Old Key West Bus Service

[ScottJayhawk]

Reading my handy dandy Unofficial Guide I notice that travel times by bus from OKW are pretty much in line with most resorts. BUT.... a line in the book scares me "...except at Old Key West where buses run every 45-50 minutes"

Is that accurate?? Do buses really only run every 45 minutes at OKW???

How is the bus service at OKW??

Keep in mind we'll be there in Sept - so low season.

Thanks in advance for great help!!

 

[pamickey]

We've stayed at OKW twice and only had one excessive wait. When we had been waiting for about 30 minutes and watched numerous busses for all of the other parks come and go, we went to the bell captain and he was able to call Disney Transportation to request that a bus be sent. I'm not sure what the problem was, but 2 busses appeared together within several minutes.

Other than that one experience, we have thought that the bus service at OKW was very good.

Terri

 

[DebbieB]

Reading my handy dandy Unofficial Guide I notice that travel times by bus from OKW are pretty much in line with most resorts. BUT.... a line in the book scares me "...except at Old Key West where buses run every 45-50 minutes"

Is that accurate?? Do buses really only run every 45 minutes at OKW???

How is the bus service at OKW??

Keep in mind we'll be there in Sept - so low season.

Thanks in advance for great help!!

They run every 20 min just like any other resort. The problem I have with them is it can take a long time to get out of the resort, there are 5 stops far apart. I've stayed there 7 or 8 times and always had a car.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

We have stayed 10 or 12 times at OKW, its our DVC home resort.........rarely ever had a long wait. 20 minutes is about average!

AKK

 

[pepe of ohio]

We just returned from our first stay at OKW a few weeks ago and I must say, after doing 43 trips to other resorts....the bus times are longer. As posted, OKW is a sprawled out resort with multiple stops that the buses must hit so getting around the complex and back to the Hospitality Center does take up more time. I'd say for our 7 night stay, averaging all the times we've waited....30-45 minutes was was the number. It's the same old adage, if you walk to the bus stop and your bus is there, bingo, you're gone and no wait but if you're walking down to the depot and the bus is pulling out...it's a considerable wait....longer there then we experienced at other resort....depends on where your villa is.

 

[saintstickets]

Reading my handy dandy Unofficial Guide I notice that travel times by bus from OKW are pretty much in line with most resorts. BUT.... a line in the book scares me "...except at Old Key West where buses run every 45-50 minutes"

Is that accurate?? Do buses really only run every 45 minutes at OKW???

How is the bus service at OKW??

Keep in mind we'll be there in Sept - so low season.

Thanks in advance for great help!!

We've stayed at OKW twice and have NEVER waited more than 15 minutes for a bus. Most of the time it was less than 10 minutes. Maybe we were lucky but that is what we experienced.

 

[SusieBea]

We have stayed at OKW over 25 times at various times of the year, and we have stayed at several other Disney resorts. I feel the bus service at OKW is as good as if not better than service at other resorts. Occasionally, there's a long wait, but we have not experienced that very often.

 

[skipperkim]

I don't recall there being that long of delays catching a bus there on my stay, but it has been over 7 years since I stayed there. I will say we had a private bus on my 1st ever bus ride at WDW to MK. Just complete dumb luck, btw. We did later in the stay have a 'special' bus to Epcot. The driver I guess took pity on us. He was headed to DHS, then MGM, as were 3 other buses. (He watched all of them pull up and we were the only ones waiting on a bus at HH.) So he took us to Epcot.

I meant to say hi as well. Yes, I'm Kim from Kansas.

 

[iloveallthingsdisney]

We stayed Dec 4-11 and while we might have only waited 10-20 minutes for a bus to pick us up from the bus stop, it took an additional 10-15 for the bus to stop at all the additional internal bus stops.

What was even worse was waiting for a bus at the parks. We waited 30-55 minutes for buses to bring us back to the resort, in the freezing cold!! It was the worst experience I've ever had at any of the resorts we've stayed at! We've stayed at Port Orleans, Coronado Springs, Boardwalk Villas and had no problems whatsoever. Maybe they were just having a bad week, but unfortunately that was my trip experience. We won't be staying there again.

 

[MelissathePooh]

We've never had great luck with the bus service at OKW. We've had to wait 20-30 min for a bus just to have it drive past because it was already full. Between the insane trip around the resort and the waits/crowded buses - we just drive when we stay there. I wouldn't stay there without a car.

I know some people have great luck there - we've never been those people.

The only additional potential downside I could think of for September is that if overall attendance is down they won't have as many buses running in general. So if you miss the one that is driving away as you're walking up...you'll have a longer wait for the next one.

