Epcot area buses

[thefigueroas]

We stayed at the Yacht Club in late August 2011 and while the resort itself was beautiful the overly crowded buses severely impeded our view of the overall stay. We are considering the Boardwalk Inn and my question is this. Has the transportation issue regarding buses gotten any better over in that area or are they still trying to cram all of the Epcot area into 1 bus? I never understood that logic. The entire time we were there they kept doing Yacht Club, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin stops for every bus. Half the time there was no room at the last stops to even get on and sometimes that was us if we were trying to get on and people were trying to go home. My husband vowed never again but the Boardwalk seems to have everything we would need in this visit.

I do have one additional question. We usually bring our breakfast in from offsite but what about lunch and dinner? Do you find it an annoyance not having any type of quick meal inside the resort or do you hardly notice it? Thanks for any and all opinions.

 

[cvjw]

We've stayed at the BWV multiple times, and the buses are always the same. Really easy to get to EPCOT and DHS from the Boardwalk, but a pain to get to AK and the MK. Generally, the bus will stop at BW and then go down to the Swan and Dolphin. BW is picked up first, and dropped off first. We still stay there because it's a trade-off in our eyes. We will take some aggravation for getting to 2 parks because it is so easy to get to the other 2.

Don't forget that even though the Boardwalk doesn't have a really great counter service restaurant, you are just a few minute walk from EPCOT, where you can eat whatever you want!

 

[mickeynut1]

We've never stayed at BWI, but we have stayed at the BC and while we loved the resort and had a great stay, our experience with the buses was exactly what you experienced. It is hit or miss with the buses, IMO. Some people experience just what you have, while others have experienced the bus transportation only servicing 1 or 2 of the resorts at a time, so it's hard to tell what it will be during your stay. Some have said that the 5 resorts share only during slow times, but when we stayed at the BC it was pretty busy as we were there right before Christmas, with the buses sharing among all 5 resorts for our entire stay. The bus transportation hasn't deterred us from staying at another Epcot resort, however, the lack of CS options has. Having good CS options with plenty of variety is important to us and IMO, the Epcot resorts don't have that. A lot of people say Epcot is great for quick meals and while that is true, we are ones that don't find heading into Epcot just for a meal very convenient, especially for a quick hot breakfast. The BC does have the Marketplace and while that is ok for grab-n-go items, it doesn't have the variety like that of the other deluxe resorts. With that said, the deluxe resorts aren't anything like the food courts at the mods and values, but I think they do have quite a bit more variety than what is found at the Epcot resorts. We do like the Epcot area and think the resorts are beautiful, but I wish Disney would add a good CS choice at each resort.

 

[thefigueroas]

Thanks for your quick responses. I thought that your replies might be the answer and my family (especially my husband) just do not have the patience to put up with the transportation again. He also wasn't keen on the dining options and like you, mickeynut1, did not find it extremely convenient to walk all over the place to get a meal. We will have to fly in this trip (after a military PCS next year from overseas) so I think we may just wait to stay in the Epcot area again when we are able to drive down with our own car. Back to the drawing board and thanks again!

 

[DizneyLizzy]

I stayed at YC in late September of 2012. Here is what we encountered: (again, this is just our experience...yours may vary)

To/from MK: shared bus with Beach Club only

To/from Epcot/DHS: boats/walking

To AK: shared bus with Beach Club and BWI

To/from DTD: shared bus with ALL Epcot resorts including Swan and Dolphin

I actually think the transportation from Y & B is great. I enjoy walking to Epcot and the Studios, and I don't go to Animal Kingdom more than once per stay so I don't find the sharing to be that big of a problem. I never go to DTD so I avoid this transportation nightmare altogether.

IMO if you are going to be going to the AK or DTD more than once during your stay then transportation is a concern. That being said, many of the deluxe MK resorts share buses to DHS, the AK, and DTD, so that can be a pain too. I remember going from the Contemporary to DHS and first stopping at the Poly AND the GF before finally heading to DHS.

 

[mickeynut1]

Thanks for your quick responses. I thought that your replies might be the answer and my family (especially my husband) just do not have the patience to put up with the transportation again. He also wasn't keen on the dining options and like you, mickeynut1, did not find it extremely convenient to walk all over the place to get a meal. We will have to fly in this trip (after a military PCS next year from overseas) so I think we may just wait to stay in the Epcot area again when we are able to drive down with our own car. Back to the drawing board and thanks again!

Good luck and happy planning. It's nice that there are so many options, but it also makes it hard because of all the great options.

 

[Megsie1000]

We stayed at the Beach Club last summer. Our MK bus only shared with the Yacht Club but it was still such a huge gigantic mess that I hesitate to book it again because of that even though I LOVED the resort.

Compare that to our stay at POP where the buses ran smoothly everywhere we went. I realize you can have "bus luck" (or whatever) but to me it seemed like a lot of the chaos and horrible-ness could have been prevented by designing the pick-up process better. I am sure adding more resorts to the mix makes for a nightmare.

 

[Masonmj84]

My solution to the bus issues at the Epcot resorts is to do a split stay (usually with a MK resort). I then do most (if not all) of my non-EP/HS days at that other resort.

Of course, this only works if you're open to doing split stays.

 

[kkbutterfly]

I thought the BWI buses were crap, but I also thought the Contemporary was awful too since it shared with Monorail resorts. My best expereince was AKL and SSR.

 

[davedmaine]

We've stayed at the BWV multiple times, and the buses are always the same. Really easy to get to EPCOT and DHS from the Boardwalk, but a pain to get to AK and the MK. Generally, the bus will stop at BW and then go down to the Swan and Dolphin. BW is picked up first, and dropped off first. We still stay there because it's a trade-off in our eyes. We will take some aggravation for getting to 2 parks because it is so easy to get to the other 2.

Don't forget that even though the Boardwalk doesn't have a really great counter service restaurant, you are just a few minute walk from EPCOT, where you can eat whatever you want!

Unless it's closed.

 

[heidijanesmith]

We stayed at YC Aug 2012 and found the bus service to be terrible. Buses seemed to take along time to get to our resort and then the multiple resort stops just added to the transportation time. It took over an hour to get to MK, as the bus stopped at YC, BC , Swan, Dolphin and then BW....then to MK.

We took taxi's to DTD, both waterparks and the front of EPCOT (we had early AM tours and the IG was not open yet). The taxi expense did add up over a week, but it saved our sanity, so it was worth it!

A split stay sounds like an idea plan if we were to stay at an EPCOT resort again. This year we are headed back to AKL. Even though AKL is far away from evertthing (except AK) we found the bus service to be great!.

 

[jp02]

I just returned Saturday from the world. When I was there the first weekend in January all 5 Epcot resorts shared buses from DTD. This was an absolute NIGHTMARE and the worst experience I have had at Disney. I will say once they dropped off Swan and Dolphin it was much more comfortable. It seemed like every transportation option where all 5 resorts shared whether it was bus or boats the majority of the passengers were from Swan and Dolphin. It was very frustrating!