Magic Kingdom Resort & Express Monorail Lines Daily Closures Starting 3/2/12

[Figment!]

Effective March 2, 2012; the Magic Kingdom Resort & Express Monorail lines will not be operating from 11:30 am through 6:00 pm daily.

The daily closures are expected to last 4 weeks; however, an end date has not yet been announced.

The daily closures are due to on-going construction on the Disney Vacation Club wing of the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

[PopPhan]

WOW!! Now you'll see the complaints from the MK Resorts crowd!!

Seriously, maybe they can take this time to work on the beams/electrical/etc. as well.

[disneynarula]

Agreed! This makes the extra cost of a monorail resort so not worth it IMHO!

[Butters]

Hope they are offering huge discounts for the monorail resorts

[DizneyFreak2002]

Hope they are offering huge discounts for the monorail resorts

I'd venture to say, no way...

[mgmnut]

I would be pretty upset if I were staying in a Monorail Resort during this time period especially the Polly. The GF and Contemporary are at least walkable to the MK.

The Monorail is such a huge draw for those Resorts. I feel bad for folks who are staying in one for the first time, probably all excited, and then find out about this.

You have to understand it probably is unavoidable due to the new construction, but I agree the Monorail resorts should be discounted for the time period they are affected, or make up for it some other way.

At least it will be running first thing in the AM and then again at night.

[ChipNDale79]

Id be upset about this if i stayed at one of these resorts..but, with all the issues the monorail has had lately, this is probably a good thing.

This needs to happen every now and then.

[Aurora]

Hope they are offering huge discounts for the monorail resorts

They'll only offer discounts if people cancel their ressies and they can't fill the rooms, since they'll still be running the boats and buses as "free" transportation.

Id be upset about this if i stayed at one of these resorts..but, with all the issues the monorail has had lately, this is probably a good thing.

This needs to happen every now and then.

I understood this to mean that the outages are because of the DVC construction, not for monorail upgrades.

I think the timing of this, meaning no advance notice at all, kind of stinks for guests. They should have at least let people know in advance so they could have decided whether it was an issue in their vacation plans.

[Aurora]

Effective March 2, 2012; the Magic Kingdom Resort & Express Monorail lines will not be operating from 11:30 am through 6:00 pm daily.

The daily closures are expected to last 4 weeks; however, an end date has not yet been announced.

The daily closures are due to on-going construction on the Disney Vacation Club wing of the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

I wonder if they will be running the monorails during all the MK extra magic hours now, seeing as how the trains will be getting some down time from these daily closures and won't need as much maintenance.

[Main Street Jim]

The GF and Contemporary are at least walkable to the MK.

Can't walk to MK from the GrandFlo, at least that I know of. There's a canal between the MK Monorail station and GrandFlo that's used for the Electrical Water Pageant floats, and last I knew, there wasn't a bridge crossing that canal. The walkway from MK just leads to a dead-end at the canal past the Monorail station.

At least there's water transportation between the resorts and the park (the launches).

[emerzmom]

No advance notice on this. We just got a knock on the door with a printed msg about this & a "sorry fir any inconvienance" this morning. It was fairly disorganized yesterday and already seems headed in the same direction today. Many CM's dont seem to know anything about this or how to direct guests.
And, no the monorail did not run during extra magic hours last night.
All this makes you wonder if paying extra for a monorail resort is really worth it.

[Joannelet]

No advance notice on this. We just got a knock on the door with a printed msg about this & a "sorry fir any inconvienance" this morning. It was fairly disorganized yesterday and already seems headed in the same direction today. Many CM's dont seem to know anything about this or how to direct guests.
And, no the monorail did not run during extra magic hours last night.
All this makes you wonder if paying extra for a monorail resort is really worth it.

Wow Thanks for updating on this! I was wondering if maybe only people that booked at these resorts were informed about this ahead of time. As you have reported this was not the case and that is just terrible and in very poor taste.

[DizneyFreak2002]

For anyone who is there, have you seen Disney using the new buses they were testing and training on last week??? I'm wondering if they are really going to use these now or if maybe they are waiting since spring crowds will be picking up soon...

[Quadstriker]

For anyone who is there, have you seen Disney using the new buses they were testing and training on last week??? I'm wondering if they are really going to use these now or if maybe they are waiting since spring crowds will be picking up soon...

Just spent 5 days there and saw 0 of those buses anywhere.

[AmandaChan]

I do understand construction and maintenance is necessary but I would be absolutely livid if i did not have some sort of warning when booking my vacation. the whole reason we plan on staying at poly in a couple years is b/c we want the monorail resort luxury. omg I would be so MAD! Especially since those places are SO NOT CHEAP.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Just spent 5 days there and saw 0 of those buses anywhere.

Thanks!!!

How about an extra ferry?? I read they MAY use an extra ferry during this time...

[Ian]

If I was staying at a monorail resort and this happened to us with no advance warning at all, I wouldn't be leaving the manager's office until I got a room elsewhere and a refund of the difference between what I paid for my "deluxe monorail resort" and wherever they put me up.

That's ridiculous to pull this with no warning at all.

[epceddie]

This is very unfair to guests who made their reservations months and months ago. Disney uses the monorail as a huge perk in its marketing efforts and now these people are having the rug pulled out from under them with no advance warning. Talk about inconsiderate and not giving thought. It's too bad that the CM's, who are wonderful and extremely helpful, are going to have to bear the brunt of customer complaints while the high-and-mighty Disney execs are hiding behind their office doors counting their money and laughing all the way to the bank. They should be ashamed of themselves. If they had any guts, they'd work a couple of shifts at one of the monorail stops and meet their customers face to face. The only way guests are going to get Disney's attention is by NOT staying at the monorail resorts. I hope a lot of people demand some kind of refund, because Disney is not delivering on what it promised.

[Quadstriker]

Let me tell you something else about that construction that was nearly a disaster for us and is a disaster for others right now. If we were getting married now at the Disney Wedding Pavilion, there would be hell to pay. The place looks horrible now compared to when we were there. Imagine big construction equipment driving by as your wedding party is pulling in. Yeah. I saw it happening with my own eyes to people last week.

SOOOOOOOO thankful the construction was delayed till after our day.

[mgmnut]

Can't walk to MK from the GrandFlo, at least that I know of. There's a canal between the MK Monorail station and GrandFlo that's used for the Electrical Water Pageant floats, and last I knew, there wasn't a bridge crossing that canal. The walkway from MK just leads to a dead-end at the canal past the Monorail station.

At least there's water transportation between the resorts and the park (the launches).

Thanks for clarifying, I have never stayed at the GF, I just figured being so close there was a walkway. I guess that's what I get for assuming.