5 resort bus?!

PLEASE DO NOT TURN MY THREAD INTO A BUS ARGUMENT!! I'll ask for it to be closed if it continues and that would suck because someone like me who didn't know about this issue will be missing out.

There is no need to yell. :confused3 I promise I won't change the subject! :flower3:

I have wanted to stay at BC but the bus service sharing with all 5 resorts (at times) to get to MK, AK and DTD has factored into my decision each year to stay somewhere else. I'm sure I could find workarounds, and we have just sprung for the occasional taxi direct when we did not want to leave early, but it does seem to be the big disadvantage to staying at those resorts.
 
A couple of things about this: First, POFQ doesn't always share a bus with POR. Actually for my last to stays at POFQ we had our own bus all of the time. Granted, those were busy times of year, but I just wanted to point that out.:)

Second, your info on the All Star Resorts is incorrect. I have stayed at the All Stars 4 times now, the last stay just this past December, and I can tell you without a doubt each resort has their own bus way more often than they share.

Also, while Pop may not share a bus, that resort is much larger than any individual All Star, meaning that you may end up waiting longer for a bus that has room on it than you would at an All Star Resort. Too me, that makes all of the Value resorts pretty darned equal as far as bus service goes. Having one stop doesn't mean a whole lot if it takes you multiple busses to get going anywhere.

I do agree the bus service at the Boardwalk area resorts needs to be improved.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be hostile. But I wanted to share my own bus experiences at the All Stars.
I don't think I said the POFQ buses always share with POR....I took that bus several times last summer....and every time I got on it, the bus then went to POR.
And when I was at Music, we routinely shared a bus with Sports...and sometimes, depending on time of day, with Movies. But Movies more often than not had it's own bus.
Pop may be large but it has more buses running than most of the resorts. I have never had a long wait for a bus to the parks. Now, a bus back to Pop at the end of the day??? Had some very long waits.
Bus service at BW is no better, no worse than most resorts.
These are just my various experiences.

You posted on how bad the bus was and then don't want anyone to say anything. Probably should have never put your fingers on the keyboards.

IMHO expecting to CONTROL the flow of messages on a board is impossible. And asking for it to be closed because "i don't the other post" They really do that? Amazing!
Ah, nope. Threads don't get automatically closed if the OP decides they don't like the turn it takes. I get to make that call!! Oh...the power!!:lmao:

I had the unfortunate experience of that bus last summer. But worse.....
While staying at the Beach Club, it was a nice relax/non park day for myself, and 2 sons. About 10:30 am, we decided to hop the bus (first and only time using the bus this trip), to downtown disney. We had an ADR for T-rex at 12:30. The bus finally showed up after about 1/2 hr. Nice and empty. Then the bus proceeded to stop at........

Starting from Beach Club.......
Yacht Club
Boardwalk
Dolphin
Swan
Caribbean Beach
Typhoon Lagoon
Then finally to Downtown Disney.

We barely made our reservation at T-rex by minutes.
It took SO long to get to DD, even though its pretty close. The bus was full by the time it got to Swan/Dolphin.

It was the worst bus trip we ever had at Disney. Seems like this particular bus route is known to be one of the longest with the most stops from what I have heard. To add insult to injury, we even had a car but decided not to use it because DD was so close to Beach Club. Didnt figure on a bus trip like that !!!!
Warning to other bus riders going on that trip !!!!

Syndrome
You had some very bad luck. There is no good way for a bus to go from BC to YC, and then to BW. Heading to the Dolphin after BW is nuts too....the Swan is in between them. CBR has never been on a run to DTD that I have ever had at the S/D/BW/YC/BC. Typhoon Lagoon? Yep, that's common.
So, hopefully you have the order of your stops wrong or you had a very confused driver!!
 
I think maybe she has the stops a bit confused; the normal order is Swan, Dolphin, YC, BC, and then to whatever park, though in this case another resort area. If they reversed the direction it should be BC, YC, Dolphin, Swan (because the buses can use that water bridge underpass that takes you under the intl. gateway, so they can go around the circle in either direction.) Zigzagging in a way that partially backtracks the ERA circle would be downright daft, no matter how slow things are.

