ART Bus Questions

[HydroGuy]

Please no one have a heart attack because I am asking questions instead of answering them!

As shown in my signature I am going on an atypical trip to DLR in May. It is atypical in that I did not get to choose the hotel or date, and hence have more constraints than I normally would.

DS12 asked me to chaperone his middle school trip to DLR as part of a music competition. The music competition travel company has set us up at the Anaheim DoubleTree one mile from the DLR gates.

While we could walk, we think our best transportation option is to use ART which I have never used because I personally always get a hotel within easy walking distance.

So here are my questions:

1. How big are the buses and can we get everbody on the bus?

We have 30 people in our group and we will be staying at a hotel with hundreds of other kids also there for the competition. ART says the buses come every 20 minutes on average, but will we be able to get everyone on a bus? Or will we need to wait over two or more bus pickups?

I am thinking that we may be better off walking to a nearby hotel that will not have hundreds of kids also trying to get to DLR and taking a bus from there.


2. How long (time wise) are the bus routes?

Some of the routes pickup at 6-8 hotels. If you get on at the first hotel on the route I would imagine that it could take 30+ minutes to make it to DLR.


3. When is the best time for ART?

DS12's music director wants to get to DLR by rope drop (8AM opening on a Satuday) so I will encourage trying to get the group there 20-30 minutes early. Are the buses less full early in the morning at say 7 or 7:15AM?

 

[fairykin]

Hi Hi...

I hope that Your trip is wonderful and the music competition goes great for Your group.

Let's see... we take the A.R.T. from Holiday Inn to Disneyland.. it stops at the Holiday Inn and One other hotel.. and then the park.

It's a short ride.. the wait is not long.

i'm thinking it will be close in getting 30 on board, perhaps You could look through this link to make sure.

http://www.rideart.org/index.php?loc=2

 

[DizNee Luver]

All I can say, is I hope you have better luck with ART then we did!! It was a nightmare & one we won't repeat.

We were at the Motel 6. We were 3rd stop of 3 hotels. If they filled up prior to our stop, they just skipped us. The morning we had Morning Madness in Toontown, we got in line just after 6am for the first pick-up at 6:30am. We waited, & waited, & waited.... at 7:30am we asked the motel mgr to call them to figure out why they hadn't picked any of us up yet. They really didn't get an answer from ART. At 8am the line of people waiting for the bus had grown to about 70 people & still no bus. Finally, at 8:20am the first bus stopped & only could take 6 people (well a mad rush to the bus & the people that had been waiting the longest....us & a couple other families, were not able to load because of fear of our kids being crushed by the mob). At 8:45 an empty bus came & crammed....I mean crammed the rest of us on & then went to another motel to pick up those people. The bus driver actually told us to make room for about a dozen more people or he wasn't going to move the bus "Are you kidding me.....where would you like us to put them???
We totally missed the only day we got to do Toontown early entry & we're just disgusted by the service.
Everytime we got picked up, either at the motel or the park to return to the motel, the bus was packed. If you don't have kids, this probably would work ok, but when you're holding a sleeping 2 yr old, a stoller, the hand of your 7 yr old & packages....and having to stand & keep your balance this was not a good fit for us or other families.
I even contacted ART after our trip to complain about the service & the rudeness of the driver & never heard back from them. So we've decided that we'll pay extra to stay closer or walk 10 miles before using their service again.

Sorry probably not what you wanted to hear but since the motels went with the one bus service for Disneyland, the service to us went downhill. We loved it when each of the motels had their own shuttle system.
Good luck with the trip & maybe you'll find it easier to hoof it.

 

[Queenbillabong]

We had no problems with the ART system, but we were only traveling with 2 people or 3 people. It does get very crowded, especially first thing in the a.m. and later in the evening. The buses are fairly big, but not the size of city buses. They are the same size as the hotel shuttles. They will fit 30 people I would think, but you will have a problem getting your specific group of 30 people all on at the same time (I remember having to wait for the "next bus" in the evening with my group of 2, and even then we were jammed in there). If you are the first hotel to p/u, you may get your group on and mostly fill the bus, but other than that....... Hopefully it goes well.

