Tranportation overhall needed!

[ExecChef]

We waited for over a hour for a bus today to go from SSR to Epcot! Last night I had to get the attention of the boat driver by downtown Disney he was to busy talking to let us out of the rain! What's going on with the transportation at Disney? This entire trip has been horrible for transportation!!!!!!

 

[Chuck S]

I've occasionally had long wait for a bus. We really don't know what causes such delays. Sometimes there are accidents blocking roads, sometimes traffic is extremely heavy, if there are a LOT of people heading to a park for an event, or wanting to leave early due to bad weather, all of that can cause delays.

Sometimes, there is no reason, and they are just slow.

It is frustrasting when you're waiting, but thankfully these long waits seem to be pretty rare.

 

[tjkraz]

Last week of October we spent 4 nights at Kidani village. Some friends of ours were at the same resort but in a different unit. Over that time I don't think we actually rode a bus together with our friends--we either met-up at the resort pool or one of the theme parks.

During our stay I thought the bus service was lacking. 80% of the time we found ourselves waiting 10-20 minutes (or more) for a bus to arrive. Occasionally we would get one right away but the vast majority of the time we stood waiting.

Meanwhile our friends later reported that they thought bus service was great. The majority of the time they had waits of under 10 minutes coming and going.

That pretty much summarizes Disney transportation. Two groups, same resort, same dates with vastly different experiences.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

I've always thought overall they do a fantastic job given the size of area coverage and the numbers of people they move per day. There must be an enormous amount of coordinating that goes into running a system like this and any manner of things could cause a delay of an extra 10-20 minutes, accidents, equipment troubles, sick riders, you name it. I've waited long periods before and had buses pull up as I was walking to the bus stop, but on average its always been good

 

[disneynutz]

I was leaving AK at 11:00 this morning and when I walked up to the AKL bus stop, I was the only one in line. A bus was waiting at another empty resort line, left it and pulled up to me. I got on the empty bus was back at Jambo in 5 minutes.

Using the bus early or late in the day is sometimes easier because Disney's dispatch system puts more buses on line during the busier times of the day. Midday the waits can be longer due to the buses being parked and off line.

Bill

 

[DebbieB]

I typically complain about the BWV busses. Today, my friend and I were the only 2 people on the bus from BW to MK in both directions! Going to MK around 8:30, the bus just pulled out as we were walking to the stop. Another one came within 5 minutes! Then coming back, the same thing, the bus pulled out of MK as we were walking to the stop. Again, another one came within 5 minutes. Weird to be so empty!

 

[MaumeeMom]

I know that Disney is advertising for a VP to head up the Transportation Dept. I tried to get a friend to apply so that we could come visit

Maybe there is a lack of leadership right now?

 

[Brian Noble]

There is a simple solution.

Rent car.

It's not the cheapest route, but it works.

 

[kikiq]

We waited for over a hour for a bus today to go from SSR to Epcot! Last night I had to get the attention of the boat driver by downtown Disney he was to busy talking to let us out of the rain! What's going on with the transportation at Disney? This entire trip has been horrible for transportation!!!!!!

Did you call? At SSR, there are phones in the bus stops. We personally haven't had any long waits at SSR but will be back in 2 weeks...we'll see.

 

[WolfpackFan]

What I don't understand is at AKV, the longest waits seem to be for busses just going to AK right next door. We waited around 30 minutes this morning for that bus. While we waited we saw three busses pull up for MK and two for Epcot. You know this really makes no sense. They've been having bus problems for years. You'd thought with all the brains at Disney they could have figured it out by now. But trip after trip, we hit the same problems. Yes we could take a car, but we shouldn't have to. One of the major advantages for staying onsite is using the bus system supposedly.

 

[DVCGeek]

Last trip the longest wait I had for transportation to arrive was Friday morning (IRRC) around 9 AM; waiting at MK for a bus to OKW. Took ~25 minutes. During that time I saw multiple buses come and go for other resorts. Overall things were fine for me. I have made it a habit to start my stopwatch to see how long the wait is for transport; sometimes it seems take longer when I don't have an accurate record of the real wait time, ESPECIALLY if I'm by myself.

 

[disneynutz]

Regulars learn early that renting a car is the way to go. The flexibility of having your own transportation quickly makes up for the expense.

