Buses at OKW?

[rmoody44]

I have to admit after our last trip in December I said we would rent a car and never do the buses again. But I've been told buses at OKW are easy and not much wait.

My first time staying at a DVC resort and is it true there's less waiting for the buses? Do they stop other places on the way to and from the parks? Besides all the stops at OKW, I mean. Does it depend on the time of year?

 

[OKWMom]

It may depend on the time of year, but I have been to OKW for the past three Decembers. We have found the bus service to be spotty at best. It is much quicker to drive to each of the parks than to take the bus. After much discussion on the boards about it being to take the bus into MK instead of having to park at the TTC and ferry or monorail in, my husband and I decided to test the theory. We went to the MK 3 of our 8 days. Each of those three days, I drove to TTC and rode the monorail in (too cold for me to take the ferry). He took the bus. On days one and two of our test, he waited at the closest stop to our villa, I believe Miller Road. I beat him both of those days. On day three, he walked to the Hospitality House to catch the bus. We got there at roughly the same time. He may have beaten me by 30 seconds.

 

[Doctor P]

Our experience has been that the bus service at OKW is EXCELLENT. Rivals the best of any DVC resort. OKW generally does not share its buses with any other resort at any time of day. Its proximity to DD means getting from resort to resort on the buses is quite easy (only SSR is better in this regard). Part of the trick is to we try to catch the buses at HH each time (we generally walk over there from our villa--we prefer to stay in the Peninsular Road area). We have been there at Christmas/New Year's, President's Day week, March, July, and early December and had the same experience each time. Is the system perfect? No. Does it generally work and work well? Yes, in our experience.

 

[dianeschlicht]

My experience has been like DoctorP's! We have had 20 plus stays at OKW, and I can tell you that the bus will USUALLY get you there faster than a car will. With driving, you have to find a parking spot, wait for the tram and wait while it picks up and drops off others before it drops you off at the park. Sometimes that will be farther from the gate than the bus stop too. Then when you want to go back, you have to try and remember which part of the lot you parked in, and still find your car! We have often had groups split up with some taking a car and others taking the bus. The bus people almost always get "home" before the car people. This is epsecially true from Epcot and MK. Usually true from MGM too, but almost never true from AK. AK is the one place it makes sense to drive to because the bus stops at Blizzard Beach first. All other OKW buses go directly from OKW to their destination without further stops.

 

[castleri]

My experience has been like DoctorP's! We have had 20 plus stays at OKW, and I can tell you that the bus will USUALLY get you there faster than a car will. With driving, you have to find a parking spot, wait for the tram and wait while it picks up and drops off others before it drops you off at the park. Sometimes that will be farther from the gate than the bus stop too. Then when you want to go back, you have to try and remember which part of the lot you parked in, and still find your car! We have often had groups split up with some taking a car and others taking the bus. The bus people almost always get "home" before the car people. This is epsecially true from Epcot and MK. Usually true from MGM too, but almost never true from AK. AK is the one place it makes sense to drive to because the bus stops at Blizzard Beach first. All other OKW buses go directly from OKW to their destination without further stops.

I agree with both DoctorP and Diane - My other deciding factor is I would rather wait in line for the bus at MK than for the monorail or ferry and then the tram before having to wait in the line of cars to get into the traffic if you are leaving at park closing. Maybe since we have been DVC members long enough to not have the need to be everywhere as fast as possible I don't see waiting an extra few minutes as any big deal when it is taken in relation to my whole vacation trip. I really love leaving the driving to someone else - except as you pointed out sometimes to AK since it closes early and you don't end up with the heavy traffic when leaving. We also drive to the water parks most of the time.

 

[mkrober]

To me, the transportation system at Disney is good enough that I park my vehicle when we arrive at WDW and don't move it until we go home. There is no "Magic" in traffic and parking.

 

[dianeschlicht]

To me, the transportation system at Disney is good enough that I park my vehicle when we arrive at WDW and don't move it until we go home. There is no "Magic" in traffic and parking.

yep, Us too! We only use the car to go for groceries and to dinner ressies at other resorts, since resort to resort transportation is the one thing that does not work as well at Disney as the park to resort transportation.