Time-Saving Disney World Transportation Tips

These tips will help you save time using Walt Disney World’s transportation systems with shortcuts, fastest routes, and info about the buses, boats, monorails, and gondolas. WDW’s transit network can be convoluted, but this guide breaks things down and makes it easy. We’ll also offer the latest as of 2022 on efficiency of transportation around Walt Disney World. (Updated April 20, 2022.)

Walt Disney World claims that transportation departs every 20 minutes from the resort hotels to take guests to the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot making getting around simple. In theory, that’s true. While this is often the case, it’s often not. You should always plan on transit taking more time than expected. Additionally, the monorail is not as reliable as it once was, with breakdowns and unscheduled maintenance occurring more frequently.

In terms of updates to this Walt Disney World transportation guide, let’s start with the good news. All of the infrastructure work to transform the roads, theme park arrival experience, and more is now finished and makes navigating Walt Disney World easier than ever. This has been ongoing for the last few years, and is great news for anyone who rents a car or drives themselves. There’s even more good news, which is a change of pace from last time we updated this…

By and large, transportation is running smoothly once you get to Walt Disney World. There are still lengthy lines for the Skyliner around park opening and closing, but they move quickly since the system is so efficient and high capacity (aside from during storm-induced shutdowns).

It’s a similar story with the buses. The downside is that you might once again be packed like sardines for rope drop or at the end of the night, but the upside is undeniable. No more standing in line waiting for two or three buses and taking 45 minutes just to get picked up. Midday things are more or less the same as before—lower usage, a seat for everyone, and no lines.

Additionally, Walt Disney World no longer has as pronounced of a driver shortage. Buses are now abundant, and dispatched with regularity. Staggered park opening and closing times help with this, and the bus service at Walt Disney World is also more or less back to normal. Still not perfect, but it never was.

As other Cast Member shortages are being resolved, Walt Disney World is scaling up operations and resuming normalcy elsewhere. One such way is with the return of Minnie Vans in Summer 2022.

The situation with rental cars has also improved. As a reminder, when travel essentially stopped, the rental car industry sold off more than a half a million cars to generate cash they needed to survive the crisis. Although demand has now returned, rental car companies have been slow to rebuild their inventory because of supply chain issues facing the auto industry.

Orlando International Airport ended up selling out of cars for many travel dates during peak season dates last year, with astronomical rates for other dates. We’re now seeing these prices fall, but it remains to be seen whether the same problem will arise again this summer.

Similarly, the Uber or Lyft shortages have started to resolve themselves, with more drivers starting to return to the apps. Wait times are down as a result, and there are far fewer instances of no drivers being available at all. (We’ve had no issues whatsoever when using ride-sharing around Walt Disney World recently.)

With that said, prices are still elevated. It’s likely that this is going to be the “new normal” with Uber and Lyft, as costs had gradually increased over the course of several years pre-closure, and analysts have suggested that Uber and Lyft only have long-term viability with higher rates.

The bad news is that Disney’s Magical Express has officially ended, so you’ll need to find a different way to get from Orlando International Airport to Walt Disney World. Mears Connect and the Sunshine Flyer are the top picks, both being indirect third party replacements for Disney’s Magical Express.

For the full range of choices, see our Airport Transportation to Walt Disney World Guide. While some guests will be perfectly suited by a limo or car service, more will be better off with a shuttle, Uber, rental car, or something else. As always, it’s good to crunch the numbers and do a bit of legwork yourself–rather than just booking what’s presented to you on DisneyWorld.com and assuming the money-hungry company is looking out for your best interests.

With those updates out of the way, let’s start with an overview of transportation at Walt Disney World, followed by tips and hacks for efficiently navigating the 43 square miles of the sprawling vacation complex…

WDW Transportation Overview

Given the abundance of transportation, it’s easy to have a Walt Disney World vacation without renting or even using a car. Simply using an airport shuttle, stay in a Walt Disney World resort hotel, and utilize Disney transportation during your stay.

