Walt Disney World · Planning

Getting around Walt Disney World

Free buses, monorail, boats The Skyliner gondola Or drive your own car

Walt Disney World is bigger than some cities, and its own transport is how most families cross it. Buses, a monorail, the Skyliner gondola and boats are all free with a Disney hotel stay, and between them they reach every park, every hotel and the shops at Disney Springs without a car. The modes aren't equal with a pushchair, though, and which ones your hotel has shapes the daily feel of the trip more than first-timers expect.

Teal Skyliner gondolas arriving under the decorated canopy at EPCOT's International Gateway station, against a clear blue sky
The Skyliner Gondolas arriving at EPCOT's International Gateway station.
On this page
  1. The short version
  2. Quick facts
  3. Buses
  4. Monorail
  5. Skyliner
  6. Boats
  7. The fold rule
  8. Hiring a pushchair
  9. Minnie Vans
  10. Your own car
  11. Hiring a car on site
  12. Parking
  13. Walking
  14. Wheelchairs and scooters
  15. Different ages
  16. Where you stay
  17. Resort transport table
  18. Questions
  19. Photos
The short version

Four kinds of free transport, plus your own car

How you move around once you're on site, and the one detail that matters most with a pushchair.

Once you're staying on Disney property, four kinds of transport are free and included: buses, a monorail, the Skyliner gondola and boats. Every hotel has buses to every park. The monorail, the Skyliner and the boats are extras that only some hotels have, and where a hotel has them they usually run more often than the bus, so you wait less. You can also bring or hire a car, though you don't need one to reach the parks.

The single thing to take in before you book is how differently each mode works for a family with a pushchair. On the buses you fold the pushchair and lift the child out every single time. On the monorail, the Skyliner and most of the boats the child can stay in it. That difference matters most with a child who still naps, so it's worth weighing when you choose a hotel. Getting to Disney from the UK, the flight and the airport transfer, is a separate job we cover in our getting there guide.

Buses

The mode every hotel has. Every park and Disney Springs, roughly every 20 minutes.

Monorail

Three hotels plus the Magic Kingdom, and a separate line to EPCOT. No folding the pushchair.

Skyliner

A gondola linking four hotels to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. The child stays in the pushchair.

Boats

Across the lakes to the Magic Kingdom and around the EPCOT hotels. Scenic, and mostly no folding.

The fold rule

The one catch to weigh with a young child, and the reason a hotel's transport is worth checking before you book.

Minnie Van

Disney's own paid car service, and the only on-site ride with child seats fitted for you.

Quick facts for UK families

All freeThe buses, monorail, boats and Skyliner are free with a Disney hotel stay. You don't need a park ticket to ride them.
BusesDirect from every hotel to all four theme parks and Disney Springs, roughly every 20 minutes. The two water parks aren't always direct, so check the app.
MonorailServes the Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian, the Magic Kingdom and, on a separate line, EPCOT.
SkylinerPop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach and Riviera, running to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios.
The fold ruleFold on every bus and tram; the child can stay in the pushchair on the monorail, the Skyliner and most boats.
Minnie VanThe one paid on-site ride, booked in the Lyft app, and the only one with car seats fitted for you.
Every hotel has them

Buses reach every park from every hotel

The one mode every hotel has, and the one you'll use most.

Buses are the backbone of Disney's transport, and for most hotels they're the only option. Every Disney hotel runs direct buses to each of the four theme parks and to Disney Springs, with no changes along the way. They aim to come about every 20 minutes, though in practice you might wait five minutes or half an hour depending on the time of day and how busy it is. Many stops have a board counting down to the next bus, but it's often out, so it's a loose guide rather than something to time your arrival by. Theme park buses start running 45 minutes before a park opens and stop an hour after it closes; the Disney Springs buses run until 11 at night. There are no toilets on board, so it's worth a stop before you get on with a toddler.

The two water parks are the exception to the direct-bus rule. Some hotels run a direct bus to Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach, others send you through a park or Disney Springs to change. Which hotels get a direct water park bus shifts with the season, so the My Disney Experience app is the place to check the day's routing from your own hotel rather than turning up at the stop expecting a direct one.

Whichever mode you end up using, it's worth building 30 to 45 minutes into every park arrival and departure for the walk to the stop, the wait and the ride, and closer to 90 at the busiest times. With young children it helps to plan to the whole door-to-door time, not just the few minutes the ride itself takes, so a missed bus or a slow queue eats into your spare time rather than a booking.

