Longest end of the night bus lines?

[dskib]

We were there about a year and a half ago - stayed at POFQ, and every night, at pretty much every park, one of the value bus lines was CRAZY long!!! We might be going back down and staying value this Fall, and I was hoping to avoid those lines. Does anyone have any idea about bus lines and if one resort typically had a longer wait than another? I made a mental note at the time, but it's gone now .

Thanks!!

 

[Kevin355]

At park closing it is like a track meet to the bus stops. My wife and I gave up rushing. We stayed at the cabins a few years ago, and those were some painfully long waits as well. Not much difference in my opinion.

 

[bigbabyblues]

On our trips, it has been whichever resort we were staying at.

Seriously, though. Where are you staying? If we are staying at an All Star, we get in whichever AS line is the shortest. When we get back to the resort, just go through the main building and either to the right or left, through the resort and across the parking lot to our resort. It is more walking, but it beats standing in line. We do tend to take our time leaving the park.

 

[Huff]

POP always had by far the longest line of any resorts at park closing. Mainly at MK when it was open late. Epcot was long many times as well. However, it was common for the POP line to have 2 buses loading at the same time and the line moved rather quickly. We often left 30 minutes before park closing to avoid the bad lines.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We always wait for the lines to slow down. Once we left Epcot to the Boardwalk got blotto over there and didn't make it back to the Epcot bus for POR. We ended up taking a bus to DS then back to POR.

 

[disnut8]

We were there about a year and a half ago - stayed at POFQ, and every night, at pretty much every park, one of the value bus lines was CRAZY long!!! We might be going back down and staying value this Fall, and I was hoping to avoid those lines. Does anyone have any idea about bus lines and if one resort typically had a longer wait than another? I made a mental note at the time, but it's gone now .

Thanks!!

When we stay value, we stay at Pop Century and every time we did and relied on the buses, I avoided staying for the nighttime activities since I didn't want to deal with bus lines. And then my son and daughter-in-law and two grandkids came along and they decided they wanted to stay and see Illuminations. I ditched them (and my husband) and said I'd see them back at Pop Century since it would be after midnight when then got back. They got back at 10:20. Illuminations starts at 9:00, ends around 9:20 and then they slowly walked around to the front, using the almost empty bathrooms in Norway and then strolled to the buses. My daughter-in-law said the line for the buses was very long so they just joined the back of it and prepared to wait. When the first bus was filled, a second one followed and they were on that one.

So, I ditched my thoughts about avoiding nighttime activities and have since stayed for Illuminations twice while staying at Pop Century. First time, we waited a full two minutes until a bus showed up and loaded the long line. Second time, we had to wait for a second bus and so we waited ten minutes. Neither time did we rush out of Epcot to get a bus and neither time did we run to the bus line or hop in front of people. A long line at Disney World doesn't necessarily mean a long wait.

 

[kwdw]

I've stayed at enough places now to say that you can't predict who is going to have the longest bus line in the evening. (Though - if you are traveling the same time I am - it will be whatever resort I'm staying at!) You can predict that the value resorts are going to be the LONGEST WALK to the bus stop from the parks. They are always at the end of the line - as far away as you can get. If they get two "extra long" buses in a row and don't have more than one scooter load per bus - that can completely empty out the queue at park closing time. But even a deluxe resort - if you get several folks in line to load scooters at the same time - the back-up will happen until it cycles again. I really think Disney tries to plan for park closing and cycles buses accordingly - but you can't predict when the buses might end up bunching up together because of slow load/unload times or unexpected traffic (or accidents!) - and maybe making for a long wait.

 

[bumbershoot]

On our trips, it has been whichever resort we were staying at.

Definitely matches my experience.

It's why we drive now. Even to MK. Because even though busing into MK in the morning is better, LEAVING MK by bus makes me lose my mind. Cannot stand it. Driving is way better for us.

You can predict that the value resorts are going to be the LONGEST WALK to the bus stop from the parks. They are always at the end of the line - as far away as you can get.

Not my experience.

 

[cgattis]

Definitely matches my experience.

It's why we drive now. Even to MK. Because even though busing into MK in the morning is better, LEAVING MK by bus makes me lose my mind. Cannot stand it. Driving is way better for us.



Not my experience.

AOA bus stop is the very last one. It's right across the street from the Contemporary!

 

[macadoo]

The longest line and wait we have experienced was for POR last year. Much worse than when we were staying at All Stars so i don't think long lines are specific to value resorts, maybe more to do with the size of the resort. When we were staying at All Stars we always looked across at the Pop queue and were thankful we weren't staying there. All Stars has the advantage of each resort having their own bus at closing times.

 

[Mousemommy1]

On our trips, it has been whichever resort we were staying at.

