I didn't get up at 5:45 to be at the back of the line (bus vent)

[BillyBuff]

All park busses should stop at Kidani first. Downtown Disney busses should stop at Jambo first.

Interesting...I didn't know that. I guess the driver felt like stopping at Jambo first from MK on that day.

 

[joelkfla]

Then there should be extra buses that arrive empty (no confusion for guests getting off) to serve just the other stop if the regular buses can't pick up everyone.

Sometimes there are. It depends on the situation and the coordinators.

 

[Rpsemont]

AK has AM EMH this morning. We got to the bus stop at 6:30. By 7:00 we had seen 3 MK buses, 2 Epcot buses, 3 Blizzard Beach/DHS buses, and not a single bus for AK.

All but 3 of these buses left empty- only one offered to call dispatch and see where our bus was, and none offered to call and see if they could change routes.

Been there! this happened out first trip to WDW in Feb 1999 staying at POFQ - At the MAIN Front bus stop.

It still puzzles me why we saw busses to DTD, Epcot, Water Parks - When none of them opened until 9AM and back then, they didn't have character Meals early
We were waiting for EMH at MK from 7AM to 7:30- 9 busses and none of them MK. Our DD was 4YO and wouldn't stand still after 1/2 hour. And all the families with Teens and tweens walked up at 7:20 or later and stood right at the curb, which I could not do because of DD. Even as I type this i get frustrated!
I wrote a 2 page single space letter to Disney when I got home.
That day, we ended up taking a cab to Contemp and walking to MK. Since then we almost always rent a car.

 

[Elmo007]

A little off topic but that is why I like POP. They only have 1 stop and they dont share busses. I assume (but dont know) if that will change when Art of Animation opens (but then again they will be large enough to supporttheir own busses)

IMHO from POP the Busses to MK are great but for HS, AK and EPCOT driving is better.

Oddly on a crowded night I also prefer bus to car going to DTD from POP as parking at DTD can be a nightmare

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Parking is no longer an issue now that Pleasure Island has closed down.

Oddly on a crowded night I also prefer bus to car going to DTD from POP as parking at DTD can be a nightmare

 

[joelkfla]

A little off topic but that is why I like POP. They only have 1 stop and they dont share busses. I assume (but dont know) if that will change when Art of Animation opens (but then again they will be large enough to supporttheir own busses)

Pop + AoA will be just slightly larger than the 3 All Stars combined. The All Stars run separate buses at peak times, shared buses at other times except for MK.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I have to say that we are DVC owners at AKL and in our many trips staying there, I have found the bus service to be worse than at any other resort.
I especially find it ironic that even though it is closest to AK, the AK buses are the ones most scarce.
We always get a rental car and if the stampede line waiting for buses is too long, we drive our car over to AK or wherever we are heading.
We have made this AKL bus observation on every trip.

We stayed at Kidani in July and saw the same thing, the longest wait for a park bus was Animal Kingdom. Downtown Disney wasn't a picnic either. We saw 4 MK busses consecutive during our wait for an Animal Kingdom bus, 3 of those left empty.

 

[Uncleromulus]

And people ask why we always rent a car at WDW-----

 

[seashoreCM]

Spotty bus service, even if isolated, increases animosity due to line cutting. Would Disney be responsive to more than infrequent requests for extra pixie dust (the official term is recovery) such as issuing extra fast passes?

Granted, some have reported about a subsequently arriving party complaining about a 45 minute wait after ten minutes but someone else might make a written report over a period of a half hour listing the times of all thirteen buses to parks other than the desired park and the fourteenth is the desired bus but too full to take him.

Didn't I hear somewhere that Disney would love for guests to do more shopping? Why have problems with Downtown Disney bus service persisted for so long (years)?

 

[deegack]

I'm sorry you had such a bad time with the buses at AKL. We stayed at kidani village last year and had great luck with the buses. Never more than a 15 minute wait and there was a CM there coordinating everything and even some hula hoops to keep the kids occupied

 

[goofy4tink]

The vast majority of the time, the buses are just fine. They run as they should. Unfortunately, there are some who feel that buses should arrive as they are walking up to the bus stop, or that the bus should be there, waiting for them. And that isn't going to happen. Well...it can, and does, happen. But it's a lucky happenstance when it does. If you consistently wait about 10 mins for a bus, then you have no reason for complaint.
In my 30+ stays at WDW resorts, I think I've waited more than 20 mins for a bus only 5 times...and those times were at the parks, at park closing. I have waited just one time, for 30 mins, for a bus to DHS at Kidani!!! Now, I'm heading back there next month...so we'll see how the buses are then.

But, basically?? It's public transit. You just can't expect buses to come much more frequently than every 15 mins at the busiest times of day.