Originally Posted By mstaft Having already discussed the parks, here's what I observed during seeing the rest of the property. Magic Express was wonderful. Easy, fast, and painless. We cannot say enough good things about it. We stayed at All Star Sports- not even close to my first choice- but it ended up being clean with a nice pool, pretty good food for a foodcourt, and first on the bus line. Our room was great for the three of us. Took the monorail from the ticket center to Epcot instead of going there right from All Star Sports. We still enjoy the monorail journey inside the park. The trains looked tired and were poorly maintained. That did not change throughout our visit. Time for some work here... We wanted to show our friends a variety of properties for our next trip together!!! So, we did the tour... We toured the Polynesian and had breakfast at the Kona Cafe (still my fav hotel after all the years- the rehab since our last visit brought it back to its original glory), the Grand Floridian (still spectacular- even though I think it is way overpriced), enjoyed a boat ride to Wilderness Lodge- breakfast at Whispering Canyon- what a blast!, AK Lodge (drinks at the bar at sunset), and and a nighttime strool at Port Orleans Riverside. This one will be our next location to stay at. Went to Downtown Disney and ate at Bongos. Really good mojitos and the food was good as well. Heard a really nice story about Gloria and Emilio Estefan from our waiter- which was cool since both my wife and I like her music alot. Every bus we rode was clean and our wait was minimal, even on the busiest nights at park closing. Our drivers were friendly and helpful. Hated seeing the giant McDonalds on the property. Too sad. Thought the Disney race track was poorly placed. Missed the giant Jessica Rabbit at Pleasure Island. WDW is still magical to us after 7 visits- and we cannot wait to return to see what is next.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN In regards to the Magical express service... you got lucky! Being in the airline industry affords me the chance to listen to some Magical Express-related horror stories... I just had a family who lost their luggage while in the care of Magical Express. Few weeks ago, some passengers were telling about getting to their room to find someone else's luggage waiting for them.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Being in the airline industry affords me the chance to listen to some Magical Express-related horror stories...>> Must be a kind of a refreshing change from listening to all those "airline lost my luggage" horror stories... I’d trust Magical Express over the airlines any time.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Just some thoughts on yours: <<We still enjoy the monorail journey inside the park.>> So many folks just take them for granted when in the 70s and 80s they weren't just transport, but a fun, futuristic, environmentally friendly way of getting to the real magic of the MK and EC. But, today, we all know that standing on buses, packed like sardines with screaming brats and smelly folks is much better. <<The trains looked tired and were poorly maintained. That did not change throughout our visit. Time for some work here...>> Nice to see other people noticing the obvious. Sad but nice. <<Thought the Disney race track was poorly placed.>> Yes. You'd think with 30,000 plus acres AND a sports complex that the MK parking lot wasn't the only option or the best. <<Missed the giant Jessica Rabbit at Pleasure Island.>> Me too. Has she gone to Mouse Surplus?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Must be a kind of a refreshing change from listening to all those "airline lost my luggage" horror stories... I’d trust Magical Express over the airlines any time. >> As much as it pains me to agree with the Tripster, I do. I've used ME 4-5 times now (and remember, I'm just a three plus hour drive away but am opting to fly because a.) I like 22 minute flights; and b.) ME is a great, terrific, wonderful service) and I've never had a bad luggage experience ... and never met/heard of anyone else having that either except in the service's first few months. I have had luggage lost by Continental (multiple times), Delta (multiple times) and Southwest (once). Thankfully, every time my belongings eventually did show up. But once it took close to a week and Delta gave me two $50 off future flight vouchers, while I was stuck on a work trip to LA (over Christmas week) with only the clothes on my back. I'll take my chances with ME any day.
Originally Posted By dixielandings <<We still enjoy the monorail journey inside the park.>> "So many folks just take them for granted when in the 70s and 80s they weren't just transport, but a fun, futuristic, environmentally friendly way of getting to the real magic of the MK and EC" yep and I remember when you had to buy a transportation ticket to ride the rails
Originally Posted By plpeters70 "yep and I remember when you had to buy a transportation ticket to ride the rails" I would happily pay to ride the monorails again if it meant they would expand the system to the other parks and resorts.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I would happily pay to ride the monorails again if it meant they would expand the system to the other parks and resorts.>> I don't know that you could charge enough to cover the cost, or if Disney could justify spending such a massive amount on a monorail when the parks have so many other needs. A WDW style monorail costs $88 million per mile to build. Source: <a href="http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html" target="_blank">http://www.monorails.org/tMspa ges/HowMuch.html</a> To connect all the parks and major resort areas (I see no way they could connect each individual resort) would take at least 20 miles of monorail. That would work out to a construction cost of 1.76 billion. That is about 3 times what Disney spent to build DCA. Do you really think improved transit would be worth that much? I'm assuming about 36 million person-days a year (attendance at all 4 WDW parks) and that 50% of all people would purchase a pass to ride the monorail. With a $10 per day pass it would take 10 years to pay the initial cost of the monorail. And that is not paying a cent in interest on the money Disney would have to borrow to finance it. If you factor that in you are probably looking at a 30 year payback. Now, would 50% of WDW visitors be willing to pay $10 per day to ride the monorail? I kind of doubt it. That means a family of two parents and three kids would have to spend an additional $50 per day on transportation. That's almost as much as a park admission. Do you really think they would pay that? I don't. They would opt for the bus. I see no way Disney will ever expand the monorail at WDW. I think it is better to hope for something a little more realistic. I would be more than happy to see them use light rail to reduce the number of busses. It may not be as cool as a monorail, but it would solve the transit problem at a fraction of the cost.
