?? for people that just came back from DisneyWorld

[Disney Vegas]

The tourist book that we just got for Disneyworld said due to the recession, the amt of bus shuttles to and from the parks have been cut in half, so the wait to get to or from the parks is about 40 mins to an hour wait each time. Is this the case? Did you have to wait forever for the bus to arrive?

We have an itinerary with a specific schedule (we do this everytime) and we need to know if we should change our traveling times.

 

[mariepapa]

Where are you staying? We stayed at CBR and the buses ran every few minutes. I noticed buses coming for each park at least every 5-10 minutes.

 

[disneylvrnMS]

We were just there last week. We only waited more than 5 minutes for a bus one time. We were leaving boardwalk and going to DTD late one night. We waited just over 30 minutes.

 

[KSBelle]

I was at POFQ last week and buses ran every few minutes to the parks. I didn't wait more than 10-15 min. coming or going.

 

[madalex]

The tourist book that we just got for Disneyworld said due to the recession, the amt of bus shuttles to and from the parks have been cut in half, so the wait to get to or from the parks is about 40 mins to an hour wait each time. Is this the case? Did you have to wait forever for the bus to arrive?

I've been to WDW four times since the beginning of 2009 (and another 15 times prior to 2009). I did not see any evidence during any of those trips that bus service had been dramatically cut back from what it has been historically.

 

[ancestry]

What book do you have? I don't believe this statement about the buses is correct at all.

 

[birdie757]

We were just there yesterday and staying at CBR. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus whether it be to or from the parks. We are AP holders and stay on property about 4 times a year and this trip had the same bus service we have had for the past few years at any moderate or deluxe resort we have stayed at. I would question that books facts for sure.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

The tourist book that we just got for Disneyworld said due to the recession, the amt of bus shuttles to and from the parks have been cut in half, so the wait to get to or from the parks is about 40 mins to an hour wait each time. Is this the case? Did you have to wait forever for the bus to arrive?

We have an itinerary with a specific schedule (we do this everytime) and we need to know if we should change our traveling times.

I am about 90% sure that statement is in regards to shuttles, not Disney in resort transportation. I can't speak to the accuracy of that b/c we don't stay offsite. WDW internal transport is as effecient as ever or even better the past 2 trips than I have seen in the past. We stayed at ASMovies in Feb and Music in August and bus tranportation was top notch, never had a wait exceeding 15 minutes unless it was park closing and we were leaving, busses arrived within 5-10 min of each other its just the line was so long we couldn't get on till the 4th or 5th bus.

 

[mlittig]

I was at POFQ last week and buses ran every few minutes to the parks. I didn't wait more than 10-15 min. coming or going.

We were at POFQ from 4/23 to 5/2 and also found the busses to be terrific Magic Kingdom always had its own bus and never stopped at Riverside Busses for the other parks did go to Riverside and that added about 10 to 12 minutes to the trip to the parks

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Transportation board.

 

[Disney Vegas]

The Book is "The unofficial guide to Walt Disney World 2010" and to quote it exactly, it say's " A barrage of reader comments and complaints in the first half of 2009 suggests that cost-cutting measures have led to a myriad of problems in the bus system." Then they have 9 customer comments saying that they had to wait to get from the park to their on-site hotel from a half an hr. to an hr. Then they also give tips on how to avoid having to wait such a long time.

Reading your replies proves to me that this book needs to be updated. So, thank you for letting us know we have nothing to worry about.

 

[Lewisc]

Time goes slow when you're waiting for a bus. At least some of the people who claim they waited for almost an hour may have been waiting for 20-30 minutes.

That said you have to allow extra time if you have time sensitive plans such as a tour or a dinner show. You could just miss a bus and have to wait 30 minutes for the next bus. Sometimes a bus reaches capacity before everyone waiting can board.

 

[NewEnglander]

Can you get a refund on that book? That's ridiculious.

 

[vicki_c]

The UG is a great book - very well researched and I'm sure they're reporting what people have said, and made their own assessment of those comments. Just look at the top of the board here where someone is complaining about the fact that the buses only came every 20-25 minutes.

I do not believe they have cut back on transportation. Plan for an hour for transportation activities door to door (of course, depending on where you are going, but in general) and you will probably always be fine, usually quicker than that.

 

[Magicbus]

The UG is a great book - very well researched and I'm sure they're reporting what people have said, and made their own assessment of those comments. Just look at the top of the board here where someone is complaining about the fact that the buses only came every 20-25 minutes.

I do not believe they have cut back on transportation. Plan for an hour for transportation activities door to door (of course, depending on where you are going, but in general) and you will probably always be fine, usually quicker than that.

Well if they've cut back on bus service, they forgot to tell me.

 

[pooh2001]

I think it all depends on the # of guests and traffic.

We have been to WDW since 2002 and always allow an hour to get anywhere.

So if we want to be at MK at 8 am - we start to wait for the bus/monorail at 7 AM. Hey- even when we were at the CR, we still waited at 7 am for the monorail. The CR is very close to MK, you can walk it in 15 minutes or less.
There can even be a line at the CR to get on the monorail in the AM. So you just wait for the next monorail to arrive, about 5 to 10 minutes later.

Buses - from WL and Dolphin - we get to the bus stop by 7 AM and a bus is there by 7:15 or 7:20 AM. Sometime we catch the first bus, around 7:05 AM, but again we wait our turn and let others who have been at the bus stop before us get on. We are at the Park we decided to go to that day by 8:05 AM.

We have never waited longer than 20 minutes for a bus.

If we need to get to an early ADR breakfast, we request a cab in the morning and pay our transportation OOP. For an early MK breakfast we cab it to the CR and walk to MK.

 

[Carriemel]

I do agree that the bus service is going down the tubes. We waited for 45 minutes for a bus from OKW to MK at 4pm in the afternoon. We had a dinner at 5:30 that we JUST barely made it to. Other buses to the other theme parks had waits of 25 to 30 minutes each. Crazy, I tell ya. I think next time, we're just going to drive place to place.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

I think Disney does a great job with bus service. Like many have posted, we rarely wait more than 5-10 minutes for a bus.
Our last trip we stayed at Kidani and waited about 30 minutes for an Epcot bus. When one finally came, another pulled up beside it. I guess the first got delayed loading/unloading wheelchairs and the other had few riders and shadowed it. As we pulled into Jambo, a third Epcot bus was coming in. This was in February when crowds were about a 3 or 4.
For many this experience stays in our memory more that the daily times we walk up to a stop and immediately board or a bus pulls up in a minute.
I think they do a great job and sometimes we are just overeager/impatient.

 

[goofy4tink]

I was there in April '09 (4 nights), August '09 (7 nights) and Dec '09 (14 nights).....I think that in all those visits, there may have been one or two excessive bus waits. In Dec, we had some bad bus experiences at AKL, going to DHS (wait was about 30 mins) and coming home from MK (wait was about 40 mins close to park closing after EMHs). There was one time at park closing (MK) that I had to wait through 3 buses to get one back to POP.
But, for the most part, I seldom have had longer than 20 min waits for the buses to come...at the park level or resort level.

The bus service has not been cut back in the least..at least not that I saw.

 

[dsaville]

They had only 9 complaints. How many comments were made? thousands? If attendance is down during slow times ... I think its possible but if its over the summer ... you could wait a little longer if the bus ends up full but not because there are cutbacks.