Magic Kingdom is the OG park of Disney World and many people’s favorite park. It’s hard to beat the nostalgia you feel when walking in and seeing the iconic Cinderella Castle.
For a lot of us, it’s the first stop on our trip to Disney World. It literally feels like magic is in the air as you walk down Main Street, U.S.A. However, getting to Magic Kingdom can be a little tricky since there is a giant lake between it and the rest of the resort area. Unless you are traveling by bus from a Disney hotel (or walking from Disney’s Contemporary Resort), it can take you a while to finally take your first step into the park. So we put it to the test to find out how we can get Magic Kingdom as fast as possible — here are our results!
To get to Magic Kingdom, you either have to take a bus from your Disney resort, walk from the Contemporary hotel, or travel there from the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). If you’re not staying at a Disney resort, you’ll have to park your car at (or ride a non-Disney bus to) the TTC. From there you can take one of three other modes of transportation — the Express Monorail, the Resort Monorail, or the Boats.
We sent our reporters to Magic Kingdom to test out which one of these options is the fastest at getting you to the park and living out your best day ever!
We have also tested this same theory in an AllEars YouTube video that you can check out below!
The other day, one of our reporters rode the Ferryboat from Magic Kingdom back to the TTC. Logically, the time for the direct boat ride would be about the same going the other direction — TTC to Magic Kingdom. Their ride, not including loading and unloading, was 6 minutes! When Quincy took the boat in the video above to Magic Kingdom her to time, including loading and unloading, was 10 minutes and 57 seconds.
We had another reporter take the express monorail from the TTC to Magic Kingdom. Her time that day, including loading and unloading, was 16 minutes and 46 seconds! She reported that when she got there, a long line had already formed. Whereas, when Breedlove took the express monorail in the video with much less of a line, he only took 11 minutes and 22 seconds.
And last, Sage took the resort monorail early in the morning and spent 13 minutes and 43 seconds on his trip to Magic Kingdom.
In both of our experiments, the ferryboats were surprisingly the quickest! On cold days, that may not be your preferred method as the boats can be quite chilly. But if you’re hoping to get to Magic Kingdom as fast as you possibly can, it might be the best option!
Now, there are several factors to consider when going from the TTC to Magic Kingdom. Depending on the time of day when you arrive to the TTC, these times could change drastically. As you saw above, if there’s a long line for the express monorail, it can take even longer than the resort monorail! A similar thing can be said about the ferryboats. If there’s a large crowd, the loading and unloading process can take a while. So before picking your mode of transportation from the TTC, consider all of your options; the best may change based on conditions.
Good luck and enjoy the ride to the Most Magic Place on Earth! For more fun Disney news, keep following AllEars!
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What’s your favorite way to get to Magic Kingdom? Let us know in the comments!
We used Breedlove’s strategy for getting from the TTC via the monorail to MK. When we visited in January—just a few weeks ago. Worked like a charm! Thanks Breedlove!