Walking Between Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Magic Kingdom

Whether it’s for dinner or you’re spending an entire week at Disney’s Contemporary, you might want to walk to and from the resort to the Magic Kingdom. When it’s 10:00 p.m., and you’re leaving the park in a mass of crowds, I can assure you that you’ll soon be smiling when you hit that quiet walkway and find yourself back at the room within less than 15 minutes. Had you stayed at that other resort, you’d probably still be waiting at the bus stop. If I could sum up the resort in one word, it would be convenient. There’s nothing like it.

Now you might be thinking, why would you want to walk when you can take the monorail? After all, the monorail is one of the biggest perks of staying at Disney’s Contemporary. Two of them run through it all day! But did you know that you have to make three additional stops between the Contemporary and Magic Kingdom? It’s much quicker to walk to the park than to take the monorail. However, the Contemporary is the first stop after leaving Magic Kingdom. But remember those long lines? If you run into a line, you are likely much better off walking.

When you leave the Contemporary (or Bay Lake Tower), the walking path begins just beyond the bus stop. So you’ll walk out the resort’s front door, take an immediate right, and see the bus stop. Keep walking beyond the bus stop, and you’ll see a sign that reads “Walkway to Magic Kingdom.” It’s that simple. Here are a few photos from our walk.

Along the walking path, you’ll cross a dedicated crosswalk in the parking lot and one intersection between the resort and Magic Kingdom. You will want to wait for the “walk” signal at the light. It is a fairly busy road with buses coming and going. After the intersection, you’ll continue through a small security clearance area. You will not have to go through security again when you reach Magic Kingdom.

Here is where you end up when you reach Magic Kingdom. Since you’ve already been through security, you can use your ticket to enter the turnstiles!

I used my transportation tracker to map the exact walk on this visit. It was 0.42 miles and took me 11 minutes at an average pace. An 11-minute walk to Magic Kingdom? I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that any day.

We’ve stayed at Disney’s Contemporary many times. It’s not for everyone, and we get that. If you want to know more about the resort, all our articles are listed in our Resorts Gal Guide to Disney’s Contemporary. Also, I wanted to mention that we stay here intentionally. For example, we’ve planned stays when we were visiting Magic Kingdom for the 4th of July so we could quickly walk back to the resort after the fireworks. One year, we even watched the fireworks from the resort, which was pretty special. We also stayed at the Contemporary while attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. We went to two parties in one week, and I remember feeling relieved to return to the room so quickly. So, staying here is worth your consideration if you’re looking to spend a reasonable amount of time at Magic Kingdom or plan to attend a special event at the park.

We hope you found this information helpful! We have several transportation tips posts that get into the specifics of traveling around Walt Disney World. Here are a few others:

• How Long Is the Monorail Ride from the Grand Floridian to Epcot?
• Taking the Boat from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom
• How to Get Between Jambo House and Kidani Village
• Walking from Saratoga Springs to Disney Springs (Both Ways)

You might also like our Contemporary Resort Transportation Options Guide. It details how to get to and from the resort to other popular destinations. Or try our Resorts Gal Routes series, which shares some of our favorite routes to popular Walt Disney World destinations. For more on walking, we have a separate guide that discusses the various walking paths at Disney.

More Planning

At Resorts Gal, we specialize in helping you plan the perfect Disney World vacation. Start with our Disney World Resorts Guide for an overview of every resort hotel, or explore our Disney World Dining Guide and Disney World Transportation Guide to plan where to eat and how to get around. If you plan to meet characters in the parks, we have an updated list of Disney World Characters. It includes every available character meet-and-greet in the parks and where to find rare characters throughout the year. Our Disney Parks Guide provides a complete overview of all four theme parks and water parks.

For big-picture planning, visit our Disney World Planning Guide and Disney World Budgeting Guide. You can also browse the latest news on our blog. Once you’ve explored these guides, consider taking our free planning course to tie it all together.