AKL buses, how bad are they?

[rcraw45425]

Downgraded from the Polynesian to a Royal Room at POR for Spring Break and added an additional day to the reservation. Still saving $1K off the cost of the Poly. Now I'm seeing that I could get a standard room at AKL for the 4 nights for a total of $420 more than what I owe at POR. $866.26 vs $445.40 due at check in. So now I'm wondering again if I should save the money or move if the buses are better. I know that POR has multiple bus stops. We have stayed at AKL before and weren't blown away by their buses, this was in January of '13 and there may have been changed though. It's just myself and my college age daughter so no strollers or such to bother with. Trip is early March with F&G having started already

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The buses are not at all bad. They do two stops, and people also use them to transfer Kidani to Jambo. They're consistent. The longest trip is that to MK, but it truly isn't the horror people make it out to be, and you never get stuck on them like you do a broken monorail.

 

[kiford]

We haven't stayed at AKL for several years but we were just at WDW in December and went to AKL several times. We never waited more than 5-10 minutes for a bus to where we wanted to go and several other buses came during the time we waited. We had originally thought about staying at AKL this last trip but got a good deal on GF which is DH's favourite resort and it was his turn to pick. It is a little out of the way but I think that the buses are not bad. I think that they might be a bit more frequent than at GF because GF has more options.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

The busses aren't nearly as bad as people say they are. we definitely had better bus service at AKL than AOA for instance. It was about the same as POFQ.

 

[prgal0715]

I've stayed at both POR and AKL and while AKL is a bit further out than other resorts, I actually like the buses better. At POR, you're making multiple stops and could easily be faced with a long wait/full bus depending on which depot you're closest to. AKL has one bus stop which is super convenient.

That said, if you're looking to save $$$ and are concerned about transportation, have you thought about POFQ? Only one bus stop and you don't share with POR most of the time.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I didn't think buses were that bad at AKL when we were there in Feb 2015.

 

[OKW Lover]

The AKL busses are as bad as every other WDW resort. Or, they are just as good. Its really all in the luck of timing.

We have stayed at every WDW resort except for the values and the bus service is the exact same. Some days the bus comes as soon as you get to the stop. Some days every other bus but the one you are waiting for comes. Some days the bus is SRO. Some days the bus is nearly empty. You really can't predict it.

 

[DizDaD7]

You'll be fine.. This question came up a few days ago....To be honest...I think I've had the 2nd best bus service of any of my resort stays here. W/ the best being CSR.... Just some food for thought...WHile we loved our POR stay, we didn't really have great success on that trip...Slow moving constantly filled. etc. etc..Especially horrible coming back from HS, after F!.. Even the values were a lot better coming back from there.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The buses aren't bad at AKL with the 2 stops but I prefer POR unless I can stay Savannah view at AKL.

So I would stay with POR and save the money to do something fun instead.

 

[GrumpyBelle]

I don't find the buses to be that bad. They don't share with other resorts. I will say, we are not rope drop people so we always had a seat.

 

[aaarcher86]

Our first (and last) bus only trip was AKL. We hated it. I don't have anything to compare it to, so I have no idea if these were just anomalies, but we had a few bad experiences. Granted, we just genuinely aren't made for the busses. Once we were actually on the bus, it was exactly what you'd expect. We had two big issues.

First - the early morning busses always running behind. I don't know why, but it seemed like every bus we were waiting for just constantly kept adding time onto it's arrival. Eventually, it'd be 20 minutes or so from the original time it was supposed to arrive.

Second - on a MNSSHP night it rained so there was a huge rush of people leaving. Granted, lines were long. We figured we'd wait awhile. I have no idea what happened with the busses but AKL just didn't have any busses coming at all. Our bus line extended back past the next bus waiting area because of the back up. We kept watching other resort busses come and go multiple times. They ended up sending multiple busses to pick AKL guests up at the same time. Obviously, not something I think is normal, but still aggravating.

The two stops wasn't bothersome at all. But again, we just really didn't enjoy the busses even when everything went smoothly. I'd rather drive myself and have control/guaranteed seating.

 

[raddisneyfan]

I was just at AKL the 3rd week of December. I didn't have a problem with the buses whatsoever. I stayed at Jambo House in a villa. When going to a park, I don't remember ever going to Kidani to pick people up. The buses always seemed to go directly from Jambo to the park. On the return, I do remember that the buses always stop at Kidani first, then Jambo. I usually got off at Kidani and walked the 10 minutes or so back to Jambo rather than stay on the bus. It was my last minute burst of energy before bed. My next trip as it happens, is currently scheduled to be POR. I was going to rent a car for that trip due to the buses, but I'm still up in the air. I just love Magical Express so much, that I don't want to give that up for the car. Of course, I could still use DME and rent a car on site--we'll see. I don't ever have small kids in tow, so usually don't mind the wait for buses anyway.

 

[Minnesota!]

We have never had issues...when we stayed there nor when we were visiting for food, etc. We are staying there again in June

 

[CynBeth]

We just stayed there as the second resort of a split stay during Thanksgiving Week and the buses were great!

 

[AJA]

We have stayed at both and I would not change my reservation if I were you. I don't remember the buses being bad at AKL but it is pretty far out. The buses at POR aren't horrible either. For a trip when the parks are crowded I prefer POR and being closer to DTD. Especially with a college age child. I think the boat to DTD would be more entertaining than AKL.

 

[melchar]

We stayed at AKL in Sept 2015 and hd no issues with the buses. The only issue we did have was when we went to POR one day and waited one hour and 20mins for a bus to Downtown :-(

 

[loves to dive]

I've stayed at both and frankly had no problems at either resort. Were there waits leaving the parks? Sometimes, it's all a timing issue, if you just missed the bus you are going to have to wait until the next one. At POR I was in the Magnolia Mansion and just walked over to the main stop when going to the parks and got off at the stop right behind Magnolia Mansion coming back.

 

[rcraw45425]

I'm thinking that I'll probably stay with POR. The difference in the room cost will probably pay for all of our meals for the trip. (with money to spare).

 

[oceanmarina]

We stayed there four years ago and the buses were great, never waiting more than 15 minutes (and that was one of our longer waits). They stop at Jambo house which is a 2 minute ride away (if that). We felt the bus service was consistently great throughout our stay, the bus ride to MK is fine, 15 minutes and it goes by quick.

The only bad bus experience was coming home from Downtown Disney, with the multiple stops and having a few scooter passenger stops it took an hour + to get back to Kidani. However its always a nightmare, L-O-O-O-N-G bus ride back from Downtown Disney no matter where we stay, in our experience.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The Disney Springs bussing is dire. That's the thing the Sassagoula resorts have on everyone: the boat.