The Monorail Bar Crawl

Have you heard of this? It’s a real thing. People will board the monorail for an evening of drinking themselves around the monorail resort loop. There are seven lounges to check out at the monorail resorts.

I’ll start at the Contemporary and we can work our way around from there. So, keep clear of the doors and get ready to ride the monorail for the monorail bar crawl!

First Stop: Contemporary Resort

• California Grill Lounge
  • Location: 15th floor
  • Hours: 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.
  • Food: The lounge offers the same menu as the restaurant.
  • Drink: They have an extensive wine list (over 300), delicious mixed drinks, quite a few different beers to choose from, scotch, etc. I really enjoyed the martini I had here and my husband and our friends were happy with the scotch selection.
  • Extras: They huge windows that give you a great view of the Magic Kingdom and surrounding area. If you time it right, you can catch Happily Ever After at the Magic Kingdom from the restaurant. However, the lounge is first come first served and the closer it gets to the start of Happily Ever After the more difficult it will be to find a seat.
  • Dress Code: From Disney’s website, “Men may wear khakis, slacks, jeans or dress shorts and collared shirts. Sport coats are optional.Women may wear Capri pants, skirts, dresses, jeans or dress shorts.Not permitted are tank tops, swimsuits, swimsuit cover-ups, hats for gentlemen, cut-offs, torn clothing and t-shirts with offensive language and/or graphics.”
• Outer Rim
  • Location: 4th Floor
  • Hours: 4:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
  • Food: Bar menu available
  • Drink: Beer, wine, Disney Resort drinks, specialty cocktails, and more.
  • Extras: If you are there during the Electrical Water Pageant, you will be able to see it from the big windows that look out over the lake.
• The Wave Lounge
  • Location: Lobby Floor (inside The Wave…of American Flavors)
  • Hours: 12 p.m. – 12 a.m.
  • Food: They do have a menu of appetizers and other bar food available.
  • Drink: Specialty cocktails, organic beers, tequila, and New World wines
  • Extras: The Wave prides itself on the freshness of its food, with a lot of the food coming from local or regional sources. Plus, I think the organic beer piques a lot of people’s interest.

Second Stop: Polynesian Village Resort

• Tambu Lounge
  • Location: Great Ceremonial House – 2nd Floor
  • Hours: 1 p.m. – 12 a.m.
  • Food: Full bar menu available
  • Drink: Specialty drinks like the Lapu Lapu and the Backscratcher
  • Extras: With all of the additions to the Polynesian Village Resort, it’s definitely worth a stroll after you finish your drinks.
• Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto
  • Location: On the first floor by Capt. Cook’s.
  • Hours: 4 p.m. – 12 a.m
  • Food: There is an appetizer menu that offers things like Headhunter Sushi Roll, Kalua Pork Tacos, Salmon Oshizushi, Corn-battered Sausages with Curry Ketchup, Chicken Lettuce Cups, Hawaiian Poke, Roasted Chicken and Pork Pate Bahn Mi Sliders, and Pan-fried Dumplings.
  • Drinks: The Castaway Crush, the Polynesian Pearl, the Nautilus, the Dark and Tropical Stormy,the Tahitian Torch, HippopotoMai-Tai, Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum, Shrunken Zombie, and Rosita’s Margarita are some of the speciatly drinks available. You can also find a menu with Sam’s No-Booze Brews. Beer and wine are also available.
  • Extras: Well, it’s new, so that’s reason enough for a lot of people. However, there are some special effects that happen inside the lounge that go along with some of the specialty drinks.

Final Stop: Grand Floridian

• Citricos Lounge
  • Location: 2nd Floor
  • Hours: 5 p.m. -10 p.m.
  • Food: Tapas
  • Drink: Specialty cocktails, international wines, and a variety of beers
  • Extras: Beautiful views of the courtyard out of large windows. The whole restaurant looks beautiful and makes for a nice dining (or lounging) experience.
  • Dress code: From Disney’s website, “Men may wear khakis, slacks, jeans or dress shorts and collared shirts. Sport coats are optional.Women may wear Capri pants, skirts, dresses, jeans or dress shorts.Not permitted are tank tops, swimsuits, swimsuit cover-ups, hats for gentlemen, cut-offs, torn clothing and t-shirts with offensive language and/or graphics.”
• Mizner’s Lounge
  • Location: Upstairs behind the bandstand
  • Hours: 4:30 p.m. – 12 a.m.
  • Food: Appetizers and desserts
  • Drink: Specialty cocktails, champagnes, wines, domestic beers, ports, cognacs, bourbons, single malts and blended scotch
  • Extras: Enjoy jazz music while you sip your drink. Cigars are also available.

A couple of other things:

• If you are doing this with someone who does not wish to drink, the lounges serve non-alcoholic drinks as well.
• There are other restaurants at these resorts that have alcoholic beverages, but they don’t have a lounge. So you would need a dining reservation to be able to order a drink.

Lastly, if you are participating in the monorail bar crawl, just remember to keep it calm. There are kids around, even during the later hours, so try not to get sloppy drunk.

Well, there you have it! The monorail bar crawl. If you are traveling with an adults only party or you have a babysitter watching the kids, then give it a try.

You don’t have to be staying at a monorail resort to try this. You can get a bus from the Magic Kingdom, take the monorail to Epcot and grab a bus there, or take a taxi (the taxi you would have to pay for) to get back to your resort.

Even if you don’t want to drink around the monorail resort loop, it’s still fun to go around and look at all the monorail resorts. There are lots of things to experience at each of the resort hotels!

Thanks for reading!

*Liz*

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