BUS TIMES LEAVING POLYNESIAN FOR PC?

[OKW Lover]

Say hello if you see us!!! It will be my husband and 4 women LOL!!!

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MJ

Will do. This is us

 

[Thrillington]

Oh that would be a HUGE deal to me. I'm booking a private car!

Worth noting if you did book a DCL transfer, your existing Boarding Group/PAT would have been moot - no need to account for it with DCL transfers.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Worth noting if you did book a DCL transfer, your existing Boarding Group/PAT would have been moot - no need to account for it with DCL transfers.

You don’t need a PAT when using the bus but you do need a boarding group number. Even with the bus you are not guaranteed a low number. It’s still based on your check in.

 

[mmouse37]

You don’t need a PAT when using the bus but you do need a boarding group number. Even with the bus you are not guaranteed a low number. It’s still based on your check in.

I have found the opposite. On our last few cruises we booked last minute so had a later PAT and higher boarding group number. As soon as we added DCL transfers from a WDW resort our PAT form changed to a very early PAT and very low boarding group number. I do not think it changes if you take buses from the airport (excluding the Hyatt....I believe your PAT and BG changes when leaving from there).

Your mileage may vary!

MJ

 

[anricat]

For us (Fantasy from Poly) luggage pickup 7 AM, meet at 8:45, bus departure 9:15.

 

[SuperBrandt]

Edit....just a side note that my husband and I spent our honeymoon at the Poly back in 1979 and I still have the invoice....drum roll please.....$65 a night!!!!! Ha we thought that was expensive back then!! If only they could roll back prices. LOL

I was originally thinking that "Eh, depending on inflation, that might not be too far off today's rates."

And then I checked.

$65 in 1979 is the equivalent of $282.47 in 2024

 

[kylenne]

We stayed at the Grand before our cruise on the Wish in Sept and we left at 9 to go pick up some guests at the Poly. I think we ended up on the road by 9:15, it was very efficient.

We have the Treasure booked for May 2026 and plan on doing the DCL transfer again. It’s actually cheaper for the 2 of us than private transfers and we enjoyed the luggage service.

 

[mmouse37]

Ok....back from the Treasure and boy what a ship!! It gorgeous. But I want to talk about our transfers from Coronado Springs to the Port.

Since we booked this cruise literally 10 days out I was scrambling to get all our travel plans in place. I was so excited when I got it all done but I did not research enough. I totally missed that it was Marathon weekend and there were many RunDisney events. I would never have rented a car from MCO to our WDW resort if I had known. We like having a car on property but this time it did not end well. We rented from MCO but was going to return to the Car Care Center by Magic Kingdom the morning of our cruise. They opened early so I didn't think it would be an issue to drop off the car and get a return ride to our resort which the Car Care Center does.

We heard the night before that the transfer bus to the port would not be leaving the resort until 10:00 am which is 30 minutes later than usual. I also found out that the half marathon was on Saturday morning so many roads were closed. I left Coronado Springs at 7:30 to return the car by Magic Kingdom and did not get back to the resort until 8:45....with the car. I tried 3 different routes to get there and all roads were closed with detours and heavy, heavy traffic. I did not want to miss our bus to the port so I decided to just return to Coronado with the car. I called the Car Care Center and explained the situation and they wanted me to return the car later in the day when the roads opened but I told them I couldn't do that due to needing to take the bus. They would have waived any additional fees for the car if I kept it later or returned it to the port location. I asked them if they could possibly pick up the car from the resort and they agreed. We decided on a spot to leave it and I left the keys with Bell Services for them. I worried all day if the car would get picked up but I eventually got my email receipt from Alamo. They were great.

So, in the future if I go Marathon weekend I will not rent a car that has to be returned to the car care center lol.

We met the DCL rep in the Barcelona Lounge on the bottom floor of the resort at 9:15 ish and they checked passports. We were walked out to the bus around 9:50 am. Got to the port before they started boarding...... we had a Boarding Group #2 and PAT of 10:45.

We did not have luggage tags sent since it was so close to sailing and I asked so many people at the resort if they had any. They kept telling me no that I had to get them from the DCL rep but we were also told that luggage was getting picked up from our room at 7:00 am and the rep was not arriving until after 9:00....finally a CM told me Bell Services had some blank ones and got them for me. I just had to fill out all the info by hand but no big deal. They didn't actually pick up our bags until closer to 8:00 according to my husband who stayed back while I tried to return the car. We had air tags in our luggage and it didn't actually arrive at the port until about 3 in the afternoon. We were tracking it the whole day.

MJ

 

[brentm77]

.

 

[juxtapose]

If we book a DCL transfer for a WDW resort, do they get you to the port before anyone starts boarding? We have concierge so would like to be there early but like the ease of taking DCL transfers from WDW.

 

[mmouse37]

If we book a DCL transfer for a WDW resort, do they get you to the port before anyone starts boarding? We have concierge so would like to be there early but like the ease of taking DCL transfers from WDW.

Usually they do. We were late leaving our resort and still got there before any boarding started. Of course there could be bus delays due to traffic and such.

MJ

 

[anricat]

We were on the Fantasy sailing that embarked the day before yours and WOW, I will avoid marathon weekend from here on out. I had no idea it was so crazy. I did the Disneyland Half back in the day and it was nothing like this.

 

[sponica]

If we book a DCL transfer for a WDW resort, do they get you to the port before anyone starts boarding? We have concierge so would like to be there early but like the ease of taking DCL transfers from WDW.

I think the short answer is it depends...we had BG 6 and a PAT of 1130-1145 and I think we arrived at the port when they were on BG 3(ish), by the time we made it upstairs, I think they were on 10 or 11? There was a bottleneck at the checkpoint and they had issues connecting our MB+ so we were stuck there longer than planned. Based on my photo album, we were in the bus pulling away from POR at 10:25 and approaching the port at 11:31 (not sure how close we were though). We didn't get up the stairs until after noon, there was a pit stop at the bathrooms at 12:09, seated in arendelle at around 12:30ish (I have a menu picture at 12:37)

 

[PinkPixel]

Pick up times from all resorts is in the 9:45-10:15 range. Luggage must be ready for 7am pick up and you will need to meet the DCL rep in the lobby 30 minutes prior to your bus pick up time.

I'm very much on the fence as to using the bus service in the future. We did not have a good experience last month.

Would you still take the bus to return from PC to a WDW resort?

 

[Dug720]

We did not have luggage tags sent since it was so close to sailing and I asked so many people at the resort if they had any. They kept telling me no that I had to get them from the DCL rep but we were also told that luggage was getting picked up from our room at 7:00 am and the rep was not arriving until after 9:00....finally a CM told me Bell Services had some blank ones and got them for me. I just had to fill out all the info by hand but no big deal.

This is why I made a copy of the one tag I was sent and coated it in tape. I figure it'll be easier to use a stapler from the front desk than to try and find a tag to use for my second bag.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Would you still take the bus to return from PC to a WDW resort?

That’s a pretty solid maybe. It would depend on what we were doing that day and how long we were staying. We are more likely to rent a car because if we stay after it’s probably due to the flight home being cheaper a day or two later. Before anyone says it, yes I factor in hotel costs.