Buses - how good really are they??

[Melora]

We have been about 10 times and never rented a car.

I love the buses and think of it as part of the Disney experience.

Once in a great while its been crowded but we always stay at Old Key West and its never as bad as some of the value resorts where the buses seem to be much more crowded at closing times

 

[StitchLives]

we have had good luck with the wdw buses

 

[NMW]

We have never had a problem with transportation at WDW. In fact, it's a major reason we love going to Disney. We take a limo to and from the airport and then use WDW transportation during our stay. I love it!

I drive my kids around so much I feel like a taxi. On vacation the last thing I want to do is drive.

 

[tnmomof4]

We stayed at ASMusic in November. We have also stayed here two other times.

We didn't have any bad experiences. There were a couple times we did have to wait for a bus. I would say at the most 20 minutes in November. There was at least one time in the summer that we waited 30 minutes. In all of these trips we never shared a bus with any of the other All-Star resorts in the morning, because the buses were full. Also, in all of these trips, the buses were full in the morning with people standing. This doesn't bother us at all though.

There were times we waited as little as 5 minutes-15 minutes.

There were a few times at night that we shared a bus going back to the resort. But that was because, we decided to go into the shops and buy things and look around, instead of rushing to the bus stops with 1,000s of other people. We much prefer to look around and take our time instead of rushing out of the park and having to stand in line. We did this one time, and we will never do it again. We did have to wait at least an hour for a bus when we rushed out with everyone else, because there were so many people in line.

The only other place we have waited for a bus to pick us up, was at DTD going back to ASMusic.

I agree with others, I like using the buses. My kids love riding them, even when crowded.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm starting to feel like people's opinions on the bus system is affected by their experiences using transit at home. If you normally take the bus in your city and are used to waiting a few minutes for your bus, standing when it's crowded, having it make multiple stops on its route, transferring to subway, el or another bus, you will think it is extremely good. WDW buses take you from your resort to the parks or DTD, or back again, with a minimal number of stops. At the All Stars for example, it would be a maximum of 2 extra stops, adding on average 2 to 5 minutes each to your total transportation time. No matter where you are going, you never have to make more than 1 transfer.

We rent a car and usually take the buses (depending on our plans for the day). I especially like taking the bus to MK, since you don't have to do the monorail -- ok to ride it a few times, but the whole parking, tram, monorail thing gets old very fast. I have never been on a bus that is so crowded I had to stand, but I usually have to stand on the monorail.

If, on the other hand, you don't use transit and drive everywhere at home, you may not like taking buses. Period.

I never take a bus at home, we don't have that option. But, the buses at WDW have usually worked just fine for us. Yes, they can take more time than a car. But, the way I figure it is if I want to pay for the ability to get from point A to point B faster, then fine. Just about the only time I would use a car in WDW would be to get to DTD. I had a rental car a year ago, had to use it to get to my dad's further south. On the way there, we drove from BWV to DTD. Man, I just was astounded to see how short a ride it really is. The Disney bus takes about 20 mins on top of the wait at the bus stop!!!

But, the buses to a great job for the number of people they need to move around. The one thing I'm a wee bit nervous about is that with the economy the way it is, Disney may make cuts in transportation...fewer drivers and fewer buses. Now...that wouldn't be good news.

 

[JPTexan82]

I think it might seem like a long time since your sitting there doing nothing????

 

[Disuser]

You will hear the good the bad and the evil of the Disney Buses, we have alwyas had good experiances, but we are pretty laid back travelers. I don't get upset is we miss rope drop by a few minutes b/c of the buses and we don't do a lot of ADR's so we are not on a strict time schedule.
This link has been very helpful in my planning it gives you the best route to take from place to place and an estimate of how long it will take you get their. You are going to be there during a pretty busy time so you can count on the buses being full. Have a great trip.

http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/asp/twiz.aspx

Thanks for posting this! It has been a huge help