VGF and Poly bus to AK & HS

[thewelts]

I know the bus situation at Disney is not great, and at times downright awful. I'm trying to plan our days for a rather tight trip and I would love to hear specific and recent VGF bus stories.

1st we need to be at Animal Kingdom for rope drop (9 AM) on Tuesday, 12/15 - departing from Grand Floridian. How much time do we need to allow? What is the route? How many stops along the way?

What about the return trip to the VGF? same?
We need to be back at the Grand Floridian for a lunch date at 1 PM.

Alternately, I would be happy to pay for an UBER ride.

2nd
We need to get to Hollywood Studios in the evening for a 4 PM TOT FP+. When we stayed at the GF 2 years ago, there was a direct bus (no stops) to Hollywood Studios. It took no more than 15 minutes and was very efficient. Does that remain true?
The return bus was longer, stopping at the Contemporary and Poly, before returning to VGF. Is that still true?

Because my husband and I like to walk, we may walk from HS to Epcot and then ride the monorail back to the TTC and then walk back to the GF (We have hoppers for this day, so why not?). We just need to make it to Epcot by 9:30 PM (closing time) after the 8:30 Fantasmic show. Can we make it?
We plan to send my mother and son back to the resort by bus (or Uber).

Thanks for your advice and updated information.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The MK buses all usually share with at least one other resort. GF, because of the way traffic flows around the MK is the last pick up and last drop off. During busier times of the day they often just share with one other resort but it can vary. The AK buses (except AKL) all stop at Blizzard beach during its operating hours since it is out that same direction. Like all transportation you can hit issues both with timing, traffic etc. We find the bus transportation to actually be quite good the majority of the time. FYI, your walk thru Epcot will certainly take more time than just doing a bus back but if it's more about the trip than the time it should be enjoyable. It's any where from a 10-20 minute walk, depending on your speed, from DHS to Epcot.

 

[anabelle]

We had an awful time with the buses to the studios when we stayed at VGF. Once we waited so long we just got on a monorail to the Poly and catch the bus there.

 

[ustasmom]

We were going to Hollywood Studios. I couldn't park there and Epcot was a madhouse. We went to TTC and walked to Poly. We waited about 20 minutes and the bus was packed. It went to VGF and a handful of people got off but there were many people left still waiting for a bus. All in all it took us an hour 45 minutes to go from Bonnet Creek to Hollywood Studios. Yes, ridiculous I know. I also heard that those who parked at AK had at least a two hour wait to get to HS. When we arrived at HS there were at least 750 people in line waiting for the bus to Epcot.

So far this week I have seen the HS parking lot closed twice. The first time they diverted to Epcot. The second time they diverted to the Animal Kingdom. The Osborne lights is making HS absolutely crazy. You can barely move in that area. I imagine that the Star Wars events and fireworks shows will only add to that.

 

[jscottnc]

I have not had good experiences getting the bus from Grand Floridian to Animal Kingdom. I suspect (but do not know for sure) that since GF is usually the last pick-up from Magic Kingdom area resorts, the buses fill up before reaching GF and head directly for the park bypassing GF. I have more than once called Disney (they helpfully provide a service number in the MyDisneyExperience App) and expressed my dismay at the poor bus service at the Grand Floridian. I was particularly distressed one morning when I arrived at the bus stop at 7am for 8am EMH at AK only to wait an hour and 45 minutes for the bus, completely missing EMH. I explained to the poor CM on the line that Disney had sucked all the magic out of EMH.

With that experience, I now call Disney ANYTIME I wait more than 20 minutes for a bus to let them know people are waiting and ask for a status.

 

[CMNJ]

I agree GF seems to always be the last MK resort picked up. We stayed at the Poly in Oct and we were always picked up first and then went to GF. Often there were few (if any) seats left when we stopped there. Last year we stayed at WL and we actually shared with Poly and GF for some reason for AK AM EMH-WL was the first pick up followed by Poly then GF. I remember being surprised and disappointed we had 2 stops that day on our way.

 

[CraigInPA]

We were going to Hollywood Studios. I couldn't park there and Epcot was a madhouse. We went to TTC and walked to Poly. We waited about 20 minutes and the bus was packed. It went to VGF and a handful of people got off but there were many people left still waiting for a bus. All in all it took us an hour 45 minutes to go from Bonnet Creek to Hollywood Studios. Yes, ridiculous I know. I also heard that those who parked at AK had at least a two hour wait to get to HS. When we arrived at HS there were at least 750 people in line waiting for the bus to Epcot.

So far this week I have seen the HS parking lot closed twice. The first time they diverted to Epcot. The second time they diverted to the Animal Kingdom. The Osborne lights is making HS absolutely crazy. You can barely move in that area. I imagine that the Star Wars events and fireworks shows will only add to that.

So, you deprived guests who were staying at a Disney resort hotel of their right to use Disney transportation because you, an off-site guest, didn't arrive early enough to get parking at DHS and felt that the alternative parking offered at Epcot was a "madhouse"? At the TTC, you should have gone to the MK via monorail, and then gotten the bus to DHS, not gone over to the Poly and used their bus.