Membership has its privileges

Brandon, Benjamin and I set out (one last time – sniff!) to walk through the Polynesian’s beautifully themed grounds to the Transportation and Ticket Center. The air is still very cold, with a stiff breeze making us colder, but this is turning out to be another clear, beautiful day!

When we emerge from the foliage to the open area of the TTC, we are stunned to see people – I mean, lots of people – packed behind the white fence. Apparently no one’s being allowed on the monorail! I wonder what’s going on.

Hmm – Epcot doesn’t open for over 30 minutes. It never dawned on me that we might not be able to get there yet.

As we get closer, we can see past the crowds that a very few people are on the other side of the fence, walking to the monorail station ramps. I’m still not sure what’s going on, but as I look down the barrier, it seems there is a gate where some people are getting through.

The boys and I walk around the crowds towards the gate in the middle of the fence, which I now see is staffed by a cast member. From what I can see as we approach, her job is mainly to turn people away. We start towards her to ask what the determining factor is for getting through the gate, but she answers my question before I ask it.

“Resort guest? Come on through.” And she waves us in with a smile.

Cool! Once again our KTTW cards, on display in our DCL lanyards with the clear pouch, have been our ticket to ride. I can’t help but think the phrase, “membership has its privileges.” We walk straight past the hundreds of waiting people and across to what now feels like our own private monorail!

We walk up the Epcot ramp. It is cold, cold, cold. The boys want to ride up front in the monorail – one thing we haven’t done this trip – but another family has beaten us to it. And it’s cold enough that I am not waiting for the second train!

A monorail pulls in at 8:30. As usual, the doors open on the exit side first so that incoming passengers can depart before the doors on our side open. There’s a family of four – parents and two teen daughters – already in the compartment in front of us, but they stay seating when the exit doors open. That’s odd. As we climb in on the other side of the compartment it dawns on me.

“Are you just riding to stay warm?” They confirm that that’s exactly what they are doing. Why wait out in the cold wind for Epcot to open at 9:00 when you can ride around on a relatively warm monorail?

I check my watch. Given our timing, we may just do the same thing!