On app bus schedules

Jimminy Cricket 123

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
How accurate are the bus schedules that now seem to appear on the app? We're at the Art of Animation resort in March and was curious as it was not available last early June when we were in WDW.

How accurate are they for the first buses in the morning when they seem to be so hit or miss?

Thanks!
 
We were at WDW in December and the times seemed very accurate. They're the same times that are displayed on the boards at the bus stops. The times will often tick back a few minute at a time, if the bus is hitting traffic and getting slowed down. But we found them to be pretty much spot on.
 
Are the bus times on the WDW app or is it a different app? I can’t seem to find it on the WDW app!
 


We were at WDW in December and the times seemed very accurate. They're the same times that are displayed on the boards at the bus stops. The times will often tick back a few minute at a time, if the bus is hitting traffic and getting slowed down. But we found them to be pretty much spot on.

This matches our experience with buses / the app as well. I'd say pretty accurate, but times do tick up/down a bit as traffic conditions/waits change vs whatever programming is used to calculate initial times. Sort of like using Waze - it'll adjust ETA based on things as it goes.
 


Ah, so i'm guessing it doesn't really help much early in the mornings then when the bus boards for many buses just say "every 20 minutes".

Thanks
 
Ah, so i'm guessing it doesn't really help much early in the mornings then when the bus boards for many buses just say "every 20 minutes".

Thanks

If there's a bus in route, it'll show the time. Otherwise, yes, you tend to see more "every 20 mins" really early when there are less buses moving about.
 
So I guess Early Morning Magics, we should find an alternative transportation from Art of Animation? Especially Hollywood Studios, where it sounds like you can enter to eat breakfast 6:45-7:00 AM.
 
So I guess Early Morning Magics, we should find an alternative transportation from Art of Animation? Especially Hollywood Studios, where it sounds like you can enter to eat breakfast 6:45-7:00 AM.
The thread on this event has plenty of people who have taken buses to HS - they are reporting that first buses are running around 6 AM.
 
So I guess Early Morning Magics, we should find an alternative transportation from Art of Animation? Especially Hollywood Studios, where it sounds like you can enter to eat breakfast 6:45-7:00 AM.

Yeah, many folks have reported buses running early enough with good success. A lot of people have also used taxi/ride share/booked Mears/etc to have a bit more control and not be totally dependent on the bus.

This is just one moment in time snapshot, but here’s a real world example. This was 12/31 at 6:09am.

1C9747BA-360A-47AD-A60A-712419CFB1F8.png

We opted to take a taxi (it was cheap) but the bus times above would have worked reasonably well for EMM. I wanted to be there closer to 6:40-45 which is why I went for the taxi.
 
Another question: do you see bus times from wherever you are using GPS, or just your home resort out-bound? Two examples:

1. Staying at Beach Club, but waiting at MK for a bus ride back?

2. Staying at Beach Club, but having breakfast at AKL, waiting to go to another park from there?

Either way, this is pretty cool. Either this wasn’t on the app last January when we were there, or we never found it. We thought the bus boards were awesome by themselves.
 
Another question: do you see bus times from wherever you are using GPS, or just your home resort out-bound? Two examples:

1. Staying at Beach Club, but waiting at MK for a bus ride back?

2. Staying at Beach Club, but having breakfast at AKL, waiting to go to another park from there?

Either way, this is pretty cool. Either this wasn’t on the app last January when we were there, or we never found it. We thought the bus boards were awesome by themselves.

Unfortunately it’s tied to your resort and it only shows times from your resort to the parks, not the other way around and it’s not GPS based to show bus times if you were, in your example, at another resort. I like your style though, maybe someday!

I don’t remember off hand when it was added - sometime in the last year if I’m not mistaken. Might not have been out yet in January.

It is relatively ‘hidden’ in the app as it’s several clicks/layers in and part of your resort reservation details - I wish it had a short-cut/one-click option for easier access.

The last few trips I’ve had a pop-up notifcation the day of check-in letting me know it was available.
 
Are the bus times on the WDW app or is it a different app? I can’t seem to find it on the WDW app!
U need to be there, and it’ll be available to you. We used it nov, it’s gps so very accurate.a plus in my book.
Just read mod above. We were told it was gps... and that’s why they were updated so quickly and specifically. Hmmmm either way it was very good for us and very accurate.
 
U need to be there, and it’ll be available to you. We used it nov, it’s gps so very accurate.a plus in my book.
Just read mod above. We were told it was gps... and that’s why they were updated so quickly and specifically. Hmmmm either way it was very good for us and very accurate.

Yes, the bus times are GPS based and about as real-time as you can get... PP was asking if the app uses your GPS-based location to show you bus times, say, at another resort. In their example, if you’re a guest at AKL but eating at Poly, can you see Poly bus times because it ‘knows’ you’re at Poly based on your location at that moment. The answer to that is no, the app doesn’t use your location to provide bus times from anywhere other than your own resort.
 
I know others have mentioned it, but after really paying attention to it on our last 2 trips yes it is accurate however it is constantly changing. Say you're getting ready to leave your room for MK and the app shows the next bus arriving for MK will be there in 14 minutes. It's a 5-6 minute walk to the bus stop so you hang in the room for a few. Next thing you know central dispatch made an audible and now the app shows the next MK bus is arriving in 4 minutes. This happened to us once so I stopped doing that. After that, whenever we were ready to go we just walked to the bus stop and waited. I saw at least 5 families walk up to the bus stop, see on the bus board that the next bus was showing over 10 minutes until arrival and call for an Uber. Well as soon as they walked away to the pick up spot, the board was updated and the bus they were waiting for arrived a couple minutes later. Also, I saw quite a few temper tantrums from kids who were getting whiny while waiting and the parents would say "look, the bus is going to be here in 8 minutes, when it gets down to 1 it's going to be right here". Well then when it got down to 3 or 4, it would jump back up to 8 and the kids who know how math/time works would go bat poop crazy.

Having said all that, I think this feature on the boards at the stops and on the app is a great addition. Just wanted to throw out some words of caution to help make everyone's trip even better.
 

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