Back from the World

[MikeJ]

We got back from our quickie/cheapie 5-day stay last night. I'll post a longer report later, but here were the highlights...

The Good

- Magical Express. We opted not to rent a car this trip, so relied on the bus to get everywhere. We arrived at MCO Sunday at 9:25am and were in our room at the BW by 10:40am. When we returned from Epcot at 3:00pm our bags were waiting. And other than one little NWA-related glitch with the airline check-in at the hotel yesterday, we had absolutely no problems with DME.

- Weather & Crowds. The weather was no worse than we can get in southern Ontario during a heat wave and although there were a couple of busy days, the crowds were quite manageable. Extensive use of Extra Magic Hours and Fastpasses meant we had very few long waits. We had one 40-minute wait at Buzz Lightyear (the sign said 20) but other than that our typical wait time was 20 minutes or less.

The Bad

- Oh Canada! Time for an update. Please.

The Ugly

- BW Bus Transportation. The bus service to the Epcot resorts, well, sucks. When you have one bus shared between 5 resorts going to DTD you're going to have all sorts of issues. We watched several times as guests at the Yacht and Beach Clubs were denied boarding because the bus was full by the time it got around to their resort. And that was after waiting close to 30 minutes for the bus.


Longer report to follow, including my review of the Disney Dining Plan...

- Mike

 

[mbb]

......The Ugly

- BW Bus Transportation. The bus service to the Epcot resorts, well, sucks. When you have one bus shared between 5 resorts going to DTD you're going to have all sorts of issues. We watched several times as guests at the Yacht and Beach Clubs were denied boarding because the bus was full by the time it got around to their resort. And that was after waiting close to 30 minutes for the bus.........

Disney, are you listening??


This has been an issue for what seems like forever, and it's too bad it's still not right, yet.

I guess I don't understand the correlation between "Deluxe WDW Resort" and "Poor Bus Scheduling".

We've seen CM's at the Resort Bus Stops in the mornings with their radios, and keeping track of everyone's wait times, and calling for more buses to MK/AK as need be...but in the afternoons, never.

Drives me nuts that we pay to stay that close, and end up with better transport time in our own vehicle...from a villa, offsite.

Anyway!
Rant over

So glad you had a good time - I'm curious to read about your experience with the DDP

 

[TimNDansMom]

Welcome back Mike!

Sounds like you had a great time and looking foward to the complete trip report!

 

[snickerboo]

Super Jealous! Glad you had fun.

 

[princess pooh]

Thanks for the mini-report . I'm using DME at the end of the month and I was a bit worried about our luggage.

It sucks to hear that the Epcot resorts are still having transportation issues (I'm splitting my stay between the BC and the dolphin). The last time I was at wdw the YC and BC got their own bus, and I was hoping it would be that way again.

 

[MikeJ]

Thanks for the mini-report . I'm using DME at the end of the month and I was a bit worried about our luggage.

It sucks to hear that the Epcot resorts are still having transportation issues (I'm splitting my stay between the BC and the dolphin). The last time I was at wdw the YC and BC got their own bus, and I was hoping it would be that way again.

YC & BC had their own bus from MK and I believe AK as well, but where we really saw problems was to and from DTD. The bus goes DTD, Swan, Dolphin, YC, BC, BW, and TL before heading back to DTD. If you're not heading to DTD I don't think you'll have many serious issues with the buses. But I really have to question the wisdom of sharing one bus between 5 resorts and 2 destinations. But hey, that's not my call....

- Mike