Resort bus, what happened

[goofy4tink]

This was our 4th trip in 5 years and never has it taken us the suggested 90 minutes to get to an ADR, especially one that is in a park, one bus ride away.

Well, I had a completely miserable experience at OKW a few weeks ago. Got out to the bus stop, waited for the MK bus. We had a BoG ADR. We got to the bus stop about 75 mins prior to the ADR. I looked at the bus times board...seemed that we had just missed a MK bus...next one wasn't due for 25 mins. Ok....I had time. But, as we sat and waited, that time continued to move back.....we sat and watched as multiple buses to other destinations came and went. We sat and waited close to 50 mins!!! I got to the BoG check-in podium 10 mins late!!!
I'm not sure what's going on with the buses, but this past trip I had the worst bus experiences in years...and I go to WDW multiple times a year, since '99!!!

We're staying at CBR in January. I'm thrilled we'll have a car!

 

[jsrj21]

My family and I were at CBR Aug 10-21 and the buses were what we expected after many stays at this resort. The bus times on the screens were not off my much [<5 minutes for the most part]. Now, what we need to keep in mind is that CBR is a huge resort and when parks close, the lines at the bus stations can be enormous! As a previous poster said, we rent a car and pick and choose when to drive to a park and when to take the bus. Is it annoying at times, yes. However, we just love the resort so we just go with the flow.

 

[lampshadehead]

Perhaps all those that had the bus issues ..I hope would consider Speaking up while you are At the resort and/or follow up in writing post trip. I don't think Disney wants Unhappy people....you d be surprised by what effect repeated Complaints can do. I mean, sounds like some of you wont return to those troubling resorts. And rightly so.
The Only room we take at POR is preferred..its closest to main bus stop and that alone seems to alleviate some of the issues. And we have taken the bus from a park to POFQ and Walked to POR as well. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. It seems those POFQ buses just came more frequently.
I think up to a 20-30 minute wait is the limit to timely travel from a resort to a park.
Asking people to allow 1.5 hours to get from point A to B is simply Too Long and imho unreasonable. We ve used a taxi ( which always seems to be about $20) and readily available everywhere. Or used our car, but very infrequently.
I actually Like the bus rides..people watching is great fun!
Sorry to hear all the bus travel woes! Hope ur trips were great despite that.

Agree, I enjoy the bus rides also. Its nice to have someone driving and being able to look out the window or at the cute little babies, there were so many! Trip was perfect but those buses just seemed determined to be a thorn in my side. After the 3rd night of long waits for a bus, I went to the front desk. They were very apologetic, passed the comments to transportation. The next two nights were just as bad, one at Epcot about an hour wait, and the other being a 50 minute wait at DS. People started clapping when the bus finally arrived (there were people waiting for the bus when we got there, so their wait was longer than my 50 minutes.) A woman on the bus was advising other passengers to email guest services. A manager from Epcot transportation called me the next day and he was very helpful. While we encountered crowding at the bus stop, we didn't wait ridiculously long for a bus there again. The front desk did give some small compensation for the inconvenience, but I prefer to have decent wait times instead. It was much of the same for the last half of the 10 days but we just didn't have the energy for more visits to the desk or emails to guest services. The night of the Halloween Party, at closing, Pop and Riverside were the worst lines I have seen. After getting home from the trip, I did email them again to let them know. Oh and the front desk did suggest that if we leave at park closing, to wait maybe an hour or so in the park, since everybody leaves at once and the buses get crowded. Well, we waited until they were practically kicking us out at HS. I mean telling us to have a good night and sweeping by our feet LOL. But yet, the line for Pop bus was still snaked and out past the queue. My cynical side thinks that maybe they want more people to drive themselves, and then can cut down on the expense of buses. Hopefully that is not the case since the bus transportation is/was something I loved about going to Disney.
PS: would like to add that all of our experiences with long waits and crowded buses were late at night. The daytime was fine, as was service TO the parks from resort.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I've stayed at CBR twice and never had an issue with the buses. My longest bus wait was at the Beach Club. I waited over 30 minutes for a bus to MK. There were tons of people waiting for DS too. Plenty of AK buses kept coming through though.

I think buses are hit or miss depending on the moment. Traffic, ECVs, etc. It sucks but we refuse to drive while on vacation so we "deal with it."

