WDW Buses

[crazy4claspooh]

Hello,
Just got back from WDW my trip was 9/25-09/29. We stayed at AKL in the Villa's. Is it this hotel or did the buses change? I was not happy about how long it took to get a bus? We watched as 4 Studio buses came 2 MK and no Epcot. We are going back to WDW to WLV in Dec the 1-9th and wondering if a car is needed? It took me 30-45 minutes to wait for the bus to come then drive to the park and or other pickups.
Anyone else have issues?

 

[michelleiada]

We had bad experiences with WDW buses during our stay in May. We stayed at Beach Club Villas. We had stayed in 2007 at WDW Swan which uses the same buses and had a great experience, which makes me think that this time, the bad experience was due to possible cut backs due to the economy. We waited for greater than 45 minutes for buses going to parks and when leaving a park to go back to the hotel, we waited the same or longer. The worst part was when a bus finally pulled up, it would be full and standing room only was available due to it stopping at several resorts in the EPCOT area. In my opinion, standing room only is dangerously unsafe and unacceptable. Especially after walking all day in the parks and paying for Disney Deluxe rates. Resorts should not be sharing buses. Disney prides themselves on making people happy and providing top notch service and vacation experiences. They also use the transportation as a perk to staying in a Disney Resort. Well, in my opinion, if they don't make changes to the broken bus system, they are going to find more people staying off site at lovely resorts with much cheaper rates. You could get around much more time efficiently by having your own car, even if staying close by but off site. We lost so much valuable vacation time waiting for buses. Just think, if more people start staying off site, then less people would participate in park hoppers and Disney Dining Plan. It makes good financial sense to fix the bus system in order to keep the guests happy and hence returning in the future. I hope that the restructuring that is currently taking place in the Disney Transportation Department is going to provide a more efficient and better experience for Disney guests.

 

[AllyBri]

Hello,
Just got back from WDW my trip was 9/25-09/29. We stayed at AKL in the Villa's. Is it this hotel or did the buses change? I was not happy about how long it took to get a bus? We watched as 4 Studio buses came 2 MK and no Epcot. We are going back to WDW to WLV in Dec the 1-9th and wondering if a car is needed? It took me 30-45 minutes to wait for the bus to come then drive to the park and or other pickups.
Anyone else have issues?

We just finished oiur 2nd stay at the AKV this past week and we thought the transportation was beyond wonderful, compared to BCV and SSR.
We never moved our car from the day we checked in till checkout.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

We had bad experiences with WDW buses during our stay in May. We stayed at Beach Club Villas. We had stayed in 2007 at WDW Swan which uses the same buses and had a great experience, which makes me think that this time, the bad experience was due to possible cut backs due to the economy. We waited for greater than 45 minutes for buses going to parks and when leaving a park to go back to the hotel, we waited the same or longer. The worst part was when a bus finally pulled up, it would be full and standing room only was available due to it stopping at several resorts in the EPCOT area. In my opinion, standing room only is dangerously unsafe and unacceptable. Especially after walking all day in the parks and paying for Disney Deluxe rates. Resorts should not be sharing buses. Disney prides themselves on making people happy and providing top notch service and vacation experiences. They also use the transportation as a perk to staying in a Disney Resort. Well, in my opinion, if they don't make changes to the broken bus system, they are going to find more people staying off site at lovely resorts with much cheaper rates. You could get around much more time efficiently by having your own car, even if staying close by but off site. We lost so much valuable vacation time waiting for buses. Just think, if more people start staying off site, then less people would participate in park hoppers and Disney Dining Plan. It makes good financial sense to fix the bus system in order to keep the guests happy and hence returning in the future. I hope that the restructuring that is currently taking place in the Disney Transportation Department is going to provide a more efficient and better experience for Disney guests.

While I agree that there should be better bus service for the Deluxe Resorts since they cost the most and maybe not having them sharing would be a start. However with the Deluxe Resorts you will also be very close to the parks and have more options to arrive at some of them. For example they have Monorails, boats and walkways, so others might say it's worth it to put up with the way the bus system is right now since we would have all those other options.

