French Quarter Buses

[Diane D]

Can anyone who has stayed at the French Quarter recently tell me how the bus service was? Mainly, how often were buses shared with Riverside?

 

[geckodani]

I was there Dec 10 - 15, 2012 and Jan 24 - 29, 2013. I only shared 3 times; all in the middle of the day. In the morning or at the end of the night POFQ had its own.

 

[Diane D]

I was there Dec 10 - 15, 2012 and Jan 24 - 29, 2013. I only shared 3 times; all in the middle of the day. In the morning or at the end of the night POFQ had its own.

Thank you! Was this to/from all the parks and Downtown Disney?

 

[geraghty]

I was there Easter week last year. The buses only shared with Riverside when going to and from DTD. That was peak season so they probably had a few more buses running.

 

[Iamthequeen]

I was there September 2011, and we only went to Riverside once the entire week.

 

[Sue M]

Was there in January, rarely shared bus. Don't know about DTD, we use the boat, way more fun then a bus.

 

[geraghty]

Don't use the bus for DTD. It is terribly slow. Boat is a nice ride.

 

[Diane D]

Don't use the bus for DTD. It is terribly slow. Boat is a nice ride.

We are going in November. Will it be too cold taking the boat?

 

[Ninja Mom]

I was there at the end of February this year. Basically it's exactly what the above folks said. Disney is really making an effort to improve the bus service, especially first thing in the morning at the resorts. They have a dispatcher working the resort stop in the morning and this person will deploy extra buses as needed, on the spot! So if the thundering herd all of a sudden shows up for, let's say Epcot, the dispatcher will see that and radio for an additional bus from a holding area not too far from the resort.

We split a bus with POR only in the mid day with POFQ always being the first stop. Usually, if a bus back to the resorts from the parks is shared, POFQ is the first stop for drop off..... but once our driver had a big crowd from POR so he went there first and dropped the big load there, then he went to POFQ.

On occasion, especially later in the day we did take the POR bus loop before heading off to a park but it wasn't a huge time commitment, like when the bus would go from the Wilderness Lodge all the way over to Ft. Wilderness and then over to the parks.

All in all, I am seeing Disney get smarter when deploying the buses TO the parks.

The bus from ANY resort to Downtown Disney AND BACK is still the black hole of wasted bus time. One day when the weather was exceptionally windy they shut down the boats and we HAD to take the bus from POFQ to DTD (and back to the resort!). I couldn't help but think that if perhaps they had a Margarita machine in the back of the DTD bus if that wouldn't make the ride more bearable...

~NM

 

[OThopeful35]

I was there at the end of February this year. Basically it's exactly what the above folks said. Disney is really making an effort to improve the bus service, especially first thing in the morning at the resorts. They have a dispatcher working the resort stop in the morning and this person will deploy extra buses as needed, on the spot! So if the thundering herd all of a sudden shows up for, let's say Epcot, the dispatcher will see that and radio for an additional bus from a holding area not too far from the resort.

We split a bus with POR only in the mid day with POFQ always being the first stop. Usually, if a bus back to the resorts from the parks is shared, POFQ is the first stop for drop off..... but once our driver had a big crowd from POR so he went there first and dropped the big load there, then he went to POFQ.

On occasion, especially later in the day we did take the POR bus loop before heading off to a park but it wasn't a huge time commitment, like when the bus would go from the Wilderness Lodge all the way over to Ft. Wilderness and then over to the parks.

All in all, I am seeing Disney get smarter when deploying the buses TO the parks.

The bus from ANY resort to Downtown Disney AND BACK is still the black hole of wasted bus time. One day when the weather was exceptionally windy they shut down the boats and we HAD to take the bus from POFQ to DTD (and back to the resort!). I couldn't help but think that if perhaps they had a Margarita machine in the back of the DTD bus if that wouldn't make the ride more bearable...

~NM

 

[geraghty]

A margarita machine would go with the French Quarter theme.

 

[geraghty]

We are going in November. Will it be too cold taking the boat?

I don't think November would be very cold. Maybe a light jacket in the evening, or a loved one to squeeze up to. November Average high temperature: 78.5 Average low temperature: 57.5 Average precipitation: 2.30 Average humidity (1pm): 56 Record high (1980): 89 Record low (1981): 35

 

[Ninja Mom]

A margarita machine would go with the French Quarter theme.

Well, it is a Margarita "Limited time Magic" idea.... and yes the ride is that bad that a Margarita would work wonders, theme or no theme.

~NM

 

[mamamary]

We stayed last June and shared the bus with Riverside most times. Only took the boat to DTD.

 

[geckodani]

Thank you! Was this to/from all the parks and Downtown Disney?

We took the boat to DTD, and the bus back. Did not share the bus back, but it was quite late at night. Shared on the way to Epcot in the middle of the day, and on the way to MK and HS. All of the shared ones were in the middle of the day.

Just an FYI, there is no bus from the parks to DTD if you were planning on doing that. You have to catch a bus to one of the resorts and then go from there to DTD. We didn't realize this and spent a while wandering in circles.

 

[minnie mum]

A margarita machine would go with the French Quarter theme.

Nah- margarita's go with the theme at CSR. If you want a good POFQ themed drink, you'd want a Pat O'Brian's Hurricane machine!