Buses at BLT/Contemporary - my one serious complaint here

[cmwilson523]

This is our third stay at BLT in as many years. No complaints on the rooms or the service, except for the buses, and my heavens are they awful. The Hollywood Studios service seems to be the worst with waits of at best half an hour if you get a bus, and then crowds can be stacked up three or four buses worth. (They then have to pick up at Poly after this.) To make it worse, when we were waiting the other morning, and a CM called for the bus to find out where it was after none showed up more than 30 minutes into the wait, the driver was sitting at the MK. Just sitting there for who knows how long. ??? We and several other families were late to breakfast reservations.

Going to HS another morning it was stacked up so badly that we took the monorail to TTC, then Epcot, then a bus to HS, which took 52 minutes, but that was a shorter wait than sitting with all the people waiting for buses at the resort.

The buses for Downtown Disney and AK are not much better. Had to take a bus back from AK to Grand Floridian and monorail back to the resort rather than keep waiting for the bus this afternoon. Downtown Disney bus line was such a wreck the other night that we had to resort hop to get to the MK and walk home.

The CMs working this area seem to realize this is a problem because they are so nervous working the area they barely are able to talk to all the guests asking when a bus will get there, but how this has not made it up the chain to improve in 3 years I do not know.

I will give feedback again when we get back but it seems that it hits deaf ears. I don't expect better bus service just because this is a deluxe resort, but shouldn't it be at least as good as any other resort? Are they assuming that people here all have cars? Seems to be a stupid assumption given the reality at the bus stop every day.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC is billed for transportation and BLT owners pay for the buses there.

Because of this you should express your displeasure to DVC and Disney.

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Bill

 

[JessLCH]

This is our third stay at BLT in as many years. No complaints on the rooms or the service, except for the buses, and my heavens are they awful. The Hollywood Studios service seems to be the worst with waits of at best half an hour if you get a bus, and then crowds can be stacked up three or four buses worth. (They then have to pick up at Poly after this.) To make it worse, when we were waiting the other morning, and a CM called for the bus to find out where it was after none showed up more than 30 minutes into the wait, the driver was sitting at the MK. Just sitting there for who knows how long. ??? We and several other families were late to breakfast reservations.

Going to HS another morning it was stacked up so badly that we took the monorail to TTC, then Epcot, then a bus to HS, which took 52 minutes, but that was a shorter wait than sitting with all the people waiting for buses at the resort.

The buses for Downtown Disney and AK are not much better. Had to take a bus back from AK to Grand Floridian and monorail back to the resort rather than keep waiting for the bus this afternoon. Downtown Disney bus line was such a wreck the other night that we had to resort hop to get to the MK and walk home.

The CMs working this area seem to realize this is a problem because they are so nervous working the area they barely are able to talk to all the guests asking when a bus will get there, but how this has not made it up the chain to improve in 3 years I do not know.

I will give feedback again when we get back but it seems that it hits deaf ears. I don't expect better bus service just because this is a deluxe resort, but shouldn't it be at least as good as any other resort? Are they assuming that people here all have cars? Seems to be a stupid assumption given the reality at the bus stop every day.

I agree the buses are bad. I had a terrible experience trying to get back from HS last year.

 

[JessLCH]

I agree the buses are bad. I had a terrible experience trying to get back from HS last year.

I was actually thinking that for our upcoming trip we would try to use the buses to and from MK when going to AK and HS and see how that goes. The MK bus stop is just across from BLT and hopefully that would eliminate multiple resort stops at least.

 

[cmwilson523]

DVC is billed for transportation and BLT owners pay for the buses there.

Because of this you should express your displeasure to DVC and Disney.

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Bill

This is helpful, Bill. Maybe the complaints will get through to someone who will care more than whoever picks up the survey responses. We have been DVC members for 14 years (home resort is Vero due to a special they were running there when we bought in that we could not pass up...) and do actually care that our fellow DVC members foot the bill for this mess.

I will not only write in on the survey, but will send individual emails to both of these addresses.

 

[cmwilson523]

The emails to Guest Services and DVC have actually gotten some attention. I got a call at home today from DVC and had a long conversation with a member of the DVC Executive Team. I had an email yesterday from a Guest Services CM who has been trying to get me by phone (at home during the week, which never works since I am employed outside the home). I will talk to her next week.

