Magic Kingdom Resorts and Disney Bus System

[DenLo]

I have noticed when riding a bus from a Magic Kingdom resort to anywhere else the buses usually go to other resorts before the final park destination. E.g. A bus leaves CR going to AK, it stops and picks up guests at Poly and GF before finally departing to AK. It takes so long to get anywhere! I was surprised when I found out that GF and 900 rooms, Poly 847 rooms and CR 1041-1053 and now BLT is added on another 295 - 428 rooms. You'd think they could each get their own buses or at least share with only one other resort.

Has Disney ever had direct bus service to the parks for the Magic Kingdom resorts? We'll probably stay at BLT since we are DVC members so we'll walk over to the Magic Kingdom to get a quicker bus to a park instead of taking the slow CR bus.

 

[Lewisc]

I have noticed when riding a bus from a Magic Kingdom resort to anywhere else the buses usually go to other resorts before the final park destination. E.g. A bus leaves CR going to AK, it stops and picks up guests at Poly and GF before finally departing to AK. It takes so long to get anywhere! I was surprised when I found out that GF and 900 rooms, Poly 847 rooms and CR 1041-1053 and now BLT is added on another 295 - 428 rooms. You'd think they could each get their own buses or at least share with only one other resort.

Has Disney ever had direct bus service to the parks for the Magic Kingdom resorts? We'll probably stay at BLT since we are DVC members so we'll walk over to the Magic Kingdom to get a quicker bus to a park instead of taking the slow CR bus.

You'll have a long wait. Buses to other theme parks leave from the TTC and not from the MK.

I think Disney runs "express" buses during peak travel times. POP has dedicated buses, with only one stop.

 

[Jestocost]

Buses with multiple stops on the way to a park from a resort actually are pretty common throughout WDW. POFQ and POR share bus service, for example, with multiple stops in POR alone. CBR doesn't share with any other resort, but there are multiple stops withing CBR itself; same with SSR. The Epcot resorts (BW and YC/BC) share bus service to MK and AK. AKL now shares bus services with the new DVC Kidani Village. So, the MK resorts are not unique in that regard.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

It's not just the Magic Kingdom Resorts that share bus service, because that is also done for the Epcot Resorts. Also when staying at the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower it's not that bad when it comes to the buses, because you would be picked up 1st and dropped off 1st.

 

[WendyWDWLover]

The last time we were there all of the All Star resorts also shared buses for all the parks. Talk about waiting in line. It was horrible.

 

[CleveRocks]

I was surprised when I found out that GF and 900 rooms, Poly 847 rooms and CR 1041-1053 and now BLT is added on another 295 - 428 rooms. You'd think they could each get their own buses or at least share with only one other resort.

Buses with multiple stops on the way to a park from a resort actually are pretty common throughout WDW. POFQ and POR share bus service, for example, with multiple stops in POR alone. CBR doesn't share with any other resort, but there are multiple stops withing CBR itself; same with SSR. The Epcot resorts (BW and YC/BC) share bus service to MK and AK. AKL now shares bus services with the new DVC Kidani Village. So, the MK resorts are not unique in that regard.

I agree with Jestocost's line of reasoning.

Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter share a bus, and there are 5 bus stops among those two resorts with a combined total of 3,056 rooms. Caribbean Beach Resort doesn't share buses with another resort, but CBR itself has 2,112 rooms and 7 bus stops. Coronado Springs Resort doesn't share buses with another resort, but CSR itself has 1,967 rooms and 4 bus stops.

In other words, the bus service at the MK-area resorts doesn't differ much in number of stops and potential number of riders when you compare it to the Moderate resorts.

One can argue that it's even better at the MK-area resorts because guests there need take buses to only 3 destinations (Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney), and the Moderates have buses to all 4 parks and DTD, a total of 5 destinations.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

One can argue that it's even better at the MK-area resorts because guests there need take buses to only 3 destinations (Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney), and the Moderates have buses to all 4 parks and DTD, a total of 5 destinations.

That is a great observation.

 

[truck1]

As a former Disney bus driver let me see if I can shed a little light on the subject here.

The last time we were there all of the All Star resorts also shared buses for all the parks. Talk about waiting in line. It was horrible.

