Grand Floridian Transportation

[DisneyMom2000000]

Good morning!
we have a reservation at the Grand Floridian - got a good deal on a club level stay at the Sugarloaf building. I’m keeping an eye out for a room to open CL in the main building, but I’m sure Sugarloaf is nice too.
This is a quick trip with three park days - MK, HS, Epcot.
please share your experiences with transportation at GF. I am nervous we have high expectations about staying at a monorail resort. This is our first time.

i am also keeping an eye out for a CL beach club or yacht club reservation to open because the ability to walk to HS and Epcot sounds great.

 

[hmsTigger]

GF as you know is on the Monrail line to MK and EPCOT
You can also take buses to EPCOT, HS from GF
At EPCOT you can take the new skyliner to HS
There is also a boat launch from EPCOT to HS.

 

[bridgetz03]

Have not had a bad experience with the transportation to/from GF. As the previous poster stated, a lot of different modes of transportation to take!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Good morning!
we have a reservation at the Grand Floridian - got a good deal on a club level stay at the Sugarloaf building. I’m keeping an eye out for a room to open CL in the main building, but I’m sure Sugarloaf is nice too.
This is a quick trip with three park days - MK, HS, Epcot.
please share your experiences with transportation at GF. I am nervous we have high expectations about staying at a monorail resort. This is our first time.

i am also keeping an eye out for a CL beach club or yacht club reservation to open because the ability to walk to HS and Epcot sounds great.

If you are looking for BC/YC CL, consider looking for BWI CL as well as it also offers the ability to walk to EP and DHS (plus boat to EP/DHS and Skyliner to DHS).

As PP said, from GF, you can take the monorail to MK and the monorail to TTC to transfer to the EP monorail (that is not a quick trip as I find the wait for the EP monorail can be long, but it is a fun ride). They offer a bus to DHS. You can also consider uber/lyft/Minnie Van to lessen your transportation time, but that is, of course, an extra cost.

 

[Marionnette]

Good morning!
we have a reservation at the Grand Floridian - got a good deal on a club level stay at the Sugarloaf building. I’m keeping an eye out for a room to open CL in the main building, but I’m sure Sugarloaf is nice too.
This is a quick trip with three park days - MK, HS, Epcot.
please share your experiences with transportation at GF. I am nervous we have high expectations about staying at a monorail resort. This is our first time.

i am also keeping an eye out for a CL beach club or yacht club reservation to open because the ability to walk to HS and Epcot sounds great.

There is also boat service to the MK in addition to the monorail.

We sat on a monorail in the GF station for over 30 minutes last fall. After that, we stuck with the boat.

You can walk to the Poly and thru it to the TCC to catch the Epcot monorail.

The buses ran pretty efficiently to AK and HS. We waited about 20 minutes for a Disney Springs bus and decided to return via Uber.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The GF does not have a bus to Epcot when the monorail is running. You will have to take two monorails to get to Epcot, which is, IMO, the disadvantage of staying at GF.

The bus to HS shares with the Polynesian.

 

[bethclayton]

CL at the GF is my favorite, both main building and SL. I would choose that over any resort, no matter what I planned to do that trip, just because I love the experience so much. It is its own vacation within a vacation. But I suppose that also shows that I am biased!

Your best strategy for MK is to take the monorail there (about a minute and a half ride), and the boat ride back to the GF (under three mins and a beautiful ride). For Epcot, you will take monorail to TTC (maybe a 12-15 min ride or so), then get on the other monorail (directly next to it) to Epcot. While it is certainly longer than walking over from BC, it is simple and easy and a relaxing ride. For HS you can take the bus directly there. I don't remember how long the ride was but I'd say under 15 mins. The bus was not shared with the Poly when we were there last month.

If transportation were the only factor then one could argue that you're better off at one of the resorts closet to Epcot and HS. I would still choose GF CL. It's just overall a better atmosphere to me. Plus, just because you can walk to HS from those resorts, doesn't mean you'll love it. I personally found the walk from BC to HS to be long (at least 20 mins) and not as scenic as I had expected once I got past BW. The boat ride was also not that fast when you factor in the stops along the way. I'm definitely not dissing the transportation at the boardwalk area resorts; it is good transportation. But to me it isn't reason enough to stay there instead of GF CL.

I hope your trip is amazing, wherever you stay!

 

[SharonZ]

You can always use Uber.

 

[DisneyMom2000000]

CL at the GF is my favorite, both main building and SL. I would choose that over any resort, no matter what I planned to do that trip, just because I love the experience so much. It is its own vacation within a vacation. But I suppose that also shows that I am biased!

Your best strategy for MK is to take the monorail there (about a minute and a half ride), and the boat ride back to the GF (under three mins and a beautiful ride). For Epcot, you will take monorail to TTC (maybe a 12-15 min ride or so), then get on the other monorail (directly next to it) to Epcot. While it is certainly longer than walking over from BC, it is simple and easy and a relaxing ride. For HS you can take the bus directly there. I don't remember how long the ride was but I'd say under 15 mins. The bus was not shared with the Poly when we were there last month.