 

[amomma23]

Yep. The buses over Christmas seem plentiful no matter where you stay. Hope the trend continues this year.

Me, too. We booked the free dining bounce back for Christmas 2017.

 

[Minnesota!]

CBR has always been good for us. Our only issues have ever been at CSR. Horrible...the reason we won't ever stay there again...

 

[maxiesmom]

I've stayed at CBR twice and never had an issue with the buses. My longest bus wait was at the Beach Club. I waited over 30 minutes for a bus to MK. There were tons of people waiting for DS too. Plenty of AK buses kept coming through though.

I think buses are hit or miss depending on the moment. Traffic, ECVs, etc. It sucks but we refuse to drive while on vacation so we "deal with it."

My worst experience was at the Beach Club too. So bad in fact that we haven't returned to that resort.

 

[hoffman1]

I just left from CSR on Sat after a week's stay. The bus wait times were the worst we have ever seen. It may have been just bad timing on our part. On at least 3 different occasions, we had to wait over 30 minutes for a bus.
When we were leaving Disney Springs on Friday afternoon it was pretty close to an hour. The CBR bus stop had 3 busses come and go during the time we were waiting. There was a CM posted out by the stops but he actively avoided coming near our line.
DH says we will never stay on property without a car again.

 

[Kevin355]

I've stayed at CBR twice and never had an issue with the buses. My longest bus wait was at the Beach Club. I waited over 30 minutes for a bus to MK. There were tons of people waiting for DS too. Plenty of AK buses kept coming through though.

I think buses are hit or miss depending on the moment. Traffic, ECVs, etc. It sucks but we refuse to drive while on vacation so we "deal with it."

Strollers, ECVs, and traffic are the biggest issues while at WDW. No resort is immune from this. Like MVL said...we deal with it as well. Have never had any issues with the buses at CBR except on Christmas day back in 2003. It happens. I go to WDW expecting the worst, i.e., Wheelchairs/ECVs/strollers...and it has never really been that bad for us at all.

 

[O-so-good Disney Mama]

Well, I had a completely miserable experience at OKW a few weeks ago. Got out to the bus stop, waited for the MK bus. We had a BoG ADR. We got to the bus stop about 75 mins prior to the ADR. I looked at the bus times board...seemed that we had just missed a MK bus...next one wasn't due for 25 mins. Ok....I had time. But, as we sat and waited, that time continued to move back.....we sat and watched as multiple buses to other destinations came and went. We sat and waited close to 50 mins!!! I got to the BoG check-in podium 10 mins late!!!
I'm not sure what's going on with the buses, but this past trip I had the worst bus experiences in years...and I go to WDW multiple times a year, since '99!!!

We're staying at CBR in January. I'm thrilled we'll have a car!

What? You weren't reminded of the "suggested 90 minutes" travel time to your ADRs like I was, twice? Geez.....all I think us very recent travelers are saying is that we had some pretty bad and out of the ordinary bus waits recently that seem to be across the board!

 

[ellie05]

The first time we took Disney buses was CBR it was terrible we didn't tried again until our last October trip. It was the first time we didn't have a car. Since then we have relied on buses more and more and we haven't experienced anything that was as bad as CBR.

 

[anniemae]

we have stayed at CBR many times and never had an issue with busses. We found them very plentiful and quick. I think since it is so slow this time of year maybe they cut back on the busses?? Surprisingly we had more of a bus issue at the deluxe resorts.

 

[Lauren1211]

Just for future reference Disney recommends you budget 90 minutes to make it to an ADR using their transportation. If you were at your bus stop any time after 6:40 am you were late. That huge amount of time is the reason I budget for taxis to make it to early morning ADRs.

If we are staying on property can we drive to the MK just to save time??? I believe parking is free for on site guest.

 

[Lauren1211]

If you stay on property can you just drive wherever and save yourself the 90 minute travel headache??

 

[maxiesmom]

If we are staying on property can we drive to the MK just to save time??? I believe parking is free for on site guest.

MK is usually the only place the vast majority of posters will tell you you need to take the bus. You can drive, but you don't go directly to the Magic Kingdom. You park at the TTC and then have to boat or monorail the rest of the way to the Magic Kingdom.