Certain parks have busses doubled and tripled up depending on time of day. MK was at one point the only park that had separate busses to the All stars. DHS,DTD,AK and Epcot, all had multiple busses running to the All Stars, but they were tripled up. Each bus was supposed to hit the resorts in a specific order. BUT, and I have seen it I dont know how many times, that theory never worked out in reality for several reasons.
1. the busses are supposed to run, bus 1 sports, then music then movies, bus 2 music movies then sports last, bus 3 movies sports music. A lot of drivers never looked to see what order they were supposed to go in and filled at sports and music and movies suffered.Some of us compensated by dropping off first at all 3 then going back to pick up when we were empty.(this was usually in the summer and around the holidays)
2. A bus coming in full from DTD (72 guests onboard) may only drop 10 or 15 guests at Sports for arguments sake, but 40 may be waiting. Same thing happens when you get to music. Then as the bus leaves, another 15 or 20 may walk up.The cycle will keep repeating itself.
3.Now that the 2 superbusses are retired, Disney Transport has nothing on wheels that they can throw at an issue, when it comes up, like the rushes from the All Stars, or a unexpected park rush.

I think Disney runs "express" buses during peak travel times. POP has dedicated buses, with only one stop.

Not really. The only time Disney will run an express bus, may be early in the morn, say from Pop, when theres say 100 people waiting for a particular park bus,(They have dedicated floater busses for this reason) or as a last call bus when there may be only 15 guests going to Port West Depot.
Or if the monorail has a problem with a particular station, and they need to bypass it.

 

[truck1]

I have noticed when riding a bus from a Magic Kingdom resort to anywhere else the buses usually go to other resorts before the final park destination. E.g. A bus leaves CR going to AK, it stops and picks up guests at Poly and GF before finally departing to AK. It takes so long to get anywhere! I was surprised when I found out that GF and 900 rooms, Poly 847 rooms and CR 1041-1053 and now BLT is added on another 295 - 428 rooms. You'd think they could each get their own buses or at least share with only one other resort.

Has Disney ever had direct bus service to the parks for the Magic Kingdom resorts? We'll probably stay at BLT since we are DVC members so we'll walk over to the Magic Kingdom to get a quicker bus to a park instead of taking the slow CR bus.

I agree with Jestocost's line of reasoning.

Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter share a bus, and there are 5 bus stops among those two resorts with a combined total of 3,056 rooms. Caribbean Beach Resort doesn't share buses with another resort, but CBR itself has 2,112 rooms and 7 bus stops. Coronado Springs Resort doesn't share buses with another resort, but CSR itself has 1,967 rooms and 4 bus stops.

In other words, the bus service at the MK-area resorts doesn't differ much in number of stops and potential number of riders when you compare it to the Moderate resorts.

One can argue that it's even better at the MK-area resorts because guests there need take buses to only 3 destinations (Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney), and the Moderates have buses to all 4 parks and DTD, a total of 5 destinations.

Lets see if I can make some sense here also.

Look at it this way.I am going to use the number provided since they are fairly close to accurate.

Take the Grand Floridian for example. 900 rooms. Figure the average family being 4 so 3600 people at full capacity. Now if we divide that evenly to the 7 areas ( the 4 parks, DTD and the 2 water parks) youd have about 130 guests per area. (I know that it wont work out that way in reality,but its an example)
Each resort pays Disney Transport for the equipment and manpower.
I dont remember what each bus costs, but each monorail about 6 or 8 years ago costs 600 per monorail per hour per stations.Gets a little expensive after a while.
Ill say for argument sake that a bus is 100 per hour to operate.Your resort on its own, such as the GF (remebr about 130 people going to any 1 point during the day) only really needs 2 busses( theoretically, each bus can hold 70 or so guests). At its farthest point a round trip would be about 40 minutes.Give or take.So the perfect world, the wait time would be 20 minutes.(2 busses)Thats to one point.Now,figure a separate bus for the other 5 areas.(MK is by rail) and youd need 12 busses totaled to run all the areas.Thats 1200 dollars per hour to run.

Now figure it this way,
If you share a bus, with another resort, and in some cases a water park,you can cut the number of busses, and thus the operating expense.
Using DTD as an example, theres 3 busses that run picking up at 3 resorts, and stopping at TL. Each resort is only paying for 1 bus, but they are getting 3 in return.Plus a bus to TL. So they are spending 100 per hour instead of 400.Its a numbers game. Transport knows how many people to expect, where and when at any given time of the year, month or day.And they adjust accordingly.

Now, using Pop Century as an example.
Pop has 2880 rooms in the complex.( And its not done different thread)
Figuring the same average and your talking 11520 people in one spot at one time. Figuring full capacity.Divide that evenly thru 7 areas and its 1645 people going to any one spot. Significantly more. Same thing with the Port complex. 3000 rooms with about 12000 people at one time.
So they really have no choice but to dedicate a bus to the resort.

