SSR Transportation System

[wyodan]

Arrived at SSR on Wednesday (6/25/08). Having a great time, even with the thunderstorms, but having issues with the bus situation. We always travel here in June as it is the only time we are available to travel so we know how busy it can be. I do not believe it is as busy as it usually is...

We have waited as long as 45 minutes for a bus more than once in the few days we have been here. As a member that pays for this service, I find it unacceptable that busses are not within the 20 to 30 minute time window. Am I being unreasonable? Unrealistic?

This morning the wait between Downtown Disney busses was 1 hour plus, per the transportation guy timing busses at the Springs this morning. From talking with him, it sounds like it is becoming more and more of an issue and they are trying to prove to transportation management that "what works on paper" is not working "on the pavement". He thinks everyone should start complaining to management so they will start to pay attention to this situation.

Dan

 

[jarestel]

We have waited as long as 45 minutes for a bus more than once in the few days we have been here. As a member that pays for this service, I find it unacceptable that busses are not within the 20 to 30 minute time window. Am I being unreasonable? Unrealistic? Dan

Not unreasonable at all. We have been told buses run on certain schedules. If that is no longer the case, Disney needs to let us know the "new" run times so we don't spend unnecessary time waiting at bus stops for buses that don't come.

 

[JustSayin]

We were there in May and had a couple of issues with the bus system in general. We waited over 45 minutes at the Poly, the Yacht Club and in Downtown Disney. Our longest wait at SSR was about 20 min, and on that occasion we saw the bus we wanted pulling away from the station just as we were leaving our room. This was out of a couple dozen bus rides over 10 days.

I really think this is a shortcoming of the way they operate their bus system in general rather than a SSR/DVC problem. Don't get me wrong, the system worked well overall, but there were a couple incidents where we had issues.

 

[WaltEeyoreWorld]

We stayed at Congress Park in May and the buses were amazingly slow. We waited and hour for Epcot bus the first day and another 50 minutes for the bus home. We started walking to DTD and taking buses from there for some days and just driving on the others. Not sure if it is because of the size of SSR or how far out it is but we had really poor bus service. Good luck. Hope the rest of the week goes better.

 

[DaveH]

I would suggest you go to the front desk and ask for a manager and complain there. Then I would email DVC or write them about it. WE can only get these things fixed by letting management know.

 

[tlterrynva]

We were at SSR 6/19-6/24 and they had auditors at the bus stops every day of our visit. I believe they understand that there are "kinks" to work out in the new system and are trying to iron out the wrinkles.
Personally we did not experience any issues with the bus service during out stay but we did hear the "complaints" from other guests who were not as lucky. We also heard the auditors tell the guests to call and write letters to voice their concerns/complaints regarding the transportation system.

 

[starbox]

There have been reports about terrible bus service all over in the past few months, I wonder if Disney is cutting back due to fuel costs? We were told by a driver that those busses only get 4 mpg. Even a slight cutback in he number of busses probably saves thousands of dollars a day.

If this is the case, they should revise the bus-wait times to "every 30 or 40 minutes" so people could decide whether or not to drive.

 

[itsreally4mommy]

Not unreasonable at all, especially considering part of your dues is to cover this "convenience". A subpar transportation system is no way to lure guests to stay onsite vs. cheaper/larger accommodations that also offer transportation offsite.

 

[sam_001]

i think the buses start running about 10:30 am to downtown Disney from the resorts.

 

[brianm27]

We had the same issues in April at VWL. One day you would see two Epcot's pull up with no one waiting while the MK bus hadn't been seen in half an hour.

Another day, we waited 45 minutes at AK. We watch 6 POP busses come in as well as at least two for every other resort except Contemporary/ Poly. I finally went up to the dispatcher and asked what was going on. He had a driver fire up a waiting "special" bus and took all of us to our respective resorts. The driver told us that the drivers have been complaining to management but are being told to stop and are not being listened to. He urged us all to go to the front desk at our resort and talk to a manager and let them know you are dissatisfied.

I need to add though, that most of the waits were 5 to 10 minutes. There were 4 specific times the wait exceeded 30 minutes on an 8 day trip - maybe 30 bus rides total, so over 80% of the times were great.

 

[dzone1]

I'm going next month & have decided to do taxi's everywhere. There is no way I can wait 30 minutes for a bus. With what Disney charges you, you would think they could have good transportation.

 

[DaveH]

I'm going next month & have decided to do taxi's everywhere. There is no way I can wait 30 minutes for a bus. With what Disney charges you, you would think they could have good transportation.

If you are going to taxi every time, I would consider renting a car. Rental should be cheaper.

 

[Monorail Purple&Gold]

On our last trip (5/31-6/9/08) I found the buses to be inconsistent overall.

