OKW and how long it takes to bus to each park

[tony webb]

i ve been told to take the bus to MK because you bypass the monorail.... but drive my own car to the other theme parks....is this wise...how much time does it take to get to the theme parks from OKW on the bus

 

[Candace]

i ve been told to take the bus to MK because you bypass the monorail.... but drive my own car to the other theme parks....is this wise...how much time does it take to get to the theme parks from OKW on the bus

Personally, I take the bus to all the parks when I am staying at OKW. I don't like driving, then parking, then getting the tram to the entrance, etc. When I am ready to leave to return to OKW, I don't want to do the same in reverse - I just prefer to go to the bus stop. If buses are running as scheduled, you shouldn't have to wait at the bus stop too awfully long, and then it's about 15 minutes to the parks. Of course, any of the resorts can have an off day as to timing, but my bus experience at OKW has always been good. It has its own bus route - by that I mean you don't stop at other hotels - you go straight to the parks/or back to OKW. I have been a member since 1994 and I always use the buses for parks - I only drive if I am having dinner at another resort or going off property. HTH

 

[BroganMc]

i ve been told to take the bus to MK because you bypass the monorail.... but drive my own car to the other theme parks....is this wise...how much time does it take to get to the theme parks from OKW on the bus

The schedule is roughly 10-15 minutes drive time per park (EPCOT is the closest, AK the farthest). Busses run about every 17-22 minutes. The internal loop is about 10 minutes. So figure if the busses are running on schedule, your trip will take between 20-45 minutes depending on if you just missed your bus.

You just have to ask yourself how much time you really spend driving and parking instead of waiting for a bus. Even at park closing when the bus lines are packed, the same is true for the line of cars exiting.

For parks, I don't find car travel easier. Only if I'm visiting other resorts do I find a real advantage to using a car.

 

[Caskbill]

It depends on a lot of things as to whether a bus is best or a car.

We do drive a car at times instead of taking the bus. There are some things to consider.

Pros to driving:
1. Your car is probably closer to your room than the bus stop.
2. Your car is ready to go when you are. A bus could be up to a 20 minute wait.
3. Your car goes directly to the park while a bus makes rounds of the resort. So you go all the way around either coming or going, depending on where your bus stop is.
4. If you want to go somewhere else when you leave the park, your car is available. EG, to go to DD from a park is much easier with a car than taking a combination of busses.

Cons to driving:
1. You're using gas at about $3.00/gallon
2. You'll have to take a tram (or walk) from where you park your car up to the park's entrance.
3. Traffic may or may not be an issue.
4. At MK you still have to boat or monorail to get to the park.

We do both depending on the situation. If we know we're going somewhere after we leave the park, then it's nice to have the car already there.

One thing we sometimes do when taking the bus is to play bus roulette. Since we've been to all the parks so often, we sometimes don't have any particular park in mind when we leave in the morning. In these cases, we just hop on the first park bus that comes along.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Caskbill makes some good points. We too often do "bus roulette" and just go to the park whose bus comes first.

We almost always take the bus to all parks from OKW. The only one we will often drive to is AK. THe reason is that AK takes a longer bus ride because of a stop at Blizzard Beach. That, and the fact that the AK bus stops are almost as far from the entrance as the parking lot.

We would NEVER take a car to MK from OKW. You can get there much faster on the bus. We usually take the bus to Epcot also, but if we are going early in the morning for EMH, we will drive, because it means we can park close up front, and not have to wait for the bus to make its rounds. Epcot would be within walking distance of OKW if it wasn't for the roadways! The roads and the Epcot parking lot are between OKW and the Epcot entrance. MGM is another "bus only" one for us. SOmetimes we access that park by starting the day at Epcot and then taking the boat from there to MGM too. We find we spend less time at MGM than the other parks, so we tend to do it in shorter mini visits each trip (that usually means just going there for specific attractions or to eat).

We often drive to DTD, even though there is an internal bus that gets us there quickly and a boat that we like to take as well. If we are going to "shop" we will drive, but if we are just going to look around or eat, we will often take the ferry.

 

[dvc at last !]

We have never driven to WDW.

We have rented cars at the airport to take to WDW, and discovered we do not use the car again till we go back to the airport.

So....ME is for us !

We use WDW transportation when at the resorts.

This works for us !

 

[DebbieB]

I disagree that it's always faster to take the bus to MK than driving. I timed it one time, it was 25 minutes from front door to the turnstiles. Many times after 25 minutes the bus has not even left OKW (figuring 15 min wait + 10 min to go around all the stops). Plus on the bus there's the possibility you will have to stand and be packed in like sardines.

 

[Anthony1971]

In most cases I play "bus roulette" as well. The only time this can be a problem is if you are going to a park to see fireworks or dinner at a specific time and just want to go for that reason. I have never seen the buses as a problem in fact I enjoy the down time of just sitting there waiting and being on the bus. I am the type of person who will avoid driving on vacation at any cost and if it take me 30 minutes longer I does not bother me..... but this is very rare except for DTD once in a while.....
I would not worry about getting a car unless you are the type who has to be somewehere at a certain time or will be upset.... However if you do have dinner reservations at other resorts than a car is a plus.

