All Star vs Pop during Peak Season -- something to consider

[scejas]

Hey everyone,

Just got back from a 4 day getaway to Disney World -- and want to post some observations ... I pretty much go up to Disney about every month or so for the last 18 months.

Well I have noticed that during peak times there are some busing issues with All-Star resorts.

For example I booked Pop Century because I knew they did not share buses like All Start sports, music and movie do.

Monday Animal Kingdom had extended hours -- and at 11pm when the park closed the line stretched from the bus stop all around the circle to where the trams are. I am not kidding... so either plan accordingly or try to reserve at Pop!

 

[Ex Cast Member]

This is great advice. We always pick POP for the same reason!!!

 

[The Sweetness]

How many rooms does POP have, and how many at the 3 A/S resorts?

NM~ found it in the UG

A/S have 5664
Pop has 2880

 

[minnie61650]

I would not worry about the lines at park closing time since the All Star buses double up and the lines dwindle down very fast.

Also the buses and wait times will be changing with the new GPS dynamic bus routing.

From this thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1429832

....
Regardless.. this will all be changing with the new GPS dynamic bus routing. No bus will be 'dedicated' to anything. They'll all be routed and scheduled dynamically based on need at that exact point in time.

That new bus routing system is due to be implemented in phases this year. Most of it should be in place by the fall.

Knox

Yes:

Check here
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18277681&postcount=8

And here..
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18279335&postcount=12


Basically it's a GPS system that will track all buses (and number of guests aboard) at all times.. in coordination with a computerized routing and scheduling system that works 'on the fly'.

Knox

 

[marivaid]

I booked Pop Century because I knew they did not share buses like All Start sports, music and movie do.

All Stars don't always share buses. We were at ASMO in December and the buses were not shared on the way to the parks. We shared with ASMU once on the way back from MGM, the rest of the time each All Stars resort had its own bus.

 

[minnie61650]

All Stars don't always share buses. We were at ASMO in December and the buses were not shared on the way to the parks. We shared with ASMU once on the way back from MGM, the rest of the time each All Stars resort had its own bus.

I agree.

Bus rides are quite short from the ALL Stars according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses-CBR buses---POPbuses--PO buses--- Contemporary
MK 20 min---- 20 min-----25 min------10 min---20 min(mono)
Epcot 10 min-- 15 min-----20 min------10 min---15 min
MGM 10 min----12 min-----15 min------15 min---20min
AK 10 min------20min-------15 min----15 min---20 min
DTD 15 min----20 min------20 min-----15 min---35 min

It only takes 10 minutes to get to Epcot, MGM and AK from All Stars.
MK is 20 min away. That's the same amount of time it takes on the monorail from the Contemporary.

A WORD ABOUT BUS SHARING

To me Bus Sharing at the All Stars is really a non issue.

In the mornings during Park opening hours each All Star usually has a dedicated bus.
During mid day it is usually just our stop and maybe one more on the way to the parks. On the way back sometimes it is all 3 but often Sports and Music share and Movies has it's own bus back. Each of the All Stars usually has it's own dedicated bus back from the MK.
That is a big plus. It seems like the Music bus stop usually has the shortest of the three All Star bus lines.

I guess some people who stay at POP see all 3 All Star names on the return sign of our bus stop when they head to the POP bus stop and think All Stars also has 3 stops on the way to the park.
(Even when we stop at another AS resort to load up it has not taken more than 5 minutes and we are on our way!)

 

[scejas]

Then I must assume there was some major breakdown in communications on Monday ...

 

[minnie61650]

Then I must assume there was some major breakdown in communications on Monday ...

The full GPS tracking system will be working later this year.

From the link posted in my above post:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18277681&postcount=8

And yes... Disney is implementing a very fancy new GPS tracking system for all buses. This combined with real-time monitoring of bus stops via cameras.. will identify the hot spots that need buses and then in the next step as part of this phased program, buses will (eventually) be automatically routed with computerized messages to the drivers. So a bus that JUST left Pop and dropped off at Blizzard Beach might then proceed to All Star Sports and take guests to Epcot and then take departing Epcot guests to the Magic Kingdom. (for example)

This would obviously maximize the efficiency of the buses on the road at any given point in time; and in theory should shorten wait times and make the service much better in the long run.

