I have an PPO ADR at BOG the morning of the Princess Half and not staying on the monorail. Anyone have experience with the traffic and Disney transportation on the morning of the PHM since they close lanes as part of the route from EP to MK? Wondering if I should change this day to a different park or plan on coming in later that day to play it safe.
I 'tried' to get to MK PPO this year on the Sunday of the Princess Half.
It became a fun adventure.
I knew I would need extra time so I left early - but it still took longer than expected.
The Minnie Van picked me up from BWI at 7:08am. The driver knew World Drive would be closed/clogged, so we took the 'back' way around past Golden Oak, Ft Wilderness, etc. The driver assumed that he would be able to drop me off at the MK bus depot per usual - that turned out to be wrong. As
@rteetz noted above, the bus depot is inaccessible to all traffic (bus and Minnie Van) when the race is occurring, so they re-route to the TTC. I wish my driver had known that!
Instead, we opted to get off at CR since that was the next best alternative - time stamp 7:42am. That's just over 33 minutes for a 7.21 mile ride according to my Lyft ride history. I was glad it was still the flat $25 fare then!
Here's a cut/paste of my Minnie Van trip from my ride receipt:
As
@iujen94 indicated, the walkway from CR to MK was also closed at this point, so my only option was to get on the resort monorail at CR and take it around to MK (of course you have to make stops at TTC, Poly, and GF first).
I was on the monorail at 7:47am.
Here's a pic from the monorail looking down at World Drive just before it goes under the water bridge. You can see the traffic arrangement - half runners and half cars. They switch north and south bound auto traffic every few mins. Time stamp on the pic is 7:48am.
I have a pic getting off the monorail at the MK station at 8:02am (as a reminder, I left BWI at 7:08am).... so just under an hour total travel time. I will note my overall time would have been less if my Minnie Van driver had taken me to the TTC or GF instead of the failed attempt towards getting to get to the bus depot.
By 8:05am I was on Main Street. At this point, runners are still flowing into the MK - half of Main Street is for runners half is for arriving park guests (and for folks cheering on the runners).
By about 8:25/30am per my photos, the last runners were through the MK, cones/ropes picked up, and it was like the race had never even happened. It immediately became a normal MK morning.
I'll caveat that sometimes the course isn't the same each year and this will also be the first year with the MK toll plaza bypass open, so that may/may not change things.... but regardless I think it's safe to assume that building in plenty of extra time is prudent that morning so long as the course route takes it toward the MK via World Drive like I'm pretty sure it normally does with the Princess Half.
Hope that helps. Happy to answer any questions.
