Been following the train option-
Really excited for it- my son just moved to west Palm so it would nice and convenient from his place
Also like the idea of the airports eventually being somewhat connected…
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Interesting model - I think Tokyo has something vaguely similar IIRC - although no idea if they do luggage service - but the parks are definitely served by a high rail service from Tokyo. I wonder if they are trying to coordinate a central train vision for the resorts? Guessing Walt would approve since trains were involved. If they do handle the luggage - hopefully at the airport, but even at DS, it becomes a far more attractive option…
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I agree, this logistically just won’t work out and at what price point. It will still probably be cheaper to use a ride share.
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This is exactly what I am hoping for
We are DONE. Sold our 650 DVC points. Cancelled our trip for October. We live in Maryland and went for a couple days in August. Done done done. Prices too high. Services cut back. Crowded. Disney Springs was AWFUL - CROWDED, bizarrely bad entertainment, dirty. Final straws: 1. Paid fast pass. 2. Bad food half the time. 3. Lion King Show at AK was a barometer of what they have done to Disney - key parts that had multiple performers were cut out. We are done.
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Wow that’s certainly putting your money where your mouth is.
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Ugggh. Brightline is not meant in any way, shape, or form meant to serve as airport-to-WDW transportation. The station at the Orlando airport makes sense as it’s got parking so that it can serve origin/destination connections and is intermodal right out of the gate.
Disney Springs will have a station as it’s a very good location for a station for people using Brightline for day trips from southeast Florida. Disney Springs is a big part of in-state day trips.
Airport shuttle service needs to have 6-10 trains per hour to work in any kind of meaningful way. Brightline won’t have the track capacity, isn’t signaled for high-frequency use, has no plans for electrification, and isn’t going to buy enough trainsets for that level of service.
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Brightline won’t get me from MCO to resort.
But it might eventually on a future visit to WDW, lead me to take a non-park day to catch a game at Tropicana Field.
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I feel like this isn’t being communicated at all. You’re the first person I’ve heard say this. Not saying you’re wrong, just saying they need to get on top of the messaging.
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I think there was some marketing that was a little misleading/suggestive that it was going to be an option but that has been clarified many times over as inaccurate. This will most definitely NOT going to be a thing
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Agree…all the WDW messaging has been we are taking away DME, but Brightline is coming soon to replace it.
…and if it wasn’t intended to be as direct as that, the lack of intention was lost and almost ot a person WDW travelers have the expectation that Brightline is “replacing” DME.
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Because Brightline is using tax-exempt bonds for construction financing, and because of Florida’s open records laws, everything related to their current construction and future proposals is online. The press room and expansion plans sections of gobrightline.com have quite a bit. Nothing Brightline has published says anything about being an airport connector, and never has. All the supposition about Brightline’s role in replacing Magical Express has been clickbait from Disney-focused sites.
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Cite one example from Disney, please.
To clarify: show me something published on a Disney-managed website, or q quote from anyone directly employed by or contracted by Disney or any of its business units, that says Brightline will be the future airport connector.
I don’t recall Disney themselves saying so (they’ve been very careful about that, apparently). But they have allowed the speculation / inference to be made and have been happy to leave it to the fan sites to jump to that conclusion.
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I could go dig, but it may not have been directly from Disney …however if you go back to all the influencer sites you will see the comparison repeatedly.
WDW didn’t have to explicitly say it, the influencers took care of making the connection.
There had to be more than 30 Facebook posts from DFB alone discussing the demise of DME and the start of Brightline. The IMPRESSION the random person gets is that we have to figure out something else between the end of DME and the start of Brightline.
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Under the most optimistic scenario, pre-COVID, Brightline to Tampa wasn’t even going to start construction until 2026. The Central Florida Expressway Authority, which is giving right-of-way to Brightline, has indefinitely suspended its approval because of the ongoing argument over non-Disney interests who want the more expensive SR 528 alignment so that it can serve the Convention Center and International Drive and Brightline who wants the SR 417 alternative because it’s cheaper.
People can somehow simultaneously attribute both Dr. No levels of malevolent genius and step-on-a-rake stupidity to Chapek and WDW management, but it would be a real stretch to see how Disney would think a transportation alternative that’s 6-8 years away, that it would have no financial stake in, and have no operational interest in, would be viable. As opposed to, say, just going back to the pre-Magical-Express days when Mears just did their own thing.
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Disney could offer sugar-encrusted horse sh*t at the Main Street Bakery and Disney Food Blog would call it “ahmahzing.” I hope if the day ever comes when I use that site for anything other than strengthening my ocular muscles, people who care about me remove anything sharp or flammable from my personal home.
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And I thought it was me…
Oh, I agree. They are 99% click bait and I don’t click …but far too many people do.
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This is from the Brightline Press Room page, but is co-signed by Disney offering a Disney contact (Erica Ettori): Brightline DIS announcement
That is from November 2020 which IIRC is around when Magical Express’s demise was announced as well. So I’m sure there was some connecting of the dots by influencers.
The Brightline station is intended to provide a convenient, car-free travel option between Walt Disney World Resort and Brightline stations at Orlando International Airport (OIA), Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and planned stations in Aventura, Boca Raton and Port Miami.
“Brightline will offer a car-free connection to the millions of visitors from around the state and the world who plan to make Walt Disney World Resort part of their vacation plans,”
I guess they don’t say they’re going to do it well (i.e. with enough trains to make it a viable alternative to Magical Express) but they’re certainly pitching the concept that they’re connecting visitors from around the World to Disney there. Given there’s a Disney contact there, I’m presuming they co-signed onto that…
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