Buses don't run directly between hotels. To get from one hotel to another you go via a park or Disney Springs and change, which can take 90 minutes or more each way, so a breakfast booking at another resort needs real time set aside or a Minnie Van. Some of the larger resorts, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs and Fort Wilderness, have several bus stops spread around the grounds, and a bus can already be full by the last stop, so it's worth asking for a room near a bus stop when you book. The Animal Kingdom Lodge and Coronado Springs have buses and nothing else, and so do the three All-Star hotels, Movies, Music and Sports, which share one looping bus route between them, so whichever All-Star bus reaches your stop first is the one to board.

The one bus trip families dread is leaving the Magic Kingdom after the evening fireworks, when everyone heads for the stops at once and waits can run 30 to 45 minutes with full buses going past. Leaving 20 minutes before the fireworks finish, or waiting inside the park for the crowd to thin, both spare you the worst of it. The pushchair-fold rule, covered further down, applies to every bus.

Round the Magic Kingdom hotels

The monorail loops the Magic Kingdom

The monorail is the raised electric train that circles the Seven Seas Lagoon by the Magic Kingdom. It runs on three separate lines, all meeting at the Transportation and Ticket Center, the transport hub next to the Magic Kingdom car park that everyone shortens to the TTC. One line, the resort loop, links the TTC to three hotels, the Polynesian, the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary, and on to the Magic Kingdom. At the Contemporary the track runs straight through the middle of the building and the platform sits inside it, the only Disney monorail station actually within a hotel, which children tend to find a thrill in itself. A second, express line runs straight from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom in under 10 minutes. A third runs from the TTC out to EPCOT in about 10 minutes and stops at no hotels. Because the lines only meet at the TTC, going from the Magic Kingdom to EPCOT by monorail means changing there, and the TTC has three separate monorail queues for the three lines, so read the signs before you join one or you can end up somewhere you didn't mean to go. Trains come every few minutes, it's free, and you don't need a park ticket to ride.

For a family the monorail is one of the easy modes. There's no folding, the pushchair rolls straight on with the child in it, and the carriages have air conditioning. A pushchair hired from inside a park can't board, but your own can. The resort loop runs early, often from around half six in the morning, early enough for a seven o'clock breakfast booking at the Contemporary, and some families ride the loop as a nap in itself, boarding at their own station and letting a tired toddler sleep through the fifteen or twenty minute circuit back round to where they got on. The monorail is an old system and does go out of service from time to time; when it does, the ferry across the lagoon is the standing backup to the Magic Kingdom, so it's not a mode to rely on alone for a tight, time-critical departure.

The Disney Transport screen at a resort bus stop, listing the next bus to each park, Disney Springs and the water parks with the current time and temperature
The next-bus screen at a resort bus stop
A monorail with a green and blue stripe waiting under the white timber canopy of a resort station
A monorail at one of the resort stations
More in the photo gallery →
Overhead

The Skyliner runs to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios

A short, frequent ride to two of the parks for the four hotels on the line.

The Skyliner is an aerial gondola, small enclosed cabins on a cable, that opened in 2019. Three lines meet at the Caribbean Beach hub and connect four hotels to two parks. The hotels are Riviera, Caribbean Beach, Pop Century and Art of Animation; the parks are EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, and no others. The EPCOT line comes in at the International Gateway, the park's back entrance, so you step straight into the World Showcase rather than the main gate. Journeys are short. Caribbean Beach to Hollywood Studios is five or six minutes, and Caribbean Beach to EPCOT about a quarter of an hour. Any guest can ride it back from either park with a park ticket, not just the four hotels on the line.

The Skyliner is the mode that matters most with a pushchair. A single buggy, or a slim front-to-back double, rolls straight into the cabin without folding and the child stays put, so a tired toddler can sleep the whole way and roll off at the hotel. Wider side-by-side doubles have to fold.

The cabins aren't air-conditioned; they stay bearable through vents and the movement, but in a weather stoppage you can sit still up in the Florida heat for a while, so it's not the mode for anyone who struggles with heat if a storm is brewing. It also closes the moment lightning is detected nearby or the wind gets up, which on a summer afternoon in central Florida is most days. Disney runs buses from the Skyliner hotels while it's shut, and there's a separate closure of about a week each late January for maintenance, buses again in its place, so keep the bus route in mind as a backup.

Pop Century and Art of Animation share a single Skyliner station, and between them the two hotels hold around five thousand rooms, so at rope drop, the moment the park opens, the queue there can run past half an hour just as everyone heads for the parks at once. It clears through the day, so riding a little later, or being first down at the station on an early start, avoids the worst of it. Caribbean Beach, as the hub, doesn't get the same morning crush.

