Staying at BWV in April...how are the busses?

[hygienejean]

We will be staying at the BWV in April. We are travelling with a large group.
(24!) My family and I ALWAYS rent a minivan and we are trying to keep the group together and use ME and the busses. Am I going to regret it? I keep wondering if I should switch back and do the van anyway. I have 3 kiddos, will be 2, 5, and 7 and I am especially worried about the trip to MK... I know Epcot and MGM won't be a problem...I love the boats!

Any of you regularly do the busses from BWV??? Tell me the good, the bad and the ugly...

Thank you!!!!

 

[jekjones1558]

I have stayed at BWV many times but not for a year. It may be that the new dispatching system has improved the timing of buses. We have found that the MK buses can be slow to arrive at BWV and then they often stop at Swan and then Dolphin--once or twice Yacht/Beach as well. By the time you get to MK, it can be a long time. On the other hand, driving yourself to TTC and then transferring to a ferry or monorail takes a while too.
With that big a group you will never be able to all stay together, IMHO. I would want one vehicle for the group just for grocery, drug store, etc. and in case there is any emergency. Have a great trip. Hope everyone enjoys BWV as much as we do.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

We love the BWV. It is our home resort and our all time favorite. But our least favorite thing about the Boardwalk is the bus transportation. It is the one thing that just seems to always have issues. It seems like on any given trip we have at least one bad experience at the bus stop waiting for the MK bus especially. Disney has tried to fix things in the past couple of years by separating the Boardwalk from other bus routes. Maybe you will get lucky!

HBC

 

[crisi]

We were there in October and had fine bus transportation to MK and AK. We did stand once - and yes, there was the S&D stops making the trip long to the MK (for some reason the AK bus was a straight shot). But buses were very prompt.

With that big a group, you probably want to arrange to meet once you get to the park - trying to get families all moving to be at the park at opening (and the inevitable being half an hour late leading to someone who wanted to ride Dumbo first thing ending up standing in line 40 minutes) will end up with hard feelings - unless your entire family is on Valium for the whole trip.

 

[Bill From PA]

We were there this March for 9 days and will return next March for 8 more. Our transportation experience was unremarkable which means there were no delays long enough to register with us. The BW bus will usually be the first stop in the BW/S/D cycle, only on very slow times will all the Epcot resorts be hit by the same bus. To us, any possible inconvienience in bussing to MK and AK is more than offset by the shoe-leather access to Epcot and MGM.

Bill From PA

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

We were are BWV 2 wks after Easter in April of 2007 with 6 adults and 3 children. One adult was in a scooter.

We had really good bus and boat service. We never had to wait over 5 minutes for a bus. The buses only seemed full at the end of the day at park closing.

I agree with another poster. You WILL NOT want a group of 40 to all stay together. Larger groups move very slowly around the parks. We noticed that everything moved much faster if one of the three couples split off. One couple walked slower, one couple smoked, and the other couple's kids had to get autographs from each and every character. The result was a slow moving group that stopped very, very often.

 

[byoung]

Most Disney transportation is great.

 

[TLSnell1981]

As stated, you can walk or take the boat to MGM or Epcot. You can also walk through Epcot and catch the monorail to MK. That leaves just AK and DTD for the buses.

 

[tigger2esq]

we were just there in early oct and had no issues with the bus service (even to the MK). yes the busses stopped at the Swan & Dolphin before heading to the MK but since we boarded first and had seats, it really made no difference to us. we did wait one morning for about 10 min for a bus (I think we had just missed one!) which sometimes seems like an eternity for impatient me but it was still way better then driving, parking, taking the tram, taking the monorail. etc. heading back to the hotel one night after the fireworks we opted to wait for a second bus rather than try to board a full one with standing room only trying to carry a sleeping toddler, and waited less than 5 minutes for the next bus to arrive.

 

[Safari Queen]

MGM and Epcot are walkable or you take the boat, so the only problem might be space on the boat. We much prefer taking the bus to MK because you go straight to the Park, without the TTC and tram part. You might want to talk to Guest Services at the hotel to let them know the size of your group. I bet you'll have a significant impact on the bus requirements! WDW does have a new system for bus dispatch that's supposed to get additional buses to the resorts as needed. We were at BWV in late Oct and experienced no major delays, though there were stops at the Swan & Dolphin plus Blizzard Beach. One bus (can't remember which) stopped at BC, YC, Swan & Dolphin before BW, but it was okay at the end of the day. I'd rather go door to door than drive, park, and tram.

 

[photobob]

It can be hit or miss. Many times is just luck walking up at the right time. Fortunately you have two of the four parks easily accessible.

 

[kaelarad]

We have been at WDW 3 times in the last year, once at the BWV, but all three times the service was poor. Normal wait for us every trip was 35 to 60 minutes. Longer for DTD. We head back to BWV for Christmas and will take our car to get where we are going.