Of course, you may want to rent a car. We have an entire post titled Tips for Renting a Car at Walt Disney World that covers the ins and outs of renting a car. Suffice to say, if you don’t like waiting at all, like to be in control, and don’t mind driving while on vacation, renting a car is probably for you. This is doubly true if you ever want to leave Walt Disney World property–then a rental car becomes almost essential.

When we rent a car at Walt Disney World, we typically use Hotwire for car rentals and book one of their “blind” Hot Rates. Renting a car can reduce waits and commute times, but we’ve found that not renting works better for us. Consider your circumstances and decide whether you might want a rental car. Your mileage may vary.

We’ve found Uber and Lyft to be great alternatives to renting a car at Walt Disney World. You can read some of our tips for using Uber and other ride-sharing services in the post Uber & Lyft at Walt Disney World Tips. Plus, if you’re new to using the rideshare service, you can get a free ride on Lyft via this link.

In addition to Uber, Lyft, and rental cars, Walt Disney World offers a private point to point transportation service called the Minnie Van. You can read our full Minnie Vans Tips & Review post here, but suffice to say, it’s an efficient and themed option for those who don’t care about cost. If you’re on a tighter budget, it’s not for you.

Let’s assume you don’t want to rent a car, nor do you want to use Uber or a Minnie Van. Once you arrive at your resort hotel, you can rely upon Disney transportation.

The most common form of transportation is Disney buses, which are fairly self-explanatory. These run from every single hotel to at least some of the theme parks, except where alternate transportation such as boats or the monorail are available. Buses are the least glamorous and most frustrating form of transportation, and we try to avoid them to the extent possible, but they get the job done.

Several resorts, especially those near Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, also offer boat service to the parks they’re near. This is reasonably efficient, as most of the boats make multiple stops. It’s also very leisurely and a pleasant experience. Who doesn’t love a boat ride?!

Almost every resort that offers boat service is also within walking distance of those same parks. Walking can be more efficient than taking a boat, but it’s obviously also more tiring and work.

Some hotels around the Magic Kingdom–Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Polynesian–also offer monorail service to Walt Disney World’s iconic castle park. The monorail also connects to Magic Kingdom via the Ticket & Transportation Center, which is essentially Magic Kingdom’s parking lot.

From the Ticket & Transportation Center, guests can board the monorail to Epcot. This means that the aforementioned monorail resort guests can access EPCOT via monorail with a transfer. Fortunately, the Epcot monorail line is back up and running!

Our favorite transportation option is the Disney Skyliner gondolas. These connect Pop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, and Disney’s Riviera Resort to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

Our personal experiences with the Disney Skyliner have been positive. We cover initial impressions in our Skyliner Gondola Review: Walt Disney World’s Most Magical Flight on Earth article, and have subsequently used the Skyliner gondolas countless times.

Transportation to the theme parks, water parks, and Disney Springs begins approximately 2 hours prior to that park’s opening time and all transportation runs until approximately 1 hour after the parks close.

If you’re still in the park one hour and 5 minutes after the park close, worry not, as Disney won’t leave you stranded at a park. Sometimes it’s closer to 2 hours after the parks close when transportation ends. All forms of Disney transportation have unload and load zones very close to the park entrance, making them more accessible than the parking lots for each of the parks.

If you’re planning to rely on Walt Disney World Resort transportation rather than renting your own car or utilizing a taxi, be sure to give yourself at least 1 full hour of transport time to get where ever you wish to go. Typically, it won’t take this long, but on occasion it can (it has taken us over an hour and nearly two hours on multiple occasions).

Best Hotel for Transportation?

