The Monorail Resorts at Walt Disney World

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

THE MONORAIL RESORTS

The so-called “monorail resorts” at Walt Disney World are Disney’s Polynesian, Grand Floridian, and Contemporary resorts, and the Disney Vacation Club Resort at the Contemporary, Bay Lake Tower.

These are called monorail resorts because they are the only hotels at Walt Disney World with monorail stops.

They are among the most popular hotels at Walt Disney World…and may face an interesting future!

Disney World’s monorail system has three loops, a spur, and some switches.

• One loop, the Epcot Monorail, runs between Epcot and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC).
• Another, the Express Monorail, runs counterclockwise around Seven Seas Lagoon with stops at the TTC and the Magic Kingdom.
• The third loop, the Resort Monorail,  runs clockwise around the lagoon, paralleling the Express Monorail tracks, and stops at TTC, the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian, the Magic Kingdom, the Contemporary, and then back to TTC.

A spur ties in between the Magic Kingdom and the Contemporary, affording access to the monorail shops, and switches allow the monorails here to access the two Seven Seas Lagoon loops.  Another set of switches at TTC gets the monorails onto the Epcot loop.

The Resort Monorail stops at the three principal monorail resorts (Bay Lake Tower is a short walk from the Contemporary’s stop), and most famously travels through the Contemporary itself (as does the Express Monorail).

As a result, guests at these hotels have a particularly fun and convenient way to access the Magic Kingdom, the other monorail resorts and their restaurants, and the Epcot Monorail.

Well, kinda convenient.

While the Magic Kingdom is the first stop out from the Grand Floridian, that hotel is the last stop back; the Contemporary is the first stop back from the Magic Kingdom, but that park is the last stop from the hotel; the Polynesian has reasonable monorail access in both directions, being two stops in and three stops back.

Each of these resorts has a transportation alternative to the resort monorail, which in many cases is the better choice.

Those at the Contemporary can walk ten minutes to or from the Magic Kingdom; those at the Grand Floridian can evade being the last stop back by taking a boat, and those at the Polynesian can avoid being the third stop back by taking the Express Monorail to the TTC and walking to the Polynesian from there.

These resorts access Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios theme parks via buses, which they share with at least one, and sometimes two other resorts.

Getting to Epcot from the monorail resorts requires two transportation acts: getting to TTC, and then catching the Epcot Monorail.  Travelers from the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary have no other way provided to get to TTC than taking the Resort Monorail; those staying at the Polynesian can walk to TTC and catch the Epcot Monorail there.

THE FUTURE OF THE MONORAIL RESORTS

Redevelopment of the monorail resorts began with the demolition of the Contemporary’s North Garden wing and its replacement with Bay Lake Tower. More recently the Villas at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Villas and Bungalows have opened.

There’s one obvious spot for a new monorail resort, and a couple not so obvious ones.

The obvious spot is the place that had once been reserved for the Venetian Resort, between the Contemporary and TTC.

In the image, the site is the red-colored land north of TTC between the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

Reportedly, Disney has tested this site at least twice, and both times been dismayed by the suitability of the geology for building.

But that dismay could mean several things–ranging from “expensive” to “impossible.”  If the issue is on the “expensive” end of the scale, then the expense has to be compared to the next best alternative–having no place to put those who would otherwise pay big bucks to stay near the Magic Kingdom.

But this site, although likely the best, isn’t the only option.  It looks to be the only buildable site on the Resort Monorail–but that’s not the only monorail worth considering.

What about a monorail resort on the Epcot Monorail?

A MONORAIL RESORT AT EPCOT?

There’s a couple of sites on the Epcot monorail that look buildable to me–and also to Disney’s land-use documents, the Reedy Creek Improvement District Comprehensive 2020 Plan.

One of these sites for an Epcot monorail resort is visible on the image above–it’s the long, wide strip of red-colored land between the Magic Kingdom parking lot and Fort Wilderness, which currently contains the old STOL landing strip and swamps.

This enormous space, big enough for a theme park, could easily hold both a large monorail resort and a major water feature, perhaps an extension of Seven Seas Lagoon.

The other option is within the Epcot footprint, and shown on the image to the right.

It’s the red-colored “C”-shaped land on the northwest corner of the Epcot area, where the Epcot Monorail curves away into Epcot proper from the straight line it had been taking from the TTC.

It lies between the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts and Epcot Center Drive, and could easily hold a massive monorail resort.

I dunno if any of this is gonna happen…but I’d bet on a new monorail resort somewhere, sometime before Disney’s 50th anniversary!