Welcome to those of you joining me from LOVE OUR DISNEY and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the final stop on our Magical Blogorail.
You’ve read about a variety of Disney resorts on the previous stops on the Magical Blogorail. I am going to touch on what I think the most important choice a family can make when choosing their resort, “Best Resort for Transportation.” Walt Disney World has a variety of resorts and a variety of transportation choices, however, there is one resort which stands out above the rest…..The Contemporary.
The Contemporary is one of the original Walt Disney World resorts along with The Polynesian Village. 43 years later, The Contemporary stands out as “the hub” of Disney Transportation.
There are four types of Disney Transportation (outside of your own car):
- Monorail
- Boat
- Bus
- Your Feet
Everyone knows that The Contemporary is only resort which has a monorail stop inside the resort.
The monorail provides guests with easy access to the other two monorail resorts: The Polynesian and The Grand Floridan. The monorail also stops at the Ticket and Transportation Center where guests can transfer to a monorail taking them to EPCOT. Monorail access to two resorts and another park.
The Contemporary is also connected to Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness by boat. It is mainly used by guests at Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge to gain access to the monorail loop but guests at The Contemporary can use this boat launch to gain access to Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge and the amenities that those resorts have to offer.
Bus access at The Contemporary is two-fold. The first bus stop area is between The Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower where guests can catch buses to Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney, Hollywood Studios, and the Disney Water Parks.
The second bus stop area requires a little leg work. Guests would have to walk toward The Magic Kingdom (resist the urge to go to The Magic Kingdom) and head over the newly expanded Magic Kingdom Bus Loop.
This brief five to ten minute walk gives guests access to every Walt Disney World resort. This is a great benefit for those resort to resort dining reservations (ex. Cape May Character Breakfast or a dinner at Boma). This short walk can help you get from place to place faster and with zero transfers. Transfers always slow getting from point A to point B down. The fewer transfers a guest needs to make means more time relaxing at the resort or enjoying a theme park.
The best feature of The Contemporary is: it is the only resort with walking access to The Magic Kingdom. It’s a short 10 minute walk from The Contemporary to the security gates of The Magic Kingdom.
This walkway comes in handy at two very important times on a Walt Disney World Vacation: getting to rope drop at Magic Kingdom and getting out the elements when a thunderstorm comes rolling in.
Getting to rope drop is great and easy. You can wake up as late as 8 am. Get dressed. Leave The Contemporary at 8:30 am and be at The Magic Kingdom for rope drop with plenty of time to spare. Getting out the rain and elements is also handy by staying at The Contemporary. If it’s a quick 10 minute walk to The Magic Kingdom, it’s also a quick 10 minute walk back to The Contemporary. If you dare, you can use the path of the monorail as an umbrella for parts of the walk back as well.
My family learned this trick on our first visit to Walt Disney World in 2009. We were riding It’s A Small World when a thunderstorm quickly rolled in. Our Disney rented stroller was gone. It was pouring rain. We powered down Main Street. The lines for the monorail were L-O-N-G. So that was out. All that was left was our two feet. We mushed it back to The Contemporary and were in dry clothes within 30 minutes of exiting It’s A Small World. A very nice benefit to have. The only downside was my wife and I had to purchase Mickey Crocs at the gift shop so we had dry footwear for the next day.
Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Green this month. We will be back on December 4th with an all new theme. Keep checking in with our blogs in between loops to keep up to date with our Disney info, photos and stories. If you are looking for more Disney magic, you can make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our members and their blogs, as well as all our previous loops.
1st Stop: Heidi’s Head – Best Resort for Animal Lovers
2nd Stop: My Dreams of Disney – Best Resort for Fireworks!
3rd Stop: In the Mouse House – Best Resort for a No-Parks Disney Vacation
4th Stop: Love Our Disney – Best On-Site Resort at Disneyland
Final Stop: Dad for Disney – Best Disney Resort for Transportation
dadfordisney 
Definitely great thoughts on the best resort for transportation, Tim, and I’d have to agree! We experienced some of the benefits of being at this resort this past spring. Walking back and forth to the Magic Kingdom because a pasttime of ours, and it was quite rewarding, I must say! And the Disney Crocs . . . they’re just a bonus!
I’ve never been to WDW before and have heard that it sometimes takes hours to get around there. Nice to know that at least at the Contemporary, you can be quickly on your way!
That’s why we love staying there. Generally, we plan on an hour to get from Point A to Point B at WDW.
Great points you make Tim about getting from Point A to Point B. Also, we’ve had a competition before among our party — the guys walked back to Bay Lake Tower where we were staying, and the girls took the Monorail back — we were faster because of the lines to get on the Monorail. So sometimes foot speed is better!
Thanks for the post, have a great day!
I’d love to stay here one day and this is the exact reason! So many transportation options! That is the reason AK Lodge is my least favorite deluxe resort. The bus is the only option there… you can’t even walk to AK! I agree with Mike- we walked to the Contemporary for dinner one night from MK and it was faster than the monorail. 🙂