Newbie Q - People satisified/dissatisfied w. OKW bus service

[TigerLaw]

Will be staying at OKW for first time this july and our plan as of now is to drive to AK, but we might use buses everywhere else, so I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on OKW's bus service. Also what is the order of stops (we requested to stay in the turtle area)

FINALLY, if someone doesn't mind, my wife wants to know about the boat service to DD. It sounded to me lke it would take too long, but I thought I would ask my fellow DVCers to tell me more about it - where it stops, how long it takes, any general thoughts (yes, no maybe so), etc.

thanks as always for help!

 

[chalee94]

depends on your personality - how patient you are.

i've never had a problem with OKW's buses. they do tend to take a while to get out of the resort due to making multiple stops, though.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Hello TigerLaw,

We just returned from OKW last Sunday and had a great time what a terrific resort. It was our first time staying there and we will be making many return visits over the comming years. There were 7 aldults and 1 infent in our party and we had a 2 bedroom villia that worked out perfect for us. We also stayed in the Turtle Park section and it is the 3rd bus stop when entering OKW. We found the buses to be very good. We waited 15 minutes a few times but 5 min were common for us. The boat to DD takes about 20-25 min. It stops at Sarotoga Springs and than the Marketplace dock at DD. WE rode the boat twice and really enjoyed it. If you do not have a car just hop on any bus and get off at the last stop which is the Hospitality House where the boat dock is. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

 

[magicaldisney]

We were at OKW in November/December and we loved it. We thought the bus service we really good. I was nervous, but we had no problems or long wait times!!

 

[Chuck S]

I have found OKW bus service, barring any problems like breakdowns or accidents, to be not better or worse than other resorts. We always take the bus to MK, even though we have a car.

As far as the ferry to DtD, currently it is about a 20 minute ride...much more relaxing than a bus. The route is OKW-SSR-DtD-SSR-OKW. It will be changing in June. Reports are it will be direct OKW to DtD, but it will be a different dock at DtD, not the one near Rainforest. We'll need to wait and see. There really is no reason to change it, the dock near RFC has almost always serviced on more boat that they had docking space for. Before the dock was expanded from a 2 boat dock to a 3 boat dock, it still handled 3 boats. So why can't a 3 boat dock handle 4 boats?

 

[Disney_Villain]

We've never had long waits for OKW busses - usually around 15-20 minutes for our chose park bus. The boat to DtD (as previously posted) takes about 20 minutes.

 

[Brian Noble]

Mostly, just fine. Our most recent trip featured two late-afternoon/early-evening returns to MK with waits of 30+ minutes. But, that's not the norm, for sure.

 

[dcamdad]

In the 12+ years we've owned @OKW and and the many stays we have never really had any complaints or problems with the bus service. Even on trips like our upcoming May trips where we will be driving down, we usually park the Suburban and use WDW transportation for all on resort trips. The boat to DD is a very enjoyable and relaxing ride. I keep kidding with my DW and tell her when I grow up I am going to get a job as a Disney boat captain.

 

[Mississippian]

I recently returned from a three-night stay at OKW. I found the wait time and bus frequency to be as good or almost as good as at other resorts. However, it took us almost 20 minutes of riding around the resort before we were on our way to the parks. So to me it is clearly a disadvantage over staying within walking distance to one of the theme parks.

It did seem like the OKW buses might have been slightly less frequent leaving the parks, but it really wasn't a problem. The main problem is just how spread out the place is and the internal bus routes.

 

[iluveeyore]

We love Turtle Pond area - when you check in, ask if anything is available in Building 33 - beautiful water view with lots of ducks to feed/watch, and a golf view behind the water. Plus the bus stop is right outside your door. You're the third stop when coming back from the parks, and when leaving there is only Miller's Road then Hospitality HOuse stops before the bus heads out. We've never had an issue with any buses at OKW - they're not any slower than any of the other large resorts like SSR or CSR.
The bus ride to DTD is only 3-5 minutes, the DVC ferry is 20-25 minutes. We love the Ferry ride, but the bus is much quicker if you need to get there sooner. You should take the bus to get there so you can get on with your DTD tour, and then take the nice, leisurely DVC ferry back and enjoy the scenery. Then you'll know which you like better!

