Saratoga Springs Bus Upset

[youngdizluva18]

I am in WDW right now, and I have been staying at saratoga with my family for 10 days. We have waited no less than 30 minutes for a bus. Most of the time, we waited and watched 2 or 3 rounds of buses roll by. Several times, we were waiting in line for the bus and overheard other guests complain about how terrible the buses were. One guy made a good point. Saratoga, when done with construction, will be the biggest resort on property. That is why there are 4 bus stops. Guests shouldn't have to wait that long for a bus. Has anyone else realized this? Maybe I'm just not having any luck this trip.

 

[Sammie]

I am in WDW right now, and I have been staying at saratoga with my family for 10 days. We have waited no less than 30 minutes for a bus. Most of the time, we waited and watched 2 or 3 rounds of buses roll by. Several times, we were waiting in line for the bus and overheard other guests complain about how terrible the buses were. One guy made a good point. Saratoga, when done with construction, will be the biggest resort on property. That is why there are 4 bus stops. Guests shouldn't have to wait that long for a bus. Has anyone else realized this? Maybe I'm just not having any luck this trip.

We have never had this happen in any of our trips, but then we were not there the busiest week of the year.

When the resort is fully open, more buses will be deployed that is not the case now. I don't think anyone is probably getting short waits this week.

However the people who could fix this, don't read these forums you might want to let the staff at the resort know. Also at the bus stops at the resort there should be a phone that connects you to the Transportation center, call if you have an excessive wait.

However during this week I would not consider 30 minutes excessive.

 

[HGD24]

We were at SSR 12/12-17 and also found unusually long waits (20-30 mins) for buses and overheard many other guests who had similar experiences. One of the MK bus drivers even asked one couple "are you still waiting?" He had already been to SSR, to MK and back again before the bus this couple was waiting for (I think it was DTD) came by.

Also, my husband and I found it quicker to walk to the Carriage House area than wait for an internal shuttle; of which we only saw 3 or 4 during our entire stay. We found the "take a DTD bus from any stop" advice confusing as we used the Congress Park bus stop and sometimes it's the first stop for DTD buses when they are in the resort and sometimes it's the last stop...so we found that we had to ask the drivers if they we should get on the bus to go the The Springs stop. There didn't seem to be consistency with the DTD route.

I agree that transportation at SSR does need improvement and mentioned it in a survey we were asked to complete upon our return home (we received the postcard this week asking us to complete the survey online).

I hope your luck with buses improves for the remainder of your trip...

 

[JimMIA]

For what it's worth, my daughter and her family were at SSR in June and had significant bus issues. They loved the resort other than that, but are at OKW right now partly because of the bus difficulties at SSR.

Although the bus complaints at SSR have been anecdotal, there have been way too many anecdotes. SSR has bus problems.

 

[cncDisney4]

We were at SSR from 12/21-27 and didn't have any complaints about buses until the 26th. We figured this was due to this being the busiest time of the year for Disney. We would walk to DTD instead of taking the bus there. We even did this when we had reservations at Boma - we walked to DTD and caught a bus to AKL.

However, up until the 26th we caught buses at Congress Park and they were running every 15-20 minutes with very few exceptions (I can remember waiting about 30 minutes for a bus to AK on the 25th - again, heavy crowds may have caused this).

I agree that you should talk to someone at transportation and let them know about these time frames. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[youngdizluva18]

Thanks. It's not really a big deal. I mean, it's not going to ruin the rest of my vacation or anything. The long waits just surprised me. Thanks again!

 

[Jimbo]

We stayed at SSR from 12/26 through 12/30, and used buses the whole time. I think the longest we waited for a bus was 8 minutes, and that was at Studios when when we saw the SSR bus pull away just as we were walking up to the stop. We had nothing but good things to say about SSR's bus service.

Our only complaint about SSR transportation is that the boat dock was at the far end of the complex (and we weren't). And besides the location, it was nearly impossible to find the thing. But maybe that was just us.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

Oh man, the busses do need some work. We were at the Carousel bus stop and could see the resort entrance.... here comes an Epcot bus... (minutes later)... there it goes out of the resort, and it never stopped here?!

We stayed at CSR a few years ago and it had bus issues too, but they were worked out even while we were staying there. A CM stood out at the bus stop and documented what bus came through when. Since then, CSR is known to have great bus service. SSR will work out the bus issues but it will take time.

It would be nice if there was a number to call. Some kind of dispatch service to say "HEY! We're still here waiting for a bus!". It might get aused though, which is probably why they don't have them. Anyway, they have to do something to fix it!

D4D

 

[4theloveofdisney]

We were there in October. It took awhile to get to MK.

 

[La2kw]

We were at SSR 16 nights last July and had no problems with the buses. We had one or two waits of about 25 minutes (once at MK and once at AK), but that's normal, especially over the course of 17 days. We have had worse bus service at the values, Epcot resorts and WL.

 

[Sammie]

Oh man, the busses do need some work. We were at the Carousel bus stop and could see the resort entrance.... here comes an Epcot bus... (minutes later)... there it goes out of the resort, and it never stopped here?!

We stayed at CSR a few years ago and it had bus issues too, but they were worked out even while we were staying there. A CM stood out at the bus stop and documented what bus came through when. Since then, CSR is known to have great bus service. SSR will work out the bus issues but it will take time.

It would be nice if there was a number to call. Some kind of dispatch service to say "HEY! We're still here waiting for a bus!". It might get aused though, which is probably why they don't have them. Anyway, they have to do something to fix it!

D4D

There should be a phone at each bus stop.

 

[Ksp]

I think that at different times all the resorts have bus problems. Last March at VWL, our wait times were 30-40 minutes for DTD, Epcot and MK buses.
On the bright side, the BCV buses were much better our last visit in November

 

[CarolAnnC]

I would imagine the resort is close to, if not sold out, for Christmas week. The week before and after Christmas are the most heavily attended at WDW, so this may also be compounding any bus issues there.

 

[cobbler]

We had great bus service down there after Thanksgiving. Only on the night of coming back from MVMCP was it rather slow. I think we saw about 4 all-star busses while waiting for ours.

Right now I believe its really hit or miss. I do hope they work on it better.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

There should be a phone at each bus stop.
__________________
Disney Fan

There was a phone, but it didn't connect to any of the preset numbers on the list! Dialing '11' didn't get the front desk. DH had to wait for an operator and then get transferred back to SSR's main desk. So that didn't work out so well. He was on hold for a long time - and we were still waiting for a bus.

D4D

 

[MrsToad]

Can you tell me where the bus stop phones are? Is this at all resort bus stops, the parks and DTD, or just at SSR? We've never seen them...thanks!

 

[allicat]

We were there 12/8-12/12 and on our first day,after waiting longer than I can ever remember waiting for a bus, we ended up using our rental car for the rest of the trip.That' s something we have never done before.

 

[Dean]

Other than maybe MK, we simply drive from OKW and would do the same form SSR.

 

[La2kw]

Calling the front desk from your room does not get you the real front desk. It gets you a central phone bank for the resorts. They route your calls from there. I'm not sure if the bus phone does the same thing.

 

[DisneyPhD]

We leave in a few days for our 1st trip to SSR. When we stayed at OKW people told us to rent a car and we didn't. After all we had stayed at WDW many times before with out one and never had an issue. We really wish we had one at OKW. I didn't like the busses there at all.

Well DH did find a good deal on a midsize SUV so we have a car for next week. I don't plan to take it all the time, I like WDW transport, but if the busses are bad I am happy to know we have that option.

Hope they are better next week.