POR,should we drive or take the buses to the parks?

[eeyoresmom]

we will be staying here from June 16-23(very busy season!) We will have a rental car but I usually like to take Disney transportation,mainly because I'm tired by the end of the day and don't feel like driving! Do you think the waiting for buses will be long(more than 20 min?) TIA

 

[ptrbryant]

My DH will NOT take the buses...he hates waiting and when he's ready to leave a park, he wants to just GO. We just stayed at POR for the 1st time 2 weeks ago and really, really loved it...but, we did use a rental car the entire time. From what i've read here, the transportation is the main weak spot at POR. If not waiting more than 20 min. is important to you, I'd say use your rental car to be safe and save the aggravation.

Karla B.

 

[MagicalMom]

I was going to post the same question!

I read that the buses go to POFQ first & are auaully full by the time they get to POR. I think we'll probably drive since the thought of waiting for a bus with hot, tired kids just sounds miserable.

 

[HopperFan]

We have used their buses and did okay, but our preference now is drive to all locations except MK. There we take the bus for front gate drop off.

We also find driving saves considerable travel time when park hopping.

 

[VickiVM]

I'll chime in here since we just got back yesterday and flew in - did not rent car. We never had more than a 15 min wait for buses - and that may even be over estimating time. Early in the morning we did walk to main bus stop at Riverside entrance because it stopped there first, or so I thought. PO only shares bus with French Quarter, but not all the time. On some occasions, it bypassed French Quarter and went straight to Riverside. I think if varied based on demand. We also were on the bus when returned to POR an it bypassed the main stop and started with our stop - the West Depot. So I think there was quite a bit of communication going on between drivers that adjusted stops based on bus loads and frequency of buses.

Waits for return buses were not that long. I think on one or two afternoons we may have had a 20 minute wait.

Several times we had to stand, but everyone was minding their p's & q's and willing to give up seats for moms with babies, small children, or elderly. Even teenagers were requested by their parents to give up seats for adults!! (Way to go Parents!) With the exception of Animal Kingdom, buses went straight to parks. Animal Kingdom shared with Blizzard Beach.

We've never driven to the parks (even though we have driven to WDW on 3 occasions) and always used their buses - so I can't really give a comparison. But with the short wait times, I imagine that must be less time spent from resort to parks if one were to drive to park parking lot and catching a tram to entrance. I may be wrong.

I just wanted to point out that we have very good luck with buses and we never encountered over hearing anyone else complaining about waits. Also, judging by the small crownds at the bus stops at both resorts and parks, I can only surmise that buses were running quite frequently.

BTW - I noticed bus stops at the parks that go to the other parks. I always thought that if you wanted to park hop, you had to take a bus to a resort then to the next park you wanted to visited, but apparently you can now catch a bus that goes from one park to another. I don't know this for sure as we didn't park hop - but I did notice these labeled stops at Animal Kingdom, MGM and MK, I believe. Maybe someone can confirm this.

 

[disneymania10]

We stayed at Port Orleans on a number of occasions. The buses do stop at PFQ First and can be full. But, you have a much better shot of getting a seat if you wait at the main stop because the buses pick up at that location first for POR. Then, they go to the other bus stops throughout the resort.

We found that find it easier/faster to drive to all parks except for the MK.

POR is great by the way.