On the water

Boats cross the lakes to two of the parks

Several hotels sit on water and have their own boats, all free, all suspended when there's lightning, high wind or heavy fog. Across the Seven Seas Lagoon, large double-deck ferries carry guests between the TTC and the Magic Kingdom in about 10 minutes; a pushchair or wheelchair rolls straight onto the shaded lower deck, while the open upper deck is stairs only. That ferry is also the standing backup when the monorail is down. Small varnished launches potter between the Magic Kingdom and the Grand Floridian and Polynesian, and another set loops Bay Lake linking the Contemporary, Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness; these are small boats with a step or two down to board, so the pushchair has to fold, and they suit a scenic ride more than a quick commute. Fort Wilderness is the one hotel with no direct bus to the Magic Kingdom, so its boat is the main way its guests reach that park.

The most useful boats for a family are the Crescent Lake Friendship boats over by EPCOT. They loop between the BoardWalk, the Swan and Dolphin, the Yacht and Beach Club, EPCOT's International Gateway and Hollywood Studios, taking roughly 25 to 30 minutes for the full circuit. They're covered and air-conditioned, and the pushchair stays unfolded with the child in it when there's room, which turns a midday move between EPCOT and Hollywood Studios into a chance to sit in the cool. A separate set of small river boats runs between Disney Springs and the hotels along the water there, Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter, Old Key West and Saratoga Springs, where a busy boat usually means folding the buggy. Inside EPCOT there are also two little ferries across the World Showcase lagoon that save a long walk round it, which children tend to enjoy as a boat ride in their own right.

A green Disney Skyliner gondola with Scrooge McDuck artwork waiting in a station loading bay, with yellow and orange cabins behind
A gondola in the Skyliner loading bay
The Disney Skyliner sign over the station entrance shared by Pop Century and Art of Animation
The station entrance at Pop Century and Art of Animation
A yellow-and-white resort launch full of guests crossing the Seven Seas Lagoon on a sunny day
A resort launch crossing the Seven Seas Lagoon
More in the photo gallery →
The one to know

The pushchair-fold rule at a glance

The most useful thing to understand before you travel with a child who still naps.

On every Disney bus the pushchair must be completely folded and the child taken out before you board, and it's every time without exception, not for a small buggy, not for a sleeping child, not on an empty bus. The car park trams are the same. Pushchair wagons, the wide pull-along kind, aren't allowed on any Disney transport at all. On the monorail, the lower deck of the Magic Kingdom ferry, the Crescent Lake boats and the Skyliner within its size limit, the child stays in the pushchair and you roll straight on, so a sleeping toddler doesn't have to be woken and lifted out.

You can make the bus fold easier. A quick-fold travel buggy that collapses one-handed beats a full-size pram here; keep your bits in a backpack rather than a bag hung on the handles, and clear out the basket underneath before you reach the stop. Two adults manage it comfortably, one folding while the other holds the child. One adult on their own can still do it, it's just more of a juggle, and other guests on the bus are generally quick to hold a bag or a hand while you sort it.

In the parks themselves, the pushchair-parking areas outside the rides and shows get crowded, and cast members move prams along to keep the paths clear, so yours won't always be exactly where you left it. A bright ribbon on the handle, a luggage tag or a tracker tucked inside makes it quick to pick out from a sea of near-identical black buggies.

Whether the pushchair must be folded on each Walt Disney World transport mode, and whether the child can stay in it
ModePushchairChild stays in?
BusFold every time, lift the child outNo
MonorailNo foldYes
Skyliner gondolaNo fold if it fits, side-by-side doubles foldUsually yes
Magic Kingdom ferryNo fold on the lower deckYes
Crescent Lake Friendship boatsNo fold when there is roomYes
Small resort launchesFold to boardNo
Disney Springs river boatsAt the captain's call, usually fold when busySometimes
Car park tramFold every timeNo
If you'd rather not bring one

Hiring a pushchair, and wheelchairs and scooters

The Disney hotels don't have a pushchair-hire desk, so if you want a pram waiting rather than lugging one from home you order it in advance for delivery to your hotel. ScooterBug is Disney's named provider for prams, wheelchairs and mobility scooters delivered to the resorts, and they arrange it with the hotel so you don't have to be there to collect; other firms deliver full-size prams too. You can also hire a pushchair inside each of the four parks and at Disney Springs, in single and double sizes, by the day or at a lower rate for your whole stay, and if you visit two parks in a day you keep the receipt and swap it for a fresh one at the second park at no extra charge. A park hire can't leave the park, though, and can't go on any of the transport, so it's only for use inside the gates.

