UPDATE PAGE 8 - A very serious issue with WDW...

[disneyfan2kids]

Just returned yesterday from a 4 day getaway for my anniversary. It was just me and my DH (no kids) and we a serious issue:

Pros - Parks were great! Low crowds! Room at SSR was clean and had a beautiful view of the Paddocks fountain. We were directly across the street (Paddocks section) from the Congress Park bus stop.

Cons - I cannot say enough how horrible the bus system was. Our SHORTEST wait for a bus was about 35 - 40 minutes. Had SEVERAL waits close to an hour just for a bus. It was really horrible. Beings that we went to 2 parks a day and had dropoff and pickup for each park...we had to wait for approx. 4 busses daily. At an average of 45-50 minutes EACH. I approximated that we spent over 8 hours (of our vacation) just simply waiting for buses. It truly ruined our trip. We had ADR's for California Grill at 6:15 for our anniversary. We got to bus stop at 4:45 (assuming we'd hang at the bar at CG while we waited for table.) We waited until 5:50 for a MK bus. Yes, 1 hour and 5 minutes for 1 single MK bus. I was literally in tears at one point. We were all dressed up - sitting in the florida heat for over an hour. I called the front desk 3 times from the stop and (as they did the other dozen times I called for the buses this weekend...they simply said "It'll come soon.") Despite having left an hour and a half early for our ADR's we were instead 20 minutes LATE for our ressie. Luckily they seated us anyway.

Literally every SINGLE bus we took was a minimum of 35 - 40 minutes. Many were an hour wait (twice we waited over an hour!).

In the future - I may have to rent a car and (as a result) eat/visit off site. The MAIN draw for me has always been the ease of the bus system which has completely lost any/all appeal for me.

If I knew who to write to... I would. The bus system genuinely ruined an otherwise great trip for us.

 

[jodifla]

Uggh! Sorry. This does sound atrocious.

We ALWAYS have a car at WDW. I only take the buses to the MK. We like to get around the resort too much on our own time to wait for their transportation.

I agree...sitting around waiting for a bus is like wasted time!

 

[tammymacb]

The buses used to be great.

Now ( IMO ) they suck and I will do anything to avoid them. I will happily drive myself anywhere than ever get on a WDW bus again...

 

[Coach81]

Gas prices.... pure and simple.

 

[DaveH]

I hope you wrote DVC with this complaint. If you have not please do. The more we contact them in writing the more of a chance to get things fixed. I am sorry this is happening to us members.

 

[ADP]

Gas prices.... pure and simple.

Sorry this happened to you.
I would also add value season and free dining as possible culprits. Just pure speculation on my part though.

 

[CarolMN]

Write to the DVC Satisfaction Manager:

dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationcub.com

Thanks for the report. Since we are not renting a car for our trip next week, I think I will budget some more $$ for taxis. I would hate to wait so long for a bus, too and we have plans to eat a few meals at the resorts.

 

[TOM&LORIE]

Complaints like this are far to frequent. I will chime in and simply say we had a similar issue during a anniversary. We were at SSR and vowed not to stay there simply for that reason. We own at BWV and will enter the back entrance and go to the Monorail to MK before we will get on a bus. That anniversary trip truely was that bad. The system needs to be reassessed.

 

[culli]

I hope you wrote DVC with this complaint. If you have not please do. The more we contact them in writing the more of a chance to get things fixed. I am sorry this is happening to us members.

Yes this is important you need to voice your concern. I even think there is a link on the member site making it even easier.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

the few times we stayed at SSR, we would walk over to DTD to catch a a direct bus. Hardly a wait. But another option is always call a taxi, kind of defeats the purpose, but the only places we have done that are SSR and OKW. I would definately contact whoever and explain to them what happened, I don' t care how busy it was, the buses should be ontime, or the resort should have comped you a taxi after waiting that long! I almost sounds like they were skipping your stop altogether, was it just at sSR you had problems or all over the place.

 

[dlz]

That is exactly why I will never stay at SSR ever again! We tried it last year, and it is one of our home resorts, and it was terrible!

Why in the world would they ever make a resort that takes so long to get to the parks? It's really not that far, so there is seriously something wrong with the bus system they have set up. I stayed at the AK and it wasn't anything close to the nonsense we put up with regarding the buses at SSR.

 

[DisFlan]

We're staying at SSR next year and we'll get a car as we usually do. We're just back from BWV and had bus issues, too. It's not just SSR (but SSR sounds really bad). After waiting for 35 min. for an AK bus at BWV (three of everything else went by), we grabbed an MK bus and went there instead. That was our one bus trip. We drove ourselves the rest of the week - or boated/walked to Epcot.

DisFlan

 

[spiceycat]

boy what happened.

stayed there 9/5/2008 to 12 - and it was great.

never waited long at all!

part of the problem with SSR is that the bus drivers must stop at each and every one of the bus stops - or the computer complaints.

they are now computer controlled.

guess it send too many when I was there and not enough when you were there.

definitely write to Disney.

when I was there is was silly 2 to 3 DTD buses together - not spread apart - together - so the wait for DTD could be hour. it also did this to Epcot. 2 buses following each other around.

that is the silly system I have ever seem.

so you had problems.

of course once you realize it is a problem it is to late. but you could ride the Epcot bus and take the monrail.

 

[lovwdwalot]

The waits for the buses are way to long, this is way we always rent a car. Two years ago we didn't rent a car and we used the WDW bus system, and I would say on average the wait time for a bus was 30 to 45 min. to go to a park.

 

[deedeetoo]

I agree this seems to be happening too much lately. We've always loved not having to drive around WDW but we had a few bad experiences on our last trip and then I keep reading posts like this. I think next year we will be renting a car for the first time while staying on-site.

 

[canwegosoon]

I totally hear you...I have been renting cars and the one time I took a bus on my AUg ust 23-Sept2 trip I waited over an hour to take the bus from HS to POP. Infact 1 POP bus pulled in to the 3 for every other resort...and when she got there she got out of the bus and walked over to the booth-not to be seen from for 20 minutes when finally another POP bus was coming. I do not get it. I can get a car for less that $200 and it has made all the difference-no waiting anywhere.

 

[WDWcanuck]

It's unfortunate that you had to experience that. Definitely takes up valuable time in the park.

I think we must have lucked out when we went the week of Sept 13-20. The longest wait we had was 25 minutes for an Epcot bus. Mostly, the waits were 5-15 minutes. Then again, I don't have anything else to compare it to as that was my first DVC trip. So, maybe that was a fluke.

Hopefully, bus service will get better for everyone as I've noticed a recent drop in gas prices.

 

[DebbieB]

I always rent a car. People say they take the bus to MK because it's faster, I don't necessarily agree. It would be faster if the bus came as soon as you got to the stop but factor in a 15 minute wait plus additional stops and the car is faster. I've timed it from both OKW and BWV, it's about 25 min from the car to the front gate using the tram & express monorail.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We were at SSR Aug. 4-11 and we did have to wait 43 minutes for an MGM bus one evening. It was also a situation where we were trying to get to an ADR and ended up arriving 20 minutes late after allowing over an hour for transportation.
The rest of the time we waited 17 minutes or less. That was true going to or from the parks, at all times of the day. We did not have a car so we relied exclusively on the buses.

 

[fadedgirl]

Please let us know how DVC Member Services responds to your complaint!