Monorail Travel Time

I have never stayed at a resort with the Monorail. How long should I allow to get from the Grand Floridian to MK for an ADR? I usually give myself a minimum of an hour just to get to a main gate with the bus system. Do you have any other monorail tips/info?

This can vary wildly…I find the monorail to be the least reliable source of transportation at Disney!
You might wait for a monorail for 0-10 minutes.
But once you’re on the monorail, from GF to inside MK should really be about 10-15 minutes, depending on how briskly you walk. Then from there to your ADR, wherever that may be.

You can also take the little resort launch boat. Not sure if that goes to the Poly before heading to MK though. I’d give that an hour. :relaxed:

The actual mono ride itself is about 5 min - if that. You’ll have to add on a bit for the wait for the mono to arrive, and then figure the time to walk fromthe station, clear bag check, and get to your ADR. I’d probably still give it at least 45 min; I’d rather be early and have a few extra minutes in MK than be running late.

The boat goes GF->Poly->MK so the monorail is much faster from the GF to the MK. We would go on the monorail with a boat return normally.

I’d allow 30 minutes to get to the front gates at MK and you should be safe. Sometimes we were walking down main street in 15 if we caught the monorail right and didn’t have to go thru bag check or it was a quick line. I’d then add on whatever the walk is to your restaurant so @bswan26 estimate of 45 minutes is probably dead on to what I’d allow to be very safe. Of course if you’re a few minutes late for an ADR it’s not the end of the world either…

I can’t imagine leaving less than 30 minutes before my ADR, unless I wanted to do something else in Magic Kingdom, wanted to arrive early for my reservation (since you’ll often be seated early), or if I were traveling with someone who tends to worry a lot.

Most likely, your wait time and monorail ride will be 10 minutes at the worst, then figure another 5 minutes for bag check and tapstiles (unless you’re arriving on a Christmas/Halloween party night when more people might be arriving at dinner time). If you want to be conservative, then add another 5 minutes for bag check and then another 10 minutes to walk to your restaurant in Magic Kingdom.

I keep pretty detailed records on my wait/travel times in Disney, going back to 2010. The longest monorail time I’ve seen from Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom was seven minutes. I did have one time when I boarded a monorail at GF in the evening and it didn’t move for about 5-10 minutes, at which point I exited the monorail and found another route to my destination, so there’s always some chance of a mechanical breakdown, but if that happens there’s nothing you can do, and your restaurant will understand and accommodate you if Disney transportation breaks down.

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