I would phone the hotel and see if they have any transportation suggestions.

 

[momrek06]

Please no one have a heart attack because I am asking questions instead of answering them!

HG, where is your DS performing? DL or CA? How exciting!!

I chaperoned my DS when his high school performed both in WDW MK (@COSMIC RAYS...Jazz Band) and EPCOT (Show Choir) back a few years ago. It is so exciting and the kiddos as well as the parent volunteers had the best time ever. It was DISNEY's MAGICAL MUSIC DAYS! Best of Luck!!!!!

i'm thinking it will be close in getting 30 on board

I am assuming there will be plenty of parents going along as volunteers....stagger them....have 10 go with several parents and another 10 and another 10!

We stayed off the Parks back when I went with DS and the buses that drove us from the airport to the hotel were the sames buses that took us back and forth to the Parks. How are you all getting from the airport to Anaheim or are you driving in buses from your hometown?

 

[HydroGuy]

HG, where is your DS performing? DL or CA? How exciting!!

I chaperoned my DS when his high school performed both in WDW MK (@COSMIC RAYS...Jazz Band) and EPCOT (Show Choir) back a few years ago. It is so exciting and the kiddos as well as the parent volunteers had the best time ever. It was DISNEY's MAGICAL MUSIC DAYS! Best of Luck!!!!!

My sis did that in high school at DL with her marching band on Main Street. In this case the competition is offsite Friday night and the awards are in Big Thunder Ranch on Saturday afternoon.

I am assuming there will be plenty of parents going along as volunteers....stagger them....have 10 go with several parents and another 10 and another 10!

About 20 kids and 10 chaperones. Not sure we need that many chaperones but lots of parents volunteered...

We stayed off the Parks back when I went with DS and the buses that drove us from the airport to the hotel were the sames buses that took us back and forth to the Parks. How are you all getting from the airport to Anaheim or are you driving in buses from your hometown?

The music director is setting up van rentals for the weekend. We could drive these to the DLR parking structure and it is starting to sound like this would be a better option than ART when we have 30 people. Or we could bite the bullet and walk the one mile each way.

 

[Vala]

All I can say, is I hope you have better luck with ART then we did!! It was a nightmare & one we won't repeat.

Similar experience here. We were at the Motel 6 that used to be a Red Roof Inn. Waited forever for a bus on our first day. Lost patience after close to an hour and walked. We didn't see a single bus until we crossed some of the other routes nearer the park.

The same day when we tried to get back after park closing we were simply told we had missed the last bus when we were nowhere near the time where the last one was supposed to leave.

An off duty driver (at least she said she was) crammed about 40 people in the bus and took us to the hotel. She made sure to mention every two minutes that we would have been stuck without her generosity.

I wrote a complaint when we got home and never heard back either.

That was the first and only time we tried. The next day we drove in by car. I considered my sanity worth the extra money.

With 30 people I'd definitely go for the parking lot seeing you'll have vans available.

 

[fairykin]

Your hotel staff should have been able to call and find out what the delay was.

We always take A.R.T. and knock on wood ..have never had trouble with it.

 

[Sherwin]

My sis did that in high school at DL with her marching band on Main Street. In this case the competition is offsite Friday night and the awards are in Big Thunder Ranch on Saturday afternoon.

About 20 kids and 10 chaperones. Not sure we need that many chaperones but lots of parents volunteered...

You mean lots of parents volunteered just to get to go to DL.

I wouldn't count on relying on the ART. When I was in band and jazz band in high school, we'd either rent vans or hire charter buses. When I was there for magic music days, we walked. But only because we stayed at the Tropicana right across the street.

 

[HydroGuy]

You mean lots of parents volunteered just to get to go to DL.