What I think is even more interesting about the new system is that it will include Disney themed music AND 'audio spiels' (similar to the monorail spiel) for you to listen to which will be triggerred by the GPS location of the bus. So as you drive by Blizzard Beach, it might say "To our left of forward motion is Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park featuring ...."

The audio programs will be slowly phased in over the next 12-18 weeks from now thru the end of June/July (pending any problems or bugs that might pop up). The full on GPS bus scheduling will kick in sometime later this year.

Thanks!

Knox

 

[Irishhockey]

Then I must assume there was some major breakdown in communications on Monday ...

Everything is a fluke....

I've seen the same things happen to Caribbean Beach, Pop Century, and even some of the Deluxes...

It's funny.. because when we were there in January... every All Star line (yes there is more than one at most parks) had very little lines while Pop's streched throughout the entire queue... go figure!

We stayed at Pop Century... and won't return. The only good thing that came from that resort was that we finally realized that "value" resorts aren't that bad. We're looking forward to our stay at ASmu... for sure.

 

[dzneelvr]

In all the years we've stayed at the All Stars, we've never experienced any consistently poor bus service either going to a park or getting back from a park. as far as leaving with the "hoards" when the park closes, just casually stroll slowly out of the park; take a look through the shops one last time...guess what? the crowds have already decreased significantly. Our worst experience ever was a bus from the Poly after our Ohana meal. we mistakenly thought the service at one of those resorts would be top-rate. NOT. We love the ASMo and will be landing there again on June 15

 

[123SA]

I have stayed at Pop 6/2004, ASSp 5/2005, and Poly 2006.

My experiences:

Pop -- I hated the busing because there was no queing area (has this changed?) Just a mass of people huddled in the general spot the bus would arrive. I would not consider going back there unless this changed.

ASSp -- not a single problem with buses. There was a queue for each bus -- no mass stampede to get on. Coming back from Epcot after illuminations was a wait, but all the other lines looked long too. Guests from other resorts commented on the "unfairness" of the frequency of AS buses.

Poly -- monorail was great. Buses were awful in my opinion. All buses stopped at the GF first -- this added about 10-15 minutes to the trip. It drove me crazy. I felt like I waited longer for buses travelling to the parks and back to the resorts when compared to ASSp and Pop. We left MGM one day around 5:30pm -- the line was so long and and non-moving that we gave up and got a taxi back to the resort. The buses were generally not as crowded as AS buses -- we never had to stand. Our trip was 12 days -- I think we took taxis instead of the buses 5 or 6 times.

We are trying ASMo on our next trip in Sept.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Everything is a fluke....

I've seen the same things happen to Caribbean Beach, Pop Century, and even some of the Deluxes...

It's funny.. because when we were there in January... every All Star line (yes there is more than one at most parks) had very little lines while Pop's streched throughout the entire queue... go figure!

I so agree! I have stayed at all the values and mods as well as a couple of the DVC's and I have found buses are hit or miss. My first stay at Pop, the buses were so awful I said never again. But I was wrong, I did go to Pop again, we had wonderful busservice and I realized that like every other thing at WDW, whether its a restaurant, resort, ride, whatever, opinions/experiences will vary as nothing is constant within such a huge operation.

To me the internal bus system is the most amazing aspect of WDW, in spite of the faults, it is pretty amazing. And can vary within the same trip at the same resort. So I don't recommend basing a resort stay on busing issues alone.

And in a total of about 15 days spent at the three All Stars (in 3 separate trips) we shared a bus twice.

 

[gk90]

I agree.

Bus rides are quite short from the ALL Stars according to PassPorter.com

All Star Buses-CBR buses---POPbuses--PO buses--- Contemporary
MK 20 min---- 20 min-----25 min------10 min---20 min(mono)
Epcot 10 min-- 15 min-----20 min------10 min---15 min
MGM 10 min----12 min-----15 min------15 min---20min
AK 10 min------20min-------15 min----15 min---20 min
DTD 15 min----20 min------20 min-----15 min---35 min

It only takes 10 minutes to get to Epcot, MGM and AK from All Stars.
MK is 20 min away. That's the same amount of time it takes on the monorail from the Contemporary.