 

[jimmacmn]

I would not worry about getting a car unless you are the type who has to be somewehere at a certain time or will be upset.... However if you do have dinner reservations at other resorts than a car is a plus.

This is true, however, the last couple of trips we found that an ocasional taxi to a resort for dinner was much less than a rental car that sits in the parking lot for most of the trip.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I disagree that it's always faster to take the bus to MK than driving. I timed it one time, it was 25 minutes from front door to the turnstiles. Many times after 25 minutes the bus has not even left OKW (figuring 15 min wait + 10 min to go around all the stops). Plus on the bus there's the possibility you will have to stand and be packed in like sardines.

I find this impossible to believe. There would be no way to time it unless you had a person driving and a person taking the bus at the same exact day and time. We HAVE done that, and bus people arrived at the park quite a bit ahead of the car people. The car people either have to take a monorail or boat from the TTC and a tram from the parking lot. Unless you are able to park in the handicapped section, the tram alone takes up a lot of time. We often will leave our villa and arrive at the MK entrance within 25 minutes. That usually includes a less than 10 minute wait for the bus as well. The entire OKW route does take about 15 minutes from entrance to exit, but even if you are on the first stop, that's a far cry from 25 minutes before you leave the resort.

 

[starbox]

I like taking the Disney busses - we've been using them exclusively for years. I'd say that you can count on between 30-45 minutes including wait times to get to most desinations regardless of the resort where you are staying.

The one BIG mistake we made at OKW was that we picked up the bus at the HH bus-stop - which is the last stop and got skipped a few times because the bus filled up.

 

[vandy]

Which one is quicker is not the issue to me. Rather, it is which one is easier. I greatly prefer stepping into an air conditioned bus than a steaming car that has sat in the sun. And after a long day at the park, leaving tired, I don't have to worry about driving or watching out for the OTHER tired drivers. The bus system has issues, but it is easier on us.

 

[JimMIA]

I disagree that it's always faster to take the bus to MK than driving. I timed it one time, it was 25 minutes from front door to the turnstiles. Many times after 25 minutes the bus has not even left OKW (figuring 15 min wait + 10 min to go around all the stops). Plus on the bus there's the possibility you will have to stand and be packed in like sardines.

This has been our experience as well -- 25-30 minutes from getting in the car to the turnstiles (or at least to security). I find that we're a lot quicker these days than we were when we first started going. It really helps to know your way around. The car will take longer than 25-30 minutes if we take the ferry, which we sometimes choose to do, but we find driving easy.

We even drove to Epcot and monorailed from there to MK once just to see how it was, but that was a joke!

I've never timed the buses (we've only taken them a couple of times to MK), but I suspect most of the time they would be in the 30-45 minute range to MK, depending on where you got on within OKW. I think that's pretty good service, and I certainly would not shy away from riding the buses.

We usually drive to parks primarily because we come back to the resort in the early afternoon for swim/nap time.

 

[JimMIA]

Which one is quicker is not the issue to me. Rather, it is which one is easier. I greatly prefer stepping into an air conditioned bus than a steaming car that has sat in the sun.

Like everything else, this depends on your perspective. With your family, I'm sure you are right. However, for a family with one or more small kids in strollers, a bus is not exactly heaven. Nor is waiting a long time when you can't walk another step, and then having to stand in the aisle with a 2 y/o on the verge of Mickey Meltdown.

And after a long day at the park, leaving tired, I don't have to worry about driving or watching out for the OTHER tired drivers.

, but make that tired, lost, and occasionally drunk other drivers. But that's really part of the sport of it all!

OTOH, you can run into tired, lost, drunk, obnoxious loudmouths on the bus too. At least in a car you can get away from them.

 

[DebbieB]

I find this impossible to believe. There would be no way to time it unless you had a person driving and a person taking the bus at the same exact day and time. We HAVE done that, and bus people arrived at the park quite a bit ahead of the car people. The car people either have to take a monorail or boat from the TTC and a tram from the parking lot. Unless you are able to park in the handicapped section, the tram alone takes up a lot of time. We often will leave our villa and arrive at the MK entrance within 25 minutes. That usually includes a less than 10 minute wait for the bus as well. The entire OKW route does take about 15 minutes from entrance to exit, but even if you are on the first stop, that's a far cry from 25 minutes before you leave the resort.

I've timed it a couple of times, both OKW and BWV. 25 to 30 minutes. Now I never get there right at opening, it's usually between 10 and 11. I don't park in handicapped or preferred. There is usually a tram right away. Then the express monorail.

I've never had good luck with the busses at OKW. Usually at least a 15 minute wait.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I've timed it a couple of times, both OKW and BWV. 25 to 30 minutes. Now I never get there right at opening, it's usually between 10 and 11. I don't park in handicapped or preferred. There is usually a tram right away. Then the express monorail.

I've never had good luck with the busses at OKW. Usually at least a 15 minute wait.

That explains the difference in our experiences. We usually go at park opening and are on our way back to the resort around noon. We find bus service to be a bit slower later in the day.