Bus transportation is terrible!

[lustergirl]

<<< I want to share a wonderful experience I had with Disney transportation. Back during my solo April Trip I stayed at AS Sports. I took the bus to AK to get to the Poly for breakfast at Kona. I went to the Poly stop at AK and only waited a few minutes for a van to pull up and take me to the Poly. I thought this was awesome.

 

[larryz]

I'm at wdw now and have only had 1 time where I waited over 20 minutes for a bus. Even closing Epcot last night I walked out and right on to a bus.

Thanks for that "there right now" report! I'll let my kids (who are doing a trip right now) know.

So I guess it all depends on which park/resort you're at/going to and time of day... but I have heard here and there that Epcot crowds have been lower than usually expected during F&WF.

 

[maxiesmom]

The crowds for food and wine have been crazy. Not sure who told you they were down but it was wall to wall could hardly walk both Friday and Saturday. Maybe because of the holiday?

Going again tonight and hoping for lower crowds. That would be great!

 

[princess_ariel_85]

We landed back in the UK this morning, stayed in All Star Sports from 27th September onwards. Our 'bus luck' wasn't too bad this time around. We only had a long wait on a couple of occasions. Disney Springs being by far the worst, theme park wise it wasn't bad at all. We've certainly had it worse.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but the people I feel sorry for are the people over at Pop Century. I'm sure every time I saw their queue at MK it was always the longest queue by far. Never any other resort, always theirs. I remember thinking "That was us a few years ago"

 

[maxiesmom]

Leaving MK for the Pop last night the queue was crazy! However the filled one bus then give minutes later a double bus picked up the rest of us.

 

[Minnesota!]

We take the busses exclusively and never worry about the waits. We are on vacation. We love the bus. It's part of the vacation. If we have to wait, oh well. Get to know the neighbors. If it looks like standing room only, we stand back and let others go on before us and then wait for the next bus. Park closing? We grab a bench at the park and hang out for 45 - 60 minutes and let the crowds thin. If we are going to wait that long, anyway, why do it in a line of crabby people? We sit and soak up the atmosphere.

We don't hurry. Not what vacation is about to us.

That being said, we have never waited more than 30 minutes or so (well, ONCE...at CSR...and that reason alone is why we do not like that resort anymore...bus service was crazy both times we have stayed there!)

 

[littleblackegg]

Cool. We're not hopping, so we'd just be going between resort and one park. I do think we'll have some days split up by rests/swimming at the resort and then back to the same park (Epcot for sure and maybe MK).
We'll see. I just swore off the monorail on another thread and said I'd stick with buses! Now I'm wary of buses! Next I'll read about a boat sinking and I'll have to scrap the boat ride across the World Showcase lagoon! LOL! (Hopefully not!)
We'll just have to play it by ear. At least we have the option of driving ourselves in a pinch.

If one of those boats sank it would take hours. You'd be safely on shore before it even went down another inch. It's hardly a real body of water and just barely a real boat. It's kind of a giant, safe water tank. You'd be safer on that thing than you would be in your own bed!

 

[skipfierce]

We have never had any issues with long wait times for buses. Part of that also may be that we usually go late Oct, Nov and Dec. Going again next Nov so hopefully they will have it all cleared up by then.

 

[scrapquitler]

We went for a week in April, and generally were on the bus within 5-10 minutes of getting to the bus stop. I think that we had one time where the wait was closer to 20 minutes because the first bus was full (at park close). We stayed at Pop.

 

[maxiesmom]

If one of those boats sank it would take hours. You'd be safely on shore before it even went down another inch. It's hardly a real body of water and just barely a real boat. It's kind of a giant, safe water tank. You'd be safer on that thing than you would be in your own bed!

A giant water tank with brain eating amoebas and alligators. . But no worries.

 

[littleblackegg]

A giant water tank with brain eating amoebas and alligators. . But no worries.

They got brain eating amoebas now? How edgy!

 

[bc7ate9]

We were at Disney 3 weeks ago. We stayed at CSR. I timed our wait for every bus we took using the stop watch on my iPhone. Longest wait was about 23 minutes. Most were under 15 minutes. This includes post park closing wait times.