Will be interesting to see what changes might be made, but the DVC rep seemed to actually care and said that they had not considered my perspective that adding BLT to the Contemporary in place of the former North Garden Wing was not a one to one replacement, but in effect adding an entirely new resort population to the number of people who would be using the buses there. She said that they would definitely be in touch with Transportation to see how they can make improvements.

I'm just glad to get a real response and the hope of someone doing something about the problem.

 

[ParkHoppers]

I agree the bus service can be bad but I feel it can be bad at EVERY resort. One good thing is Contemporary/BLT is at least the first stop for the pickups. I feel it is worst for the Poly and GF which are after BLT pickup. Also being on the monorail at least means no buses for MK and Epcot which I personally love.

 

[disneynutz]

The emails to Guest Services and DVC have actually gotten some attention. I got a call at home today from DVC and had a long conversation with a member of the DVC Executive Team. I had an email yesterday from a Guest Services CM who has been trying to get me by phone (at home during the week, which never works since I am employed outside the home). I will talk to her next week.

Will be interesting to see what changes might be made, but the DVC rep seemed to actually care and said that they had not considered my perspective that adding BLT to the Contemporary in place of the former North Garden Wing was not a one to one replacement, but in effect adding an entirely new resort population to the number of people who would be using the buses there. She said that they would definitely be in touch with Transportation to see how they can make improvements.

I'm just glad to get a real response and the hope of someone doing something about the problem.

When it comes to DVC budget items, we don't know how the categories are broken down, how we are billed and what happens behind the curtain. I also know that DVC is a separate company and treated by the other Disney units as if they are a separate company. Transportation could modify the DVC resort bus schedules or availability but the non-DVC resorts would also have to agree to the increased costs because the buses are shared.

As owners we need to keep letting Disney and DVC know how they are doing but the Mouse moves slowly and they need a monetary reason to make change.

Bill

 

[Minniesgal]

We tend not to use the buses and go instead to the TTC or take a bus to a resort and transfer from the MK because the buses are so bad.

 

[PleasejointheFarque]

BLT= car hire

monorails are too busy, buses are few and far between, and when they get there they are standing room only.

The easiest resort I think we have found to get anywhere from, believe it or not is AKL....maybe because they are so far away they try extra hard re transport.


YMMV

 

[DougEMG]

On our last trip staying at the BLT and VGF we found that we spent nearly all our time going to MK and not even bothering to take the bus to any of the other parks. Then when we switch to the Epcot resorts we did Epcot and DHS. AK got the short end of it. Does make it a nice way to avoid buses by doing split stays.

 

[McCrae]

I agree the bus service can be bad but I feel it can be bad at EVERY resort. One good thing is Contemporary/BLT is at least the first stop for the pickups. I feel it is worst for the Poly and GF which are after BLT pickup. Also being on the monorail at least means no buses for MK and Epcot which I personally love.

Generally the bus service is pretty good. The service from BLT is no better or worse than any resort.

The service is not perfect and as Disney recommends you should give yourself plenty of time to get to a destination. If you do this you shoukdn't have a problem. If you run things on a tight schedule you run the risk of being late.

 

[CarolMN]

On our last trip staying at the BLT and VGF we found that we spent nearly all our time going to MK and not even bothering to take the bus to any of the other parks. Then when we switch to the Epcot resorts we did Epcot and DHS. AK got the short end of it. Does make it a nice way to avoid buses by doing split stays.

I agree with you. In the past, I refused to do split stays - just hated moving. Still don't like it, but 2 nights at BLT followed by 5 or 6 at the BWV is becoming a frequent choice, LOL. So nice to walk to and from the MK and so nice to walk to and from EPCOT & DHS. I like AK, but usually only spend one day there. Have been avoiding DTD due to the unpredictable bus service there.

We prefer not to rent a car unless we plan to visit non-Disney attractions.

 

[epcotized]

We were at BLT the week before the OP and were surprised that we just happened to get onto the buses there with 1 - 15 minute waits. I know this will go the other way some day.

Taking a bus from Epcot to visit another resort, however, was a 50 minute wait just to board at 5 o'clock. With a driver changing shifts it seemed like he had been going extra slow to get a few more minutes on the clock.

 

[jade1]

Hate buses.

Split stays at BLT and BCV (or BWV)-only way to go.