Ready to walk?

Hey, that got your attention, didn’t it! 😀 For one brief moment, you thought I was going to blog about getting to Disney by foot, didn’t you!

No, don’t worry. There are lots of ways to get to Disney, but unless you live in Cinderella’s Castle, walking there isn’t a way most travel journals would recommend.

But we are going to talk about walking in Disney.

Disney is a big place. Its a large place. Actually, its a huge place! 43 square miles, to be exact! Now, don’t fret, you aren’t going to be walking all 43 miles of that. Some of it is resort area, some of it is undeveloped,  and some is downright swamp country! But since you’ve chosen a Disney vacation, walking will be a big part of your daily routine.

If you’ve been following the blog, you know how important walking before you leave is. So, you’re ready for this, right?

The amount of walking you will do each day depends on the park you choose to visit. I’m going to cover the Magic Kingdom today, and address the others in future blogs!

The Magic Kingdom is the quintessential Disney theme park. It might surprise our readers to know that this is also one of the smallest of the parks, approximately 107 acres! Your walking day begins before you get to the park. If you are arriving at the Magic Kinfdom in a car, you will be parking on the other side of the lagoon. You will take either a monorail or the ferryboat to get to the kingdom. When you park, you can proceed to one of the tram stops and take the tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) and choose your option. There will be a short walk from your car to the tram, and from the tram to the transportation of choice. You cannot walk from the TTC to the Kingdom; there is no path, and it would be quite a hike anyway. Once you arrive at the Kingdom, there is another walk from the boat launch or the monorail station to the main entrance. If you are arriving at the Kingdom via Disney bus, the walk to the Kingdom is slightly windy and slightly uphill. It actually is a little bit further away than you would suspect. If you are staying at the Contemporary Resort or Bay Lake Towers, right next to the Magic Kingdom, you can walk to the park. This walk is a bit more than a quarter mile, but its quite pleasant, and a great way to start your day!

Once you pass through the main gates, you will need to walk up Main Street to access the attractions. The Magic Kingdom is designed around a central hub, Cinderella’s Castle, with all the lands branching out from there. “Walking” might be too broad of a term, You will more than likely meander up Main Street, taking in the ambience of this uniquely Disney area. Pace yourself…you have alot of ground to cover and you don’t want to get tired.

Once you get to the hub, you can choose your land. No matter which direction you travel in, you will be walking, but with so much to see and do, you should be pacing yourself at a nice leisurely pace. You will not have this luxury at every park, so enjoy it now! 😀 You’ll basically be walking in a big circle, around the back of the park and back to the front. All in all, its a nice easy walk, mostly flat and with plenty of places to rest.

When your touring day is done, walk back to the hub for a final stroll down Main Street. If you are tired, you can wait for one of the transportation vehicles to take you back down to Main Street. If you are still feeling like you can do a bit more wlaking, meander back down Main Street to the main entrance. Keep in mind that the same walk you did to get into the park now needs to be done in reverse. You will need to walk to the Disney buses, the monorail station, the ferry boat launch or the Contemporary Resort. And from there, you will still need to get back to your resort and room. Its always good to save a little energy for this return trip, especially if you are going to be carrying tired children or pushing a stroller.

So, you survived your first big walking adventure at Disney! You are back at your room and ready to take on the next park. Rehydrate at night (water or Gatorade…we’ll talk more about hydration in a future blog) and get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow we take on Epcot…get ready to hoof it here!!