Wheelchairs and electric mobility scooters, which the parks call ECVs, are for hire in the parks, the water parks and Disney Springs too. They go first come first served with no booking, the hirer has to be 18 with photo ID, so on a busy morning it pays to arrive early or to pre-book a delivered one through ScooterBug. For most UK families a lightweight quick-fold buggy from home is the simplest answer. It costs nothing extra day to day, folds down for the bus and comes back to the hotel with you each night.

The paid option

Minnie Vans, and ordinary Uber and Lyft

When you'd rather pay for a direct ride than wait for a bus.

The Minnie Van is Disney's own car service, SUVs and larger accessible vans driven by Disney staff and booked through the Lyft app once you're on property. It isn't part of your holiday package and costs extra, noticeably more than an ordinary rideshare over the same distance, so it's a convenience rather than an economy. Each vehicle carries two child seats that the driver fits for you, which makes it the only transport on Disney property that comes with car seats built in. It reaches any Disney hotel, the Swan and Dolphin and a couple of others, and it can drop right at a theme park entrance.

It can also drop at the Magic Kingdom gate, which ordinary taxis, Uber and Lyft aren't allowed to do, so it saves the change at the transport hub with a shattered child. It runs directly between hotels in a few minutes rather than the 90-minute bus loop, which makes a dinner booking at another resort practical with young children. It's also the answer on the night everything is congested, after the fireworks or late back from a park, or any time you have a sleeping baby and can't face folding a pram onto a bus. You book it in the Lyft app from within Disney; hours vary, so the app is the place to check.

Ordinary Uber and Lyft work on Disney property too, and cost less than a Minnie Van. The catch for a young family is car seats. A standard rideshare won't carry one, Uber's car-seat option is patchy around Orlando and Lyft doesn't offer one there at all, so with a baby or toddler you'd be relying on your own seat. Like the taxis, they can't drop at the Magic Kingdom gate either, so for that park you'd still finish the trip from the transport hub by monorail or ferry.

If you're driving

Using your own car on site

You don't need one for the parks, but it changes little if you have it.

You don't need a car to get around Disney, but plenty of families have one for days out beyond the resort, and driving between the parks and hotels is straightforward if you do. Overnight parking at your Disney hotel is free for guests staying there, and so is parking at the theme parks. Guests at a Disney hotel park free at all four, while drivers coming in from off-site pay a daily fee instead, one fee covering all four parks that day. There's a pricier preferred area nearer the entrance at each park, though it mainly saves steps at the Magic Kingdom and adds little at the others. The park car parks are big, so it's worth saving your spot in the My Disney Experience app's car locator when you leave the car, or at least noting the section name, so you're not hunting for it at the end of a long day. Valet parking is offered too, at the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa resorts and at Coronado Springs, for a nightly charge if you'd rather hand the car over than park it yourself. The booking side of hiring a car, the licence, insurance, tolls and where to collect it, sits on our getting there guide.

The Magic Kingdom is the odd one out, with no car park at the park itself. You park at the Transportation and Ticket Center, the hub more than a mile away across the lake, and finish the trip by monorail or ferry, so build in the extra time with a pushchair. Security screening for the Magic Kingdom happens at the TTC rather than at the park gates, so you clear your bags there and then ride straight in, which is worth another ten or fifteen minutes at a busy arrival. At every park a courtesy tram runs between the far car park and the entrance, or to that hub at the Magic Kingdom, and the pushchair has to be folded to get on a tram just as on a bus.

Hiring mid-trip

Hiring a car for part of your stay

You don't have to hire a car for the whole holiday to have one for a day or two. Alamo is the official on-property rental company and shares the Car Care Center, near the Magic Kingdom, with National. A courtesy shuttle collects you from your own resort lobby and runs you over there, and back after you return the car, which you arrange by calling around two hours ahead or by asking the front desk at least half an hour before. For a family that means you can keep to the free Disney transport for the parks and pick up a car only for the days it's actually useful, an outlet run, a beach day, a trip further afield, rather than paying for a week's car hire that mostly sits in the car park. If a couple of off-site days are the only reason you'd want a car, hiring on site for just those days is one way to weigh it up.

