Any off-site hotels with good shuttles to WDW??

[mmouse1239]

We are planning a trip in 2016. As former DVC owners, my children have been used to using Disney transportation, and like it. Since we are paying for the entire vacation for all of us, we are trying to explore all options. We may rent DVC points, but if we could find a DTD hotel or something off-site that provides shuttles that are equal to or better then Disney buses, we might consider off-site. My daughter just likes parking her car and never worrying about driving and parking for a week. Suggestions? TIA.

 

[smiler2015]

A good offsite hotel is Wyndham Lake Buena Vista, we have used this hotel twice before and booked a third
trip this year. Although the wings on this building a little dated the main tower I understand is better and
that is where we are staying for our upcoming trip. They have a continuous shuttle to four main Disney Parks
and each morning 2 shuttles to water parks. For SeaWorld we use a Lynx bus , the bus stop across the road from hotel and Universal we had a taxi from hotel very reasonable. The hotel is across the road from Downtown Disney (Disney Springs) and a bridge
spans the road now so no waiting for traffic lights. A good 10 min walk and you are at the Crossroads with restaurants and supermarket too. We found this hotel to be very reasonable price wise for being so close to so much. Hope this helps.

 

[HopperFan]

Nothing will be equal or better than Disney buses. The only one close is the DTD resorts bus system.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

All the DTD hotels are actually "on property" they are just not "Disney" resorts. All of their buses run fine and as of right now I believe they run about every 20-30 minutes to the parks and back to the resorts. We have stayed at every property on Hotel Plaza Blvd. and have never had any issues with their bus transportation to or from the parks.

There are two buses for the DTD properties, A Bus and B Bus. They go to the following hotels in order of pick up & drop off:

A Bus

Hilton
Holiday Inn
B Resort
Double Tree

B Bus

Best Western
Wyndham LBV
Buena Vista Palace

The good thing staying at one of the DTD properties is you can jump on either bus if your resort route bus is not there and just walk across the street to your resort. ie. if you are staying at the Wyndham LBV and the A Bus comes first. Get on the A Bus and go to the Hilton and just walk across the street to the Wyndham LBV.

FYI ... The Best Western is the only property that does not charge for parking.

Also. The pedestrian bridges @smiler2015 was referring to are not open as of yet. So you still have to use the regular cross walks to get over to DTD.

 

[HopperFan]

DTD hotels have a variety of resort fees and parking fees, factor that in to determine your actual room rate.

- Hilton = resort fee and parking fee.
- B Resort = resort fee and parking fee, sometimes waived with specials.
- Holiday Inn = I don't think has resort fee but has parking fee.
- Doubletree Suites = no resort fee but has parking fee.
- Best Western = resort fee but no parking fee.
- Wyndham = resort fee and parking fee.
- Buena Vista Palace = resort fee and no parking fee.

 

[smiler2015]

All the DTD hotels are actually "on property" they are just not "Disney" resorts. All of their buses run fine and as of right now I believe they run about every 20-30 minutes to the parks and back to the resorts. We have stayed at every property on Hotel Plaza Blvd. and have never had any issues with their bus transportation to or from the parks.

There are two buses for the DTD properties, A Bus and B Bus. They go to the following hotels in order of pick up & drop off:

A Bus

Hilton
Holiday Inn
B Resort
Double Tree

B Bus

Best Western
Wyndham LBV
Buena Vista Palace

The good thing staying at one of the DTD properties is you can jump on either bus if your resort route bus is not there and just walk across the street to your resort. ie. if you are staying at the Wyndham LBV and the A Bus comes first. Get on the A Bus and go to the Hilton and just walk across the street to the Wyndham LBV.

FYI ... The Best Western is the only property that does not charge for parking.

Also. The pedestrian bridges @smiler2015 was referring to are not open as of yet. So you still have to use the regular cross walks to get over to DTD.

 

[smiler2015]

Thanks for info about bridge to Downtown, Im from the UK and my next trip in Sept this year
so maybe they will be open by then, cant wait it will be my 9th visit to Orlando.

 

[mmouse1239]

I will have to check them out....if I add the resort fees and the parking, I may be no further ahead than renting points. Thanks.

 

[Kirsty sparks]

We are planning a trip in 2016. As former DVC owners, my children have been used to using Disney transportation, and like it. Since we are paying for the entire vacation for all of us, we are trying to explore all options. We may rent DVC points, but if we could find a DTD hotel or something off-site that provides shuttles that are equal to or better then Disney buses, we might consider off-site. My daughter just likes parking her car and never worrying about driving and parking for a week. Suggestions? TIA.

I've stayed at the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista twice and staying there again in September they offer transport to the 4 disney theme parks, universal and seawor it is also 1/2 hour walk to downtown disney

 

[ryansstitch]

Hilton bonnet creek and Waldorf Astoria property have a great bus service. And these aren't the hard seated public transport style buses either. They're super comfy, quiet and make only one stop to pick up guests on the way to parks. They don't get packed with standing passengers either. There are resort fees, but the amenities and service are very nice.

 

[meliss8599]

Reviving this as I'm interested as well.

 

[Bete]

Since you don't have a devoted bus you waste time with other hotel stops. It takes time for passengers to get off every stop. Time is golden at Disney. In addition, it will take you longer to get to the parks; because, there are multiple stops at other resorts.

You give up perks, too. First, fastpass plus is at 30 days out, not 60 when you stay off site. Second, you don't get extra magic hours.

Because, you've been spoiled from being on site you will probably get annoyed from the above factors.

 

[writerguyfl]

Since you don't have a devoted bus you waste time with other hotel stops. It takes time for passengers to get off every stop. Time is golden at Disney. In addition, it will take you longer to get to the parks; because, there are multiple stops at other resorts.

