Buena Vista Drive. I hope they don’t expand it.
This is a big help throughout the WDW area, but maybe put a golf cart road from Ft. Wilderness to EPCOT with a small parking area somewhere safe from other traffic. Would cut out some of the bus traffic.
Two words: Express transportation.
I know it was short lived, and likely not at all cost-efficient, but wow was it amazing to be able to be able to go from within one park straight into another park without having to clear security.
Maybe the price needed some work, but it made park hopping a hassle-free joy.
I disagree with the skyliner what good is it going to do during the hurricane season it was a waste of time and money that’s why Disney got rid of it in the first place. That money could have gone to the monorails.
Some more driver training on handling wheelchairs and ECVs. Drivers arn’t engineers and they just throw safety straps on wherever and then crank the ratchets and start bending stuff. Had an ecv damaged that way before and seen a wheelchair damaged that way as well.
We keep pretending that Disney made a decision to get rid of Magical Express and not that they simply couldn’t come to agreement with Mears over a new contract. We don’t even know how the old contract was structured. For example, what if Disney just paid a flat amount to Mears for the service. That’s probably how it went and worked for both parties. Enter COVID-19 and the prospect of a Brightline rail service both hitting as the parties enter negotiations for a new contract. With more people using rideshare and no real way to predict ridership demand due to COVID, it’s easy to see why the parties couldn’t reach terms to continue the service. Perhaps Mears was asking for too much or for guaranteed set revenues regardless of actual ridership?
Whatever happened, it didn’t happen in a vacuum where Disney just randomly decided to end it. So it’s unfair to portray it that way. We simply don’t know why Mears and Disney decided not to continue the service.
Also, agree with the rest of this article but also the omission of Minnie vans returning.
I’m surprised “Bring Minnie Vans Back” isn’t on this list!
Yes, and that would bring the list to the nice round number of 10!
We all know why Magical Express was eliminated: Money.