If you won’t have a car at Walt Disney World, the first time you should think about transportation is before you book a hotel. There is no one “best” hotel for transportation to all of the Walt Disney World parks, but here are a few factors that you should consider in your booking decision:

• Whether the hotel has non-bus transportation to a park
• Distance from the hotel to each park (with weight given to the parks you’ll be visiting most)
• Whether the hotel has an internal bus system
• Whether the hotel shares buses with another hotel

Non-Bus Transportation – Hotels with non-bus transportation to the parks earn bonus points because buses are, generally, less efficient (and cooler) than non-bus transportation. Monorails provide transportation to Magic Kingdom and Epcot; boats provide transportation to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios; Disney’s Animal Kingdom is accessible only via bus.

Hotels on the monorail loop are Grand Floridian, Contemporary, and Polynesian Village Resorts. Each of those hotels also has boat service to the Magic Kingdom, as do Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Campground.

Additionally, all monorail loop hotels are also within walking distance of Magic Kingdom.

This used to just be true for Disney’s Contemporary Resort, but a new bridge is now open that connects the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Village Resort to Magic Kingdom. This path can be tricky to find, so be on the lookout for signage (or ask a Cast Member if you don’t see it).

Boat service to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is available to and from BoardWalk Inn, Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, and the Swan & Dolphin (non-Disney) Hotels. These resorts are also within walking distance of both parks.

Skyliner gondola service is available from Pop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, and Rivera Resorts to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Distance – Hotels that offer non-bus transportation do so because they’re closest to the parks to which they offer the transportation, so that gives you an idea of where those hotels are located.

For other hotels, refer to this Google Maps view of Walt Disney World to determine actual distances from hotels to the parks. The Value Resorts and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Resort are located the farthest from every park except Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Walt Disney World is a large place, and this difference in distance is not negligible.

Internal Bus Systems – Internal transportation is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s nice to be able to take a bus from near your room to the lobby or food court, especially at the spread-out resort-hotels. On the other hand, if you’re going to a park, that means either waiting for two buses or making multiple stops on your way to the park.

In general we find transportation to take longer when there’s an internal system. Hotels with internal systems are Caribbean Beach Resort, Coronado Springs Resort, Port Orleans Resort Riverside, Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, and Old Key West Resort.

Shared Buses – Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer here. Whether buses are shared depends upon how busy Walt Disney World is. The less busy, the more likely shared transportation will be used. As a general rule, none of the hotels above that have internal bus systems (except Fort Wilderness) have shared buses, but other hotels can at times.

Due to personal preferences, there’s no one-size-fits-all “best” resort-hotel at Walt Disney World for transportation. It all depends upon which parks you’ll visit most, whether you’ll have a rental car, and your tolerance to walking. For example, from a transportation perspective, Animal Kingdom Lodge is a pain for us, because it’s really far from everything (except Animal Kingdom) and it has two stops. To someone who visits Animal Kingdom a lot, it might be the best hotel! So know which parks you want to visit most on your trip, figure out which hotel will work best for your circumstances, and book accordingly.

Hotel-to-Hotel Transportation

While Disney attempts to make its internal transportation from resort hotels to the theme parks reasonably convenient, the same is not true with regard to using Disney transportation to get from resort hotel to resort hotel. Instead, you will need to go from your resort hotel to a park and then catch transportation to the resort hotel you’re intending to visit. This can make dinner reservations at resort hotels that are not your own especially difficult.

For this reason, many people only dine at the resort hotels on the monorail loop (as visiting them for dinner can be a nice change of pace from a busy day in the Magic Kingdom) or in Epcot’s Resort Area on Crescent Lake (as visiting them is a short walk from the International Gateway entrance to Epcot, and can likewise make a nice change of pace from a busy day at Epcot).

If you are planning on dining at any other resort hotel and are leaving from your resort hotel or returning to your resort hotel afterward, you may want to consider utilizing a taxi for transportation. Taxis are readily available (and if not, the resort can call one for you) at Disney resort hotels, and usually cost around $15-25 one way within the Walt Disney World Resort (obviously, the price varies based upon distance).

When relying on Disney transportation to go from one hotel to another hotel via at least one bus, you will want to give yourself at least 1.5 hours for transportation times. Usually, it’ll take around an hour. Unfortunately, quite often it takes the full hour and a half. So don’t ignore the recommended transportation times Disney provides to you when you make those Advance Dining Reservations!