At one point at CBR I saw not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR (yes 4) Epcot buses pass thru the OPR station within 5 minutes...this is not an exaggeration! And this is at 1 pm!!!

One night at Epcot my DM left us at 8 pm to go back to the room while we stayed to watch Illuminations...we arrived at the bus stop at 9:15, and were back at our room for 9:30. DM got to her room at 9:15 , she had to wait over an hour for a bus.

Very inconsistent overall. While bus service is supposed to be a convenience, I do agree that gas consumption/cost has to be playing into the most recent issues I've read about.

For myself, I'm old fashioned and am at not generally in a rush at WDW unless we have ADR's, so it usually still doesn't bother me so much b/c we work in travel time since we're "at the mercy" of the WDW transportation system!

 

[MrsNick]

I wonder if any of this is due to a computer running dispatch.

 

[barbnbrian]

My family (11 total) stayed at SSR from 6/22- 6/27 and the buses were terrrible all week. Not only were they taking at least 40 minutes to arrive, once they did they were totally packed with people standing the entire length of the bus. We were in Congress Park section and waited 50 minutes one morning for an AK bus. Once it finally arrived it was packed and not everyone waiting at the last stop inside SSR was able to get on. To make things worse, we traveled to Blizzard Beach first, where no one got off!

I heard three different families riding the bus state they would never stay at SSR again. Now that the entire resort is open, there are too many stops within the resort and not enough buses running! I was hoping my sister and brother-in-law would so fall in love with SSR that they would want to buy into DVC, but they were disappointed with the bus transportation as well.

Anyone know where we can email to send our complaints?

 

[JESW]

It wasn't just there. We just got back and buses were a hit or miss. One morning at GF we waited for an DHS bus and 4 (!) TL/DTD and 4 (!) AK/BB buses went by in 45 minutes. Once ours arrived we all got on and complained to the bus driver and he got very irate with us! Asked if we all wanted to get off and complain to management or drive on to the park. We all opted for the park but we were ticked. Once we moved over to the VWL we took the boat to MK a lot and we didn't have any major issues with the buses. I heard people complaining a lot tho...20 minutes to wait is one thing, but after that it becomes an annoyance.

Jill

 

[Monorail Purple&Gold]

It wasn't just there. We just got back and buses were a hit or miss. One morning at GF we waited for an DHS bus and 4 (!) TL/DTD and 4 (!) AK/BB buses went by in 45 minutes. Once ours arrived we all got on and complained to the bus driver and he got very irate with us! Asked if we all wanted to get off and complain to management or drive on to the park. We all opted for the park but we were ticked. Once we moved over to the VWL we took the boat to MK a lot and we didn't have any major issues with the buses. I heard people complaining a lot tho...20 minutes to wait is one thing, but after that it becomes an annoyance.

Jill

Hope you asked for this "saucy" gent's name and then filed a complaint sooner than later...that's unacceptable!

 

[Lesli54]

We stayed at BCV 6/8-6/15 and SSR 6/15-6/20. The bussing to and from BCV wasn't a problem at all. However, the bussing at SSR was extremely inconvenient and very inconsistent. I agree, that one of the major problems with a resort that size is that each bus has to make 5 stops and can be quite crowded. However, the bus scheduling right now is a bigger culprit.

DH talked to a bus driver on our trip and we found out that the buses used to have routes that they would run, so it was fairly consistent. However, now they have a system where the driver pushes a button on a computer letting dispatch know that they have arrived at a destination and then they are given a new assignment which usually is not on the same route that they had just traveled. For example: In the past if a bus ran to S/D, YC, BC, BW and then to MK it would then park at the stop for those resorts once at MK and take people back to those resorts. No if a bus just came from those resorts, once they punch in for the new assignment, they could be told to park at OKW stop at MK, then at OKW, maybe the new assignment would be to go to Epcot. The driver said they never know where they are going next. I see alot of problems with this situation.

It took almost 1 1/2 hours to get from Epcot to SSR once because we had to wait so long for a bus to arrive at the SSR stop (they kept getting dispatched for the other resort stops). Then of course we were getting off at Congress Park. One night I wanted to go to DTD and in 1/2 an hour I didn't see one DTD bus and this was 9pm. The walk wasn't far to the Marketplace, but I had a knee injury and thought it was better to ride the bus. In that 1/2 hour, I saw the following busses to the following destinations: 4 to MK, 2-3 to Epcot, 2 to HS, and 1 to AK. No one on them going those directions at 9pm, but not one to DTD. I finally got fed up and headed back the room. Fortunately, DH was finished swimming with the kids and drove me over to DTD.

This among other reasons is why we will not stay at SSR again. It was our 2nd time there, the first one was when the resort was about 1/3 the size. Big difference.