Bus Service at AKL

[disneyworldnewbie]

Hi everyone. I have a question regarding bus service at AKL. We came back from WDW July 23 and stayed at the Grand Floridian again. We were thinking of going back to WDW in July 2008 and staying at AKL. I was worried about bus service because we have always used the monorails whenever in WDW except for MGM and AK. We were not impressed with the bus service the GF offered for MGM and AKL. The wait time sometimes was over 20 min. We are dying to stay at AKL but our only hesitation is relying on the bus service for all the parks, especially MK. Can anyone who has stayed at AKl tell me any thing about the bus service the the parks? Any opinion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[psummrs]

I haven't stayed there for quite some time, 2004 I think, but I remember that the bus service wasn't bad. Granted you are going to have to wait a little bit longer and it's all about timing with the buses. I also don't remember any extravagantly long waits for the buses. It's nothing bad and IMO it is much less crowded to go on the bus after the fireworks etc than the monorail.

 

[Minderbinder5]

IMO the bus service from the AKL is the best in WDW. Because the hotel is set away from the parks it has dedicated buses for all of the parks, and they leave regularly and frequently. The longest we've probably waited for a bus is 15 min, but 5 minutes was more normal for waits. The buses don't stop at any other hotels on the way, so direct service is quick. You can't beat the monorail, but as buses go, AKL is great!

 

[eddieras]

IMO the bus service from the AKL is the best in WDW. Because the hotel is set away from the parks it has dedicated buses for all of the parks, and they leave regularly and frequently. The longest we've probably waited for a bus is 15 min, but 5 minutes was more normal for waits. The buses don't stop at any other hotels on the way, so direct service is quick. You can't beat the monorail, but as buses go, AKL is great!

i totally agree- we've stayed there 2x and the busses are very regular and as stated - they are dedicated - no stopping anywhere other than their destination.

 

[Flossbolna]

We had a really good experience with the buses at AKL (I described it in depth in my AKL review which is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1484743)

Actually when we visited some MK resorts for dinners I found their transportation less convenient than the AKL busses. As the AKL busses are for AKL only, no stop along the way (the bus to MGM stops at BB though) and most of the times the busses were not too crowded. We ended up standing only once going back from AK at closing and this is only a 3 min trip!

If you don't mind using WDW transportation, don't let the fact that AKL only has busses keep you from staying there, it is a fantastic hotel!

 

[PolyAddict]

IMO the bus service from the AKL is the best in WDW. Because the hotel is set away from the parks it has dedicated buses for all of the parks, and they leave regularly and frequently. The longest we've probably waited for a bus is 15 min, but 5 minutes was more normal for waits. The buses don't stop at any other hotels on the way, so direct service is quick. You can't beat the monorail, but as buses go, AKL is great!

I agree with this poster 100% but wanted to add my 2 cents. In my opinion, I would pick AKL bus transportation over the monorail at this point. If our fav the Poly had monorail service to all parks that would be great but I find GF, POLY and CR to have poor bus transport. We stayed at AKL for the 1st time this past June and we never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus for the 6 days we were there. The longest ride was to MK, but it was only 20 minutes at that. WE never stood once on a bus either. I hated buses prior to this trip and almost didnt stay at AKL because of it. Most of my experience was with Monorail resorts with the exception of POR (which wasn't great either) I know a lot of people will say to just drive to the parks, but I don't want to see my car while on vacation until our long drive home. I am sold on AKL bus service.

 

[Wendi2000]

I found that AKL had extremely good bus service. It totally exceeded my expectations and it is one of the reasons I am going back again.

 

[Doc CW]

The resort itself is amazing with the animals, the info around the resort, and its relaxing and calm. The buses however were quite a different story it took us forever to get from one place to another, but AKL is far away from everything so thats understandable, but it took forever for buses to show up. I normally dont have bad bus service but for this trip we did. I dont blame Disney and I wont complain b/c we normally have good bus service we just had one trip with bad service.

 

[CarolA]

How did you get to MGM or AK? On the bus? It's the same system.

IMHO I much perfer the bus at AKL to the monorail. (However, that may be due to the fact that the GF is my least favorite Disney resort!) I have never had a bus "wait for clearance" LOL! And IMHO folks behave better on the buses then the monorail. (no it's not a playground!)