Quick Tips

• There is no parking at the Magic Kingdom. Instead, you park at the Ticket & Transportation Center lot, catching a tram to the Ticket & Transportation Center, and then take a monorail or ferry to the Magic Kingdom (this was done, among other reasons, so the Magic Kingdom has a “magical” introduction to guests).
• Because of this, even guests who rent their own cars may be better off taking a bus to the Magic Kingdom, as the Disney buses drop-off guests directly at the front entrance to the Magic Kingdom, bypassing all of the intermediate steps.
• If you’re leaving one of the parks right around closing, or after fireworks or a evening parade, consider waiting. Buses are especially bad at this time of night, and the park’s gift shops are open for a short time after the parks official closing time. Do your shopping then, instead of during the day, and leave a little later. Chances are, you’ll still get back to your resort around the same time, and you won’t wait in line so long for a bus, monorail, or ferry in the process!
• Skyliner lines can appear long at the end of the night right after park closing, but the Skyliner is incredibly efficient and the line moves quickly.
• You can walk from Disney’s Contemporary Resort to the Magic Kingdom via a sidewalk. This walk takes about 5 minutes, and is much faster than taking the monorail.
• You can walk from Disney’s Polynesian Resort to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort or Shades of Green Resort via a sidewalk (and vice-a-versa).
• You can walk from Disney’s Polynesian Resort to the Ticket & Transportation Center via a sidewalk. It’s about a 5 minute walk, and will save you time over taking the monorail.
• You can also walk from the Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom, meaning you could also walk from the TTC, Poly, and Shades of Green to Magic Kingdom–it’s just a potentially long walk.
• If trying to take a taxi to the Magic Kingdom, instead of the Magic Kingdom, request a drop off at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and take the 5 minute walk to the Magic Kingdom. A taxi “to the Magic Kingdom” will actually drop you off at the Ticket & Transportation Center.

• Guests of Caribbean Beach Resort can also use the Skyliner station at Disney’s Riviera Resort, which is more convenient in some cases.
• Generation Gap Bridge connects Pop Century to Art of Animation Resort; on the middle of this bridge is where the Skyliner gondola station is located.
• This bridge provides quick access to the highly regarded Landscape of Flavors food court at Art of Animation. This easy access also means you can take whichever of the two buses arrives first when leaving the parks, if you don’t mind a little walking.
• You can walk from Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa to Disney Springs via a pedestrian bridge. It’s about a 10 minute walk from Saratoga Springs, depending upon your location.
• The internal boats around Disney Springs have also made traversing this area, and the resorts around it, much easier than in the past.
• You can walk between any of the All-Star Resorts, but it’s not always a ‘simple’ path. Still, might be useful if buses are slow (and not shared) and one quickly arrives at a park for an All-Star Resort besides the one where you’re staying.