FTR, having all of these resorts share is the normal bus pattern in this resort area except at the busiest times of year. Here's how to deal: if you are doing bus transit to the Epcot resort area and you are pressed for time (or just don't like spending a lot of time on buses), the thing to do is to just get off at the first stop and walk, or get on at the last of the five stops and skip the grand tour. Same thing is true if you're coming in on the boat from DHS and need to get to a restaurant at the YC/BC or the BW -- get off at S/D and walk it, it's much faster. Also, if you're ever told to transfer at DTD for any reason, call a cab or ask about a route that lets you walk part-way to get where you're going. (Like taking the bus to SSR is the most direct way to get from any theme park to DTD; just walk across their bridge when you get there.)

My peeve with the deluxe bus service (and yeah, I know, slightly OT ;)) was the former situation outside MK when you had to try to walk past the stops for the Values in order to get to them. At closing there were always so many guests waiting for Values buses that you literally could NOT get to them -- buses for the Deluxes would pull away half-empty because so few people managed to muscle their way past. They did rearrange the MK stops, however, so this particular problem is gone now. I sometimes think that in addition to the issue of there being other forms of WDW transit at most of the deluxes, it also seems that there is a perception that guests there either prefer to drive their own automobiles to most parks, or that they are more likely to spring for cabs -- either way, IME, deluxes do seem to feel that bus service is not as high a priority for their guests, except on the routes to the MK.

Oh, and last note: never take a bus to a water park. It's just not worth it. Either drive or take a cab.
 
When I stayed at BWV in October, the MK bus was Boardwalk, Swan, Dolphin. We didn't use the bus to AK or DTD, we drove. Boat to DHS, walk to Epcot.
 

AFAIK, DTD buses stop at all 5 resorts. AK & MK bus routes vary by the time of day. And coordinators have the power to modify routes to meet demand; for example, if a DTD bus fills up at the YC, the coordinator may tell the next bus to start at the BC and finish at the Dolphin, or to start at BW and run counter-clockwise.

So there's really no point in arguing about personal observations. Someone who always goes to parks for the rope drop and leaves mid-day will have a different experience than someone who regularly sleeps in and stays until closing, or someone who always buses to an early breakfast.

The normal routes are

  • S, D, YC, BC, BW; or
  • BW, S, D; or
  • YC, BC.
 
My yelling wasn't to anyone particular. It was from wanting this not to dissolve into an argument over if the deluxes/moderates/values have better bus service and the "well I paid this and I expect more buses" and all that jazz.

Like I said before, I was unaware of the bus doing the 5 resorts, and thought it was a one time fluke. I'd never seen it mentioned on the boards before and thought I would bring it up in hopes that I might avoid someone else the frustration I went through. I know the transportation is chance-y, but I've never had this problem before and thought it was a bit ridiculous, even with it being a slow time of year. I was stupid not to follow what was suggested to me on the "point a to b" thread, and was even more stupid for trying this same route again thinking it'd go different.
 
My yelling wasn't to anyone particular. It was from wanting this not to dissolve into an argument over if the deluxes/moderates/values have better bus service and the "well I paid this and I expect more buses" and all that jazz.

Like I said before, I was unaware of the bus doing the 5 resorts, and thought it was a one time fluke. I'd never seen it mentioned on the boards before and thought I would bring it up in hopes that I might avoid someone else the frustration I went through. I know the transportation is chance-y, but I've never had this problem before and thought it was a bit ridiculous, even with it being a slow time of year. I was stupid not to follow what was suggested to me on the "point a to b" thread, and was even more stupid for trying this same route again thinking it'd go different.

You must be new here. Mom won't let us go off on little tangents without smacking us down.;)

I do have to say that during my stay at the Beach Club I was shocked by how horrible the bus service was. I actually started to time out bus rides, they seemed so long. And they were! Over 40 minutes to get to both the AK and MK. And I have to think that was in part because of so many stops. It was actually so bad that my sister's kids commented that we didn't have to stay at the Beach Club again.

