Bus service for OKW and SSR?

[buffalogirl]

A friend of mine is considering a June visit to either SSR or OKW. She does not plan on renting a car and will be relying on Disney transportation.

Please tell me about the transportation for these resorts-

Do they share a bus with other resorts?
Is the bus service generally good?
Does one of them have better transportation than the other?

Thank you!

 

[Noreendisfour]

I stayed at both OKW and SSR in Aug '08. The bus service was miserable at best. As far as I could tell there is no schedule anymore. We would wait 30-35 minutes for a MK bus while 3 blizzard beach buses would go by. The bus drivers told us there was a "new" (mind you it's got to be a year now) GPS system that told the buses where to be. Well it's not working.

Keep in mind, I'm not ready to give up on the buses, I'll be at BCV in April and we're relying on disney transportation. I'm just holding out hope that someone down there can fix this problem.

 

[logan115]

A friend of mine is considering a June visit to either SSR or OKW. She does not plan on renting a car and will be relying on Disney transportation.

Please tell me about the transportation for these resorts-

Do they share a bus with other resorts?
Is the bus service generally good?
Does one of them have better transportation than the other?

Thank you!

Stayed at SSR mid-May of last year and didn't have any trouble with the buses. Can't remember if the buses are shared or not, but you may want to check the transportations forums for additional info.

Chris

 

[Chuck S]

Stayed at OKW in December, had no major problems with the bus service. About a 25 minute wait tops, usually much less.

Neither resort shares busses with other resorts, There are 5 internal stops on the OKW route, just as there are several at SSR, don't know the exact number. There has been no indication from Disney if either resort will share busses with the Treehouse Villas when they open. OKW did share with the Treehouses when OKW first opened, but at that time here were not as many internal OKW stops. Speculation has it that the Treehouses, if they share, will share with SSR, as they will legally be a part of that resort.

 

[buffalogirl]

OP here, thanks for the quick and helpful responses!

 

[Brian Noble]

I've only got direct experience with OKW. Never a significant (more than 15 mins) wait, and generally pretty pleasant. We went with no car in May '08, and everything went as well as could be expected.

I ordinarily rent a car, and plan to on my trip later this month. But, if you'd prefer to do without one or are trying to keep a lid on the budget the OKW bus system will probably serve you just fine.

In general, I seem to read more complaints about SSR than OKW, but I'm not sure they are entirely warranted.

 

[puntagordabob]

Stayed at Old Key West during the first week of December 2008 and the bus service was for the most part just fine...

 

[spiceycat]

SSR may share with Treehouses - or OKW might.

can't see SSR paying for extra buses with only 2 stops.

right now SSR for theme park - these are names for their villages

Grandstand
Carousel
Paddock
Congress Park
Springs

not sure if SSR includes the treehouse where they will fall


OKW for theme park
Pennisular Road (these are named after their roads)
South Point Road
Old turtle Pond Road
Miller's Road
HH

all the buses go to HH before leaving the park.

coming back to your room you can walk over to Pennisular road in about 5 minutes.

 

[Pig Pen]

We never have trouble with the buses per se, just with getting to the buses! Since both resorts are so large and you will not have a car, I would suggest requesting a room close to a bus stop. If you plan to spend a lot of time at the main pool or food court, ask for a room near the main building.

It can be a long hike (or annoying bus trip) from the outskirts of the resort to the food court/gift shop! You may need to sacrifice view for this.

 

[zorro77]

We have stayed mostly at OKW but also do go to SSR. Last year we were their about 3 weeks in two stays. No real issues with buses being late. I believe their is a schedules but when you load wheel chairs and scooters the bus times do get off. We travel with a person in Wheel chair and extra time is needed. I believe most people just don't have enough patients to wait. Take time enjoy your trip. If your on a tight schedule plan ahead. Early morning buses seem to be more write to time. We loved SSR because it is so easy to walk downtown. You can from OKW but not after dark.

 

[Noreendisfour]

I'm happy to read that I'm in the minority with regards to buses. How our wait times differed so greatly with others I'll never know, but now I'm happier with my decision to give the disney transportation another shot.

 

[Starr W.]

I was at SSR for Thanksgiving and the bus service was the best! I think the longest wait was 15min at Epcot in the early afternoon.

Was at BWV for MLK weekend and another WOW, compared to MLK 2008 at BCV.

In those 2 trips I've seen a lot of CM's with clipboards and watches at the bus stops.

 

[rutgers1]

I am convinced that the bus service is good 90% of the time at every resort, horrible 5% and great 5%. The key is to use the message board to find out which stop to get on/off to minimize your waits.

 

[bczang]

Stayed at SSR in March 2008 and had NO issues with the bus service.

 

[Meriweather]

Stayed at OKW in Nov for 11 days and just got back from a 10 day stay.
Buses were generally good.....we had one time each stay that took longer than it should, but not too bad.

 

[MouseMomx2]

We were just at OKW over the busiest week of the year...Christmas to New Yeas's...and we never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. The bus service was excellent. Even the following week, when crowds fell off considerably, the buses were still as punctual and efficient.

We drive to WDW so we always have a car at our disposal but we only use it to travel off property. We prefer to rely on the bus system, which has never let us down.

 

[Nicola2010]

We stayed at SSR Sept - Oct 08 and the bus service was brilliant!

There were a couple of time that we waited quite a while for a bus whilst at epcot (around 30mins) and it was very frustrating when we had the largest queue and yet buses kept on coming for POFQ etc but i think there was an unexpected issue on the SSR route that caused the delay and these things cant be helped.

Other than that we never had to wait too long for a bus to get us from SSR and i will definitely be using the transportation again for my honeymoon trip next year!

 

[dianeschlicht]

We just returned from an 11 day AKV/OKW trip. Never waited more than a few minutes for any bus except one morning at AKV when the MK bus didn't come and there were more than 2 busloads of people waiting, and once from Epcot to OKW late one afternoon when we waited for 30 minutes to get the bus back to the resort. We have always had great luck with buses both places.