busses to & from POP

[Jenny]

overall, we either walked on or waited 5 or 10 min so it was great. 2 things not so great happened....one night from epcot, we got in line behind one family at 8:45 to beat the illuminations crowds. there were several, maybe 20+ busses, sitting idle on the far side of the parking lot, we figured they were waiting for the illuminations crowds? not one, came over to get us. we figured at least they'd radio some one to get us...no one came. it was a cold, windy night w/ 2 tired babies....finally, at 9:15 our bus came - a 30 min. wait...it was really miserable & i don't know why it happened as POP told me at guest relations that it should be no more than 20 min. & more often, less than 20 min. off season, i don't think this should have happened. also, a word of advice, read the signs for your pick-up...sounds simple but on our first day, we decided to rely on the info. from the morning bus driver. she said pick-up at stop # (let's say 18) in the p.m. so that's what we did. this was at mgm, after fantasmic we walked to that bus stop which was the furthest one only to find out that our stop was right at the park exit. so just read the signs instead of relying on the info given by the drivers.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

You think that's bad. Try waiting for a Pop bus at MK after Wishes. They have 2 queues full. They finally had to stack 3 busses to load most of the people. It took us over an hour to get back to Pop.

 

[Jenny]

an hour?....i'll be grateful that i waited 30 min. - i can see a wait after a show gets out with tons of people waiting...somewhat understandable (but not an hour) - we stood there w/ one family in front of us for a long time & then a small line came behind us & illuminations was still going on - just don't get it.

 

[seashoreCM]

How many people were there when you waited 30 minutes?

The bus drivers at the far side of the lot are told when to take off and whom to pick up, and your stop didn't have enough people to add another bus to the schedule. There are already buses cycling among the resorts and the parks and yours may have been delayed on the way over.

Resorts that don't have as much traffic have a published 30 minute wait between buses rather than 20.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Jenny]

unfortunately for us, it sounds like we didn't have enough people at the stop - so much for leaving before the illuminations crowd. it was just so difficult to stare at the busses across the lot w/ 2 small kids wanting to go home. there was a family of 4 & we were a family of 5 plus a couple behind us so 11 including the babies for most of the 30 min. the family of 5 arrived 5 or 10 minutes before us. Around the 20-30 min. mark of our wait maybe 20 more people came then the bus came soon thereafter. i'm not crazy about the 30 min. policy but i would have liked to have known it before i went out & stood in a desolate parking lot. good to know for our next trip - we'll exit parks w/ more a crowd if possible, i guess.