Disappointed - back from POR

[emmabemmainc]

We stayed in September also and had the exact same problems--although, we also had long waits sometimes to get to the parks as well. The first few days were wonderful, and then it all went downhill.
We would sit at the main bus pick up place (right in front of the check-in/store building) for up to 40 minutes for a bus. We would see numerous buses come for Blizzard Beach/Animal Kingdom--and for every 5 of these buses, there would be 1 bus to Epcot or 1 bus to Magic Kingdom. It was horrible. It became a running joke for everyone sitting there.
The bus rides home were even worse. I know what the PP meant by saying that they could tell which line was for POR/POFQ based on how long it was! I can't even begin to tell you how many times we waited over an hour to get on a bus after a day at the park--and that is unacceptable to me.
And this was during an off peak time--imagine what it's like around Christmas or Spring Break???

 

[smidgy]

. . I with WDW had a policy that all children at least under 5 years needed to have a seat. .

my hubby almost NEVER sits. (and he has had 5 foot surgeries, not visible) I give up my seat to the elderly, children, or parents with small kids. HOWEVER, It bothers me when children under 5 insist on their OWN seat, instead of sitting on mommy or daddy's lap (to free up one more seat). I've seen elderly people balancing precariously while a family of 4 take up 4 seats when the 3 and 4 years olds could easily sit on laps(no packages, etc).

another pet peeve: when people won't move to the back of the bus so more can fit on.

like it says in High School Musical: "we're all in this together"!!

 

[Cee]

We always just get on whatever bus comes first. Going back, it's a crap shoot.
Sometimes a wait, sometimes not so much. The only really long waits I can
remember was a Dec. at the Disney Institute. I realized pretty quick that you
can never be in a hurry when taking Disney Transportation. Like a friend of mine
always says, "Waddaya want for free?" Point taken.

 

[mikkiwikki]

I agree. We just got back from POR and the resort was not full and the theme parks were quite quiet.

We absolutely loved POR but we always took our own car to the parks and never used the buses. If you're willing to use your own car, I think POR is a wonderful place to stay.

If I have to rent a car, I can think of a million other places to stay. Seriously the only reason for me to stay on site is never having to step into a car while Im on vacation. The transportation has got to work. If that is not working - deluxe here I come! *Actually we stayed at CBR over thanksgiving and the buses were a dream! Maybe POR has gotten too much hype, and the crowds are there. Maybe give CBR a try?

 

[mikkiwikki]

I agree with the bus service. We left MVMCP at 11 and the line for POR was horrendous. There were almost no waits at other resorts; as the busses were pulling off another was pulling up for that resort. We watched three busses leave for WL while waiting for one to POR. And then when it gets there we are jammed pack on the bus like sardines because everyone wants to go home. That was probably the worst of it during our stay, but we drove two days out of five. DH and I strolled around WL one morning and we both decided that is where we will be on our next trip.

Just another of the many reasons why our family will never do MVMCP again.
We stayed at POR in 2005....ugh. I will never pay for treatment like that again.

 

[emmabemmainc]

We always just get on whatever bus comes first. Going back, it's a crap shoot.
Sometimes a wait, sometimes not so much. The only really long waits I can
remember was a Dec. at the Disney Institute. I realized pretty quick that you
can never be in a hurry when taking Disney Transportation. Like a friend of mine
always says, "Waddaya want for free?" Point taken.

How do you get on whatever bus comes first??? Aren't you going to a specific place? Why would you get on an AK bus if you were going to MK that day? Sorry, I'm so confused!

I also don't believe that Disney transportation is free. Nothing is free at WDW. I'm sure they factor that into your hotel costs. It's the same
"price" at other resorts and I've heard much more positive accounts of what happened to them than what has happened to many POR guests. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Lilolvr]

We always just get on whatever bus comes first. Going back, it's a crap shoot.
Sometimes a wait, sometimes not so much. The only really long waits I can
remember was a Dec. at the Disney Institute. I realized pretty quick that you
can never be in a hurry when taking Disney Transportation. Like a friend of mine
always says, "Waddaya want for free?" Point taken.

That's understandable if all resort transportation was like that but it's not. The resorts that don't share don't have this issue.

 

[mom22boys]

To all of those who have had trouble leaving the parks to head back to POR did you have trouble leaving the parks all afternoon long, like between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., or was your trouble mostly at closing?

Thanks!

 

[tinkerbell1967]

How do you get on whatever bus comes first??? Aren't you going to a specific place? Why would you get on an AK bus if you were going to MK that day? Sorry, I'm so confused!

