Subsonic Radio

Looks like WDW is soon going to close the monorails one hour past regular park closing. They are going to rely on bus and water transportation to get guests home after EMHs at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT now. Most of the sources seem to indicate this will be a permanent change beginning 7/11 for EPCOT and 8/1 for the MK routes. WDW cited planned transportation maintenance as the reason.
Since we never stay on a monorail resort, I don't imagine this change will have any effect on F1gment and me, but for those of you who stay on the resort lines, this might be a minor inconvenience.

Like you, I did bus last time too, not monorail...

While I haven't stayed a Monorail line resport since I was a kid, I would be very upset if I paid a lot of money for the convienience of those 3 hotels, and then found out that with EMH I was left to either walk or take the boat back. That sux.

I just realized I've not gone to MK for the night time EMH. That will be a pain though unless you're going to leave early since everyone will then flood the buses.

Wizzard419 wrote:I just realized I've not gone to MK for the night time EMH. That will be a pain though unless you're going to leave early since everyone will then flood the buses.

I've done it back in Dec 2010 and there was barely anyone on the buses. The park was not very crowded at that late hour of night. But if they do stop the monorail, it will mean to mean they will need to add more boats and add buses to those resorts on the monorail line.

They might not, if I recall, someone mentioned that there is bus service to MK for the 3 resorts serviced by the monorail (I'm guessing for people that don't want to ride the monorail or whatever). Since you mentioned it's empty, I wonder if they realized that they were paying for two mostly empty services when they could get away with one?

Looks like I will have to remember this when I go.

Wizzard419 wrote:They might not, if I recall, someone mentioned that there is bus service to MK for the 3 resorts serviced by the monorail (I'm guessing for people that don't want to ride the monorail or whatever). Since you mentioned it's empty, I wonder if they realized that they were paying for two mostly empty services when they could get away with one?

A few sources have said that WDW is planning on adding more transportation if needed to handle the crowds. The crowds are pretty light if you stay until park close on the EMHs though. Especially when the temps are down in the 30's!

Is any other transportation effected?

We had planned to ride the boat to Whispering Canyon ....possibly during EMH.

rphillips14 wrote:Is any other transportation effected?

We had planned to ride the boat to Whispering Canyon ....possibly during EMH.

Nope, sounds like just the monorail, so if the boat goes to Whispering Canyon normally, it should still be running that route

A few sources have said that WDW is planning on adding more transportation if needed to handle the crowds. The crowds are pretty light if you stay until park close on the EMHs though. Especially when the temps are down in the 30's! [/quote]

TO be honest, my personal opinion is the park is more magical when its cold! Living in South FLorida most of my life,(two stints in Orlando), I look forward to the cold. I'm a big guy so EMHs that extend to 1am is a dream come true! WHen I worked there I would sometimes be the onyl person in shorts when everyone else was in jackets! The way I look at it when it comes to temperature is, there is just so much you can take off when it's hot, but you can wear as much as you want when it's cold! lol

yodiwan1 wrote:

Amy wrote:A few sources have said that WDW is planning on adding more transportation if needed to handle the crowds. The crowds are pretty light if you stay until park close on the EMHs though. Especially when the temps are down in the 30's!

TO be honest, my personal opinion is the park is more magical when its cold! Living in South FLorida most of my life,(two stints in Orlando), I look forward to the cold. I'm a big guy so EMHs that extend to 1am is a dream come true! WHen I worked there I would sometimes be the onyl person in shorts when everyone else was in jackets! The way I look at it when it comes to temperature is, there is just so much you can take off when it's hot, but you can wear as much as you want when it's cold! lol

No argument here on the cold vs. hot temperatures, but the temperatures in the 30's were perhaps a bit too chilly in the evenings I was just happy there was no snow or ice. I liked the fact that the MK emptied out so drastically during the EMHs ~ I only wish the hours had been a bit longer....
As a side note ~ waaaay off topic, my brother out in Cali had to cut his hike short today because there was so much snow on the mountain's trails it was making the footing treacherous!

yodiwan1 wrote:To be honest, my personal opinion is the park is more magical when its cold! Living in South FLorida most of my life,(two stints in Orlando), I look forward to the cold. I'm a big guy so EMHs that extend to 1am is a dream come true! WHen I worked there I would sometimes be the onyl person in shorts when everyone else was in jackets! The way I look at it when it comes to temperature is, there is just so much you can take off when it's hot, but you can wear as much as you want when it's cold! lol

I agree; in the past, I have stayed away particularly from the summer months. I have usually gone between late November through March.

It probably does work out in favor as well, since it means having one or two more buses running (depending on the need) during the lowest demand time would probably be better since it means not having to pay the dozen or so people that staff the stations and the train drivers.

Wizzard419 wrote:It probably does work out in favor as well, since it means having one or two more buses running (depending on the need) during the lowest demand time would probably be better since it means not having to pay the dozen or so people that staff the stations and the train drivers.

Oh most definitely, although there are probably more behind the scenes CM's for the buses...dispatchers, mechanics, etc. But still I would agree the monorail has more CM's needed for operation.