How is th All Star Resorts busing?

[JGNAstrauss]

We have heard many different stories about the busing there. What is the order and is it hard to get on the bus if you are the last stop? Do they have their own buses at times? We are going the first week of November.

 

[Dsnyfireman]

We were there last week of feb. at all star sports, it is the first stop on the line. Most times we never stopped at the other resorts and when we did it was short and didn't add much time. Buses were on time and ran steady, but it is about the farthest resort away from MK and epcot / HS and DTD. So it does take about 1/2 hour or better sometimes to get to the parks and DTD . AK is close though!

 

[bookgirl]

It was fine both of my stays at ASMu (with the exception of DTD, which is just a train wreck from all the bus serviced resorts).

AoA was still pretty new when I stayed there and it was really long waits just because of sheer number of people waiting.

That is the benefit to the All-stars. Though they sometimes share, mostly they do individual buses and the numbers are smaller so less volume of people waiting.

 

[GetGlowing]

I just returned from a 4-nt stay at All-Star Sports. Any time we left the resort for a theme park regardless of the time of day, we had a bus that took us directly to the park. I don't recall ever waiting more than 5 minutes for a bus to arrive if it wasn't already loading when we got to the curb. Maybe that was just very good timing on our part.

One day we returned to the resort from Magic Kingdom mid-day. We had a direct bus to Sports that did not share with any of the other resorts. It was a VERY busy day at MK. The next day, we did Epcot. At park closing again there were dedicated buses for each resort. The next day, I left Epcot mid-day, but the bus from there went to all three All-Star resorts stopping at Sports > Music > Movies, and we did sit at the depot for a while even though it seemed like our bus was full.

Leaving MK after 1am one night, the drive back to Sports took 12 minutes once we got rolling.

Keep in mind last week was a very busy week. The first week of November isn't likely to be busy, so returning from the parks your bus may visit all three All-Star resorts.

We were pleased with the transportation at Sports.

As a by-the-way, I'll echo what bookgirl said about both AoA and DTD. Bad bad bus service in my experience. Long waits. In Dec at AoA we were heading for Epcot about 11:30am and there were about 3 buses worth of people stacked in the queue with nothing on the horizon. There were two CMs standing around with iPads doing .... what exactly I have no clue, but they weren't being helpful. Thankfully we had our car and all loaded up for the quick trip over, but it wasn't very convenient because we had two power scooters that we had to load up, AND our vehicle was parked in Egypt, I mean Little Mermaid, and we were trying to make an ADR.

 

[JGNAstrauss]

Thank you getglowing. We have stayed at aoa in December also in the little mermaid and the walk was awful.

 

[BebopBaloo]

Chiming in to say that we've never had bad bus service at an All Star. We've stayed at all 3 and have never had a serious problem. A couple of times we had to wait about 20minutes for a bus because of a backup that was not due to anything at the resort.

The worst bus experience we've had (by far) was getting a bus from the Polynesian to Animal Kingdom. We had breakfast at Ohana and then went out to catch the bus. We were the first ones at the stop. We waited about 10-15 minutes (no problem w/ that) and more people began to show up the longer we waited. We were still not far from the bus door when the bus pulled up. However, we didn't make it on the bus. It was a full out free for all of shoving and running onto the bus. Having a small child, I was was just trying to keep her from getting trampled as we made our way to the door. The doors closed before we got on and we waited another little bit for a second bus. It was crazy. I think the Polynesian is a lovely resort, but I can't imagine paying top dollar to be trampled every time I wanted to get on a bus.

Values may not be the cup of tea for some..but at least there is a line for the bus and if you show up last..you get on last..not first.

 

[TDC Nala]

Here's what they were doing at All Star Music this past weekend.

Went to Epcot, MK and DHS. DHS bus was just Music. It didn't go to Movies to pick up. Most buses I took to Epcot from Music went straight there. We let one bus go because it was too full, and an empty bus showed up within a few minutes. This bus did not go to Movies but straight to Epcot. I think I was on one bus that went to Movies after stopping at Music. That was a bus we took to Animal Kingdom to change to the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus.

Returning from Epcot, all the Allstars shared buses except for closing time on Sunday when they each had their own bus. However, about a half hour after Illuminations ended on Monday, they shared a bus.

All in all there were no serious bus issues on this trip. There was a bit of a wait for an Epcot bus Monday evening, nothing major.

 

[maxiesmom]

Values may not be the cup of tea for some..but at least there is a line for the bus and if you show up last..you get on last..not first.

I know this is a bit off topic, but as you mentioned it . I've stayed at moderate and deluxe resorts more often than the values. But I know I don't pay much attention to who is sitting on the benches, or standing around the bus area when I walk up. I'm too engaged with my own family to take much notice. And if it is busy it is almost impossible to keep track of who got there when.

I wouldn't shove anyone over, or push someone to get on the bus, but I also don't know that if the Jones family over there is waiting for a bus to Epcot while I'm waiting for the one to MK. Or if they are waiting for another family member to arrive at the bus stop, or what. First up by the section where the bus stops is first on. It is kind of a free for all, but I have never seen it be a bad free for all with pushing and shoving and all sorts of craziness.

Back on topic, I think the All Stars have very good bus service. Each All Star usually has it's own bus. And when they do share it doesn't add much time to the trip. The resorts are connected by their parking lots, so how much time could it take?

 

[G719]

Usually at park closing each all star has its own bus. If the line for your resort is long and your neighbor resort's line is short, ride their bus and walk through the parking lots to get back. We stayed at music and the line one night was insane from magic kingdom. The sports line was so short so we rode their bus and cut across the parking lot to get home. It saved us from waiting in line with the cranky crowd trying to leave MK.