I do think Disney should do better by these resorts.
 
You must be new here. Mom won't let us go off on little tangents without smacking us down.;)

I do have to say that during my stay at the Beach Club I was shocked by how horrible the bus service was. I actually started to time out bus rides, they seemed so long. And they were! Over 40 minutes to get to both the AK and MK. And I have to think that was in part because of so many stops. It was actually so bad that my sister's kids commented that we didn't have to stay at the Beach Club again.

I do think Disney should do better by these resorts.
Oh, I've been known to go off on my own tangents...so I do try to be flexible here.

Really everyone...we all realize that the bus system isn't perfect. But we do need to realize that for what it does, it is very good!! It is basically mass transit...pure and simple. It was not designed to move people from each resort in the quickest, most direct way. It was designed to move as many people from point A to point B the most efficiently. If that means that sometimes there is going to be a wait, or that sometimes it's going to take longer than 15 mins to get to your destination, then so be it.
For those that can not accept the bus system for what it is, a rental car is probably a better idea.

If Disney were to try to 'improve' the system, it would mean more buses on the road as well as more drivers to drive them. And that would have to be paid for somehow. And that would mean higher room rates, or park passes. As I said earlier, this is one reason there is a catagory for 'deluxe' resorts...they have other means of transportation to parks...foot, boat or monorail. They don't have to use buses to every destination.

The best we can do is to be sure we are well informed before we travel to WDW. Basically, methods of travel between parks is pretty well laid out in WDW. There is signage that lets you know how to do what you want to do, using Disney transportation. It's when you start running between resorts that you run into issues. And this board is terrific for giving out the info that is needed. This is why we put that 'sticky' there....getting from point A to point B...so that everyone can ask their questions and get the best info.
 
Doesn't Deluxe refer only to the amenities inside the resort?

The acid test for how good the service is when sharing buses with 5 resorts is, do extra buses come more quickly when you are at the last resort in line and a bus is full before getting there.

Caribbean Beach has 8 bus stops within. Would you call their buses 8-resort buses?
 
When I first started staying at the Dolphin in 2000, the buses to the MK and AK stopped at all 5 Epcot resorts. When BCV opened, they split into BW/S/D and YC/BC routes. However, the buses almost always go from Downtown Disney to all 5 Epcot resorts (and sometimes Blizzard Beach - depending on time of day), and now you know this.

I end most park days at Epcot, and I LOVE being able to walk back to the Swan. I did a split stay between AKL and WL in Dec 2009 to try something new. While the resorts were lovely, I hated going back to the resort by bus rather than walking from the International Gateway.
 
At park opening and closing, the buses have two distinct routes....BW/S/D and YC/BC.
This past December during the afternoon when I was going from the Magic Kingdom to the Boardwalk, at that time it was also just sharing with the Swan & Dolphin. So it wasn't just during the opening and closing when they share bus service.
 
The Disney deluxe hotels aren't really deluxe, by industry standards however your point isn't valid. Value hotels generally give you a lot. Deluxe hotels generally offer (for a price) more. Hotels like courtyard by marriott give you a free breakfast and free internet. Real deluxe hotels offer room service, charge for the internet and might not even have a value restaurant.
Actually Courtyard By Marriott's charge $12.95 for their hot buffet breakfast and $9.95 for their cold buffet breakfast. Last year I did my Internship working at a Courtyard By Marriott so I know what I am talking about. Although the Courtyard By Marriott in Lexington, Kentucky off Interstate 75 was testing out making their breakfast complimentary until the end of 2010. We then asked if any other of their locations were doing that and was told they were the only one. However I do know that all Hampton Inn locations offer a complimentary breakfast buffet.
 
I had similar experience when doing a split stay last trip and was trying to get to my second hotel to check in. The plan was to take bus from CSR to DTD then switch to another bus for ASMo. Sounded simple enough, but wasn't the case. We ended up all over the place and I thought I was gonna lose my mind. I think it took us close to 2 hours to complete the transfer. We had our 5yr and 11mth old with us which just added to the drama. By the time I made it to the check in desk, I was a haggard mess. Lesson learned.
 