I wouldn't count on relying on the ART. When I was in band and jazz band in high school, we'd either rent vans or hire charter buses. When I was there for magic music days, we walked. But only because we stayed at the Tropicana right across the street.

The music director said when they went in 2006 they were set up at a closer hotel where walking was easier. This time it is further away. It is beyond his control.

In any case you have all convinced me that ART is a bad idea for a group of our size.

I will talk to the music director and I expect he will agree we should either walk or use the vans.

 

[nutshell]

The music director is setting up van rentals for the weekend. We could drive these to the DLR parking structure and it is starting to sound like this would be a better option than ART when we have 30 people. Or we could bite the bullet and walk the one mile each way.

BINGO!

 

[DangerMouse]

The music director said when they went in 2006 they were set up at a closer hotel where walking was easier. This time it is further away. It is beyond his control.

In any case you have all convinced me that ART is a bad idea for a group of our size.

I will talk to the music director and I expect he will agree we should either walk or use the vans.

Just throwing out another possibility: Why not use the vans as your own shuttle? If a couple of the chaperones would be willing to drive the kids to the drop off area just south of the ART/shuttle entrance, and then they would either have to walk/use the ART themselves to catch up. It would be a sacrifice for sure, but I bet the kids would be very, very thankful.

 

[Sherwin]

In any case you have all convinced me that ART is a bad idea for a group of our size.

Other folks staying at your hotel using ART will also appreciate it.

I will talk to the music director and I expect he will agree we should either walk or use the vans.

"So, I talked to some folks and they agree that ART may not be the best option for the kids."

"What folks?"

"Oh these people...some fanatics on a Disneyland forum."

"Haha! Who in their right mind would be so obsessed to join a Disneyland forum?! Ha!"

 

[HydroGuy]

Just throwing out another possibility: Why not use the vans as your own shuttle? If a couple of the chaperones would be willing to drive the kids to the drop off area just south of the ART/shuttle entrance, and then they would either have to walk/use the ART themselves to catch up. It would be a sacrifice for sure, but I bet the kids would be very, very thankful.

Callie, great minds think alike. Before seeing your post I sent off an e-mail to the director proposing this very thing as our best option.

 

[HydroGuy]

Other folks staying at your hotel using ART will also appreciate it.


"So, I talked to some folks and they agree that ART may not be the best option for the kids."

"What folks?"

"Oh these people...some fanatics on a Disneyland forum."

"Haha! Who in their right mind would be so obsessed to join a Disneyland forum?! Ha!"

Too late! I already sent him a link to this thread.

 

[Sherwin]

Callie, great minds think alike. Before seeing your post I sent off an e-mail to the director proposing this very thing as our best option.

Do you have a place to park the vans? Or are the chaperones leaving them at the hotel?

 

[HydroGuy]

Do you have a place to park the vans? Or are the chaperones leaving them at the hotel?

The idea is that a few willing chaperones drive everyone up to the DL gates and drop them off. Then they return to the hotel and park the vans. After parking they catch a taxi back to DLR. If they get back to DL before the gates open they just join us in line. If not, they find us inside DL.

 

[DangerMouse]

The idea is that a few willing chaperones drive everyone up to the DL gates and drop them off. Then they return to the hotel and park the vans. After parking they catch a taxi back to DLR. If they get back to DL before the gates open they just join us in line. If not, they find us inside DL.

Oooh, a taxi even. How posh.

 

[momrek06]

The idea is that a few willing chaperones drive everyone up to the DL gates and drop them off. Then they return to the hotel and park the vans. After parking they catch a taxi back to DLR. If they get back to DL before the gates open they just join us in line. If not, they find us inside DL.

That sounds perfect. And a taxi will only be a few bucks as it is only a mile.

 

[SANDIEGOFAN]

What about the return trip to the hotel? The only bad experiences I've had with the ART were leaving the parks late at night. We waited 45 minutes and they packed us in like sardines.