buses from AKV

[radmcg]

We were thinking of spending a split stay at BLT and AKV. Have never stayed at AKV. What are the bus routes like from there? The main ones we ride are to the Magic kingdom and Epcot. Number of stops, crowds etc.
AHA
Rad

 

[MontyMinnie]

I have never stayed at the AKV but I have stayed at Jumbo House 4 or 5 times. I find the buses are typically not crowded. The only occasions during which they were crowded were during park closing heading back to the hotel, but this is the case with almost every hotel. The bus ride to Epcot is a manageable length, but can be perceived as lengthy because the combined time of waiting for the bus at the Hotel and ride time can easily reach 60 minutes. We always planned for this though and allotted an hour to travel to and from the parks each way. The MK bus ride is worst of all the bus rides. On a good day where you arrive at the stop just as the bus arrives it may only take 35 to 40 minutes to get to the parks, but on days when you just missed a bus and have to wait for the next, it can take at least an hour if not longer to journey to MK. The bus picks up at both Jumbo and Kidani every trip.

 

[drusba]

There are two stops at AKL, the Kidani building and the Jambo building. For parks, buses run Kidani to Jambo to park, for Downtown Disney, Jambo to Kidani to DD. The DD bus also stops at Typhoon Lagoon when it is open and the studios bus at Blizzard Beach. Some chance of having to stand during early morning rush if you board at Jambo and some chance for the same when returning from park right after MK fireworks, Illuminations, or Fantasmic.

I have found buses at AKL to be fairly reliable and better than others. Run to AKL is about 10 minutes, run to other parks about 20 to 25 minutes once you are loaded at the resort, more when water park is a stop.

 

[abdgeek]

I stayed at AKV in November during F&W. The buses were fine, just be aware that the trip to the parks takes longer(except AK) because of where the resort is located. All except the DTD bus stops at Kidani first. If you want to eat somewhere other than at Sanaa, you need to go to Jambo. There is a shuttle that leaves every 10 minutes from the front of the resort.

The animals at AKV are great, but I'm not sure I'd want to stay here again just because the buses do take a little longer to get to the parks. I always get the dining plan, so I eat at the other resorts a lot and don't rent a car when I come to WDW. Most of the time I took the bus to the MK and got on the resort bus I wanted; however, having to always allow 90 min to get to the resort I wanted got tiring and I was only there 3 days. I usually stay at BLT or SS, though I've stayed at all but two DVC resorts(WL and BC).

 

[goofy4tink]

No better or worse than at any other resort...except for maybe the values!!! I've stayed at Kidani several times and at Jambo House several times. I have only had a bus issue once.....and that was a huge wait at MK to get back to the resort. Not sure what the issue was, but it was only the one time.
As far as routes go....buses go to Kidani first, with the exception of the DHS bus (I think!!). That one goes to Jambo House first, then over to Kidani. If at Jambo H you may find the buses to be a bit more crowded than when boarding at Kidani.
Because this resort is the most distant, you will find time spent on the bus to all areas, other than AK, to be longer than usual.

 

[erionm]

As far as routes go....buses go to Kidani first, with the exception of the DHS bus (I think!!). That one goes to Jambo House first, then over to Kidani.

Buses headed to a Theme Park stop at Kidani Village first, then Jambo House.
Buses headed to Downtown Disney stop at Jambo House first, then Kidani Village.

 

[goofy4tink]

Buses headed to a Theme Park stop at Kidani Village first, then Jambo House.
Buses headed to Downtown Disney stop at Jambo House first, then Kidani Village.

DUH....I knew it was one of the 'D' destinations. I stand corrected.

 

[CruznLexi]

We stay at KV for first on and off. The longest ride is to MK which takes about 20 min. Hollywood and Epcot take about 15 and AK about 10. We find the bus service very good. We have never had to wait for very long maybe 10 min but we did have to wait for over 40 min for the BC one time when going from MK to BC.

 

[montrealdisneylovers]

We are BLT owners and have only stayed there on our annual 4 night visits. We leave our car parked and take the buses to Downtown Disney and any other park (except Epcot we use the monorail). Up until now, we have never waited more that 15 minutes for any of the buses to our destination.

This past trip, we decided to check out AKV. We walked over to the bus depot at MK and waited a good 20 minutes to catch the bus to AKV. We were not the first in line, so I do not believe that we just "missed" a bus.

We toured the lodge and enjoyed the animals out back. Then it was time to head back to MK. We waited and waited and waited for a MK bus to arrive. Finally, when the 3rd Epcot bus showed up, we decided to hop on that and take the monorail back to our resort. This was certainly NOT a good impression of the bus service at AKV. We decided that it is not a resort we would want to stay at for any lenght of time.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We never had any problems with buses from AKV once we got to the bus stop. But boy, that walk to the bus stop was killer. We were in one of the farthest "beads" in Kidani.

 

[cvjw]

We just returned from our 3rd stay at KV. I timed the bus from the time it left MK to the KV bus stop - it was 25 minutes that night. We have always had great bus service at KV, but I will say that I got really tired of the bus ride home from the MK. It was always standing room only on every bus, with my family standing. It was always so hot on the bus, and I felt nauseous by the time we finally reached KV. We started driving our car to the other theme parks, but had no choice but to ride the bus to the MK.

 

[blackacex2]

Rent a car at AKL next time and be free of the bus!!

 

[discott71]

We've stayed at Kidani 3 times & have been very happy with the bus service. Once in May & 2 Thanksgiving trips. AK, Epcot & DHS are all 20 - 25 min trips - assuming a bus arrives within 5 - 10 min of getting to the stop. We won't stay at Jambo because they are the 2nd ones to be picked up & dropped off! So at Kidani we always have a seat & after a day at the parks we are the first ones to be dropped off at home. We've also stayed at BLT in Oct (9 days) & other than walking to the MK, I thought the transportation was horrible! It took an hour to get any where because the bus stopped at other resorts - WL, Poly & GF. Talk about crowded!! While the monorail to Epcot was fun, that also took about 35 minutes. We've also stayed at SSR & while the busses aren't the greatest there I still don't think they were as bad as BLT! That's why I don't get why there are so many complaints about AKV busses. AKV may be further out but there aren't multiple stops to other resorts which saves lots of time. I will agree the trip to the MK from AKV is a hike and you can't beat walking there, but overall we've been very happy with the transport from AKV. Lastly, at most of the parks it's one of the 1st bus stops so when you're leaving from the park exhausted you have a shorter walk to the bus stop! We'll be staying there again in August!