Walt Disney World Monorail system to operate on revised schedule from September 1

Aug 22, 2014 in "Walt Disney World Monorail System"

Posted: Friday August 22, 2014 10:21am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney World Monorail system will be operating on a new schedule from September 1 2014 as work continues on the automation system installation.

The following schedule will be in place from September 1 to September 26 2014.

  • Magic Kingdom Resort beam - 8:30am to 11pm (midnight on special event nights)
  • Magic Kingdom Express beam - 9:30am to 1 hour following the Magic Kingdom fireworks
  • Epcot beam - 9am to 11pm

September 5 and 6 will have a 2am close of the Magic Kingdom Resort and Express beams to accommodate Night of Joy guests.

As always, watercraft and bus services will be made available outside of the operating hours.

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dstrawn9889Sep 02, 2014

oi, vei... of course any one can be angry, that it their right as a citizen of the world, and a cellular, carbon-based sack of mostly water at that. all i am saying is that the Monorails, no matter the documentation, are not guaranteed to be running when you are at a resort. it is the resorts' responsibility to work with transportation, and when this breaks down, needs to be taken up with the concierge. IMHO, if the 'rails are down and you have exceptional issue with it, the money you paid gives you ability to negotiate with the resort, whether it is concessions, or a move to another Deluxe resort. i will agree that having them down is inconvenient, but inconveniences at the POLY or GF or the contemporary can be solved by the concierge with a phone call. don't think there are not kneeling vans in the taxi services' motor pool. again us 'muricans do love to bitch, but here is not the place to keep going on about it (wow five pages of it)... we have all said our peace, and unlikely to change someone elses' mind. thank you for you time reading this post

minsmkSep 02, 2014

It was one of the mid day shut downs. Sorry If I came off that way, I just felt as if I should share my opinion on the matter :) I think the monorail should be down later, I love taking the ferry but it takes 8-10 minutes to get to mk which includes load and unload. The monorail takes more 3-5 and loads more people, and the resort monorail takes 6-8 with stops of course. I feel as if TTC was less busy when they offered both the ferry and monorail in the morning. It makes the 9:00-9:45 rush much harder than when they had the monorail to take off some of that stress.

Figment2005Sep 02, 2014

Okay, when was this? I'm kind of getting the vibe you are just complaining to fit in. If it was recent, most likely it was a serious problem that forces it to be down as unless you were eating dinner before 9 or after 11 the monorail would be running. Now if you're talking way back when they had the mid day shut downs, then I understand your dissatisfaction.

minsmkSep 02, 2014

This whole thing was very annoying when I was there. One day during the part of our trip with our friends we wanted to go to MK when we were at Epcot. We had dinner reservations and made it there just in time because we thought we could take the monorail. Another morning later on when I was staying at a friends place we thought we could try to make it but the monorail was down again ._.

ninjaprincesstSep 02, 2014

There is not, it is a long walk down roads but if the don't have the monorail back to a normal schedule, and there and buses are being reported as taking more than an hour to arrive and don't start running until 6:45 am which means the earliest one would arrive is 7:45, have a disabled member in our party that requires an ecv, so the only option to make a 7:35 adr is to make the long walk, we would just walk to MK but from the sound of it, the Poly bus won't show up until 7:45 or later and the ecv prevents us from taking the boat to the Poly.

BernardandBiancaSep 02, 2014

Way too many people absolutely fail to read what others post. Think about what the words say, not what you are trying to read into them. The original poster did not complain about the fact that the monorails were being worked on; the complaint was about the twin facts that Disney, who knew what was coming, did not bother to inform paying guests who were going to be adversely impacted about the upcoming work; and that the alternatives provided by Disney were totally inadequate. That's a legitimate complaint, and nowhere near what you are saying was being said.

kbmumSep 01, 2014

What people want is for Disney to provide reliable, alternate transportation. The buses to MK and Epcot were not reliable during my trip and occasionally non-existent. No guest should have to wait up to an hour to go from the resort to any park.

cw1982Sep 01, 2014

Who is yelling at you? All I've seen is people being critical towards those who expressed displeasure over the situation, and the other side firing back to defend their positions. I have seen disagreeing, but no yelling. I don't follow your post. You said "agreed" in response to the idea that those guests have a right to be mad but then write a whole paragraph criticizing them for being upset. For all you know, they are complaining to Disney, although frankly I can't see where that would help in this case. It's not like the CM's on the phone can change anything about this. I see nothing wrong with venting here in reaction and feel it's a far cry from yelling at people. I see your point, but I don't think you're being quite fair here.

boufaSep 01, 2014

Agreed... funny thing is that anger is not a solution. I'm not sure WHAT they expect Disney to do. ... "OK guys clear the line! the Poly called and they got someone who needs to get somewhere.. fire up the monorails, the work can wait!" The work needs to be done, even if its an inconvenience. The Monorails need love, and just like the highways, construction happens, and its inconvenient at times. Talk to Disney and see what they will do for you... maybe a discount, maybe move you to another resort, maybe arrange better ADR times... but all the crying and complaining isn't going to change the project... also not a single word spoken on this forum is going to influence any DIsney decisions. Be mad here all you want, but ultimately being mad on the phone to Disney is the only thing that is going to matter. Call the hotel GM, try to get the VP of resorts and transportation (they are the same department now). Share your displeasure, but yelling at us isn't fixing a darn thing for you.

kbmumSep 01, 2014

What I find interesting is that most, if not all, of the people who are saying we should stop complaining and suck it up have not had a vacation impacted by the schedule change. My expensive vacation at a monorail resort was most definitely affected every single morning we went to MK and Epcot (always for park opening). There is absolutely no reason to have such terrible bus service. We had no issues with the buses to DHS and AK, so Disney certainly knows how to run transportation from the Contemporary. I don't understand why they didn't put the MK and Epcot buses on that same type of schedule. If they had run every 20 minutes like the other park buses, I would have had a much less stressful vacation. Guest transportation is not a convenience, it's a necessity that Disney is obligated to provide. It did not provide reliable or timely transportation to the two most popular parks during my trip. As for changing resorts, that's easier said than done. I have DVC and not only are there strict rules if you want to change reservations less than 31 days prior to arrival (we were less than two weeks out when the notice was posted here), there were no comparable accommodations available due to the July 4th holiday.

ninjaprincesstSep 01, 2014

It would seem to me that an entire summer should be plenty to do computer work, and I don't understand why they can't just do it overnite when the monorail is not running anyway. I know there are tons of Disney employees who have to work over night so it would not kill the monorail people to do it.

wdwgreekAug 31, 2014

Again, I agree with you a thousand percent! my issue wasn't with your point...

cw1982Aug 31, 2014

Because there are people who think Disney can do no wrong and that if you don't eat, sleep, and breathe Disney before your trip, then you clearly don't deserve to have a good trip, no matter how much you paid for that room and those tickets. :rolleyes: Nothing wrong with being prepared, but needing to be able to adjust one's plans at the last minute after they have already spent the last six months planning, especially when the change is necessary due to something WDW knew ahead of time and chose to not make readily available to all guests, is flat ridiculous.

xdan0920Aug 31, 2014

:banghead: I can't, for the life of me, see why anyone would begrudge guests for being ticked about this.