Hi everyone, I really need your help. My mom and dad are joining us NEXT WEEK, but they are very clueless, and unfortunately very dependent on me and our TA. I was relying on my TA to help with their resort hopping decoration touring plan on Nov. 28. My folks are already slowly driving down, and I got their travel plans from the TA in today's mail. They both have ECV's, and have a 1:00 lunch at Ale & Compass and the 8:15 Spirit of Aloha at Poly. They are staying at Pop Century. She has them going to Monorail resorts, then making sure they do lunch, then do some Epcot resorts, then back to POP and then back to Poly.
It would seem to make sense to just do Epcot resorts around lunch time, then go up and do Monorail resorts and stay for SoA at Poly, then go back to POP being all done.
I know the boats around the Epcot resorts were shutting down at some point.
But they need TO NOT enter a park, because they can't waste a ticket entitlement accidentally, which I could see them doing, walking through Epcot or something.
Can someone PLEASE help based in the boat, bus, and Monorail availability, what would be the best route to go? I figured that after several days in the parks, they would want to sleep in or hit the pool before leaving Pop around 11 or so.
Christmas decor, so the idea is beach/yacht clubs (maybe boardwalk, but heard it's bleh), then Cont, GF, Wilderness Lodge, and Poly). So based on how boats and Monorail runs (is the loop one way, or both directions?), What would be the best course of action? Based on the time of the scheduled meals, should they maybe skip BW to make sure the others have plenty of time? Thanks again!
Thank you so much!!
OK, a few things you should know first:
- The boats that run between MK & GF & Poly, and the boats between CR & WL, cannot take ECV's.
- The boats that circle around the Epcot resorts, Epcot, & DHS do take ECV's, but they recently changed the rules so that they can now take only 2 ECV's or wheelchairs per boat.
- Only service to Epcot is supposed to be affected by the shutdown. Boats should still be running between DHS & the Epcot resorts.
- Last I heard, there were 2 boats running between MK & WL: one that doesn't take ECV's, and one that does. I think the one that does can take either 2 or 3 per trip.
- There are also buses between MK & WL. All WDW buses can carry a max of 2 ECV's or chairs.
- BC & YC are essentially 1 resort with 2 sections. They are connected by a hallway, and share a single boat dock, but do have separate bus stops.
So ... the rest of this is strictly my personal opinion:
I would take a bus from Pop to DHS, and then either take the boat, or just
scooter along the path to YC/BC. There's the possibility that they might have to wait for the 2nd or 3rd boat to get both ECV's on, but at least DHS is the terminal so there won't be ECV's already on board. They could survey both YC & BC either before or after lunch.
Next, I might take the bus to MK followed by the boat or bus to WL. If the smaller boat to WL arrives first, they would have to wait for the next boat and hope there were no ECV's ahead of them. They would need to go thru MK bag check to get to the boat, but not to take the bus to WL.
An alternative would be to scoot or boat from YC/BC back to DHS, and take the bus to WL. Check with the bus driver; buses from DHS used to go to WL and then CR after noon. If they still do that, it could be a shortcut for the next step.
From WL, take the bus back to MK, and then either scoot or take the Resort Monorail to CR. If the DHS bus still goes to WL followed by CR, they could hop on that (marquee would say DHS) if there's room and skip a step, but I would take the MK bus if it comes first to avoid hitting a DSH bus with no space.
From CR, take the Resort Monorail to GF.
From GF, take the Resort Monorail all the way around to Poly. There's also a walkway from GF to Poly that they could scoot on, but parts of it run along the shore of the Lagoon and can be very chilly when there's a north wind blowing, so take the weather into consideration and bundle up if necessary.
After dinner, they could take the Resort Monorail to MK if the park's still open, for a bus back to Pop. If all the parks are closed by the time they finish, they'll have to take a bus to DS. Epcot is open until 9:30 from Thanksgiving on, but I don't know when they'd get to TTC if they scooted there after the luau, and I don't know whether they'd be allowed to board the Epcot Monorail to get a bus to Pop after Epcot's closed.
IMHO, the timing on this whole thing could go either way. If they have to do a lot of extra waiting because buses or boats don't have room for both of them on the first try, they might run short of time and have to head to Poly before viewing all the resorts. OTOH, if everything goes smoothly, they might end up with time to fill before dinner. I think ECV's rarely have to wait for a 2nd Resort Monorail, and if they did, the train run about every 5 minutes.
If they plan to scoot along the walking paths, tell them to be sure the scooters are fully charged overnight, and carry the chargers in the pouches just in case they need to plug in during dinner.
Also, tell them when they visit GF to look around outside the main entrance. Some afternoons during the holiday season, there's a cast member with a little grill in the garden giving out free hot chestnuts. Even when there's not, there's usually an antique car or carriage parked under the porte-cochère to look at.
