Official Walt Disney Hotels

January 1st, 2010 · No Comments

official walt disney hotels
Question About Walt Disney World?

I’m writing a story that involves Disney World in Orlando. I’ve researched with the website and I know the map of Magic Kingdom by heart, but there are still some questions I have that can only be answered by a person with experience. I have a few things I’d love to know, for those who can help.

1.) The monorail/bus/boat system confuses me. I understand that from a hotel, you can just go to a certain labeled bus stop and ride it to the specified park, but can you get from, say, the Magic Kingdom to the Animal Kingdom by monorail? Do you switch monorails during the trip?

2.) How is park security? If an important government official wanted to take their kid, how would the park react?

I want the story to be as realistic as possible, so give me details if you can. If you’re able to, I’d love to contact you further in case I have more questions (especially if you were/are staff! That would be AWESOME!).

I appreciate any answers

At the hotel it actually depends. Some resorts have dedicated stops for each park but most of the time where there are multiple stops at the resorts, it’s just one waiting area and you just wait for the bus to arrive that’s headed where you want go.

The monorail only runs between the TTC, the Magic Kingdom, the Seven Seas Lagoon resorts (Contemporary, Polynesian and Grand Floridian) and also between the TTC and Epcot. There are 3 loops in all: Resort/Local which goes in a clockwise motion to MK -> Contemporary -> TTC -> Polynesian -> Grand Floridian -> MK; The express which goes counterclockwise around the lagoon and only stops at MK and TTC and the TTC <-> Epcot loop (where going from the TTC to Epcot takes you over the Future World area of the park before reaching the station in the front of the park).

For other parks, there is only bus service. The Disney Transportation system has over 200 buses in operation every day. Buses go between resorts and the parks, resorts and Downtown Disney and between the parks themselves. The only exception is the Magic Kingdom which has no bus between it and Epcot because of the monorail and the other park buses are at the TTC (resorts go directly to the MK though).

So you can’t go between the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom by monorail. What you’d have to do from the Magic Kingdom is take the monorail or ferry to the TTC and transfer to an Animal Kingdom bus there. Alternatively, you can even walk from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary Resort and get an Animal Kingdom bus there (although it will also stop at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian first).

To go between parks, goes like this:

MK -> Epcot: Monorail/Ferry to TTC, transfer to monorail to Epcot
MK -> Animal Kingdom: Monorail/Ferry to TTC, bus to DAK
MK -> Studios: Monorail/Ferry to TTC, bus to DHS

Epcot -> MK: Monorail to TTC, monorail/ferry to MK
Epcot -> Animal Kingdom: bus
Epcot -> Studios: bus (in the front of the park) or boat (by international gateway)

Studios -> MK: bus to TTC, ferry/monorail to MK
Studios -> Epcot: boat to international gateway or bus to front
Studios -> Animal Kingdom: bus
Studios -> Wide World of Sports: bus

Animal Kingdom -> MK: bus to TTC, ferry/monorail to MK
Animal Kingdom -> Epcot: bus
Animal Kingdom -> Studios: bus

As far as security goes, things are well protected for everyone. Government officials are sure to have their own security detail as well so they’ll all work together. The Reedy Creek Improvement District which governs the land Walt Disney World is on doesn’t have its own police department but they work hand in hand with the local county sheriffs’ departments. There’s usually a noticeable sheriff presence on site as well as the security hosts and a huge team of undercover security working at any time.