 

[nkereina]

I get that the buses at park closing are the worst time for them, but you'd think Disney would have one bus pulling up just as one is pulling out during these times. They have metrics from their Reporting & Analytics team to know average waits, busiest times, busiest resorts, etc. It must be a cost thing.

 

[melana]

Gotta watch those amoebas!!

Anyway..I have been pleased with Disney Busses for the most part. The only issue we have ever had is coming back from the parks to the resorts. But that's part of it and I would expect it to be more crowded/busy at the times we habe left the parks in the evenings.

We drive to WDW but after a 14 hour drive one way..the last thing I want to do is drive from our resort to the parks everday. I'm happy to use the transportation options provided.

Going back the 25th of this month and we plan on using the Busses again.

 

[Naughty Nurse]

This is going to be my first trip to WDW this December...so have no idea what to expect with regards to bus transportation...Could anyone tell me how it works when you are with someone who has one of the electronic scooters?...do they wait in a separate line to the rest of us?...and I assume if they do...this probably means they may get on a different bus to the rest of us?

Secondly, I was just wondering how the taxis work? Is there a taxi rank with multiple taxis or do you need to call to get one? Any idea what cost is involved is using a taxi from the parks to Caribbean resort? Being a big resort...I am already thinking that the taxi option might be the best option in order to get my 4year old home sooner (considering she will already be staying up much later than normal)

Whatever I find when I finally get there...I am determined to be as relaxed as possible during the waits...and use the time to talk about what we have seen and done and what we are planning to see and do

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I do have to say that I am very impressed with the bus system in general and it is a wonderful benefit- especially when you want a car-free vacation. There are not many resorts in the world that have the variety and reliability of transportation that Disney does. Managing that system must be a real challenge.

I think that posting the schedules will really help people adjust their expectations. For our last bad bus experience, if we had known it would be 40 minutes for the bus to arrive, we would have just walked to our car and driven. Part of the biggest frustration was thinking, "We really should have driven." I don't like unknowns- showing up at a bus stop in the morning and not knowing if I am going to make rope drop or an ADR. I get all tense. I like the idea of being able to choose to drive or take the bus based on knowing the schedule.

We chose to drive to MK for a pre-park breakfast because we were afraid the bus might not come early enough to get us there. We left the parking lot of POFQ at 6:45. Lo and behold, there was a MK bus pulling into the resort. If we had a way of knowing it was coming, we could have left our car in the parking lot and saved some hassle.

 

[marinejjh]

I am a believer of what type of resort you stay at has to do with bus service. We were at AK last trip and waited 4 buses to get to a value resort while watching half empty buses leave for the deluxe resorts.

 

[mel&me]

exact reason why Ive rented a car last few trips, and will on future trips.

 

[mkh531]

Could anyone tell me how it works when you are with someone who has one of the electronic scooters?...do they wait in a separate line to the rest of us?...and I assume if they do...this probably means they may get on a different bus to the rest of us?

You get on the same bus; the driver will load the scooter on first--in fact, the driver lowers a ramp and you drive the scooter up onto the bus. THere is often a rectangle in the waiting area that marks where you should wait with the scooter. So if you are on a scooter (or someone in your party is, up to 6 people) you actually board the bus before anyone else.


I'm used to public transportation so I have few complaints about the free, clean and easy transportation that Disney provides. Standing for a 20 minute ride just isn't a big deal to me; a crowded bus isn't really that much more irritating to me than an empty one. We were just at Disney from 10/2 to 10/7 and we had to wait for a bus to AK from our resort one morning for 30 minutes, and that was the only long bus wait we had. We also had to wait for our boats to and from WL and MK but they were rarely more than 10 minutes and there were benches to sit on while waiting

 

[cjnix29]

I am a believer of what type of resort you stay at has to do with bus service. We were at AK last trip and waited 4 buses to get to a value resort while watching half empty buses leave for the deluxe resorts.

I don't think this is true at all. Actually, I think it's the opposite. The worst bus service ever is the Epcot resorts....they all share! So when you get on at the Boardwalk, you have to go to the Swan, Dolphin then Yacht/Beach! Horrible!!!!!! Takes forever!