Ask Mel Wednesday: How do I get to our dining reservation at a resort?

Question: We have a dinner reservation at a resort we are not staying at. How do we get to the restaurant? Do we need to drive?

Answer: Let’s start with the easy part – you do not have to drive. Once you arrive at Disney, there is no need to drive anywhere. You might choose to drive and some people do, but Disney transportation has you covered and once you figure out how it works – it makes the hassle of driving yourself a thing of the past! Obviously the answer to “how do I get to the restaurant?” varies with what restaurant you are talking about. I am not going to list it all out here but what I am going to do is give you the overview of how to get around Disney. Each Disney resort runs transportation to each of the four theme parks, the two water parks and Downtown Disney. This is done through a combination of buses, monorails, and boats depending on what resort you are staying at. If you are trying to get to a reservation at a different resort than the one that you are staying at, the easiest way to do that is to head to one of the theme parks and then switch to the bus that is going to the resort you are trying to get to. Let’s use the following example, you are staying at Port Orleans Riverside and you have a dinner reservation at Olivia’s at Old Key West Resort. To get to your dinner reservation using Disney transportation you would get on a bus at Port Orleans Riverside that is heading to a theme park. Once you get off the bus at the theme park you would find out which bus stop is the one for Old Key West and then you would go stand in that line and board the Old Key West bus. To get home after your reservation, simply reverse the process. Think of the theme parks as the hubs – all transportation will run to the parks but (with the exception of the local monorail and some of the boats) the transportation does not run between the resorts.  Need more help figuring out how to get to your dining reservations or need help planning those Disney dining reservations, email me at mel@mickeybymel.com or leave a comment here I would be happy to help!