Disney World: Theme parks’ trams are coming back

[Disney4me]

Parking lot trams will operate at Walt Disney World’s four theme parks again, the company said Thursday. They've been still during pandemic times.

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Walt Disney World visitors walk between their vehicles and transportation to the Magic Kingdom in the parking lot at the Ticket & Transportation Center on Wednesday. Trams have not operated at WDW parks since the pandemic shutdown began in March 2020, but the company says they will return to all four parks in coming months. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)

Parking lot trams will again operate at Walt Disney World’s four theme parks, the company confirmed Thursday.

That system of transportation has been missing in action at WDW since the pandemic shutdown began in March 2020. The trams did not return when the parks reopened four months later.

Since then, park guests driving their own vehicles to the parks — including people paying for premium parking — have been walking and weaving their way through cars to the parks’ entrances.

It has been particularly unusual at Magic Kingdom, where visitors park in the 12,000-slot lot, then weave their way on foot to an underpass for Seven Seas Drive, emerge on the other side and wind back toward Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort for bag check at the Ticket & Transportation Center. In pre-pandemic times, that stretch usually would be accomplished via a tram ride.

The trip from there, then and now, includes travel by monorail or paddleboat to get to the Magic Kingdom entrance.

Magic Kingdom will be the first to have the trams back in action, according to a post by the Disney Parks account on Twitter. That will happen later this month, the post said.

The trams will return to service at Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom “throughout 2022,” the post said. In a separate email, Disney said specific timing would be shared at a later date.

Universal Orlando visitors walk from the resort’s parking garages, which connect to Universal CityWalk then to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. SeaWorld Orlando used trams, but in recent years they had only been seen when attendance had surged, forcing folks to park on the other side of Sea Harbor Drive.

 

 

Dewayne Bevil

Orlando Sentinel