A Week in Orlando: Part 4 Disney Resort Transportation

So what was it like using Disney Resort transportation with a wheelchair? There were a lot of positive experiences, and a few negative ones. Firstly, I was pleased to discover that there is a separate wheelchair queue for the buses. It's right up front, and allows the driver to see that you will need assistance when they pull up. After the bus has unloaded, the driver closes the front door and opens the doors in the middle of the bus. They cause the bus to dip towards the curb and then extend a ramp. I had to line up the wheelchair with the somewhat narrow ramp, then maneuver up the ramp and pivot sharply into the wheelchair securing spot. Thanks to the maneuverability of this chair, I never had any trouble with this process. Then the driver secures the front and back of the chair to the bus with ratcheting straps and helps you put on a seat belt. They will repeat that process with another wheelchair or scooter if there are more waiting, but they can only take two mobility devices per trip. This means that if your bus is making multiple stops and there are already two devices on board, you will have to wait for the next bus. Fortunately they come quite regularly, and this only happened to me once. After the driver has loaded on the wheelchairs and scooters, they open the front doors and allow the regular passengers to board. this can be a somewhat hazardous point for someone in a wheelchair as people are just not careful sometimes. They are lugging heavy, huge strollers and swinging them wildly. I was blessed to not be injured by them, but I dodged a lot and others around me were not so fortunate. Also, because they fill the buses to standing capacity, it was very common that someone was standing behind me and leaning against my seatbelt, which was a very constricting feeling. Once the bus arrives at your destination, the driver will unload all of the regular passengers, and then lower the bus and the ramp as when you boarded. Then they will remove the securing straps and your seatbelt and have you maneuver your device off of the bus. This is the trickiest part. You are already in a very tight space, and it doesn't allow for much movement. It is hard to maneuver the chair and line it up with the ramp. I did okay almost every time, but of course the one time the driver cautioned me to go straight for as long as possible, I had trouble. In hindsight, I think I bumped the joystick slightly to one side and then over corrected, but the result was the chair tipping drastically and me having to jump out in order to not be crushed. The chair was now stuck on the ramp, perpendicular to the direction it should be going. The driver helped me to get it off the ramp, but chastised me for not following his directions the whole time. And of course, I did all this with 50 people in line watching me. Definitely a learning experience, and one I would not like to repeat. I went across the bus station and hopped on another bus right away, had to get back on that horse so I didn't psych myself out. For the rest of the day, I was very careful to line my chair up with the ramp well, and go very slow when disembarking from the bus. With the exception of this one driver, all the rest were very positive and helpful. I would certainly recommend the Disney transportation system buses to someone using a power wheelchair or scooter.

Boarding the skyliner was even easier. They have a separate section set aside for people with mobility devices. The standard skyliner gondolas are in continuous motion while people load and unload, but the ones that are separated out for use by disabled persons remain stationary during loading and unloading. This was great because I never felt rushed or like I was holding anyone up. When it's your turn, you simply drive straight into the gondola, making sure to not go too far and trap your feet under the protective bar. Yep I did that too. Once you're in place, the operator will put wedges behind your wheels to prevent you from rolling backwards, and you're on your way! It was a wonderful mode of travel allowing me to see different perspectives on the resort area. There are gondolas with characters printed on the sides and those with plain windows. I appreciated that all the gondolas they set aside for those with disabilities were those with plain windows so that you would be able to see out of them easily. It was a little intimidating when it came to unloading. You have to back straight out, but you can't see where you're going. The joy stick on the chair did not make it easy to go straight forward or backward, it usually added at least a small degree of lateral movement as well. But I managed to back out of the gondola successfully both times I did it. Both times I boarded a skyliner gondola I was the only person in the handicapped line, however, I did notice that at the Pop century Resort there was a very long line of people waiting to board with mobility devices. You would need to keep this in mind when choosing your mode of transportation. That said, most of the time if a resort has an alternate form of transportation, like the skyliner or watercraft, they do not have bus service.