When I first started staying at the Dolphin in 2000, the buses to the MK and AK stopped at all 5 Epcot resorts. When BCV opened, they split into BW/S/D and YC/BC routes. However, the buses almost always go from Downtown Disney to all 5 Epcot resorts (and sometimes Blizzard Beach - depending on time of day), and now you know this.
Actually all buses to Blizzard Beach also stop at the Animal Kingdom and that's for every WDW Resort. You must be thinking of Typhoon Lagoon because they also share with the buses that go to Downtown Disney.
 
This past December during the afternoon when I was going from the Magic Kingdom to the Boardwalk, at that time it was also just sharing with the Swan & Dolphin. So it wasn't just during the opening and closing when they share bus service.
I guess my point was that at park opening and closing, you aren't likely to get a bus servicing all 5 resorts. There are plenty of buses during the day that serve just YC/BC or BW/S/D. My point was that during the day and the less busy park times, you are more likely to find buses that combine all 5 resorts. I also had bus service that didn't stop at YC/BC during the day...but that doesn't mean that it never happens. It's something that can, and does, happen. And if someone needs to know how long it's going to take them to get from point A to point B, then they need to know it may take longer since some buses may make all 5 stops. Better to be safe than sorry.
 
Actually all buses to Blizzard Beach also stop at the Animal Kingdom and that's for every WDW Resort. You must be thinking of Typhoon Lagoon because they also share with the buses that go to Downtown Disney.

You're right - Typhoon Lagoon. I knew it was one of those water parks I never go to!
 
Actually all buses to Blizzard Beach also stop at the Animal Kingdom and that's for every WDW Resort. You must be thinking of Typhoon Lagoon because they also share with the buses that go to Downtown Disney.

I agree with your explanation that it must be Typhoon Lagoon what the PP meant, but just wanted to clarify this:

For AKL it isn't the AK bus which stops at Blizzard Beach, but the DHS bus (makes sense considering that going AKL-BB-AK would be quite a detour!). :goodvibes
 
The acid test for how good the service is when sharing buses with 5 resorts is, do extra buses come more quickly when you are at the last resort in line and a bus is full before getting there.
Disney has made changes to try to improve that. Especially during the morning, extra buses are parked at strategic locations just for that purpose. But the system requires a lot of human communication, and sometimes everyone is not on the same page.
Caribbean Beach has 8 bus stops within. Would you call their buses 8-resort buses?
CBR has 7 stops for park buses. Only the internal shuttle and EWWS buses stop at Custom House.

But it is analogous to the ECR situation. All of the multi-stop resorts and multi-resort routes take 10-15 minutes from the first to the last resort stop under optimal conditions. Throw in a few ECV's, or guests with fully loaded strollers holding up the boarding line, or a bunch of buses arriving at a stop at the same time, and conditions become less than optimal.
 
I agree with your explanation that it must be Typhoon Lagoon what the PP meant, but just wanted to clarify this:

For AKL it isn't the AK bus which stops at Blizzard Beach, but the DHS bus (makes sense considering that going AKL-BB-AK would be quite a detour!). :goodvibes
In my experience when taking a bus from the Contemporary to the Animal Kingdom the bus always stopped at Blizzard Beach before we would get back to the Contemporary. So for us it was CR-AK-BB and I assumed it was the same route for all the other resorts that went there.
 
You're correct, Courtyard no longer offers complimentary breakfast. However Marriott's' lower priced properties Fairfield and Springhill Suites still offer complimentary breakfast.

That supports my point that lower priced hotels generally offer more amenities for free then higher priced hotels.




Actually Courtyard By Marriott's charge $12.95 for their hot buffet breakfast and $9.95 for their cold buffet breakfast. Last year I did my Internship working at a Courtyard By Marriott so I know what I am talking about. Although the Courtyard By Marriott in Lexington, Kentucky off Interstate 75 was testing out making their breakfast complimentary until the end of 2010. We then asked if any other of their locations were doing that and was told they were the only one. However I do know that all Hampton Inn locations offer a complimentary breakfast buffet.
 



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