If transportation were the only factor then one could argue that you're better off at one of the resorts closet to Epcot and HS. I would still choose GF CL. It's just overall a better atmosphere to me. Plus, just because you can walk to HS from those resorts, doesn't mean you'll love it. I personally found the walk from BC to HS to be long (at least 20 mins) and not as scenic as I had expected once I got past BW. The boat ride was also not that fast when you factor in the stops along the way. I'm definitely not dissing the transportation at the boardwalk area resorts; it is good transportation. But to me it isn't reason enough to stay there instead of GF CL.

I hope your trip is amazing, wherever you stay!

Thank you! You've shared a lot of great information.
Any room suggestions for Sugarloaf?

 

[holden]

Keep in mind that the monorail can be very crowded by the time it gets to GF. GF is the last stop before MK. I think they keep a few cars available for GF guests, but at peak times it can be a long wait for a monorail spot.

 

[DisneyMom2000000]

We are thinking about using the monorail to Epcot for a late afternoon. Probably from about 3 PM to 7 PM. Then we will go to MK the next day for similar hours. Maybe stay until fireworks then take the boat back. Then use the bus to rope drop HS the final day. If we get all the things done at HS we will skyline back over to Epcot.

 

[blabadie]

CL at the GF is my favorite, both main building and SL. I would choose that over any resort, no matter what I planned to do that trip, just because I love the experience so much. It is its own vacation within a vacation. But I suppose that also shows that I am biased!

Your best strategy for MK is to take the monorail there (about a minute and a half ride), and the boat ride back to the GF (under three mins and a beautiful ride). For Epcot, you will take monorail to TTC (maybe a 12-15 min ride or so), then get on the other monorail (directly next to it) to Epcot. While it is certainly longer than walking over from BC, it is simple and easy and a relaxing ride. For HS you can take the bus directly there. I don't remember how long the ride was but I'd say under 15 mins. The bus was not shared with the Poly when we were there last month.

If transportation were the only factor then one could argue that you're better off at one of the resorts closet to Epcot and HS. I would still choose GF CL. It's just overall a better atmosphere to me. Plus, just because you can walk to HS from those resorts, doesn't mean you'll love it. I personally found the walk from BC to HS to be long (at least 20 mins) and not as scenic as I had expected once I got past BW. The boat ride was also not that fast when you factor in the stops along the way. I'm definitely not dissing the transportation at the boardwalk area resorts; it is good transportation. But to me it isn't reason enough to stay there instead of GF CL.

I hope your trip is amazing, wherever you stay!

I would echo this. GF monorail has consistently been fantastic for us in the morning going to MK. We also like "clearing security" at the GF monorail station vs having to do it at the park.

If returning at night, particularly at busy times like after fireworks, taking the boat is usually faster since a lot of MK guests use the resort monorail to go to Ticketing & Transportation if the other monorail is crowded.

I find the monorail to EPCOT to be slightly more convenient than buses. More fun though.

The buses seem to run frequently to the other parks.

Monorail is particularly convenient if you have strollers since you can just wheel them in. As we age out of them, we are considering returning to AKL---our personal favorite resort but not nearly as convenient as GF.

We are doing a shorter stay this December at GF club level (Sugar Loaf) and the convenience (plus the availability of standard club level rooms that sleep 5) convinced us to stay at GF again. Plus I hear GF is gorgeous at Christmas time.

 

[bethclayton]

Thank you! You've shared a lot of great information.
Any room suggestions for Sugarloaf?

I have only stayed SL once, we were in 6214 and we loved it. We were the second door off the elevators on the 2nd floor. We had a beautiful view of the courtyard and could also see the main building; it was a great spot to people watch. We were almost directly above the main entrance to SL. It was quiet both inside our room and out on the balcony. If you are on the opposite side of SL you would have a marina view with a decent chance of being able to see the fireworks from your balcony. But we just went right out the back door of the SL lounge and walked a few feet and had a perfect view of fireworks from there (plus they pipe the music in over there).

 

[kiford]

Depends on where you're going. We usually take the boat launch from GF to MK rather than the monorail. We've always found it to be less crowded and more convenient. Now we haven't stayed there since they added/moved the security to the resorts instead of at MK so I don't know if this still holds but it's one reason we like to stay in Conch Key because it's beside the pier.

When we stayed at the CR, we actually would walk over to MK to get the bus to Epcot rather than taking the monorail. Not an option at the GF, but it's not really as convenient as it's made out to be IMO because of the need to transfer for Epcot and I think it's too crowded for MK. We stay at GF not because of the monorail but just because we like the resort.

 

[stranger706]

Stayed at the Poly last July. One neat thing I noticed in the mornings. The resort monorail always starts running at 7 am. No matter what the parks are doing. And every morning at 7 am they would send out 3 empty monorails to stage at each of the 3 resorts. And maybe a 4th at the ttc. Instead of one at a time. So first thing in the morning every resort gets an empty monorail. This ensures everyone in the morning rush gets going on time. It was just cool to see how they handle the crowds in the morning. It was just so smooth and easy. No stress. With 3 littles. As opposed to a value or mod resort with only buses and the crazy morning crowds. I am now hooked on the monorail resorts for awhile. We are trying the Contemporary in July.

 

[crazycheryl]

I did find (during our trip a couple weeks ago) that the resort monorail back from MK was a lot less crowded than normal - I think due to the construction walls and no one being able to find their way over to the resort monorail. I have always wished they let resort only on the monorail at the end of the night and let the TTC people take the express monorail or ferry. We found the bus service to HS just ok - GF shares with Poly and they are picked up first.