Opinions on resort bus transportation..

[goofy4tink]

Okay guys. Just for giggles, can we discuss the buses at our various resorts? I'm going to add a poll to get things going. Have at it...try to stay civil!!!

Due to being restricted to just 12 choices, I have lumped some resorts together...but Disney does that too, so it should work out fine.
I am going to do another poll for the 'worst' system.

 

[goofy4tink]

Keep 'em coming!!

What makes you decide if a resort has 'good' bus service???

 

[maxiesmom]

One thing that CSR has going for it is that it is such a popular convention resort. That means many people staying there don't use the park buses! So you don't feel as packed in as you do at most other resorts. Secondly in my experiences the buses came on a fairly frequent basis. We never had much of a wait.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Pop/AoA because: each has its own buses, bus pickup area is pretty centrally located, and there are actual lines for waiting. None of the "last-minute arrivals jumping ahead of those waiting a 'long'-time.
OKW because it's OKW and everything they do is perfect .

 

[Sandi]

We've stayed at nearly all of the resorts and, from my personal experience, Pop has the best bus service. I'm one of those people who actually set a timer to see how long the wait is for a bus (both starting at the resort and at the park). It is rare that we wait more than 13 minutes (yup, that's the high number) and typically it is less than 7 minutes. Then, the ride back is great because there is only one stop -- none of the 4 drop offs once you get back like at POR, CBR, CSR and the multiple stops like on the Swan, Dolphin, YC, BC, BWI routes.

The other thing I like at Pop is that there is a queuing area for the busses so people know in what order people arrived to catch the bus. Especially at the moderate resorts, I get frustrated with people who arrive well after others who have been waiting and then the late-comers push their way to be among the first to board. Just rude. (I throw that in to the general "logistics" part of the bus service.)

 

[Minnesota!]

One thing that CSR has going for it is that it is such a popular convention resort. That means many people staying there don't use the park buses! So you don't feel as packed in as you do at most other resorts. Secondly in my experiences the buses came on a fairly frequent basis. We never had much of a wait.

We had the exact opposite experience. We have stayed here twice and both times the busses have been ridiculous. Hour waits, with hundreds of people milling around. We actually asked them to move us to another resort b/c of it. There was no availability anywhere, so they upgraded us to a suite near stop 1. It was still BAD but at least there weren't as many people waiting there (as at 3 and 4). Waits were close to 25 minutes still..

Best service we have had - Pop, hands down. With AKL and CBR coming in tied for 2nd.

 

[joelkfla]

It's not surprising to hear that many people think Pop & AoA have the best service, even though they're the largest of the Disney resorts (or maybe because of it.)

In the morning, transportation cast keep a close eye on the queues, and a number of extra buses are staged nearby. If the wait time approaches 20 minutes, or if a bus fills and another is not soon to arrive, one of the extra buses is quickly dispatched. Of course there are times when all the extras are used up, but this generally works pretty well.

Some extra buses are also staged elsewhere on property, but they're usually shared by multiple resorts or resorts with multiple stops, so it's more difficult to keep things flowing.

Pop is also one of the first to receive assistance from the outside charter buses when they're brought in to help, and will probably be among the first to be serviced by the articulated double-capacity buses when they start arriving this summer.

 

[Sandi]

It's not surprising to hear that many people think Pop & AoA have the best service, even though they're the largest of the Disney resorts (or maybe because of it.)

In the morning, transportation cast keep a close eye on the queues, and a number of extra buses are staged nearby. If the wait time approaches 20 minutes, or if a bus fills and another is not soon to arrive, one of the extra buses is quickly dispatched. Of course there are times when all the extras are used up, but this generally works pretty well.

Some extra buses are also staged elsewhere on property, but they're usually shared by multiple resorts or resorts with multiple stops, so it's more difficult to keep things flowing.

Pop is also one of the first to receive assistance from the outside charter buses when they're brought in to help, and will probably be among the first to be serviced by the articulated double-capacity buses when they start arriving this summer.

Thanks for sharing the information. You are a wealth of knowledge and it's nice to have an inside source.

 

[bellebookworm9]

We had excellent transportation luck staying at WL this past December. I don't think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for buses or boats. Even when we just missed a bus, another one came along very quickly.

CSR had consistently good transportation, I think we had maybe two long-ish waits of about 30 minutes in Feb. 2012.

I stayed at All Star Sports and Music in May 2012 and was pleasantly surprised at the bus service.

 

[bjscheel]

We've honestly never had trouble with busses anywhere (Pop, ASMO, CBR, & POR). I voted CBR because we never had an ECV load on our bus when we were there. Probably just luck. No troubles at POR at all either. Pop and Asmo were longer ago so I don't remember but I'm sure they were not bad!