Here's What You Need to Know if Your Off-Site Hotel Only Drops Off at Disney's TTC

Continuing our coverage of the Transportation and Ticket Center, I wanted to touch on what you should do if your off-site hotel ONLY drops guests off at the TTC. This situation is probably more common than anyone knows. So, if your off-site hotel’s shuttle service only has one destination (the TTC), this read is for you!

Imagine. You research hotel options and weigh the pros and cons of staying off-site vs. on-site. Ultimately, you can’t see paying the cost of a value resort when you can stay at a nicer hotel near Disney World that offers a complimentary breakfast and shuttle service to the parks. So you reserve the hotel, fairly confident in your decision. Months later, it’s the first morning of your vacation. The hotel is nice, the complimentary breakfast was good, and the shuttle will be here any minute to pick you up along with a load of other patiently waiting guests.

You plan to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have a basic itinerary saved to your phone. The shuttle arrives, and you’re impressed with the quick boarding process. “It won’t be long now,” you exclaim to your children, who are bubbling over with excitement. They can’t wait to see Toy Story Land and are excited about all the cool Star Wars stuff at the park. Soon after, you’ve arrived (or so you think), and everyone unloads. The bus driver gives everyone a copy of the resort’s bus schedule, mentioning they need to return to this exact spot at the Transportation and Ticket Center to catch a ride back in the evening.

You follow the crowd as everyone makes their way toward the security checkpoint. Suddenly, you’re not so sure what to do. This doesn’t look like the entrance to a theme park. So you ask a security guard who quickly responds this is how you get to Magic Kingdom or take the monorail to Epcot. But you’re going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Did you miss something?

Unfortunately, you didn’t miss anything. It’s just that some off-site resorts (not all) only drop off at the Transportation and Ticket Center. From there, guests must figure out how to get where they’re going.

For Epcot and Magic Kingdom, the answer is pretty simple. You can take the ferry or monorail from the TTC to Magic Kingdom. Once you walk through security, you’ll either walk down to the dock to board the ferry, or you can join the line to board the Magic Kingdom monorail. Getting to Magic Kingdom will take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Of course, it could take a little longer, depending on how many other people are visiting.

If you’re going to Epcot, you’ll walk through the security checkpoint at the Transportation and Ticket Center and then board the Epcot Monorail. This process will take 10-20 minutes, barring there’s not a long line. The actual monorail ride to Epcot is approximately 11 minutes. Since you’ve been through security and haven’t left the secured area, you won’t have to walk through another checkpoint at Magic Kingdom or Epcot.

Now, the tricky part. If your off-site hotel drops you off at the TTC and you’re going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios or Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you must take a bus. You’ll have to walk to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, locate their bus stop, and then catch a bus. (This also applies to Disney Springs or Disney’s water parks.)

Thankfully, Disney’s Polynesian sits next door to the TTC, and the pathway is somewhat marked. But most guests are clueless. How do I know this? I like to park at the TTC and walk to the Polynesian, and nearly every time I walk through this area, someone stops and asks me how to get to the bus stop.

For a while, I didn’t understand that these were off-site guests looking to get elsewhere on the property. But then, one day, a lady showed me her bus schedule and asked if I knew how to return to her bus stop. She told me they were dropped off that morning without knowing where to go. They finally figured it out but couldn’t remember how to get back. It’s no telling how much of their day was spent trying to get to and from where they were going!

Then, more recently, a man at Epcot handed me his bus schedule from an off-site hotel. He and his family were clueless and frustrated. After reviewing their hotel’s shuttle schedule, I could see why. It had the names of every theme park in Orlando printed on it, with different drop-off and pick-up times depending on the day of the week!

It’s no wonder that people think Harry Potter Land is at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (it’s not) and similar. It took me several minutes to figure out where he needed to go to catch the bus back to the resort. The answer was not Epcot, where I ran into him and his family wandering around the park entrance. They needed to be at the Transportation and Ticket Center.

These specific situations inspired me to write this article. I don’t know if it will ever help the people it was written for, but if you know someone planning an off-site hotel stay, please pass it along. Having to take these extra steps is a hassle. But if you know what to do beforehand, you’ve already fought half the battle. I’ll walk through the process again (with photos) of continuing from the TTC to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. The orange line on the map below indicates the route you would take to reach the Polynesian’s bus stop from the TTC.

TTC to Polynesian Bus Stop Route Outlined in Orange

How to Get to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom from the TTC

The off-site hotel bus drops you off at the Transportation and Ticket Center.
You’ll walk past the security checkpoint at the TTC (not through it) and continue to the opposite end.
At the far end of the TTC, you’ll see a crosswalk and a small sidewalk bordered by landscaping on each side. The setting immediately changes, and you notice the Polynesian Village Resort sign.
This small sidewalk opens into the grounds of the Polynesian. You will stay to your left (far left) toward the resort’s parking lot. You should see a sign that says “WDW Bus Transportation This Way.”
Continue down the sidewalk parallel to the parking lot until you reach the resort’s bus stop.
Board a bus to your destination. (Options are Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, Water Park Transfer Bus)

Here are a few photos of the landmarks mentioned in the steps above.

The Crosswalk from the TTC to the Polynesian

The landscaped walkway from the TTC opens to the grounds of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.

Here is the WDW Bus Transportation directional for off-site guests trying to reach the resort’s bus stop.

You can see the Polynesian’s parking lot in the distance. This is the way to the resort’s bus stop.

The Polynesian’s bus stop is across the street from the resort’s parking lot. You might also notice that it’s under the monorail tracks.

When you leave the park, remember to return to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort’s bus stop. Take the bus back to the Polynesian, and then take the same walkway from the Polynesian’s bus stop back to the Transportation and Ticket Center.

The most difficult part of this entire scenario is visiting around your hotel’s bus schedule. The on-site resorts at Walt Disney World run on average every 15-20 minutes. However, most off-site hotels only pick up at certain times. So, to ensure your seat on the bus, allow plenty of time to return to the bus stop. If it were me, I would start making my way back to the bus stop 1.5 hours before the scheduled time. (This goes for Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, and the water parks.) If I were at Magic Kingdom, I would give myself 45 minutes to 1 hour.)

The bottom line is that you’ll need to pay extra for a car service if you miss the bus. Unfortunately, relying on a schedule will significantly reduce your time in each park. So, it’s another factor to consider when staying off-site. We aren’t against staying off-site by any means, but we always have a car when we do, and our annual pass includes parking charges at Walt Disney World. Therefore, we don’t have to rely on anyone else to get us to and from Walt Disney World, and we don’t have to pay for parking. When we stay on property, we park our car at the resort and solely rely on Disney transportation. Complimentary parking at the resorts and theme parks is extended to all Disney Resort Hotel Guests.

I’m not trying to sway you either way. However, this is one of those scenarios that most guests do not plan for when comparing on-site and off-site hotels. So, it’s something you’ll want to research based on which hotels you are considering.

For more on the benefits of staying onsite at Walt Disney World, you might enjoy the following:

You might also like to browse our list of the best off-site hotels near Disney World, which includes hotels in various price ranges.

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