If you're referring to the Disney Spring Hotels shuttle buses, I've found the additional stops at other hotels to be very quick. It's actually a lot quicker than a Disney Resort that has multiple bus stops because the hotels are literally adjacent to each other. For example, the time to travel between the Holiday Inn and the B Resort is probably one minute.

There are two big downsides of the Disney Springs Hotels shuttles. First, the stop for Magic Kingdom is actually at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). While the ferry or monorail ride is a great way to approach the park on a first trip, it does get annoying for repeat visits.

Second, they only have two routes, each stopping at two parks. It's usually Epcot/Disney's Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom (TTC)/Disney's Animal Kingdom. Getting to that second park does take extra time.

I will note that the fact that the shuttles are scheduled is a big plus. In my experience, they are almost always punctual. In contrast, Disney buses show up when they show up. When thing run smoothly, it's great. But, occasionally you have to wait and wait...all the while watching multiple buses arrive/depart for other routes.

 

[spiceycat]

as has been pointed out the WDW buses are better than off site - especially love Pop - still own DVC (BLT, BWV, VWL) - so understand your request. that say have no tried their buses (there is a charge for them) you might like Bonnet Creek. It is next to CBR and POP - you can walk to anything not in Bonnet Creek. Always drive a car when staying there?

 

[babyruth]

Following - I am flinching at WDW resort prices during peak times. I have a yours mine and ours family of 6 and while I would definitely prefer to stay on property and do the dining plan, with 2 in college my wallet is saying no way!

 

[meliss8599]

Following - I am flinching at WDW resort prices during peak times. I have a yours mine and ours family of 6 and while I would definitely prefer to stay on property and do the dining plan, with 2 in college my wallet is saying no way!

Tell me about it. I've never even considered staying offsite but with all the price increases and us wanting to stay 10 days, it's insanely expensive. I know they don't need the repeat visitor, but this may honestly be the first year in over a decade that we don't vacation at Disney. It's very sad for us as we have so many memories there.

 

[AllieBee]

I was thinking of staying off site for a little "wallet help" for a December trip as well, but was also concerned about non-Disney Resort busses sucking up my precious park time. I haven't stayed in anything but deluxe resorts for so long, I am not sure I can make the change to a value Disney resort. The value room just don't look very comfy, nor do the prices really seem to be that much of a value. It seems like some of the Disney Springs hotels are much nicer for much less money. Any thoughts?

 

[writerguyfl]

Some of this is a repeat of what DrivenByDisney noted above, but I'll add it anyway.

The Disney Springs Hotels operates four different routes, but only two will stop at a single hotel. Hotels on the east side of Hotel Plaza Blvd are known as the "A" side. Others are "B". Although destinations/routes can change, this is the usual configuration and order of stops:

Route "A" to Magic Kingdom/Animal Kingdom

• Hilton Lake Buena Vista
• Holiday Inn Disney Springs
• B Resort
• DoubleTree Lake Buena Vista
• Transportation and Ticket Center
• Disney's Animal Kingdom

Route "A" to Epcot/Hollywood Studios

• Hilton Lake Buena Vista
• Holiday Inn Disney Spring
• B Resort
• DoubleTree Lake Buena Vista
• Epcot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios

Route "B" to Magic Kingdom/Animal Kingdom

• Best Western Lake Buena Vista
• Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
• Buena Vista Palace
• Transportation and Ticket Center
• Disney's Animal Kingdom

Route "B" to Epcot/Hollywood Studios

• Best Western Lake Buena Vista
• Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
• Buena Vista Palace
• Epcot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios

The entire loop for each of these routes is 30 minutes. In my experience (50+ nights at these hotels in the past 4 years), they are almost always punctual. The only time I've seem them arrive later than expected was when a guest was in a wheelchair/scooter.

If you've never stayed at any of these hotels, you may not know that they are literally right next to each other. The travel time between most of these hotels is about 1 minute. Also, some of these hotels are significantly smaller than the Disney resorts. (For example, the DoubleTree Suites has 229 rooms; Disney's Pop Century Resort has 2,880.) That means that there aren't going to be hundreds of people getting on/off the bus at each stop. It's usually pretty quick. The stops at multiple hotels are similar to a Disney bus route with multiple stops at a single resort.

[Side Note: Maybe there should be a "sticky" post about the Disney Springs Hotels buses. This gets asked/answered a lot on here.]

 

[AllieBee]

Thanks for the great information! It looks like busses may be almost more efficient offsite if you can stay on their schedule. Follow up question: Are there many instances where a bus fills up and you are forced to wait until the next bus (30 minutes later)?

 

[writerguyfl]

Thanks for the great information! It looks like busses may be almost more efficient offsite if you can stay on their schedule. Follow up question: Are there many instances where a bus fills up and you are forced to wait until the next bus (30 minutes later)?

I might not be the best person to answer, as I'm a night owl and I've never taken the shuttles any time before 11am. For any time in the afternoon/evening, I've never seen any bus come close to being full. Perhaps other folks will have an answer with regard to the mornings.

As for buses returning from the parks, I have seen them fairly well packed. The Disney Springs Hotels shuttles are run by Mears Transportation, which is the company that runs Disney's Magical Express. In the evenings when the parks are closing, there is almost always a Mears employee stationed at the bus stop. If necessary, that person can summon another vehicle. Since Mears has partnered with Disney for many years, they are very familiar with the crowd levels. Also, because they are a large operation, they are able to move their fleet of buses, vans, sedans, and cabs around fairly quickly. I'd never say "never"...but I wouldn't be overly concerned about encountering a full bus.