AKL Buses

[my3kids]

Do you prefer taking the bus or driving to various places within the world. We will have a rental car regardless, and know it would be easiest to drive to dinners in resorts. But, what about the parks, DTD? Is there an individual bus to each park, or one bus that makes the rounds? Do you find when parks close it is a long wait to get a bus back to AKL? Any info appreciated?

 

[VAgal76]

AKL has it's own buses and they do NOT share with any other resort. They have a dedicated bus line running for each park, but I believe they combine the waterparks/DTD to one bus. We didn't have to wait long for a bus. I'd say about 15 minutes or less. We would typically ride the bus to the parks, back mid-day then back out the park. Of course, all bus lines were pretty full at the closing. So many times we opted to pay for a cab instead of waiting at the end of the night. I don't think the wait was extremely long, but I don't like crowded buses for obvious reasons. You might want to opt driving in the evenings if you don't want to deal with the crowds/wait.

You mentioned transportation to PS's. It depends if you have a PS at a restaurant in the park or at a resort. Keep in mind, AKL bus do not run to different resorts. You'll have to take it to a park (I suggest MGM) and then catch the bus for that resort from there. It takes sometime so you might be better off driving your car to PSs if don't want to spend the time on the buses. We would opt for a cab to our PS if necessary, but I tried to coordinate my PS based on where I would be for that day to help the transportation out.

I had my first WDW experience last year and I'd go back just for not having to drive anywhere for a week! But that's just me. I hope I helped you out. Have a great time at AKL!

 

[F1Julie]

I prefer to take Disney transportation even when I have a car. Once I drive to Disney, I park my car til it's time to go home. I probably could save some time by driving (specifically to other resorts not so much parks) but I like the convenience of the bus. I drove to an off-site dinner and vowed never to do it again. I'll keep riding the Disney bus and stay on WDW property from now on. I don't like the hassle of figuring out directions to where I'm going. I stayed at AKL in August and only relied on the buses. They were great. There is a bus for each park or DTD. Sometimes the water parks will be with a park bus depending on the season. I never stayed at a park til closing, so I don't know how full the buses get then.

 

[my3kids]

So you just wait at AKL until a bus appears with the sign of the park you want to visit?

I think with dining at resort based restaurants, we'll definately take the car.

 

[vasoccermom]

Julie, you mentioned you drove off site to dinner once and would never do it again. Why is that?

Not to steal your thread but...
We're currently debating renting a car. We're staying on-site for the first time (AKL) but figured out the cost for transfers was equal to that for a rental car for the 5 days so we're trying to figure out the best bet.

Hey VAGal! Half my neighborhood has homes at Lake Louisa - I love it there!

Karen

 

[pumpkinboy]

I agree, for Park transport you really can't beat the AKL buses. I don't think we ever waited more than 10 minutes for a bus at AKL, a little longer at the parks, but not much. Plus we have the complication of a wheelchair to load and unload (DS is always first on, last off). IMO, AKL has some of the best transportation in WDW, mainly bcs it does not share the bus with any other resorts/ stops.

For dining at other resorts, you might be better off using your car. But then, we were at AKL for an entire week last October (and boy, do we miss it now), and were just fine with no car - the only thing problematic was getting to the grocery store, and for that I took a cab, and still total transport spending was less than half what a rental car would have been. VASoccerMom/ Karen, I would recommend not getting a car, unless the cost is the nearly same as the airport transfers.

 

[vasoccermom]

Hi Pumpkinboy and thanks for your reply. I'm so thrilled to hear good reports about the buses from AKL. In the past all I had heard was how remote this resort was...

I have found rental car rates comparable to what transfers would be (about $100 for 4 of us)...so unless you know of transfers that would be less than around $100, I'm thinking the convenience of the car might be worth it. Our daughter is diabetic and I'd like to hit the grocery store as well to stock up on stuff for her. I think even Tiffany towncar is about $95 and with tip that would put us over the $100 mark anyway...

Still mulling it over

Karen