The All Stars have and always will be a thorn in everyones side.
At full capacity your talking 23000 people in one spot(Close enough.)
With AK, DTD and Epcot less than a 30 minute round trip, 1 bus actually can act as 2.(2 trips per hour under ideal conditions) So 3 busses running is equal to 6.

DTD runs up to 8 busses, and the MK up to 12 during peak times.
Epcot and DHS usually 4 or so and AK I think 2 or 3.

I agree with you CleveRocks, that the 3 kingdom resorts, are better off then most moderate resrots.

 

[DenLo]

Thanks for all of the replies. I knew that other resorts shared buses with 1 other resort (or like CSR and Animal Kingdom the bus always stopped at a Water Park) but somehow four resorts sharing seemed like too many. I doubt the miles between bus stops at other resorts are as far apart as the three on the MK loop. But since I haven't stayed at all of them I don't really know. I realize that most (if not all) of the moderate and value resorts have multiple bus stops, but when I have stayed at CSR and Caribbean Beach it didn't seem as long a ride as stopping at three different resorts. And I have often been the last stop at both CSR and CB resorts--a bit unlucky there.

I have heard about the bus delays at POP and All Star resorts and it brought back memories of the horrible transportation system in effect at WDW in the mid-1980's. We'd often wait for 50 - 60 minutes without a single bus coming by. Hopefully that doesn't happen today.

Oh and thanks regarding the information about the buses at MK, my DH probably knew that but I didn't. We could still walk over to the ferry to OTC or even ride the monorail, but since it isn't very fast I doubt we save any time that way.

Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Lewisc]

Not really. The only time Disney will run an express bus, may be early in the morn, say from Pop, when theres say 100 people waiting for a particular park bus,(They have dedicated floater busses for this reason) or as a last call bus when there may be only 15 guests going to Port West Depot.
Or if the monorail has a problem with a particular station, and they need to bypass it.

Unless something has changed buses servicing the EPCOT resorts sometimes stopped at all the resorts and sometimes only in some of the resorts. My memory is it varied with time of day.

 

[goofy4tink]

Deluxe resorts are considered 'deluxe' for a few reasons....added amenities such as wonderful pool areas, great onsite restaurants, larger rooms. But one of the big things is that each deluxe resort has immediate access to at least one park. At the CR, you can walk to the MK, and take the monorail to Epcot.
At the Polynesian, you have the boat or monorail to MK, same at GF. Also the Epcot monorail line.
The Epcot resorts have probably the worst bus system. The buses that run after 9am tend to service BW, S/D, YC/BC...especially to DTD and AK. It's nuts. But you can walk or take a boat to Epcot and DHS. As soon as a resort has alternative methods of getting to a park, the bus system suffers.
This is one reason it has always been a bit cheaper to book AKL and WL..yes, they are deluxe resorts, but mini-deluxe because of their transportation options.

I have to say that the best, all round transportation I've had at WDW was at POP. Yes, the stops are sometimes way at the end, but the buses run more often.

And yes, the CR now has BLT...but let's not forget that the north wing used to be over there, with a huge number of guests as well..it's just about a wash. But more recent guests of the CR will think the addition of BLT guests is going to negatively impact their transportation....but it isn't.

 

[truck1]

Unless something has changed buses servicing the EPCOT resorts sometimes stopped at all the resorts and sometimes only in some of the resorts. My memory is it varied with time of day.

I forgot about the morn express.Theres only a handfull of busses that do one or 2 trips like that. Those buses will start at TTC at around 630 am, express from say the WL, go to DHS, then from DHS, go to CB, then Epcot.From Epcot they may do that trip one more time, then revert to the Epcot/CB bus.At that point, most if not all of the regular route busses are up and running and the problem chlidren like the All Stars will have floater support.(Busses standing by in case the crowds build too fast and the route busses cant handle it.)
When I said there really isnt a express bus anymore, I had forgotten about the morn busses doing that. In the 7 years I was there I worked primarily nights and only about 2 years opening.Even then I was at DTD and we didnt have to deal with that type of route.
I used to drive Superbus 2 out of DTD and float the world, during the summer/exits.Superbus 1 was out of Epcot and floated MGM.(At the time it was still MGM. They threatened to change the name as far back as 1998)

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

But more recent guests of the CR will think the addition of BLT guests is going to negatively impact their transportation....but it isn't.

I can honestly say after staying at the Contemporary earlier this month, Bay Lake Tower had no impact at all on the transportation. There was just one time when we were forced to wait for another Resort Monorail because of a long line, however that happened before during the construction of Bay Lake Tower.