Buses @ SSR?

[Vidia]

Anyone have any experience w/ the buses @ SSR? Haven't stayed there yet; but, we stayed at the Dolphin last summer, and the worst day of our trip was when we ventured to DTD. Getting a bus to and from Down town to the swan was horrific.

I'd assume it's easier to go from SSR to the 4 parks, no?

 

[ACDSNY]

We've had great bus service at SSR when we've stayed. We've always stayed in Congress Park so we walk to DTD.

 

[pms122765]

My wife stayed once & the family once. Not many problems.

Seems Saratoga is too spread out & not much there.

 

[Ariel8676]

We have never had problems with the busses at SSR

 

[jprsrethi]

We never had a problem with the buses at SSR. If you want to go to DTD it is a pretty quick and nice walk. We stayed in the Springs section and it was real close to DTD DisneyQuest. The path entrance is just on the other side of the check in. I think you will have a great time.

 

[starbox]

We've stayed at many of the Disney resorts and have used bus transportation from just about everywhere at least once. In our experience, SSR has the most efficient bus transportation on property. It is a spread-out resort, but does not have anywhere near the number of guest rooms that the mods and values have - so bus crowding is not as much of an issue as it is somewhere like POR or CRB. Unlike the values, there are numerous bus stops so you don't have to walk to one central location to catach a bus. Unlike the deluxe resorts, you don't have to share a bus with other resorts - making travel 100x more efficient. You can easily walk or boat to DTD.

 

[purpliequeen]

Great bus transportation and also a great walk to DTD.

 

[cncDisney4]

We haven't had problems with the bus service at SSR on our stays. Now, last December we did have to wait 20 minutes a few times but that was on the 24th and 25th of December and I really expected that kind of wait. Other than that, we walk to DTD and enjoy that very much - that is one of the major reasons we love SSR.

We did have an ADR at 'Ohana's one night and decided to walk to DTD and catch the Poly bus - we thought this would be faster than taking the MK bus from SSR and then catching the monorail to Poly. Well, I think it would have been faster to take the MK route. We waited quite awhile for the Poly bus at DTD and kind of sweated it out. This December we are going to catch the MK bus early - go visit a few things in MK - catch the monorail to Poly and oh yea, we're doing the Wishes Cruise leaving from Poly before our ADR at 'Ohana's - what a night!!! Can't wait!

 

[TnTsParty]

Just back from SSR and only didn't have too long of wait for buses. The only thing was a little wait for AK this AM - it was EMH so we got out there about 7:45 and the first bus we saw to AK was at 8:05 - after the park already opened - but the bus driver made up for that. He was a great bus driver, just the kind you need that early in the AM. He noticed that it was my bday so he had the whole bus sing me happy bday and when we got off the bus he gave me a Mickey pin and a Goofy figure. The whole bus ride he entertained us - with witty bantor and facts/trivia about WDW.

 

[dvc at last !]

We were at SSR in October. No bus problems.
Remember that you can also walk to DD or take the boat to DD, too.

 

[Hibernians]

We were also there in October and had no problems and I will say that the SSR buses were never crowded when we were picked up at the parks; we always were able to get a seat for the 6 of us.
There were a few occasions when taking the bus from SSR we had to stand and that's because our stop was the last stop on the route - there are 4 bus stops within the resort.
Compared to my experiences at other resorts, this was the best transportation system.

 

[disneybride96]

We actually find the Swan/Dolphin/YC/BC/BW loop to be much slower than SSR. SSR pretty much has it's own dedicated loop. (occasional stops at Typhoon Lagoon) The stops at all 5 hotels drives me nuts!

 

[HUFF590]

We were there Nov 11-17 and had no bus problems, and after 6 trips to SSR no problems yet. Enjoy

 

[NCRedding]

I'll be the sole dissenter thus far. I was at SSR in January, and started the trip without a rental car. By the second day, I was calling National to rent a car. We were trying to cover alot of ground, and do lots of park hopping, and the buses were not working with us. We were much happier with the rental car for the rest of the trip.

 

[starbox]

I'll be the sole dissenter thus far. I was at SSR in January, and started the trip without a rental car. By the second day, I was calling National to rent a car. We were trying to cover alot of ground, and do lots of park hopping, and the buses were not working with us. We were much happier with the rental car for the rest of the trip.

You have to know what you are getting into with Disney transportation. The most efficient boat/bus system will still likely always be slower (sometimes A LOT slower) than driving. In fact, I'd bet that driving would get you to the future world part of EPCOT more quickly than walking from BWV. Using Disney transport is not for everyone - especially not for those with a low tolerance for public transportation in general. The busses we've waited longest for have alwasy been park-hopping busses, so if you are planning to park-hop more than once or twice, Disney Transport may prove frustrating.

That said, SSR does have the best bus transport on Disney property. They run more busses, they have dedicated busses, the "loop" the busses take seems more straight-forward and efficient than the OKW busses, and you are a short 5 minute walk away from the DTD transport center where you can easily pick up a bus to any resort on property for recreation/dining.

We are a Disney Transportataion-riding family (my kids actually complain when we get in the car because we are "ruining the magic" in their opinion). Because of this, I've ridden Disney busses to and from just about everywhere. The worst bus service was at the Grand Floridian. We waited almost 45 minutes for a bus to DTD. Not only was there not a DTD bus, we did not see ANY busses for over 20 minutes.

Second worst bus service was at OKW - just too few busses running. We were late for the opening of AK because we waited over 30 minutes for a bus. We had such a long wait one evening after laeving MK that we saw (no kidding) THREE SSR busses come and go before the first OKW bus. By that time, the line was so backed up that we did not get on until the second bus and then, there was still a line.

I've never ridden the busses at CBR or at an all star, but I'd rank the other resorts bus service like this. The deluxes rate the lowest, of course they have the monorail or/access to EPCOT - but if you want a bus elsewhere be prepared to wait, to stop at a ton of other resorts, and be crowded.

Best to Worst Bus Service:
1. SSR
2. CSR
3. POR
4. POP
5. WL
6. AKL
7. OKW
8. YC/BC/BWV/Swan/Dolphin
9. GF/POLY/CR

 

[Fitswimmer]

We just got back on Wednesday and we seemed to time all the buses wrong. We waited at least 20 minutes for every park bus. We were in the Paddock, right behind the bus stop. On Tuesday, we were waiting for the MK bus for at least 30 minutes. Once it finally came, it filled up with the first two stops and the driver had to call for another bus to pick up two guests in ECV's at the third stop by the pool. Leaving the parks was better, we never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus to appear. I just assumed that we always just missed the bus we were waiting for at the resort.

 

[chrissybear]

TnTsParty, we were on that bus to AK too. I think the Driver's name was Dave, from Brooklyn. He was the best.

 

[Starr W.]

Our first disney trip and I thought the bus service from SSR was great. Had to stand only twice and that was Thanksgiving Day(and that was AK to Fort Wilderness Campground and from MK to SSR, we did Hoopy-Dee-Doo that night).

 

[Nedlo2]

We just spent a week at SSR and I would say the bus service was a little slow. We seemed to wait 15 to 20 minutes both to and from the Parks. The worse seemed to be MK. One morning we waited 35 minutes for a bus. In fact, two MGM buses came before one MK bus even showed up Could have been bad timing, but then we had bad timing the whole week.