If you've stayed at AKV and SSR/OKW . . .

[Sammie]

Also you must have good bus karma, if you approach the bus stop in bad humor, you will always get there just as the bus you want is pulling out.

However if you consider the bus ride part of the fun, then you will be blessed with a bus that pulls up just as you approach the stop and going right where you want to go.

Due to the route the buses take, OKW and SSR to Epcot and MK, and Studios is very quick.

 

[disneychic]

I think the bus transportation to/from all 3 is fine. I really never noticed one feeling like a longer ride or not -- hey, I'm on vacation and someone else is doing the driving so I'm happy!

 

[TisBit]

Bus transportation is impossible to judge and is extremely subjective. We can go to the exact same resort, go to the same parks every day and still have two totally different experiences. Timing is the key, if you always just miss a bus, you will always feel like you are waiting forever...but if I happen upon the stop just a couple minutes before you, I could feel that they almost have a bus waiting for me....it is all chance. Now, some resorts have reputations of bad bus service because of issues, but I think most have been sorted out (SSR a few years ago got a bad reputation, but it seems to have improved tremendously!).

AKV is further from the parks than SSR on a general scale. If you look at a map you will see that SSR/OKW is somewhat centrally located in the heart of WDW and has a pretty consistent distance to any park...so your travel times are relatively consistent. Yes, they have more stops.....but the downside of resorts like AKV is that they actually have more rooms than SSR or OKW (very similar in size betwen SSR and AKV...but you have to count the CRO hotel rooms in Jambo). So while SSR might stop in more places, the crowds and loading times for the bus probably aren't that extreme...other than the perception, really a matter of minutes.

 

[DenLo]

The Unofficial Guide to WDW does studies of how long it takes to travel from resorts to Parks when taking the buses or driving, these figures includes stops to pay tolls, time to park and transfers on Disney trams and monorails where applicable and the time within a resort's bus loop.

For OKW to Epcot it shows:

18 minutes - driving
25 minutes - bus

For AKV

19 minutes - driving
28 minutes - bus

It doesn't look like much difference to me.

 

[Tinkmom]

We've stayed at OKW and AKV many times, SSR once and I definitely don't think that AKV bus service is bad at all. It seems a bit long on the trip to/from MK, but not bad.

I have never, even during summer and holiday trips, had a full bus arrive at the Jambo bus stop. Sometimes a moderate wait, but never were we unable to board once the bus arrived.

 

[gstew24]

depends where your going

 

[OKW Lover]

We've stayed at all three of these resorts and the bus service at AKV is no worse than at the others.

The only really long ride from AKV is to the MK and that's only marginally longer than the All Star resorts.