That said, we do love OKW - we just don't rely on OKW to get us around WDW.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

It can take a while on the resort property. If the bus you want is not at your bus stop then get on anyway. It will stop at the hospitality house. You can get the one you need there. It can seem longer because of all the stop. Most of the other resorts share a bus with other resorts. OKW has its own buses. So it kind of evens out. If you are at the parks and on the way back to your resort it is kind of nice knowing that it doesn't need to stop anywhere else first. You can also take a boat to DTD. OKW is our favorite resort. We waited 25 minutes 1 time. That is not much comparitivly. Have you ever had to rely on a city bus system or subway system. If you have then you have nothing to worry about. This is so much better. We have had a car with us most of our stays at OKW. It is more of a hassle then anything. Most people waiting are not realistic about the time waits. Kind of like the saying " a watched bot never boils."

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Reading my handy dandy Unofficial Guide I notice that travel times by bus from OKW are pretty much in line with most resorts. BUT.... a line in the book scares me "...except at Old Key West where buses run every 45-50 minutes"

Is that accurate?? Do buses really only run every 45 minutes at OKW???

How is the bus service at OKW??

Keep in mind we'll be there in Sept - so low season.

Thanks in advance for great help!!

Thanks for asking this question. We'll be there in September too!

 

[OKW Lover]

The busses at OKW are no worse than any other resort. Some folks will find it acceptable, some not so.

 

[kaffinito]

We've stayed at OKW twice and only had one excessive wait. When we had been waiting for about 30 minutes and watched numerous busses for all of the other parks come and go

That happens to me at every resort, on every trip, multiple times. The two worse were POP and GF for that occurrence. I've gotten used to it now....

ETA: ScottJayhawk- send me a PM towards the middle of March and I'll let you know what I thought of the buses. We're staying at OKW in the beginning of March, so I can let you know what I thought.

 

[jen_uk]

We stayed at OLW in 2009 and found the wait times for the buses were really long. One day we had gone to the pool and after waited for a passing bus as our villa right over the other side, after about 25 mins we gave up and started walking and we didn't see one bus during the walk at all.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

buses are hit and miss on every property. The worst wait I ever endured to date was at BC, we had dinner at Cape May and were waiting for a bus to DTD, we ended up giving up after an hour and getting a cab.

 

[ScottJayhawk]

Thanks for the feedback so far, sounds like bus service at OKW is about the same as all resorts - a bit of luck can make a big difference. But I'm glad I didn't just get bombarded with horror stories.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I have never had problems with busses at OKW in that they come very regularly and at night even at park closing at MK, we've been able to get on the busses quicker than other resorts.

If you get on at the first stop, it takes some time to make the loop to the other stops. Nothing horrible but the route is sort of weird in that at one point, you loop through a small parking lot to get back around to the other stop, vs a more circular, orderly route at similar resorts (CBR, SSR, CSR and POR). I would hate to be in whatever building it is that has that parking lot where the busses pull through.

All of that said, we absolutley love the resort, and its a fine trade off for us because the theming, the pools, restaurants and units all make up for it and then some. What I described was nothing that kept us from staying there or made us want to rent a car.

I'll add that even with a weird route, I prefer OKW busses to the Epcot or MK resorts because there is no resort sharing. Also, I sort of think most people who stay at OKW rent cars, I have stood less (not even sure I have ever stood once in all our stays there, one of which was two weeks) on OKW busses than any other.

 

[sharadoc]

Our stay at Old Key West last June was what got us back onto the buses! We were driving everywhere, even MK, when my DD begged for one bus ride. We were staying in Building 54, which is the South Pointe stop, and we had wonderful experiences all week. The stops going back at MK and DHS are right up front, too, so a much shorter walk back to the bus stop.

We've stayed at BWV twice and had so-so service every time. Waits to come back from parks always seemed longer and the driving to bus stops at the Swan and Dolphin felt really long.

We never had to stand on an OKW bus, but always stood on BWV buses.

I wish we could organize a true test of bus service. Like get volunteers to time their rides to every park at the same time of day, same season of the year. Otherwise, it's all just opinion and personal perception. You'll never get a "real" answer comparing buses, just opinions on whether or not folks liked or didn't like the service.

I also think that if folks didn't care for their resort stay overall, then the bus service was horrible. If they love the resort, the buses are always good no matter how long you wait.

OKW is our first choice of resort and we're looking forward to another great stay in June.

 

[Luv4Disney]

We never had an excessive wait for a bus, but I couldn't stand going through parking lots to turn around and go back. Poor planning in my opinion. Where our bus stop was, it must have been one of the first because it always took 10-15 minutes once we got on to actually leave the resort and head to where we were going.