Bus Wait Times 12/30 & 12/31

[brave321]

We will be at MK on 12/30 and Epcot on 12/31. We're staying at POR. Anyone have experience waiting for buses on those days? I really would like to know what the wait times are like leaving MK on 12/30? We're staying for the midnight fireworks and most likely for OUAT at 12:45 am. Will there still be a long line for buses at around 1 am? I was hoping we could sit out the mass exit after the fireworks but since they put OUAT later, I'm afraid people will stay to watch the show. If they do then we'll probably stay even later for wait times to go down. That would be bad considering we have to be up at 8 the next morning for our first Epcot FP (If I could have made that later I would have, but I couldn't so it's just the way it is). I want us to get as much sleep as possible, but have heard horror stories of people waiting 3 hours to get back to their room. Any experience with these dates?

 

[FastPasser.]

but have heard horror stories of people waiting 3 hours to get back to their room.

Don't know where you heard that, but I'd stop listening.

 

[supersnoop]

heard horror stories of people waiting 3 hours to get back to their room

That may be a slight exaggeration, but it’s realky the traffic that’s going to slow you down. It took us two hours to get to Epcot in 12/31, but that was around noon.

 

[AngiTN]

I decided that I wasn't willing to risk any traffic, either waits on buses or on the roads.
So we are staying at CR on the 30th and BWI on the 31st, so we can walk back and forth from the parks.
We are sandwiching the trip at POFQ on either side though.
In your case, I would consider the FQ buses over the Riverside buses, if for no reason other than the resort is smaller and you'll likely have a smaller crowd waiting for the bus.

 

[Gehrig1B]

The 30th at MK has EMH until 3:00 am so that may help you a bit as some (maybe us) will stay well beyond the 1:00 closing. We were at Epcot for the NYE fireworks and the journey to WL by bus took all of two+ hours. We should have used the International Gateway, live and learn!

 

[Disneylover99]

We stayed at POFQ last year during that time. We had zero issues with the buses at 1am from MK on the 30th and we left Epcot on the 31st at about 1:30am. No lines. No problems at that time of the morning. There were plenty of cars on the road, but it really didn't affect traffic for our bus. We were in bed by 2am.

 

[Thing 1]

I wonder what Uber or the Minnie Buses would be like?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I wonder what Uber or the Minnie Buses would be like?

It’ll be a good night to be an Uber or Lyft driver, that’s for sure.

 

[brave321]

We stayed at POFQ last year during that time. We had zero issues with the buses at 1am from MK on the 30th and we left Epcot on the 31st at about 1:30am. No lines. No problems at that time of the morning. There were plenty of cars on the road, but it really didn't affect traffic for our bus. We were in bed by 2am.

That's good to hear! Hopefully it will be like that again this year

 

[brave321]

The 30th at MK has EMH until 3:00 am so that may help you a bit as some (maybe us) will stay well beyond the 1:00 closing. We were at Epcot for the NYE fireworks and the journey to WL by bus took all of two+ hours. We should have used the International Gateway, live and learn!

I wish we could make use oft the EMH at MK but since our day at Epcot starts so early, it's better that we get some sleep. We'll be in WS after the fireworks so we might stop by IG to see what the lines are like... maybe we'll get lucky

 

[AngiTN]

I wonder what Uber or the Minnie Buses would be like?

I'd expect waits or no availability of Minnie Vans.
Uber/Lyft will likely be under Surge pricing but available. At least, if I was a driver in the area I know where I'd be hanging out for sure. I'm guessing, but I'd rather have Disney guests to drive back to their Resort than locals who've been out partying downtown, who may have really overdone it. You tend to have fewer who overdo at Disney (though still some I'm sure)

 

[AngiTN]

I wish we could make use oft the EMH at MK but since our day at Epcot starts so early, it's better that we get some sleep. We'll be in WS after the fireworks so we might stop by IG to see what the lines are like... maybe we'll get lucky

I planned all late days so we can take advantage of the late nights. We have to check out of CR on the 31st so that's the only thing that we'll do, get up in time to check out at 11:00. We aren't planning to be at Epcot till after that.