Transportation to parks from OKW and Saratoga?

[rapunzal]

What is the transportation buses like to MK? How often do they come? What time do they start in the am? Which resort did you like better? For the one bedroom? Can we exist without a car? What are the pools like? Restaurants or pool grill/bars present? THanks

 

[MiaSRN62]

I can only speak for OKW. We vacation there often and we just returned on Thurs from our most recent trip.

The longest wait for a bus was 17 min (yep...we timed it) and that was to MGM on EMH. Our waits during the week averaged 10-15 min to the various parks.

Can you exist without a car ? Yes...we did once at the resort. It was fine. I will admit having a car is easier because you can park right outside your door and if you like to resort hop for dining or shopping this makes it very convenient. Some people like to drive to the main pool if they are not particularily close to it. We were in bldg 34 this week and it was about an 8-10 min walk. There was a closer "quiet" pool that was about a 3-4 min walk. My kids really enjoy the sandcastle slide though, so we spent most of our time at the main pool. On two occasions we visited the quiet pool because the main pool was a bit crowded. But if you don't have a car and wish to be close to the main hub of the resort, request "close to Hospitality House" on your reservation.

We did tour SSR this trip. Personally, we prefer OKW because of the larger room and larger balcony. But SSR was very nice. The interior is more formal/elegant at SSR while the OKW rooms are more beachy/casual. We just prefer the more casual, but the decor inside the SSR villas is very nice. I wasn't too impressed with SSR walking down the hallway towards the door. But once you enter the room, it's like the exterior hallway just doesn't belong there. It goes from kind of bland as far as the exterior hallways are concerned to quite elegant once you're inside. Even though we prefer OKW, we would not have a problem staying at SSR. We toured a studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and a GV there.

Both resorts have a sit down restaurant. OKW has Olivia's which we always enjoy and SSR has a new one called the Turf Club. SSR also has a sort of casual food court that is connected to the gift shop called Artist Palette. It sort of reminded me of the new Marketplace food court at the Beach Club that is also connected to the gift shop there. They have really good salads and key lime pie here ! We found it highly curious that OKW didn't have key lime pie but SSR did ?! Olivia's does serve a key lime tart as an honorable mention, but we prefer the actual slice of pie.

OKW has a bar (Gurgling Suitcase), as well as a snack stand by the main pool called Goods To Go. They are very close to the pool.
SSR has a pool bar that serves drinks only. I don't believe there is a snack bar there though....I think you have to go into Artist Palette to get food. The pool is not too far from Artist Palette but going in with a wet suit doesn't seem too convenient to me ? Hoping maybe SSR will reconsider this. Maybe an SSR owner will be able to give you more detailed info on this. But all we saw by the main pool was the pool bar.
Overall, both these resorts are great...they each offer a little something different.
Here you can check out menus at the various restaurants/eateries I mentioned :
http://www.allearsnet.com/menu/menus.htm#res

Hope this helped a little

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have stayed at OKW numerous times, and the buses are usually very good. That doesn't mean that you might not have a delay on occation, but, for the most part they are great and timely. Buses to all parks start running at least an hour before park opening, and I kind of think it might even be 2 hours ahead of park opening. In the morning, buses run about every 15 minutes, but later in the day that drops to about every half hour. At closing, buses are VERY frequent again.

 

[living la vida mickey]

The busses are good from both resorts. We've been staying at OKW since 1993 and have had no bus problems. As other posters have said - anywhere from5 to 10 minutes. We stayed at SSR in July with no car and also had no problems. Again the busses came about every 15 minutes.

 

[rapunzal]

Is there just one bus station or does it make several stops throughout the resort before it heads to the park? Does the bus stop at any other resorts before it heads to the parks? Thanks

 

[Deb & Bill]

There are multiple stops within the resort before it leaves for the park. No other stops outside the resort. Except for the water parks.

OKW stops at Peninsular Road, then South Point, then Turtle Pond, then Miller's Road, then Hospitality House. Except for the DTD/TL bus. That is considered the Internal Bus and stops both first and last at the HH.

When we stayed at SSR, the Paddocks wasn't open yet, so I can't tell you about those bus stops. But when it leaves SSR it goes right to the park.

We've never had any problems with buses at either resort.

 

[pickles]

do people take the boat from OKW to DTD to get buses everywhere or is it just better to wait for the buses at OKW

 

[Deb & Bill]

do people take the boat from OKW to DTD to get buses everywhere or is it just better to wait for the buses at OKW

The buses from DTD only go to the resorts and not to the theme parks. If we're going to another resort we'll usually drive since we drive to WDW from home.

 

[dianeschlicht]

WE have found the buses from DTD to be spotty at best. The buses from OKW or SSR directly to the parks are always your best option. THe buses through DTD should only be used for inter-resort travel if you can't easily get from your resort to another by going through a park.