Bus transportation

[taratony]

We are planning a trip the week before Presidents Day weekend in February 2013. Planning on staying at a Moderate Resort, but were very disenchanted with a early December trip in 2009 at the Carribbean Beach Resort with the bus transportation. From reports, the time of year we plan on coming is rated an average of 4 out of 10 as far as busy times of year. Have any of you had better experiences with the busses from one Moderate over the others? Thanks!

 

[twinboysmom]

We had great experiences in April at cbr and great experiences in June at CSR. You just never know what you are going to get. We also usually do not like the buses and prefer to drive but it worked out well for us those trips. I woukd advise not picking your resort based on what someone tells you about the buses. Sometimes you luck up and sometimes you don't. I have read and good and bad reports from every resort.

 

[dansdad]

This post by CleveRocks is the best response to a bus question like this.

The bus service is pretty much the same at all resorts; buses to each destination are supposed to run on average about every 20 minutes. So why do so many people insist it's bad one place and good at another? Human nature, or at least two aspects of human nature. One is a phenomenon you can call the "grass is always greener" effect (everyone else's experience seems better than our own), and the other is the mistaken assumption that what happens to us once is the way it usually is for most people at most times.

"The grass is always greener ...." For EVERY resort, you can find posts from people saying something like this: "We waited forever at closing time at Magic Kingdom for a bus to (our resort) while we watched 4 buses from (another resort) drive on by." Seriously, there's not a resort this hasn't been written about.

The second point is perhaps the more important point. Just because you have a not-so-great experience with buses at a resort doesn't mean the bus service stinks. It could mean they were having a rough day or two. But more likely it means that you were just unlucky with timing.

My example is my stay at Polynesian a couple years ago. We noticed by our second or third day that we never, and I mean NEVER, waited more than about 2 minutes for whatever bus we wanted, whether going from resort to park or park to resort. So we started to joke about it as we walked up to the Poly bus stop in the morning or to a park bus stop when leaving a park, but it always worked that way for that entire week.

So, should we conclude from that that Polynesian has the best bus service ever? Absolutely NOT. It just means our timing was very lucky. Imagine another family that did everything exactly like we did, only they always did it exactly 2 minutes later than we did. They would've had a dreadful bus experience, as they would've waited almost 20 minutes for every single bus for an entire week. Does their bad experience mean Poly has bad bus service? Of course not, just like my great experience doesn't mean it has the best bus service.

In the same way, my great bus service at Caribbean Beach Resort in 2005 and my so-so bus service at Port Orleans French Quarter in 2006 DOESN'T mean that CBR's bus service is better than POFQ's, it just means that my individual experiences on those exact days was better at CBR than at POFQ.

And that's why we read such mixed reviews of bus service at various resorts. Just because someone had a lot of wait time doesn't mean the bus service stinks.

I strongly advise you to pick a Moderate resort based on the theme, as well as the small ways they differ in amenities.

IMHO, it's not a good idea to base a resort decision on any reviews of the buses related to that resort.