Blizzard Beach Buses

[RDP]

Just read this


"Disney are set to test a new bus route to Blizzard Beach and Disney's Animal Kingdom over the next few weeks. The idea behind the test is to try to provide a quicker route to Disney's Animal Kingdom, where the majority of guests on these shared route buses are heading.
Beginning each day at noon, guests boarding a bus to Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach will be dropped off at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Once at Animal Kingdom guests will need to change bus to get to Blizzard Beach.

To leave Blizzard Beach, guests will board a bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom, and from there transfer to a different bus to go to another park or resort..

The test is expected to begin on May 7 2013 and run through to the end of the month, but will not apply to guests at Disney's All Star Resorts or Disney's Coronado Springs Resort."

Not sure about this, will AKL be swamped by people leaving BB? What will it be like for resort guests?

 

[brockash]

Just read this


"Disney are set to test a new bus route to Blizzard Beach and Disney's Animal Kingdom over the next few weeks. The idea behind the test is to try to provide a quicker route to Disney's Animal Kingdom, where the majority of guests on these shared route buses are heading.
Beginning each day at noon, guests boarding a bus to Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach will be dropped off at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Once at Animal Kingdom guests will need to change bus to get to Blizzard Beach.

To leave Blizzard Beach, guests will board a bus to Disney's Animal Kingdom, and from there transfer to a different bus to go to another park or resort..

The test is expected to begin on May 7 2013 and run through to the end of the month, but will not apply to guests at Disney's All Star Resorts or Disney's Coronado Springs Resort."

Not sure about this, will AKL be swamped by people leaving BB? What will it be like for resort guests?

Not gonna lie, I'd be highly annoyed if I was someone who had to encounter this in the next month. I certainly hope it won't be going on during our trip in Sept.

 

[dansdad]

Not sure about this, will AKL be swamped by people leaving BB? What will it be like for resort guests?

I can't see how Animal Kingdom Lodge will be swamped by people. The proposed change will have people who are ultimately going to BB be dropped off at Animal Kingdom park to then catch another bus to BB.

 

[RDP]

I can't see how Animal Kingdom Lodge will be swamped by people. The proposed change will have people who are ultimately going to BB be dropped off at Animal Kingdom park to then catch another bus to BB.

Agree, AKL shouldn't be affected, but bus stops at AK may be busier for resort guest trying to get back to their hotels.

 

[dansdad]

Bus stops at AK may be busier for resort guest trying to get back to their hotels.

Yes they will.

 

[lomillerin]

I think it may be better. A few years ago we went to BB when we were staying at BWI. We were headed back to BWI around 4pm and we waited 55 minutes for a bus and then it was almost filled from AK people when it got there. There is no line up at BB and it was a mess. People were pushing and we didnt get on along with others. We were the second family to the waiting area. By the time a bus came the waiting area was packed.
This way all buses will be headed to AK and there we could get in an actual line. It was the craziest thing ever. We just got a taxi at that point.

 

[Sue M]

Getting to BB won't be a problem as we always get there for opening. But coming back to our resort, I'm not going to be happy having to take 2 busses, standing damp at AK waiting for a second bus.

I don't understand why they are doing this in warm months during peak water park use . I can sorta understand it in winter when water park attendance is low.

No, not happy

 

[dansdad]

Getting to BB won't be a problem as we always get there for opening. But coming back to our resort, I'm not going to be happy having to take 2 busses, standing damp at AK waiting for a second bus.

I don't understand why they are doing this in warm months during peak water park use . I can sorta understand it in winter when water park attendance is low.

No, not happy

I would not like that either. On our last trip, when leaving TL at the end of the day, we had to get off at DTD and then catch a bus back to CBR. And you know how awesome the DTD buses are.

However, I can't imagine they would be doing this during the busiest times of the day for people leaving BB to go back to their resort. And from what I have read, this is going to be tested first. I can only imagine what people's opinions would be if at BB closing time everyone had to stop at AK. Hopefully guests will give them their true feelings about the experience.

 

[Sandi]

It's a test to see how it works. I'm sure they'll make adjustments if it doesn't work well. Transportation logistics is an interesting and complicated field. I can't count the number of times we've gotten on a BB/AK bus at 2:00 with 40 people going to AK and 2 people going to BB. The bus still had to go do the drop off at BB first and then take the rest of the folks to AK. And, a lot of those people heading to AK were complaining about it. Disney transportation can't win. Here they are trying to address the issue and people complain about their anticipated problems before they've even given it a chance.

We're going in August and expect to go to the water parks often (gotta love the "waterparks and more" option). We typically go first thing in the morning and leave by 11:30 or noon, so it will work perfectly for us. Should we want to do a waterpark in the afternoon, we'll see how it works and offer feedback.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I sent a suggestion to guest relations after my trip last week that Blizzard Beach/Typhoon lagoon should be one bus and that Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney should be their own separate buses. It was frustrating to have to stop at a water park bus stop when no one was going there.

It's interesting that they are trying something.

I don't like the idea of having to transfer at AK for Blizzard Beach. I think people are going to be frustrated with that as much as they were having to stop at Blizzard Beach before going to AK.

I still think the water parks need to have their own combined bus. That way you won't have wet guests dealing with more than one bus ride.

 

[TDC Nala]

Best case scenario is to have separate buses for the water parks, which would mean they need one route for each water park because they're not exactly close to each other. But I guess they don't want to do that.

I see guests who were going to AK getting annoyed at having to stop at BB, but they apparently think it'll be better to annoy the guests going to BB by having them go out to Animal Kingdom and switch to another bus. I wonder why, because there will be fewer annoyed guests and they have to annoy somebody?

 

[RDP]

I sent a suggestion to guest relations after my trip last week that Blizzard Beach/Typhoon lagoon should be one bus and that Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney should be their own separate buses. It was frustrating to have to stop at a water park bus stop when no one was going there.

It's interesting that they are trying something.

I don't like the idea of having to transfer at AK for Blizzard Beach. I think people are going to be frustrated with that as much as they were having to stop at Blizzard Beach before going to AK.

I still think the water parks need to have their own combined bus. That way you won't have wet guests dealing with more than one bus ride.

Agree, can't see how this is helping BB guests or AK guests, wait and see I guess! I'm sure there is method in the madness !

 

[dansdad]

Agree, can't see how this is helping BB guests or AK guests, wait and see I guess! I'm sure there is method in the madness !

It won't help the BB guests at all. It will help the AK guests because they won't be stopping somewhere they aren't going.

 

[RDP]

It won't help the BB guests at all. It will help the AK guests because they won't be stopping somewhere they aren't going.

May not benefit the AK guests if the lines for the buses for the resorts are longer at AK. Hopefully they will put more buses on the AK run!

 

[honeymo78]

May not benefit the AK guests if the lines for the buses for the resorts are longer at AK. Hopefully they will put more buses on the AK run!

Honestly think that will be a wash. The line itself might be longer but the volume on the bus should be the same. If 10 people are returning from BB to POR they normally would have boarded at BB and stayed on when the bus gets to AK. Now those 10 people would load at the same time as the AK people. Or be offset one bus load but its not like this current route didn't have the extra BB people before.

 

[kaytieeldr]

It's on hold. See the similar thread on the Transportation Board.
But it was scheduled to be a 25 day test - not a changes in the warmer months. And it wouldn't have started until noon, when few if any guests are getting on/off buses at Blizzard Beach.