AK Kidani Buses

[delaneyc52]

I'm not a fan of Disney Buses (no offense just my quirk ) but our upcoming stay at AK Kidani dictates that I either rent a car or just get over myself and go with the buses. As I recall, years ago when we stayed two days at AK Villas (Jambo), the wait for buses was routinely horrid. Anyone know if that's improved in recent years? ... or should I just bit the bullet and rent a car?

 

[tjkraz]

We stayed at Kidani last week and I was a bit frustrated with the buses. Waits were never more than 20 minutes at the most--it's not like we were left standing for 45 minutes or anything. And there were a couple of occasions where we only waited a minute or two.

More often that not we seemed to be on the losing end of the bus waits but we had some friends at Kidani the same time who said they got lucky (short waits) more often than not. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Personally I just find the bus system to be a source of frustration. It can be very demoralizing to see multiple buses arrive for the same destinations while you're still waiting. One time we were waiting for a bus to the MK and had two Epcot buses come literally one after the other. Other times waiting at the parks we would see different resorts get 2 buses while we were still waiting.

It's not that the bus service is horrible...it's just a bit of aggravation that I don't want while on vacation. Our stay at Kidani was unexpected. If I had known about it in advance I would have spent the extra money on a rental car.

 

[movie77]

I don't know why they don't use GPS and an electronic board to say when the next bus is arriving. Seems like it would be easy to do.

 

[delaneyc52]

It's not that the bus service is horrible...it's just a bit of aggravation that I don't want while on vacation. Our stay at Kidani was unexpected. If I had known about it in advance I would have spent the extra money on a rental car.

You stated it well! I think I'll just go for the rental car...thanks!

 

[bama106]

We hardly ever have bad luck with buses at WDW nor did we have any long waits on our last trip to Kidani this past October. I think the longest we waited for a bus was maybe 15 minutes. We never ever drive unless we are going to another resort to eat or whatever, then we usually drive our car as it is easier to get to/from.

 

[drusba]

The issue is what is good? As noted the bus system can cause some frustrations even when it is considered running well. If it is simply comparison we have found the AKL busses beat the snot out of bus systems at other resorts where you have too many stops or sharing with other resorts. In comparison to BWV's abysmal bus system you will think that you have died and gone to heaven.

 

[delaneyc52]

The issue is what is good? As noted the bus system can cause some frustrations even when it is considered running well. If it is simply comparison we have found the AKL busses beat the snot out of bus systems at other resorts where you have too many stops or sharing with other resorts. In comparison to BWV's abysmal bus system you will think that you have died and gone to heaven.

Agreed! BWV is our usual resort. As I said earlier, I normally avoid the buses, and at BWV at least I can walk to Epcot & friendship boat to HS...take the monorail (via Epcot) to MK and the only bus trip (GAK!) would be DTD and AK. hmmm I wonder if there is such a thing as bus phobia?

 

[hakepb]

I don't know why they don't use GPS and an electronic board to say when the next bus is arriving. Seems like it would be easy to do.

They use GPS, they know transportation times, they know crowd levels, they know park closing times, they know resort occupancy, they should know each driver's transportation times they know averrage loading times.. If they connected the dots, they'd be 95% accuate in predicting your curent and every bus subsequent arriaval for the next 3 hours.

But Dopey bought a failed system that either cannot connect the dots, or it was only optimized for fuel/bus savings at he expense of providing a marginally acceptable wait for customers..

 

[CruznLexi]

We were at KV last month and we rarley waited more than 10 minutes. We had a car but I would never drive to the park. coming back from the park we never waited more than 5 minutes. There were maybe 15 KV people and the rest were AKL.
Lexi

 

[Simba's Mom]

You stated it well! I think I'll just go for the rental car...thanks!

Good choice! I recently stayed at Jambo house. It's really the luck of the draw. One morning, I waited well over 30 minutes for a bus to MK. Meanwhile, at least two buses came to every other theme park, and three to DHS. Then, when a bus finally arrived to the MK, there was such a large group of us that not everyone could fit on the bus, and some people had to keep waiting. I wish there'd been a CM there to monitor things-I seem to remember that for a while, there was a CM with a clip board and walkie-talkie at the bus stops. But sadly, not this trip.

 

[dwelty]

We stayed at Kidani last week and I was a bit frustrated with the buses. Waits were never more than 20 minutes at the most--it's not like we were left standing for 45 minutes or anything. And there were a couple of occasions where we only waited a minute or two.