Originally Posted By danyoung >A WDW style monorail costs $88 million per mile to build.< I'm having a really hard time accepting this number, especially since $1 mil per mile was the number widely bandied about just a few years ago.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I'm having a really hard time accepting this number, especially since $1 mil per mile was the number widely bandied about just a few years ago.>> Did you check the link? The number was from a PRO-MONORAIL site. By the way... you can't even built a freeway for a million a mile, so that number is WAY OFF.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I don't think Disney needs to expand the monorail to the entire property, but a small expansion that targets Wilderness Lodge, EPCOT Resort area, and Disney/MGM would do a lot to connect nearly all of the deluxe hotels with 3 parks. Although I'm sure the return on investment isn't sufficient, I would have to think that it could get quite a few buses out of service in the WDW fleet if guests could use monorail for the MK, EPCOT, and DMGM. I wonder if Disney has any positions in the carbon trading markets -- essentially where businesses can trade credits for their greenhouse gas producing businesses. Wal-Mart plans to reduce their emissions and has found a way to make money on the carbon trading markets by bartering their credits that aren't being used. I don't fully understand how that whole system works, but it might be something Disney could profit from as well by using more environmentally friendly transportation alternatives.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <By the way... you can't even built a freeway for a million a mile, so that number is WAY OFF. < I'm definitely in the wrong business
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 First I want to commend Trippy for his hard work at giving Disney excs all the ammo they need that many fans will justify their poor management decisions. I do know that the REAL cost is over a million by quite a bit, just not sure it's that much higher regardless of what that site posted. I do know if Disney had expanded the monorail system in the early 90s, the cost would have been substantially less. Now, after all the massive growth, it would be quite costly to expand. But there are places to start that are logical ... the Epcot to Disney-MGM Studios and Epcot Resorts line would be it. And there are places where it just doesn't belong. The WL would be one. It would make no sense to expand to such a small place ... and one themed to the wilderness ... when boats and buses do the job. The next place I would go would be along Buena Vista Drive to DD with stops at (possibly) CBR, OKW and SS. That would eliminate a lot of traffic congestion that has grown exponentially the past 15 years.
Originally Posted By tonyanton Spirit...once again I agree with your assessment. A connection at this point to Downtown Disney is a must. I would think it would increase the number of people willing to go there at night from the Epcot and MK resort areas. I know I'd be more likely to do so with a monorail than the bus.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I don't like how the inside lights of the buses are turned off in transit. At least the monorails keep the lights on inside.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Light rail guys... at least it has a chance and would be a real improvement over busses. The monorail thing will never happen. Never. Monorail is not without its problems (besides cost). Among other things, it is very easy to add capacity when necessary with either busses or light rail. Not so with monorails. This is why at opening and close monorail is the absolute worst way to enter or leave the Magic Kingdom.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Disney won't ever do light rail because there is too much liability. People get run over by light rail trains everyday in the U.S. Seems like where I am in San Diego, I am reading about someone getting run over by the trolley at least once a week. Can you imagine Disney dealing with the lawsuits over that one?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<People get run over by light rail trains everyday in the U.S. Seems like where I am in San Diego, I am reading about someone getting run over by the trolley at least once a week.>> Light rail would be a different thing at WDW though. Light Rail in cities has accidents because it is out there competing with cars and bicyclists and pedestrians. That is necessary because you don't have people just going from Point A to Point B. You are picking up and dropping off people all along the way. Because of this they need to follow existing streets in heavily populated areas. This would not be a problem with Light Rail at WDW. There you DO have a large number of people just going from Point A to Point B. Since you don't need a bunch of interim stops you can route the light rail away from other forms of traffic. By the way... there has to be something very wrong in San Diego. Minneapolis has had light rail for about 2-1/2 years now. In that time I think there have been 2 or 3 fatal accidents. One of those involved an elderly gentleman who had a heart attack and lost control of his car. He would have been just as likely to have been killed whether a train was nearby or not. Light Rail has been a huge success in Minneapolis, drawing far more ridership (I think almost double) than had been predicted.
Originally Posted By danyoung >By the way... you can't even built a freeway for a million a mile, so that number is WAY OFF.< I'd have to say that building a multi-lane freeway with all of the ramps and access would be much more expensive than a simple concrete monoral. But I have no real knowledge of either. I just think the numbers quoted by that site are way too high. >I do know that the REAL cost is over a million by quite a bit, just not sure it's that much higher regardless of what that site posted. I do know if Disney had expanded the monorail system in the early 90s, the cost would have been substantially less.< Yup. The $1 mil number was from years back. Who knows what it would be today. . .
