The Best Forms of Transportation to the Magic Kingdom

One of the most annoying parts of the Magic Kingdom is arriving at the Magic Kingdom. If you are new to the world of Disney, it is not like a normal theme park where you just park your car outside the front gate. You have to park in a completely different area which is separated by a body of water.

This area is called the Ticket and Transportation Center. Walk or tram to the entrance to be greeted with no castle but with different forms of transportation. 

Just a quick side note If you take an Uber or Lyft they will drop you off at the Ticket and Transportation Center as well. Also, any other bus system that is not a part of the Disney bus service will not drop you off at the front of the Magic Kingdom. 

Here are some of the options:

You can ride the iconic monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Two sections of this transportation are separated into the express monorail that goes straight to Magic Kingdom that also goes through the Contemporary resort without stopping. The Resort Monorail stops at all the resorts on the loop which are the Grand Floridian, Polynesian, and Contemporary. 

There is also a Ferry from the TTC which is my favorite form of transportation offered. It is open air and can feel a lot less crowded even on the busiest of nights after firework viewing. They fill up those boats but if you can get on and stand by a window it doesn’t feel AS bad as stuck on a monorail. Where it can be really uncomfortable for certain nights.

This is not the only watercraft available as if you are staying at Fort Wilderness, Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, or Grand Floridian you have access to ride a much smaller boat over to the Magic Kingdom. These are once again among my favorites delivering great views of the hotels that surround this area.

There’s also a just reopened walking path from the Grand Floridian and the staple walking path to the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary. One of the best perks of that hotel because that walk is easy. 

Unless you have the money to dine at Chef Mickeys for breakfast or you have the money to stay at the Contemporary this path will not be accessed. 

For this blog, I want to talk about my favorite form of transportation, the watercraft. To see which one is the fastest. And which one is the slowest…. 

As a true 7th-grade scientist I tried to keep this experiment to have as few variables as possible. There are some things I can’t predict but I tried to keep it fair across the board. The time started as soon as I parked the car until the time I was off the boat and in front of the Magic Kingdom. So, which is the best option? 

The Wilderness Lodge was the first boat I tested. It shares its boats with Fort Wilderness the time I took it and I missed the first boat.  As soon as I got there it started to pull away in a pretty comedic fashion. This was added to the constants, I made sure to let the first watercraft float away every trial of this. It took 64 minutes to get from parking spot to in front of Magic Kingdom. It is the boat that has to travel the furthest, so I had to wait quite a bit for the next boat to come get me. 

The second trial was from the Polynesian, and it is a little bit closer to the Magic Kingdom than the Wilderness Lodge. It also has a much higher price point than the Wilderness Lodge even if they are both classified as deluxe resorts. I waited for the second boat to come to give Wilderness Lodge a fighting chance. The time wasn’t even close. It took 27 minutes and 56 seconds to go from the parking spot to Magic Kingdom. You also have a great waiting area on the Polynesian beach with sand, swings and beach chairs to wait in while looking out on the bungalows and the lagoon.

The last test we have is the ferry at the Ticket and Transportation Center. The most popular watercraft transportation to the Magic Kingdom. It is huge and if you go around five o clock you can be one of 10 people on it. This is the only one where I was pretty much all alone. The other boats are smaller, so it feels busier than the ferry. It gives you great views of the area and can be a great first ride before you get into the Magic Kingdom. There are also lovely fans all over the line area which was great in July when I did this. It took 31 minutes and 36 seconds, but I did get stopped by security for a few minutes which slowed me down. I also didn’t take the tram so it is possible that this option would be the best for your family.

Transportation available at Walt Disney World is quite expansive but usually, I try to stick with the ones that are the least crowded, even if they take a little bit longer. Crowds at Disney are growing by the day so being able to have transportation where you can have breathing room is a great thing to me and the ferry has the most breathing room depending on the time. At park opening/closing, it’s going to be busy but being beside a window at least you will have a little pocket to breathe which is a big difference compared to the monorail, you also can walk around the ferry. The smaller boats from the hotels aren’t available unless you dine or are staying there. You also can’t walk around the smaller boats and the line can be pretty ridiculous as it is possible that you won’t have space to get on.