Okay, now I'm confused!? Seeing the passporter bus times (and the rest of the thread) made me wonder about changing our reservations from Pop to All Stars. But now I'm looking at bus times in Unofficial Guide and I see, in their "Door to door commuting times" chart:

All Star Buses Pop Buses
MK 29 min..........31 min
EP 36 min..........27 min
MGM 30 min........25 min
AK 32 min..........30 min

So according to UG, except for MK the All-Star commute is longer--as much as 9 min when it comes to Epcot?

And according to those of you who have actually stayed at both Pop & All Stars--does the commute feel longer from either of them?

 

[Amy&Dan]

Okay, now I'm confused!? Seeing the passporter bus times (and the rest of the thread) made me wonder about changing our reservations from Pop to All Stars. But now I'm looking at bus times in Unofficial Guide and I see, in their "Door to door commuting times" chart:

All Star Buses Pop Buses
MK 29 min..........31 min
EP 36 min..........27 min
MGM 30 min........25 min
AK 32 min..........30 min

So according to UG, except for MK the All-Star commute is longer--as much as 9 min when it comes to Epcot?

And according to those of you who have actually stayed at both Pop & All Stars--does the commute feel longer from either of them?

Not to me. And those estimates seem very worse case scenario. I cannot remember anytime at any of the resorts I have stayed at spending anything longer than 20 minutes going anywhere. The thing that really gets me about those numbers are that it takes two minutes longer to get to AK from the All Stars vs. 30 minutes from Pop. No way can that be right, the All Stars are located very near to AK. I would take all those figures with a grain of salt.

In the end, each and every Disney resort is close to something. It will all even out in my book in the end, regardless of which resort you stay at. Bus sharing isn't the end of the world, and the All Stars are not the only ones that do that (and again they don't do it all the time). Several of the Deluxes share buses too.

I would stick with your original reservation and not worry about it!

 

[DISNEYNY]

Hopefully this was just a bad day. I have stayed at all the All Stars and have never had bus problems. They normally do not share. I think the only time I had to share was during a midday trip back to the resort and there were hardly any people on the bus. The lines are definitely longer at closing time, but that can be expected with any resort.

 

[Irishhockey]

Okay, now I'm confused!? Seeing the passporter bus times (and the rest of the thread) made me wonder about changing our reservations from Pop to All Stars. But now I'm looking at bus times in Unofficial Guide and I see, in their "Door to door commuting times" chart:

All Star Buses Pop Buses
MK 29 min..........31 min
EP 36 min..........27 min
MGM 30 min........25 min
AK 32 min..........30 min

So according to UG, except for MK the All-Star commute is longer--as much as 9 min when it comes to Epcot?

And according to those of you who have actually stayed at both Pop & All Stars--does the commute feel longer from either of them?

I never remember my bus times being remotely close to that (with exception to magic kingdom) I'd roughly put "on bus" times between 10-25 minutes. Pop Is much closer to MGM and Epcot than the All Stars, so there bus ride is alot shorter. The same can be said for the All Stars and Animal Kingdom.

My concern is never with the actual distance of the resort from the park.. but rather the actual wait time to get on any bus to or from my resort. Luckily, as another poster said... Disney is currently in the process of major bus improvements that allow for shorter bus waits.

 

[DISNEYNY]

I agree with previous poster. I have never spent a half an hour riding to a park. I am always more concerned with how long I have to wait to get on that bus. I think some of those times are way overstated.

 

[gk90]

It says on the chart that the numbers includes waiting time at the bus stops--does that make them look more in line with reality?

 

[DISNEYNY]

I would say yes if that includes time spent waiting in line....sometimes longer.

 

[Amy&Dan]

It says on the chart that the numbers includes waiting time at the bus stops--does that make them look more in line with reality?

Then that would be a bit more realistic. Although that would be an overall average. Sometimes the Bus Karma works in your favor, you walk up and bingo!, a bus to the park you want to go to arrives. Other times you walk up just to see that bus you need driving off. Its a luck thing as far as waits go in my opinion. So to be prepared, allow one hour from the time you exit your room, to when you want to arrive at your destination. This is especially true when you want to arrive at a park opening or ADR. Nothing worse than standing at a busstop, knowing your ADR time is drawing near. That will make a wait seem intolerably long and frustrating. And in essence, in that scenario its nobody's fault but your own!

Good luck, the buses at WDW have never let me down in the long run and I have met a lot of nice people when I am waiting for them and riding on them.