I also don't believe that Disney transportation is free. Nothing is free at WDW. I'm sure they factor that into your hotel costs. It's the same
"price" at other resorts and I've heard much more positive accounts of what happened to them than what has happened to many POR guests. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Because you can get off at AK and then take the bus from there to MK instead of waiting at your resort and never knowing when that bus might arrive. We did this several times

 

[minniemee]

We too had bad experiences with the POFQ bus, we only used it twice before we started using our own car.
From then on we either rented a car or drove our own to Orlando.
I feel that too much time is wasted waiting on the buses that could be spent having fun!

 

[ppan77]

We had a bad bus experience the week of Easter 07. It was one of the most crowded weeks and if I go during peak season again I would drive my own car back and forth.

 

[maxiesmom]

To all of those who have had trouble leaving the parks to head back to POR did you have trouble leaving the parks all afternoon long, like between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., or was your trouble mostly at closing?

Thanks!

For us, things were better at closing, because Disney sends multiple busses for each resort then. It was when we left at an "odd" time that we had the problem. For instance, we were at Epcot one night for Illuminations. It started to lightening, so I wanted to leave. We waited 40 mintues for a bus that night. I think that was the worst experience. But we were not in a hurry, so it wasn't a big problem.

 

[BigMickeyFan]

We were at POR 11/25 - 12/2, and every time we left a park to come back to the resort in the evening, the line for POR was ALWAYS at least triple those for other resorts. However, we never waited longer than 20 minutes or so - it seemed that when the backup was noticed, a second POR bus would pull up, and they'd load two buses at a time. It seemed like Disney recognized there was a problem and really tried to address it.

Sorry you had a bad experience.

 

[jess20k]

I agree with you! We were there in Feb of 2006 and had horrible bus service! It was the first week of Feb and it was not busy, so that had nothing to do with it. I think POR needs its own bus service. We stayed at POFQ this past Feb and really did not have a problem, reason is the bus stops there first. Our biggest problem that we had at POR was that by the time a bus would come around it was just about full with guests from FQ. So there were many times we had to wait for another bus, and we usually had to stand. It was insane.

We usually leave the parks a little before closing to try to avoid the mad rush of people heading towards the buses, but we do that at any resort we stay at, or if we do want to stay until closing we try to linger around the parks or shops.

We have stayed at many different WDW Resorts and I must say that POR so far is the WORST bus service that we have had. It really is too bad, because the resort itself is quite nice.

 

[Moosey319]

We were just at POR 12/9 - 12/14 and had no problems with the busses. We waited maybe 10 minutes for a bus one morning to go to a park but that was it. Coming home from the parks wasn't a problem for us either. Yes the lines were long but there was always a second or third bus that pulled up. I also want to add that I have an 8 month old and every time the seats were filled, someone got up for me. It was very gracious and I was so thankful.

We absolutely loved POR and would return in a heartbeat.

 

[Kaler131]

I have always found it easier to drive myself then use Disney transportation....except in the case of MK.

 

[DizneyNutz]

Don't let the transportation issues turn you away from a resort you like. We love the WL and have had extremely great transportation and also poor transportation. We have stayed at CSR which has it's OWN busses and experienced a bad time with their transportation on our trip, but we always make sure to have a vehicle at our disposal and if transportation (at any resort) seems to be having problems we just rely on our own and don't let it spoil our trip. We have actually found that we like driving ourselves and not worrying about getting jammed up by transportation issues. I have really gotten to know my way around there and we often venture offsite for things we need or want like Wal Mart, KFC, ABC Store, etc. We learned on our last trip that all Wal Marts in Florida are adding an ABC store to their complexes. Not that this interests everyone, but we enjoy a relaxing toddy every now and then, without paying seven dollars for a mixed beverage.

 

[Disney Fool]

...aah, the voice of reason!

 

[emmabemmainc]

Because you can get off at AK and then take the bus from there to MK instead of waiting at your resort and never knowing when that bus might arrive. We did this several times

Gotcha! Thanks for explaining!

 

[JimmyJr'sMom]

We stayed 11/11-11/15 and the morning of EPCOT EMH, we saw several buses come and go (at the resort bus top) for other parks before one came for EPCOT. It was ridiculous. And when the bus finally came, there were TWO ecv's to be loaded and at least another 1/2 hour of waiting because the driver of the ecv did not know how to negotiate reversing up the ramp. SO MUCH FOR EMH!!!!!