amylynne asked: We are staying at CSR next month and have ressies at Flying Fish one evening. What is the best way to get there?? Cab? Bus to DHS and then ferry? other ideas?

With miles and miles of roads, canals, monorail track, and lagoons, there is always more than one simple way to get from HERE to THERE in Walt Disney World.

Disney World's Transportation System

In my experience, which one you will choose will depend on you and your tastes/budget.

First off, if you’re flying into Orlando International Airport (MCO), the first transportation question you’ll need ask yourself is “how am I getting to the hotel?”

Well, you can hire a taxi or towncar, rent a car, or take Disney’s Magical Express.

Towncar Services

For about $100 round trip, you can hire a towncar service to whisk you from baggage claim right to your resort — and even get a complimentary stop at a grocery store! — with a minimum amount of fuss. I’ve used Tiffany Towncar many times and always been happy with their service, especially with a lovely gentleman named Jack Jordan. But there are lots of towncar services out there, so find one that has good reviews on-line, and a price that fits into your budget.

Taxis

A taxi is another option, but with less personal service, and generally about the same price as the towncar (round trip.) Taxis can be found by following the signs in the baggage claim area.

Rental cars

Many people like the control of renting a car and driving themselves everywhere. If you’re one of them, you’ve got lots of car rental companies to choose from. And driving around Disney World property isn’t all that hard — everything is clearly marked with large purple signs. (And –BONUS!!– you get to slow down to take that all important picture of the entrance to Disney property. *sigh*)

This sight always makes my heart sing!

But if you don’t want to hire a car, you don’t have to. (Personally, the last thing *I* want to do on my vacation is drive, so I’m happy to leave all that up to Disney, who does it so well and so efficiently!)

Disney’s Magical Express

Launched in 2005, Disney came up with a fairly worry-free way to get guests from MCO to their resort by forming a partnership with Mears Transportation. Their fleet of Disney’s Magical Express (DME) buses are all themed to Disney’s standards, and they’ll get you to your resort (and back again) with a mimimum of fuss — though it’s not always the speediest route there, but generally within 90 minutes from the time you step off your plane to the time you walk into the lobby of your resort.

A Magical Express bus

(Note that sometimes you’ll get a Disney Cruise Line bus, and even a bright yellow Mears bus. They’ll all get you to the same place with the same service, but it’s a tad more magical to step onto a blue DME bus.)

For more info on tagging your bags, late night arrivals, and using Resort Airline Check-in for the return flight, please check your PassPorter for details, or check AllEars.net on-line.

Once you’re at your Disney resort and want to get anywhere else, you have lots of transportation options to choose from — buses, monorails, boats, ferries, taxis, trains, oh my!!

By Bus

The red and white Disney buses are ubiquitous once on WDW property, and they shuttle around thousands of guests each day. They can get you from any resort to any theme park, water park, or Downtown Disney fairly easily. It might not be as fast as driving yourself, but it’s pain-free and a great time to sit in air conditioning and just “veg out.” In fact, I frequently fall asleep while on the bus and get myself a second wind on a long day of touring.

By Monorail

Disney’s monorail system is pretty awesome — though it’s beginning to show signs of age (*see the note below.) And, if you travel it enough, you’ll learn the most memorable bit of dialogue in all of Disney World — how to say “Please stand clear of the doors” in Spanish.

Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas! (check out this YouTube video to get you in the groove)

With quiet efficiency, the Express Line travels around the Seven Seas Lagoon From the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) to the Magic Kindom in just a few minutes. To get to any of the monorail resorts, just hop on the Resort Line to go from the Magic Kindom to the Contemporary, the TTC, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian before heading back to the Magic Kingdom.

Additionally, there are several miles of track that will take you from the TTC to Epcot — with a little loop around Spaceship Earth — via the Epcot Spur line. You just have to walk down the long slope and back up another long slope to transfer from the MK-area monorail to the Epcot Spur line.

*NOTE: a recent change in the monorail operational hours may impact you, so make sure to check when the monorail shuts down each night of your vacation so you don’t find yourself stranded. (Not that anyone is stranded in WDW because there are always a few ways to get from point A to point B on Disney property — and you can always check with a Cast Member for transportation help.)

The Boats

One of the most relaxing ways (IMHO) to get where you’re going is with the Disney boat system.

A Disney resort launch waits for passengers

Not only are there the giant ferries that transport guests from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom (MK), but there are the small craft that traverse the Seven Seas Lagoon from the MK to each of the monorail resorts plus the Wilderness Lodge and Ft. Wilderness campgrounds, or the Friendships that cross Epcot’s water from the base of World Showcase to Morocco or Germany, and also travel the route from the International Gateway to the Epcot area resorts, not to mention the boats that ply the waters from several resorts to Downtown Disney.

Let me tell you, there’s nothing so wonderful in my mind as sitting on a boat, on a warm evening at Disney, watching the sun set as you head back to your resort after a long day in the parks. It’s divine, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Taxis

I think getting from resort-to-resort is a hassle at Disney when using the regular transportation system. Except for a few exceptions, you have to do too much transferring and waiting for buses/boats/monorails for my tastes. For that reason, I budget $15-17 for a taxi when I want to get from one resort to another in a set amount of time. (I’m thinking specifically of early morning breakfasts, or special event meals where I’d be dressed up and wearing heels.)

Taxis can be found at all of the resorts — just stop at the front desk if you don’t see any under the porte cochere at the front of the resort. You can also use the “taxi” button on your resort phone to arrange for a taxi to come right to your building at a specified time, which I’ve done a few times when staying at some of the more spread-out resorts when I don’t feel like catching an internal bus or walking all the way to the main building to catch my cab.

But, if “doing it all yourself” is up your alley, then have I got a tool for you.

The OLP Transportation Wizard

This little gem lets you input your departure point and destination and then it gives you all the permutations of how to get between the two — walking, driving, taking a bus/boat/monorail. And you can choose which one suits your needs best. It even gives you approximate travel time via that route (not factoring in any unusual waits for a mode of transportation to show up!)

The input screen

Using the pull-down boxes, choose your “from” location, and where you’re trying to get “to.” Then select [Find Route]

The results screen

Note that it gives ALL methods of travel, including ones that take much longer than others. Taking a bus to the front of Epcot, going through bag check and then walking aaaaaall the way up to the International Gateway only to hop a boat to the Studios is not a good use of time (110 minutes of wasted time, in fact!) But… if you were planning on picking something up in the Canada pavilion anyway, well… *shrug* …it might be something you’d want to do.

Disney World is a very big place….

Walt Disney World's Transportation Map

…but you can always get THERE from HERE.

Good luck!

*PS – A Google search will bring up lots of helpful results, including resort maps and the excellent Transportation Map Disney provides its guests here:

http://adisneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw/images2003/languagespecific/eng/nontheme/moremagic/golf/maps/wdwmap.pdf