• You can walk from All Star Sports to Coronado Springs Resort via a walking path. Along this path, you can access Blizzard Beach and McDonald’s. All Star Sports to Coronado is about 30 minutes; it takes around 5 minutes to get to McDonald’s from All Star Sports, and about 15-20 to get to Blizzard Beach.
• You can walk from Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, Yacht & Beach Club, and Swan & Dolphin resorts to Epcot’s International Gateway (World Showcase) entrance, but you cannot walk from the front entrance of Epcot to any of these resorts, without going through the park.
• The FriendShips (boats) travel from the Crescent Lake resorts to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The boat stops in this order – Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Swan & Dolphin, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Swan/Dolphin, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, and Epcot. If you’re staying at or visiting Boardwalk, it’s much quicker to exit the ferry at the Swan & Dolphin and make the 5 minute walk to the Boardwalk if returning from Disney’s Hollywood Studios (and vice-a-versa when the boat stops at BoardWalk first and you’re staying at the Swan or Dolphin).
• For park hopping between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, your most efficient option is the Skyliner (transferring lines at Caribbean Beach), followed by your feet, followed by the FriendShips.
• Ferry transportation is available from Old Key West Resort, Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Port Orleans Riverside, and Port Orleans French Quarter to Disney Springs.
• Buses don’t travel between Disney Springs and the theme parks. Instead, you’ll have to take a bus to a hotel, then a bus to a park if your ultimate destination is a park. By looking at other tips here (such as walking from the Contemporary to Magic Kingdom or walking from Disney Springs to Saratoga Springs), you can easily circumvent this and save time.
• Buses make multiple stops at Disney Springs. If the parks are closed and you want to visit another resort from your resort, your only option via Disney transportation is Your resort>Disney Springs>other resort. This will take you at least one hour, and more likely closer to two. Take a taxi instead!
• You can save money by parking your car at Disney Springs (free) and taking a bus to a resort that is close to the park you’re intending to visit, and then walk or take another bus from there, but this is a colossal waste of time and, to some, morally reprehensible (I disagree from the moral perspective–I just think it’s an idiotic idea). If your time has any value to you, suck it up and pay for parking at the park you’re visiting.
• Complimentary parking is available at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Resort for those who have dining reservations. These two resorts are convenient places to park when visiting the Magic Kingdom.
• The fastest way to get from Disney’s Animal Kingdom to the World Showcase via bus is taking a bus to BoardWalk or the Yacht & Beach Club and walking, due to the bus route being more efficient that way than from Disney’s Animal Kingdom to the front of Epcot.
• Bus service isn’t offered from resorts to parks when the resort offers alternative means of transportation (via the monorail or ferry).
• Skyliner resorts also offer bus transportation to Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios for those with fears of heights or gondolas, but it’s much less efficient.
• When the All-Star Resorts share a bus, it stops at All Star Sports first, and often will fill completely there. It is thus the best All Star Resort during these times of year.
• In addition to the My Disney Experience app having bus wait times from your resort, there are now real-time wait time boards for buses posted at the bus stops for every Walt Disney World hotel). We have tested these on several of our past trips, and have found them to be accurate within a few minutes.
• There are a lot of other “secret” time-saving tips and tricks to Disney transportation, many of which I’m probably forgetting here. Please share your tips in the comments.

Transportation Review & Summary

Ultimately, I like Disney bus transportation. I like it because it allows me to kick back and relax, without worrying about renting a car, navigating on foreign roadways, or breaking the “Disney bubble” and transporting me back to reality. This Disney bubble is an important thing for us. Really important. Because of it, we are unlikely to regularly rent a car at Walt Disney World.

On the negative side, the buses can be inefficient, especially for getting from resort to resort, and they aren’t exactly the paramount of futuristic or cutting edge transportation methods, and have poor and too few routes. On the plus side, the buses don’t cost anything extra, and are becoming increasingly efficient. Moreover, when used in tandem with an occasional Uber or Lyft, it’s very easy to travel to Walt Disney World without renting a car.

The bus system at Walt Disney World is not perfect. There have been occasions where we’ve waited 45 minutes for a bus to show up at our resort heading to a particular park, and in the meantime, 4 showed up for a different park. There have been other times where lines have been so long in the morning that it has taken three separate buses to consume the line in front of us. Other times still, we take multiple buses to get from hotel to hotel for a meal.

As the wait time boards pictured above have become more and more widespread, we’ve noticed this has become less and less of an issue. Presumably, these boards are tied into new technology Walt Disney World is using on the backend to more efficiently allocate its buses. Whatever the case, in the past few years, we’ve notice considerable improvements in Walt Disney World’s bus transportation. Whereas we would’ve given it a B- score 4 years ago, we are now inclined to give it a B+. Still, some room for improvement, but pretty good as a whole.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!

Your Thoughts…

What are your Walt Disney World transportation tips? Have a “hack” that can save considerable time off the norm? What’s your favorite WDW resort from a transportation perspective? Any questions about the various forms of transportation at Walt Disney World? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!