I had mixed experiences with the watercraft options. I took a boat from Disney Springs to the Port Orleans Resort using the power chair, and that went just fine. However, later that evening when I no longer had the chair with me, I took a boat from the wilderness Resort to the Magic Kingdom which was not handicap accessible. My understanding is that if I had wanted to board a watercraft on this route I would have had to wait for a future boat with accessibility. I'm not sure how feasible this would be. In fact, on my second day, I went down to the boat ramp to head to the Polynesian Resort from the Magic Kingdom and was told at the end that there was no room for my chair and I would have to wait quite some time for another boat which may or may not have room. I chose to take the monorail instead, thankful that I had alternatives. So, if you can get on the boat, it's a very enjoyable mode of transportation. The thing is, you never know what kind of boat will be making a run, or if there will be room for you, and the wait time between boats is significantly longer. If the resort you are staying at has watercraft transportation available from it, it will likely not offer bus transportation to the areas serviced by watercraft, like Epcot, Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom, or Disney Springs. You should keep this in mind when booking a resort if you are using a mobility device, because you either may not be able to get somewhere via Disney transportation or you may have to wait an extremely long time to do it. I, for one, will not be booking a Disney Resort with water transport.

The last form of Disney Resort transportation is, perhaps, the most popular: the Monorail. There are two different monorail lines. The first one runs from the magic kingdom, to the transportation and ticket center where the Magic Kingdom parking is, and then on to Epcot. The other does a loop from the Magic Kingdom to the Grand Floridian Resort, the Polynesian Resort, the Contemporary Resort, and back to the Magic Kingdom. I avoided riding the monorail for a long time on Monday because the Park closed at 6:00 p.m. for a special event and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the lines were insanely long. Away from the park opening and closing times, however, the monorail is a quick and easy way to get around. Opposite from the bus, they load the regular passengers first, and then they prop a ramp up for you to roll onto the monorail car between two benches. Then, when you reach your destination, they disembark the regular passengers and then put a ramp up for you to roll off. Because the monorail has multiple stops, though, there seems to be a little challenge with communication on having the ramp available. One time they brought the ramp to the wrong door, and I had to ask for it. Other times, they seem to bring it at the last minute, and I was worried they had forgotten me. I never was forgotten though and I was always able to get off at the station I intended to. In addition, I'm not sure if it just worked out this way by accident, but I never had to reverse down a monorail ramp. For whatever reason the platform at my destination was on the opposite side of the train from the station I started from.

I also learned that not all of the transportation routes advertised on the Disney World website are currently in operation, and they haven't been since covid. It would be nice if they kept that up to date online, or at least on the app, but now that I've been down there I know what to expect better. For example, the Blue line watercraft route that travels to the resorts on the monorail line has been shut down since covid. Our boat driver encouraged us to submit feedback on this, because evidently Disney listens to guest feedback more than that of their employees.

If you are wanting to travel between two resorts, you will have to take at least two rides on one or more forms of transportation. There are no routes that go between resorts, except for the monorail Resort line. So, for example, if you wanted to get from Disney's Pop century Resort to Disney's Boardwalk inn, you could go to Hollywood studios on the skyliner and then take a boat to the Boardwalk inn. Or, if you wanted to go from Disney's Polynesian Resort to Disney's animal Kingdom Lodge, you would need to take a bus to anything park or Disney Springs and then take another bus to the animal Kingdom Lodge. The basic thought behind this is that you would choose a Park most directly on the path between your starting and ending points, but the reality is, you might be best off just taking the first bus to a park that arrives, and going from there.

Of course, you can always take a ride share between any two points, but that'll cost you, and sometimes it'll cost you a lot, so that is not my preferred method of transportation!

Here's the thing: the Disney Resort Transportation is easier to use than I had expected and I'm really glad I got the experience of trying it out so that I won't be so intimidated by it when we return in February, and I won't waste time trying to figure out how to get from here to there as well.