I enjoy the boat ride from WL to MK… but it’s not a good option if you’re rope drop people. We bus to MK in the morning, return by boat, or boat both ways if it’s not early in the AM.
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Would you actually need a park reservation to do this? You don’t actually have to enter the Epcot park? Or am I mistaken?
Yes, you do have to enter the park. There are no walking paths open to guest from the outside front of Epcot to International Gateway, where the Skyliner terminal is
Hmm, good to know. Hopefully park reservations will be a thing of the past by May 2022 for our trip. But something to watch.
You would also need a park hopper ticket. Do you usually buy park hoppers?
Yes, this is why I said, after taking the monorail from TTC to EP (front entrance):
As others have said, the monorail drops you at the front of EP. You would need a park ticket with hopper (if you’re trying to also go to HS), and a park reservation for EP. You would not be able to enter HS until near 2pm (no park reservations used for any park you hop to). You would have to enter EP from the front, and walk through it to the IG (“back entrance”) to then continue via walking, boat, or Skyliner to HS.
Unfortunately, WDW is a complicated place to navigate. So many different places to go, each with their own ways to get there. Here’s a subway style map of it all. https://www.wdwfocus.com/img/map-transportation/sample.png
So don’t be mistaken: you’ll need not only Epcot ressie but you’ll also need hoppers and you won’t (as of now) be able to enter HS until 2p
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Yeah, hoppers are always something we purchase. But the park reservations would not work out in this scenario. I’m just hoping once things are back at full capacity for a while, park reservations will be eliminated or park hopping won’t be limited to 2pm. The trip is 10 months away. I’ll cross my fingers.
Disney has park reservations set to go through at least January 2023 at this point. So I wouldn’t count on that changing. Perhaps what could change is how soon you could actually hop? I think Disney likes having the park reservation system in place for a variety of reasons, so I don’t foresee them dropping it anytime soon.
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Or just take the bus!
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Seems like the way to go 
I took the boat to and from MK today. Very frequent trips too.
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Yeah, just was trying to cut out waiting for buses.
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This.
Not only would you have to have the park reservation for Epcot, enter, and walk from the front to the back, and then only enter Studios after 2pm, IMHO the Skyliner is the LEAST direct way to get from Epcot to Studios. You have to go all the way back to the hub and CBR and change to the Studios line. It’s not just a little hop across Crescent Lake.
I think you’re going to spend that same amount of time you would “waiting for busses” if not more in walking through Epcot from front to back, then going the total opposite direction from where you need to go, exiting the bucket, getting in line for a new bucket, and getting on a new bucket to end up very close to where you got the first bucket to begin with.
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Definitely possible. But I can control that as opposed to the unknown of how long the bus will be or if we’ll get in the first bus etc. Of course the monorail and Skyliner can break down, nothing is perfect.
A bus is unlikely to take that amount of time.
If you were doing this in order to specifically incorporate something about this journey/pathway into your experience it would be worth it. But if you’re looking to save time waiting for buses, this is not the way. I misunderstood your goal
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Not including wait times for each stage, you are talking about a 10 minute ride from TTC to Epcot. Then about a 15 minute walk to IG. From there, taking Skyliner, boat, or walking to HS is about 20 minutes. You also have to get to the TTC, so add another 10 minutes there. That is 55 minutes of just transportation time.
Taking a bus directly is likely to be much faster…not to mention easier.
Now, there is something to be said for experiencing various transportation methods. But if time is your motivation, as others have said…the bus is the faster, most reliable way.
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Agree 100%.
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@lindsayvr
If you like to hop (like me), it’s a great plan to enter Epcot in the morning through FW and hop to DHS in the afternoon through WS.
You can also take the boat from Epcot to DHS.
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