Off to the shops

Parking at Disney Springs, and charging a car

Parking at Disney Springs, the shopping and dining district, is free, in the surface lots and the multi-storey garages. The buses and boats that run from Disney Springs back to the Disney hotels are limited to guests who can show a resort booking or an eligible dining reservation, which stops off-site visitors parking free there and riding Disney transport on to the parks. The free parking itself is unaffected; it's only the resort-bound transport from it that asks for credentials. If you're driving an electric car, there are ChargePoint stations at all four park car parks, across Disney Springs and at a few of the hotels.

On foot

Walking, and where it beats the bus

On a few routes your own two feet are the quickest way in.

Walking is sometimes the fastest way around, and on a couple of routes it beats every form of Disney transport. Around the Magic Kingdom the whole monorail resort strip is now joined up on foot, so a family at the Polynesian, Grand Floridian or Contemporary can walk between them and on to the park. The Contemporary is the closest of the three, a flat, pram-friendly walk of about 10 minutes straight to the Magic Kingdom with its own security check, and it's quicker than waiting for the monorail, so guests there often just walk. The Grand Floridian walk to the park is longer at 15 to 20 minutes and winds along the lake over a couple of bridges.

The best-connected walking cluster is over by EPCOT, around Crescent Lake. Paved, lit paths link the BoardWalk, the Beach Club, the Yacht Club and the Swan and Dolphin to both EPCOT's back entrance and Hollywood Studios. From the Beach Club it's a five to ten minute stroll straight into EPCOT's World Showcase, one of the strongest transport advantages any hotel has. Over by the Skyliner, Pop Century and Art of Animation are a short walk apart across a bridge. Some hotels have no walkable park at all and rely on buses, or a boat, for every trip: the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the three All-Star hotels, Coronado Springs, Old Key West and Fort Wilderness. In the summer heat a walk of much over a mile is hard on small legs, so the boat or the Skyliner is often worth taking even when it's slower, to keep out of the sun.

Wheelchairs and scooters

Getting around with a wheelchair or scooter

Which modes carry a mobility device, and which ones ask you to transfer.

If someone in your party uses a wheelchair or a mobility scooter, which Disney calls an ECV, or you're pushing a medical stroller, the buses are the most dependable way around. Every route is accessible. The driver lowers a ramp at the rear door and secures the device before anyone else boards, a standard bus takes two devices and the newer ones three, and a medical stroller is treated as a wheelchair. Because a bus reaches every hotel and every park, it's the mode a family travelling with a grandparent or a wheelchair user can lean on for any trip.

Among the other modes, the Skyliner and the monorail both carry a device with no tie-down. On the Skyliner a purpose-built gondola with a flat floor lets you roll straight in and stay put, though at Riviera it slows rather than fully stops; the monorail has ramps at every station and lifts at most. On the water it's mixed. The large Magic Kingdom ferry takes a wheelchair or scooter on its shaded lower deck by ramp, the Crescent Lake Friendship boats board by ramp when the water level allows, and the Fort Wilderness to Magic Kingdom boat and the Disney Springs river ferries are accessible too. The small launches around the Magic Kingdom hotels, the ones serving the Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge, need a two-step descent to board and aren't suitable for a wheelchair or scooter, so a family with a device is better off on the bus for those trips.

The car park trams take a guest who can transfer out of their wheelchair onto a tram seat, but not one who can't, and prams still fold for the tram. The accessible Minnie Van seats five with room for two mobility devices and one fitted child seat, and any guest can book it through the Lyft app whether or not they need the accessibility features. Wheelchairs, scooters and prams are all for hire in the parks first come first served with no booking, or you can have one delivered to your hotel through ScooterBug, Disney's named provider, without needing to be there to collect it.

Who's in your group

How it works for older children and mixed ages

How the same transport works once children are past the pushchair, and with mixed ages in the group.

Once children are past the pushchair, every mode is straightforward and some of it becomes part of the fun. Older children tend to enjoy the monorail window seats, the open top deck of the Magic Kingdom ferry and the view down from the Skyliner, and the walking routes, the EPCOT cluster especially, open up as a proper option when small legs can manage them. On the bus an older child can carry the park bag or hold the folded buggy while an adult lifts the baby, which is what makes the fold manageable for a mixed-age family running one adult short.

Many trips involve one parent heading back to the parks for the evening while the other settles the children, or an early solo run to rope drop. From a Skyliner or monorail hotel that's a quick five to fifteen minute hop at either end of the day. From a bus-only hotel the same trip adds the usual bus wait on top of the ride, fine in the middle of the day and more of a slog alone at ten at night when you just want to get back to a sleeping child. The Minnie Van is the private, no-wait alternative for that run when you'd rather pay than stand at a stop.