Seriously, though. Where are you staying? If we are staying at an All Star, we get in whichever AS line is the shortest. When we get back to the resort, just go through the main building and either to the right or left, through the resort and across the parking lot to our resort. It is more walking, but it beats standing in line. We do tend to take our time leaving the park.

Haha, that's what we always say!

But in reality, it's really hit or miss. No way of predicting that. I certainly wouldn't pick a resort based on that...unless the choice is the CR...then just walk by while you laugh at the people in line.

 

[JBeaty0507]

I have only had one ridiculously long wait at the end of the night and it was when we were staying at Pop Century once. It seemed to be a fluke though. Generally when we stay there, the bus service is great. As previous posters have said, they will many times be loading 2 buses at a time (even in my long wait instance, when we finally did have buses show up, after 30 minutes of not having a single one at closing time, they completely emptied out the queue within about 5 minutes). Actually my worst experience with transportation over the entire length of the trip has been at Wilderness Lodge. We consistently had terrible bus service there. At most of the values, we've never had a real problem with transportation

 

[buzznina]

We always hang around the park for 30-45 minutes after and will either grab a snack and joyfully watch the herd of people rushing out to wait in lines or do a little shopping, or even get in 1 more ride. Then when we get to the transportation the lines are gone.

 

[nym4588]

It's hit and miss for ever resort, but last time at Coronado the wait for a bus at the end of the night took forever - MK and DHS in particular. Old Key West probably had the best service out of the places I've stayed.

 

[swfmco]

If they get two "extra long" buses in a row and don't have more than one scooter load per bus - that can completely empty out the queue at park closing time. But even a deluxe resort - if you get several folks in line to load scooters at the same time - the back-up will happen until it cycles again.

There is nothing worse than a scooter party at the end of the night. From the horrendously long time it take a bus driver to close up the bus, lower the lift, load the person, raise the lift, then secure the person, to the fact that the scooter will then eliminate between 3 to 5 seats, to the usual 5 to 8 extra people who are usually in the same party of the scooter person who take up more seats. The capper is that about 6 times out of 10, the person on the scooter will then get up and walk around the bus, taking up another seat!!! The killer is that they don't make the scooter parties wait in the bus queues, they get to cut to the front of the line. Very frustrating at the end of the night.

 

[maxiesmom]

There is nothing worse than a scooter party at the end of the night. From the horrendously long time it take a bus driver to close up the bus, lower the lift, load the person, raise the lift, then secure the person, to the fact that the scooter will then eliminate between 3 to 5 seats, to the usual 5 to 8 extra people who are usually in the same party of the scooter person who take up more seats. The capper is that about 6 times out of 10, the person on the scooter will then get up and walk around the bus, taking up another seat!!! The killer is that they don't make the scooter parties wait in the bus queues, they get to cut to the front of the line. Very frustrating at the end of the night.

Just so you know, most of the time people are told to transfer out of their scooters and into a seat. And they get to cut the line for your safety, you wouldn't want them running over your toes as they load on the bus, would you?

All the resort bus lines are long at the end of the night. Every single one. I now keep some cash on me just in case I am feeling impatient.

 

[ashnicole]

We always hang around the park for 30-45 minutes after and will either grab a snack and joyfully watch the herd of people rushing out to wait in lines or do a little shopping, or even get in 1 more ride. Then when we get to the transportation the lines are gone.

I did this during my visit. I usually stayed until the end of evening EMH or stayed to take a few photo pass pictures or shop in the stores that were still open. The longest wait I saw was for Hollywood studios right after Fantasmic! let out. All of the lines I saw were extremely long - the line for All star movies was out of the que, but it only took about 15 minutes.

 

[BellsFam]

The less resorts a bus stops at, the shorter the line! Our bus from Swan had Dolphin, BW, BCYC... Longest lines I've ever been in...

Our CR bus shared with WL... Much shorter!!!

 

[jlmorris70]

My daughter and I stayed at POP over Thanksgiving and while the lines were long we didn't wait long at all. They usually loaded two busses at a time and if they didn't a new one pulled up as soon as the loaded one pulled away.

 

[Lesverts]

Just wanted to add that it is not necessarily the longest line that is the issue. Both times I left the Magic Kingdom last year the lines to go to the All-Stars was ridiculous. I mean 2 to 3 times as long as the times for POP and one of the PO resorts. There were buses after buses after buses trying to get through the All-Star lines. I am talking probably 8 to 10 buses to the All-Stars for every 1 bus to POP. So I wasn't in the longest line, but I waited longer because the priority was to clear the longest, and unsafe lines at the All-Stars. Some of y'all might think I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Thankfully I had a love family from Switzerland beside me and we enjoyed talking.