 

[La2kw]

I've always felt OKW has the best bus transportation of all the resorts I've stayed at. We have been staying there for 15 years and have had about three times total where we have waited for more than 30 minutes. I can't say the same about buses at any of the other resorts we have stayed at. Often, we have had the entire bus to ourselves.

 

[twinklebug]

The buses come frequently enough, however when we stayed there (4 years back & we had no car) we found them to be a bit annoying. This is coming from a gal who LOVES the buses -- Ft Wilderness internal included.

Every bus returning from outside (parks, dtd etc) goes through the entire resort. This means if you're last on you're also last off. The only way I can see to avoid this is to be near the hospitality house and you can catch the buses leaving from the HH and get off at your stop as one of the first returning. I'd love to hear if this works from others who've done so.

Since every bus stops at the HH (theme pool) as the last stop, you can't just catch any bust to return back to your room. If you head up that way for a swim or to eat, you might have a ~long~ wait for the OKW internal bus to bring you back to your room. On our stay we waited well over 1/2 hour three times for that bus (once was closer to an hour). Staying back on Turtle Pond Road was just too far of a walk in the August heat. It sounds as though you will have a car with you in which case - drive up to the HH. It's worth it.

The looping around the buses do to go up and down the roads rivals the Teacups. I like the teacups... but did not like the spinning effect the bus gave me.

Beautiful resort and rooms. However, for the above reasons I will not be staying at OKW again... well, not without a car.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We've never had any problems with the busses at OKW, never. And the boat ride to DTD is more like an excursion rather than just a means to get to DTD.

 

[buzz5985]

We were in building 27 last summer and it was great for bus service. We had a couple of 12 yo's that we would stand out in front of our villa and report what bus was going by, we knew we had at least 10 minutes to walk over to the HH to get the bus on the way out of OKW. The boys were never out there long waiting for the bus we needed.

We all had cars and used the bus transportation. We found it to be great - never a full bus even leaving MK at closing. I wanted to wait 1/2 hour - but everyone else was eager to get home. We got on a bus right away - I jokingly asked the driver where was everyone. We got on, he closed the door and we were off. There were about 20 people on the bus. I was shocked.

Instead of waiting at HH for an internal bus - I would just walk less than 5 minutes to the Peninsula Rd bus stop and get on the first bus that came along. We had a 2 yo with us and he had no problem with the walk.

Janis

 

[Brian Noble]

Every bus returning from outside (parks, dtd etc) goes through the entire resort. This means if you're last on you're also last off. The only way I can see to avoid this is to be near the hospitality house and you can catch the buses leaving from the HH and get off at your stop as one of the first returning. I'd love to hear if this works from others who've done so.

Since every bus stops at the HH (theme pool) as the last stop, you can't just catch any bust to return back to your room. If you head up that way for a swim or to eat, you might have a ~long~ wait for the OKW internal bus to bring you back to your room.

The first stop is Peninsular---and it's an easy stroll from the HH area. When I'm staying anywhere in that neighborhood, I get on at HH, and get off at Peninsular. Very simple, very easy.

I'll sometimes get off at Peninsular even when I'm staying on Miller's Road (which is the penultimate stop). Depends on how tired I am. It's a little bit of a walk, but even so an adult in decent health can walk from the stop on Peninsular to the stop at Miller's before the bus can get around.

 

[Simba's Mom]

The only time I had a long wait was over 35 minutes for a bus at the HH. However, having stayed at Turtle Pond and Miller's Road, I suspect I see what the problem is. A couple times, the bus filled up at one of the outer stops, so then the bus driver went directly to the theme park, bypassing the HH, because he couldn't take on any more passengers.