How much travel time to allot?

cmfitz14

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 13, 2014
We are staying at the Polynesian for our summer visit. Our plan is to go to the parks for rope drop and stay until early afternoon (12-1:00 most days). We then want to try to get in a little pool time at the hotel. We have ADRs almost every night at one of the parks, so we will also hit up some attractions after dinner in the park we eat at (we have Hoppers so it doesn’t matter where we start). How much travel time should we allot to get from the Polynesian to the restaurants in the parks?

Our ADR times are as follows:
Via Napoli 5:30
Biergarten 6:00
Sci-Fi 5:20
Yak and Yetti (5:15 - we have a FP+ for Expedition Everest from 4-5 before this ADR)
T-Rex 6:00 (Disney Springs, I know it’s not a park - still curious about travel time)
Teppan Edo 5:20

Thanks for any tips!
 
We are staying at the Polynesian for our summer visit. Our plan is to go to the parks for rope drop and stay until early afternoon (12-1:00 most days). We then want to try to get in a little pool time at the hotel. We have ADRs almost every night at one of the parks, so we will also hit up some attractions after dinner in the park we eat at (we have Hoppers so it doesn’t matter where we start). How much travel time should we allot to get from the Polynesian to the restaurants in the parks?

Our ADR times are as follows:
Via Napoli 5:30
Biergarten 6:00
Sci-Fi 5:20
Yak and Yetti (5:15 - we have a FP+ for Expedition Everest from 4-5 before this ADR)
T-Rex 6:00 (Disney Springs, I know it’s not a park - still curious about travel time)
Teppan Edo 5:20

Thanks for any tips!

Standard advice is 60 minutes, but will often take less.
 
Poly to Epcot using the monorail I would leave an hour and 15 minutes (walking to the TTC, not taking the resort monorail) before your reservation. Poly to HS 1.5 hours. Poly to DS 1.5 hours. Now the word of caution is that the monorail seems to break down like a poorly maintained car with 300,000 miles on it. So it is always hit or miss as to if you will make an Epcot or MK reservation at all. When we absolutely positively have to be somewhere on time, we use Uber/Lyft. We have had it take 2 hours from HS to the Poly during peak times (which is when you are going). We have stood at every park and seen 5 buses for another resort come and go without one of our buses showing up once. That is only if we needed to be somewhere. Your in luck though, we are not staying at the Poly this summer, so the buses there should be running fine.
 
I agree with the last poster, I'd leave more than an hour before your Epcot reservations. The monorail arrives at the front of the park, and the walk to the world showcase takes a few minutes - especially if it is hot and you aren't moving quickly.

A relaxed walk through the park/DS before dinner is always nicer than panic and rush. I'd plan for leaving 1.5 hours before - that'll give you the extra cushion for someone in your party moving slowly, forgetting something in the room, etc.
 


1.5 hours on all of them. If you get to walk onto a bus (no wait time) - the Poly to HS and walk to Sci Fi - might only take 45-50 minutes. But that's assuming no wait time for a bus.

The EPCOT ones - definitely walk to TTC - then monorail to EPCOT. All your reservations are in WS - and you don't want to have to rush to get there. There's nothing worse than showing up overheated and sweaty for a dining reservation. Again - you never know how long you will wait for a monorail.
 
An hour and a half will give you more time to not have to speed walk through the parks and will help remove stress that you are going to be late or miss your reservation!
 


1.5 hours on all of them. If you get to walk onto a bus (no wait time) - the Poly to HS and walk to Sci Fi - might only take 45-50 minutes. But that's assuming no wait time for a bus.

The EPCOT ones - definitely walk to TTC - then monorail to EPCOT. All your reservations are in WS - and you don't want to have to rush to get there. There's nothing worse than showing up overheated and sweaty for a dining reservation. Again - you never know how long you will wait for a monorail.

I agree with 1.5 hrs to be safe. Last August we had to run through Epcot to Akershus cause I only allotted about an hour and 15 minutes and we got pretty unlucky with the monorail. (I was hoping for a Minnie van but was unable to find one). We still ended up late and we were a sweaty miserable mess.
 
All the park adrs should not be a problem, but last summer when we stayed there it was a real pain getting to Disney Springs. Busses both to and from took forever. But, I had good luck with boats, busses, and monorails throughout our stay.
 
90 minutes should be plenty, but it all depends on how long you have to wait for a bus, so the 1 1/2 hours to HS , AK and DS is definitely a good idea. Agree with walking to TTL to get the monorail to EPCOT. That should give you time to have a slow enjoyable walk to WS and not have to rush.
Your 2 longest trips look to be AK and DS, both seem to take a long time by bus so leave plenty of time.
 

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