Directions to walk between Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, with Pictures!
It is possible to walk between Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. You might want to take this walk to check out the Grand Floridian and it’s restaurants and lounges without riding the monorail or to keep pressing on to the Magic Kingdom.
Currently the Polynesian is in the process of building a new Disney Vacation Club section. They demolished the popular Luau dinner show building to do so. In the picture above the construction site is circled in red.
NOTE: It’s been reported that this temporary walking path is closed due to construction. I’ll be checking mid- November ’23 and will update.
Normally, the walk from the Poly to the Grand Floridian is a beautiful walk along Bay Lake (the red path in the pic below) that is roughly a half mile.
But due to the construction, a temporary path has been created. The temporary path is in blue above.
Be warned part of this temporary path (about 360 feet of it) is through uneven, sometimes soggy grass right next to a busy road! Then the path goes through a parking lot.
Once the construction is complete I assume the path will return to the nice stroll next to Bay Lake, and I’ll update this post.
The Map
Below is a map overview of the walking route from the Polynesian Village Resort to the Grand Floridian. The entire walk is just over a half mile (0.60) and takes 10-15 minutes to walk depending on your speed.
Directions
As usual in these walking posts, I’ll give directions from the resort lobby. If you are walking from a diffferent building at the resort, just adjust.
From the Polynesian’s lobby, head to the left rear of the lobby and follow the hall past Captain Cooks and Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, then out the door.
Continue straight ahead, the marina will be on your right and the Tonga guest building to the left.
Past Tonga you will see a temporary sign pointing to your route.
You’ll turn left here and be heading towards the front of the property between the Tonga and Aotearoa guest buildings.
You will come to a sidewalk intersection that will be familiar to Shades of Green guests.
If you are coming from Shades of Green, you will be coming from the path straight ahead. Wherever you started from, you’ll head down the path to the right, with the temporary sign pointing the way.
This sidewalk will parallel the Aotearoa guest building.
At the end of Aotearoa you will encounter the construction area, with a covered chain link fence.
Here you will turn left, go under the monorail tracks and turn right to parallel the road that heads to the Grand Floridian.
The next 2 sections of your journey get progressively worse until you get to the Grand Floridian parking lot. I’ll break these 2 sections of the walk down in closer maps below.
The first section is along a temporary asphalt sidewalk that runs next to the monorail tracks, roughly 50 feet from a busy road.
At the end of this sidewalk, where you see the fence jut out to the left in the distance, you will come to a road that crosses from the main road on the left into the construction area on the right. This was the delivery road for the old luau facility and is now being used as the construction entrance for trucks. A worker is stationed there to tell you to wait or cross depending on traffic.
Once waved across the construction entrance you will start the worst section of this journey. the 360 foot length walk in the grass very close to the road.
This part of your walk will be on the uneven ground and you will be anywhere from 3 to 15 feet from the road walking on the grass (or dirt where it has been worn away) with a drainage ditch close to the right (or even where you are trying to walk).
This is definitely not Disney’s finest moment!!!
After walking through the grass you’ll come to one of the Grand Floridian’s parking lot entrances, which is also the driveway to the Wedding Pavilion..
Go around the sign and bushes and go straight across the driveway entrance into the parking lot.
From here proceed diagonally through the parking lot to the far right corner.
At the far corner you will see another entrance/exit.
Now you’re on the Grand Floridian grounds and just have to get to the lobby.
In the pic above, you will walk down the sidewalk and cross the street towards the building ahead.
Then go to the left of the building.
Go to the Gazebo and turn left.
Then follow the covered walkway to the main building.
As you near the main building you can turn off the walkway to the left and go the the front lobby entrance.
Or turn to the right to the side lobby entrance.
More Pics of the Route in Reverse
Getting back to the resort is simply reversing the path. Here I’d normally show the different views of the route in reverse, but as this is a temporary route, I’ll forego that. When the new (old) route opens I’ll update this post with full directions (both ways).
Over to you
Have you taken this walk? What are your thoughts?
Let us know in the comments section below!
See All My Posts About Walking at Disney World:- Walking at Walt Disney World Overview
- Walk Between Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
- Walk between Disney's Contemporary Resort / Bay Lake Tower and the Magic Kingdom
- Walk between Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa and the Magic Kingdom
- Walk Between Disney's Polynesian Village Resort and the Transportation and Ticket Center
- Walk Between Disney's Hollywood Studios and the EPCOT Resort Area
This MDT Post By: Steve Bell Steve is the the Military Disney Tips Founder. He a retired U.S. Military Member who's been touring the Disney Parks since 1971! Steve's mission is to help military families with their Disney vacations in every way. Check out Steve's Bio. Subscribe to Steve's email newsletter to get website updates and news by clicking this link. |
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