I was curious…is it realistic to stay in any of the Epcot resorts and get to MK using the monorail in any reasonable fashion? I was just wondering about how much time it would be, versus using the buses. And is the only way to the Monorail station at Epcot from those resorts to have to walk through Epcot itself?
Thanks.
Yes. To get to the monorail, you must walk through Epcot.
The buses or minnie vans are your best transportation to MK when staying at the Epcot resorts.
You would also have to switch over to a second monorail line to get to GF or CR. You can walk to Polybfrom the TTC. The EP monorail brings you to the TTC.
Yeah. I just wasn’t sure if there could be any advantage to doing it that way versus the buses.
I’m only thinking about our Anniversary trip and started to wonder about the Epcot resorts. I still really prefer the Bay Lake Tower idea, but don’t want to be closed to other ideas. It just seems a downside is that staying at the Epcot resorts basically eliminates a need to ever use the monorail, which to me is a bit of an iconic experience (and the main reason I wanted to stay the Contemporary/Bay Lake to begin with). So if using the Epcot monorail as a means to MK is reasonable (as opposed to taking 3 times as long as the buses or something), I would keep it has an option to think about.
This probably means it is quite a hike to do it that way. Not only the walk to the gates of Epcot, but then the walk to the front of Epcot just to get to the monorail. 
Not really. You’d have to walk through Epcot - a good 10 minutes walk at best - just to get to the monorail. If you were staying at one of the Epcot resorts you’d be best served to use the buses to get to MK
Plus, unless you have park hoppers, you’d be using a park ticket just to walk through.
We do plan on having park hoppers for this trip. This trip, for us, will kind of be like building Jurassic Park: No expense spared! 
(Not entirely true. But it will be our most expensive vacation ever!)
I know what you mean by the iconic part of MK: monorail, and for us, the ferry.
It was interesting, nostalgic really, to hear now adult (usually) Ds say during his 1st stay Epcot resort (I’d stayed there b4 a few times): “what, we’re being bused straight to MK gate, no ferry or monorail this morning?”
It’s nice to know that my kiddos , now grown, have those great memories.
Following trip, we stayed first 1/2 offsite, so his iconic ferry came in handy haha. And the ferry and the monorail are sweet ways to get to MK. You’ve got me thinking- maybe we’ll spend some time on them just because. this trip (we’re back at our fave Epcot resort).
If you still want to ride the monorail as an experience, you could always book lunch or dinner at one of the monorail resorts on an MK day. Take the Minnie Van or Bus to MK and leave via monorail for your meal. You’d have a good reason to ride the monorail but still get to try out the Epcot resorts (which I absolutely love!).
At this point, the thought was that being in the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower would give that magical experience of just hopping on the monorail and heading to MK or Epcot, which we would probably do several times.
But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this is true. Bay Lake Tower is a stone’s throw from the MK, which means we’d likely walk rather than ride. In fact, ever trip FROM the MK to Bay Lake would be faster if we walk. Only the trip from the Bay Lake to MK MIGHT be faster.
So, that leaves the monorail primarily as something we make a special effort to do, or for the trip to Epcot itself.
That, of course, removes much of the benefit of staying there.
The other benefit of staying there is potentially having the MK view for the fireworks. But that isn’t a deal breaker because we plan to do the dessert party once.
Which of course, is making me rethink everything despite the fact it has been a dream of mine since I was a kid to stay at the Contemporary!
You have that backwards. The monorail goes from MK to CR (1st stop). On the way TO MK you’d go all the way around, with MK being the last stop. You’d do faster walking to, but faster (maybe, depending on monorail activity) monorailing from)
My DH and I prefer the Epcot properties BUT we always have Park Hoppers and we never RD. We are all about the food so often start our day with an ADR at Epcot before heading to another park. We like the walk through Epcot to the monorail because the more we walk, the more we can eat!
Maybe it is presumptuous of me to tell you to do it for this reason, but making childhood dreams come true seems like the best reason to pick this resort. There is no one objectively good choice, so you are not ignoring reason here: if you have budgeted appropriately for this, live your childhood dream and don’t overthink it.
That’s my two cents.
The upside is (as you allude to) that you get to ride a monorail! It’s also more scenic that taking a bus. Whether or not that’s worth more time is up to you.
I don’t stay in Epcot resorts very often, but did this once in 2012, while staying at the Boardwalk. We left our hotel a little after 5:00pm and it was about an hour and a half before we passed through the turnstiles (this was pre-tapstiles) in Magic Kingdom, though we stopped along the way to ride Spaceship Earth. Without the Spaceship Earth ride, the time from hotel room to MK would have been almost exactly an hour (and that was traveling with my parents, who didn’t walk very fast). That’s surely longer than taking a bus, but not so much that I wouldn’t consider the walk through Epcot if I wanted to include a monorail ride as part of my trip.
If I were to do this today, what I’d be more likely to do is spend a morning in Magic Kingdom, then hop to Epcot by monorail to eat lunch, and then return to my hotel for an afternoon break. Or, I might stop in Epcot for dinner on the way to Magic Kingdom in the evening.
Yes. Sorry. Backwards. Thanks. You da queen!
Why not just plan to ride the monorail anyway?
You could bus it to MK, then go straight to the monorail station and ride it right round. If you take the resort one, you’ll stop at each resort, if you take the express one you’ll just stop at the TTC and back to MK.
And for good measure you could do an Epcot loop as well. MK to TTC, change lines, TTC to Epcot and back (just stay on it when you arrive at Epcot station), then change lines back to the MK.
You’ve got that the wrong way round. From Bay Lake, you’d walk to Contemporary, get on the monorail and go to TTC, Poly, GF and MK.
Coming from MK it’s just one stop to Contemporary.
The express line goes the opposite way round, stopping just at TTC and MK.
But as I said above, just do the loop for the fun of it. We do it at least once, even when we stay at BLT.
My husband and I picked the Beach Club to stay at for our trip. We think we might use the monorail:
To go to the Grand Floridian from MK for drinks, appetizers, and poking around.
To do a little sightseeing loop of the monorail resorts the evening we eat at CG.
To wander through Epcot to grab a quick bite of dinner on our way “home” from MK. (I know that is not the most efficient way to get back to our hotel, but it will be more fun, and MK will close at 6 some of the nights we’re there for MVMCP.)
My heart says Bay Lake, but I am trying to decide if it really is the best decision since we might not use the monorail as I imagined. Ugh.
Well, I will investigate some of the Epcot resort options to see if any call to me. Of course, there are also the AK resorts! But while I really like the idea of them (Wilderness Lodge just looks cool), I just don’t think I would ultimately be as happy there.