We sing the praises of free Disney World transportation all the time — not having to drive while you’re on vacation after you arrive? That’s a big win for a lot of us out there!
There are a few different complimentary transportation options available around the resort — buses, monorails, the Skyliner, and boats — but not all of them are available in every location. We’ve mentioned before that some of these shut down when the weather gets bad, but we recently ran into a situation we were NOT expecting.
Emma is currently on a mission to do EVERYTHING in Disney World, and if she can do all 1000 tasks on the list in 100 days, she gets to bring Quincy and Fry Bucket with her on the trip to Paris she won in the second Last to Leave challenge.
These tasks span from the Disney World theme parks, the hotels, and even Disney Springs, so she (and the pals she brings along to help) has been taking a LOT of Disney transportation recently. It was during the second episode of this challenge that she and Sage ran into a big problem at the Swan & Dolphin Hotels.
Rain and storms in Disney World are not uncommon, and it can make getting around harder. We know that the Disney Skyliner will close in bad weather, and the Monorail will too on occasion if things are REALLY bad, but Emma and Sage found out in real time what happens to the BOATS in bad weather.
Water taxis will take you from the Swan & Dolphin hotels to EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or you can walk along the designated paths (shuttle buses take guests to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Springs). Since it was pouring rain, walking was out of the question, so they headed to the water taxis, only to very quickly find that, due to the lightning in the area, the boats were not running.
According to the Swan & Dolphin website, Disney bus transportation will be provided to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT during inclement weather to provide another option, but Emma and Sage didn’t see those at the time. They ended up choosing to walk when the rain lightened up a bit (but the boats hadn’t started running again).
So why do we tell you this? Well, if inclement weather is on the way to the parks, it’s safer to assume that Disney bus transportation (or the Monorails, if it isn’t too bad) may be the ONLY transportation running, so don’t waste time heading to a boat or the Skyliner only to have to turn around and head the other way!
More Recent Disney World Transportation News!
- NEWS: The Disney World Skyliner Will Temporarily CLOSE in Early 2026
- Everyone Told Me This Was The WORST Transportation in Disney World, But I Loved It
- 5 Reasons the Disney Skyliner WON’T Be A Good Fit For Your Vacation
- I’m Afraid of Heights, But Here’s Why I Ride the Disney World Skyliner Anyway
- This Disney World Transportation Hack Is SO Sneaky It Feels Illegal
We’re always here to bring you the latest Disney World news so you know to be prepared, so stay tuned to AllEars!
We ranked Disney World transportation from terrific to terrifying!
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What mode of Disney World transportation is your favorite? Tell us in the comments!
Who doesn’t love the monorail? It’s a great form of transportation. It’s clean (usually), colorful and most importantly – air conditioning. But who knew that it would stop on the track during a lightning storm? I did not think that. Do you know what else stops – air conditioning. It happened to us one summer as we were headed to the TTC. We experienced the rain, but never saw the lightning. We heard the thunder in the distance and then experienced the LIGHTNING. Thor was upset about something and took it out on us. We were trapped in the monorail for 30 minutes, and then took us to our destination. One word of advice, fudge melts in a hot monorail.