Choosing a hotel

How the transport shapes where you stay

Where you're based decides whether a park is a short ride away or a longer trip by bus.

From a few hotels you can walk to a park. Some sit on the monorail, the Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian. Four are on the Skyliner, Pop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach and Riviera. At all of these at least one park is a pushchair-friendly ride away. The rest lean mainly on the buses, where the evenings can mean a queue.

At a glance

Which resort has which transport

Every resort has buses to every park, so the table below shows which ones add a monorail, Skyliner or boat link on top. It's the quickest way to see, hotel by hotel, what each one adds beyond the standard bus service. The boat column names the water each hotel's boat runs on; a boat link doesn't always reach a park, so read it alongside the boats section above.

Which Walt Disney World resort hotels have a monorail, Skyliner or boat link in addition to buses to every park
ResortTierMonorailSkylinerBoat
ContemporaryDeluxeYesNoBay Lake launch
Grand FloridianDeluxeYesNoLagoon launch
Polynesian VillageDeluxeYesNoLagoon launch
Wilderness LodgeDeluxeNoNoBoat to the Magic Kingdom
BoardWalkDeluxeNoNoCrescent Lake boat
Yacht ClubDeluxeNoNoCrescent Lake boat
Beach ClubDeluxeNoNoCrescent Lake boat
Animal Kingdom LodgeDeluxeNoNoBuses only
RivieraDeluxe VillaNoYesNo
Caribbean BeachModerateNoYesNo
Coronado SpringsModerateNoNoBuses only
Port Orleans RiversideModerateNoNoDisney Springs boat
Port Orleans French QuarterModerateNoNoDisney Springs boat
Fort WildernessModerateNoNoBoat to the Magic Kingdom
Pop CenturyValueNoYesNo
Art of AnimationValueNoYesNo
All-Star Movies, Music and SportsValueNoNoBuses only
Old Key WestDisney Vacation ClubNoNoDisney Springs boat
Saratoga SpringsDisney Vacation ClubNoNoDisney Springs boat
Swan, Dolphin and Swan ReserveNon-DisneyNoNoCrescent Lake boat

The hotel's price tier doesn't decide the transport. Pop Century is one of the cheaper Value hotels and has the Skyliner; the Animal Kingdom Lodge is an expensive Deluxe one and has buses only. None of this makes any hotel a wrong choice, since the buses reach everything and plenty of families are perfectly happy on them. It just means that if easy days with a young child are near the top of your list, transport is worth weighing alongside price and theme when you pick a hotel. Our hotel pages set out what each one has, so you can see how a given hotel would get you around.

Before you go

Questions parents ask

A few things families check about getting around, plus the official links and when this was last checked.

Can we use Disney's transport if we're staying off-site?

Staying off-site you rely on your own car rather than Disney's resort buses, which run between the Disney hotels and the parks for guests staying there. You park at each theme park and pay the daily fee, and at the Magic Kingdom the monorail and ferry then carry anyone with a park ticket from the car park hub across to the gates. The boats and buses from Disney Springs back to the resorts only take guests who can show a Disney hotel booking or a dining reservation, so parking free there and riding Disney transport on to a park isn't a way round it.

Can we use our own car seats in an Uber or taxi?

You'd bring and fit your own. Ordinary Uber, Lyft and taxis around Orlando don't carry a child seat, and even Uber's paid car-seat option covers only one child aged two to five with no rear-facing guarantee, so it's no use with a baby. The one exception is Disney's own Minnie Van, which comes with two seats the driver fits for you.

Is a Skyliner hotel worth it if we'll mostly do EPCOT and Hollywood Studios?

Staying elsewhere you can ride the Skyliner back from either of those parks with that day's ticket, but you can't board it at your own hotel to get there, so the outbound trip is a bus. If those two parks are where you'll spend most of your days, one of the four hotels on the line, Riviera, Caribbean Beach, Pop Century or Art of Animation, gives you the no-fold gondola both ways with the child staying in the pushchair. For a plan spread evenly across all four parks it matters far less, since the Skyliner only reaches those two anyway.

Can we use the transport on arrival day before our tickets start?

Yes. None of the buses, monorail, boats or Skyliner checks for a park ticket, so on check-in day you can ride to Disney Springs or around the resort areas before your park days begin, and the same on departure day once they've ended. It's handy if you land early and your room isn't ready yet, since you can head out to Disney Springs rather than waiting around the lobby.

Last updated 9 July 2026.