stringercapecod said:
SonicLogic,
Don't the All-Star buses pick up at more than one All Star resort? I'm sure I read that All Stars share buses, soo, Now you have 3,840 guests or more sharing the same bus route. That would be MORE than Pop!
The WDW bus system is very dynamic and (as correctly noted by CheshireVal) the bus skews change at the All Stars based upon demand. For example, each All Star resort has it's own set of buses going to and from the MK. The Sports has its own set of buses, Music its own set and Movies has its own set. If demand for MK (for example) is larger than expected, they have a pool of extra reserve buses (that stage in the north parking lot of Music) that can be immediately dispatched to meet the demand. They stage the buses at Music for speed because it is midway between the other two resorts. Conversely, if demand is less than expected, they free up those buses for other All Star destinations or other Animal Kingdom resorts (i.e. AKL or CSR).
A similar bus skew works at the All Stars for the other parks as well. Let's use Epcot for an example. Normally during the morning, the empty buses going from the All Stars to Epcot will first stop at Sports and pick up passengers. If the bus is not full, it will continue to Music to pick up more passengers and if still not full it will continue to Movies. However, if the bus reaches capacity at any time, it will head straight for Epcot. Then one of the aforementioned extra buses will be dispatched from the Music north parking lot to meet the extra demand.
Now, when the buses return from the parks it works differently. Again, the MK buses are separate for each All Star resort so you must catch the Movies bus (for example) to return to Movies (since the bus will not stop at Sports or Music). At the other parks and DTD, as the buses return to the All Stars, they stop and drop off passengers and also pick up passengers at each resort. They go in the order of Sports, Music and Movies most of the time although sometimes the driver will switch the rotation! However, again, the buses run on a dynamic basis that changes to meet demand.
In short, the All Star bus routes are very flexible and can easily be adjusted to meet guest demand. Many of the other Disney resorts have similar bus sharing routes.
Now, with POP the bus system is different. All the buses at POP are dedicated exclusively to POP. POP doesn't share with other resorts. Pretty good, right? Wrong. They end up having less buses than they need and, frankly, all the other resorts come first. The POP has no place to stage reserve buses because all of the POP parking areas are so small. The POP generally gets the bottom of the bus transportation barrel. I have seen several occasions when buses which were in route to the parks to pick up guests at the POP bus stop, changed their bus marques at the last minute and instead picked up guests from other resorts (such as the All Stars). The poor POP guests were left to wait for another bus.
In short, the POP bus system is less dynamic and more static than much of the WDW system. The current bus problems will not be solved until the other half of the POP resort opens. Even then, I doubt it will get much better.
Now, as for the guest capacity at the All Stars vs. the POP. Each All Star resort accommodates up to 1,920 guests. Of course, there are 3 All Star resorts so total capacity is 5,760. So, for 5,760 guests at the All Stars you have 3 separate resorts, 3 bus stops, 3 food courts, 3 game rooms, 6 swimming pools and 30 separate buildings.
POP is only halfway built, so it only accommodates 2,880 guests. They have 1 bus stop, 1 food court (640 seating capacity), 1 game room, 3 swimming pools and 10 buildings. When the other half is built the POP will accommodate the same number of guests as all 3 All Star resorts, 5,760. Yet the POP will only have 2 bus stops, 2 food courts, 2 game rooms, 6 swimming pools and 20 separate buildings!
Each of the POP buildings are 4 stories high while the All Star buildings are each 3 stories. The POP is clearly a WDW endeavor to cram as many people in as small a space as possible. If you have the herding instinct, then the POP is a wonderful resort!
We also waited a while (about 30 min) leaving AK at 1 pm on Friday.
) and we didn't get it. We slept in separate beds most nights because it was too cramped for both of us in one double and after walking ALL day we wanted to be comfortable. If you have 4 adults in a POP room, 8 nights might be a comfort issue, otherwise, you should be ok.