More often that not we seemed to be on the losing end of the bus waits but we had some friends at Kidani the same time who said they got lucky (short waits) more often than not. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

.

We were those friends. We seemed to walk up just as the bus arrived, both at Kidani and the parks. I agree with Tim, it is just the luck of the draw. I think your question might be "Is Kidani worse than any other DVC resort" and I would definately say NO.

 

[billsfan]

Good choice! I recently stayed at Jambo house. It's really the luck of the draw. One morning, I waited well over 30 minutes for a bus to MK. Meanwhile, at least two buses came to every other theme park, and three to DHS. Then, when a bus finally arrived to the MK, there was such a large group of us that not everyone could fit on the bus, and some people had to keep waiting. I wish there'd been a CM there to monitor things-I seem to remember that for a while, there was a CM with a clip board and walkie-talkie at the bus stops. But sadly, not this trip.

Was this Sunday morning 10/18/09 around 8:30 am? We were at Kidani waiting for a bus forever. We were able to get on this bus and make it to the Magic Kingdom by 9:05 am. We just missed rope drop. We had been standing at the Kidani bus stop since 8:02 and saw all the busses also. The CM with the clip board was at Kidani. After about 20 minutes he went to hide because of all the gripe he was getting.

But on the positive side this is the only bus we ever waited over 15 minutes for. Even at park closings.

 

[fishermouse]

We stayed at Kidani last week and I was a bit frustrated with the buses. Waits were never more than 20 minutes at the most--it's not like we were left standing for 45 minutes or anything. And there were a couple of occasions where we only waited a minute or two.

More often that not we seemed to be on the losing end of the bus waits but we had some friends at Kidani the same time who said they got lucky (short waits) more often than not. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Personally I just find the bus system to be a source of frustration. It can be very demoralizing to see multiple buses arrive for the same destinations while you're still waiting. One time we were waiting for a bus to the MK and had two Epcot buses come literally one after the other. Other times waiting at the parks we would see different resorts get 2 buses while we were still waiting.

It's not that the bus service is horrible...it's just a bit of aggravation that I don't want while on vacation. Our stay at Kidani was unexpected. If I had known about it in advance I would have spent the extra money on a rental car.

You started by saying wait was never more than 20 minutes, I don't get why that would be frustrating, We also were at AKV two weeks ago and bus service was fine. I always seem to walk up in time to see the bus I want pulling away but thats as you said luck of the draw.

 

[tjkraz]

You started by saying wait was never more than 20 minutes, I don't get why that would be frustrating,

I just find the entire bus system to be a source of frustration which I don't need while on vacation. The uncertainty of standing at the stop, not knowing when the next bus would arrive, and occasionally seeing multiple buses come-and-go for other destinations, is not an enjoyable experience.

I'm not saying that the service is poor, just that I prefer to have a car and handle the transportation myself. There have been multiple occasions in the past when my wife would take the kids on the bus (simply because they wanted to ride the bus) while I drove the car back to our resort. Using the car I have always beaten them back to the resort--sometimes by 2 minutes, other times by 10 minutes. So in my mind, having a car will always save time. The only unknown is exactly how much time is saved.

Having a car also makes it much easier to visit other resorts or to make point-to-point trips which the Disney bus service does not accommodate. Last week we had ADRs at the Grand Floridian. Only practical way to get there is bus from Kidani to MK and monorail to the GF. Given the bus uncertainties and the fact that we had to take the entire resort monorail loop, we left Kidani 80 minutes ahead of time. Ended up being about 20 minutes early so it was really a 60 minute journey.

By car I could have driven Kidani-to-GF in 15 minutes tops.

Want to go from the Magic Kingdom to Downtown Disney? Can't do it on Disney buses. At least not directly.

Again, it's not that the Kidani bus service was poor. Just that driving (IMO) is more efficient and MUCH less stressful.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Was this Sunday morning 10/18/09 around 8:30 am? We were at Kidani waiting for a bus forever. We were able to get on this bus and make it to the Magic Kingdom by 9:05 am. We just missed rope drop. We had been standing at the Kidani bus stop since 8:02 and saw all the busses also. The CM with the clip board was at Kidani. After about 20 minutes he went to hide because of all the gripe he was getting.

But on the positive side this is the only bus we ever waited over 15 minutes for. Even at park closings.

Just a few days off! This was 10/14. Maybe it was because it was a Wednesday, the day before morning EMH, so they figured no one wanted to go to the MK that day. But lots of us did.

 

[mgroshans]

We were there last week and had no problems with the buses Lucky maybe