Trying to get from resort to resort can take a couple of hours with the waits and transfers. I can drive anywhere on Disney property in 15 minutes.

Eating or getting food off property can save you a lot of money. Tonight we ate Taco Bell in the room. Not as exciting as fighting to get a ADR, rushing to get there on time, paying for Park admission, and paying $120 for 3 people, but than again, tonight we had food that we like for only $12.

Tomorrow we move to Kidani so we will go to Publix and buy some food for next week.

Bill

 

[crisi]

We've been regulars for years and don't rent a car.

We do suppliment with a cab, including when we get impatient for a bus and anytime we go resort to resort. And we tend to stay at BWV, which keeps our bus trips down to a relative few.

My Orlando rental experiences have not been good ones.

Sometimes bus service at Disney does seem to be magical, and other times its lacking. Rarely its problematical (an hour wait for a bus falls into problematical).

 

[jennypenny]

We've been stuck waiting for buses for over an hour 3 separate times--all of them at SSR. My inlaws have stories like that also. I agree that you can just get a cab, but at SSR it's much harder and slower to get a cab. If we're wating at BCV and feel like we might miss a reservation we just jump in a cab at the front desk. Not so easy at SSR.

We like SSR, but won't stay there unless we can rent a car.

 

[WolfpackFan]

Well we're regulars and have our car with us. But the thing is, we shouldn't have to drive. That is why you stay onsite, to get the advantages that go with that onsite stay. Disney needs to get it fixed, we shouldn't have to do work arounds. If we have to drive, we should have just gone ahead and purchased a Marriott timeshare rather than DVC.

 

[crisi]

We've been stuck waiting for buses for over an hour 3 separate times--all of them at SSR. My inlaws have stories like that also. I agree that you can just get a cab, but at SSR it's much harder and slower to get a cab. If we're wating at BCV and feel like we might miss a reservation we just jump in a cab at the front desk. Not so easy at SSR.

We like SSR, but won't stay there unless we can rent a car.

Yeah, I think if I had an SSR trip (or an OKW trip) planned - where there is complete dependency on buses and cabs are hard to get, we might get a car. You have a lot of dependency on buses at VWL and VAKL as well, but cabs are easy to get at VWL (and I suspect not difficult at VAKL).

 

[smjj]

When we stayed at SSR(the section close to DTD), we were always waiting long periods for buses and when they finally came, there were quite a few people waiting. Sometimes more than the buses could hold. I later found out from another family that non guess people will park at DTD, walk over to our bus stop and then take it to the parks. I was told this at times is a real problem..smjj

 

[lugnut33]

There is a simple solution.

Rent car.

It's not the cheapest route, but it works.

I love renting a car, but I bet in the next year or two they implement a resort parking fee. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Disney make the park parking fee mandatory for everybody including resort guests.

 

[Brian Noble]

Maybe, but I doubt it. "Free" parking is one of the relatively meaningless perks that Disney offers to convince folks to pay their inflated hotel rates. It's meaningless mostly because most Disney guests use the transportation system---so they wouldn't be parking either way, and there is no lost revenue.

On the other hand, it's in Disney's interest to convince the fly-in guests that they don't need a car at all---because if you don't have one, all of your vacation money is spent with Mickey. A parking fee could be used to further discourage guests from renting cars. But, it also penalizes the drive-in market, which they might not want to do given expected volatility in air fares going forward.

 

[famsen]

We are regulars and always had a car with us because we used to drive down to WDW. In September we flew but I also rented a car. We really needed it at AKV. The waits were almost always bad.
We just returned from SSR last night. We used DME and did not rent a car and I was so sorry that we didn't. The long waits made us have to make changes to all our plans and itinerary. I will always have a car with me from now on although I shouldn't have to because part of the price Disney charges is to have the transportation and I should expect a timely and smooth transportation for the prices Disney charges.
I truly believe this is either due to cutbacks or Disney just not wanting to add more buses for more guests visiting. I thought about it and since our first trip in 1993, they have added, All Stars Movies, AKL/AKV, BLT, Pop Century and I think Boardwalk. In any case, that is thousands of more rooms and I don't think the amount of buses to cover everyone has kept up.