 

[OKW Lover]

Bus service is equally bad at all the resorts. Individual experiences will vary from day-to-day (even within the same day) and from resort to resort based simply on what was going on at that time. Don't base your resort decision on transportation reports of good/bad bus service - its highly likely that your experience will be different.

 

[maxiesmom]

Bus service is equally bad at all the resorts. Individual experiences will vary from day-to-day (even within the same day) and from resort to resort based simply on what was going on at that time. Don't base your resort decision on transportation reports of good/bad bus service - its highly likely that your experience will be different.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Honestly? I wouldn't say equally bad - more that it's about equal. It's extremely unusual that the OP experienced four buses to a different park in even 45 minutes, given that the buses run on an approximately 20-25 minute interval. It's not impossible, by any means, since outside influences (traffic, mechanical, etc.) can delay a bus coming from one destination while a recently-clear backup might happen to release several buses going to the same destination from the same resort in a short period. It's entirely possible there were no DHS buses for the hour before the OP started waiting for the Epcot bus, then they all bunched up.

When the third DHS bus arrived, I would have asked the driver for help. This isn't just "you should have done this" advice - I actually DO it.

In my opinion, standing room only is dangerously unsafe and unacceptable. Especially after walking all day in the parks and paying for Disney Deluxe rates. Resorts should not be sharing buses.

While I'm aware many/most people on the DIS are not accustomed to public transportation, I feel obligated to point out that this happens every day, in every city - and often those passengers who are packed in and standing have already been standing/walking much of the day to perform their jobs. Surely it's not unreasonable to expect Disney Guests who've been walking around all day by choice doing something enjoyable to stand for a bit? Yes, on a moving motor vehicle. Buses have been around for years - they're extremely safe.

"and paying for Disney Deluxe rates" is elitist, if not outright snobbish. It implies that Guests paying for lesser accommodations are worthy of lesser transportation services despite most Deluxe resort Guests having - i.e. paying for - proximity to the parks and a wider variety of transportation options. In addition, fewer Deluxe Guests use the bus transportation; more tend to bring or rent cars. Therefore, it would not be cost-effective to run separate buses for each resort. Some people don't like the buses the way they are now? Can you imagine having to coordinate close to 100 bus routes for up to eighteen hours a day? Disaster.

Guests who choose not to stand on buses - again, despite the apparent safety - have options, including a taxi, or stepping aside and waiting at the front of the line for the next bus. Yes, even if there's already been a long wait for a bus.

 

[zulemara]

Honestly? I wouldn't say equally bad - more that it's about equal. It's extremely unusual that the OP experienced four buses to a different park in even 45 minutes, given that the buses run on an approximately 20-25 minute interval. It's not impossible, by any means, since outside influences (traffic, mechanical, etc.) can delay a bus coming from one destination while a recently-clear backup might happen to release several buses going to the same destination from the same resort in a short period. It's entirely possible there were no DHS buses for the hour before the OP started waiting for the Epcot bus, then they all bunched up.

When the third DHS bus arrived, I would have asked the driver for help. This isn't just "you should have done this" advice - I actually DO it.

While I'm aware many/most people on the DIS are not accustomed to public transportation, I feel obligated to point out that this happens every day, in every city - and often those passengers who are packed in and standing have already been standing/walking much of the day to perform their jobs. Surely it's not unreasonable to expect Disney Guests who've been walking around all day by choice doing something enjoyable to stand for a bit? Yes, on a moving motor vehicle. Buses have been around for years - they're extremely safe.

"and paying for Disney Deluxe rates" is elitist, if not outright snobbish. It implies that Guests paying for lesser accommodations are worthy of lesser transportation services despite most Deluxe resort Guests having - i.e. paying for - proximity to the parks and a wider variety of transportation options. In addition, fewer Deluxe Guests use the bus transportation; more tend to bring or rent cars. Therefore, it would not be cost-effective to run separate buses for each resort. Some people don't like the buses the way they are now? Can you imagine having to coordinate close to 100 bus routes for up to eighteen hours a day? Disaster.

Guests who choose not to stand on buses - again, despite the apparent safety - have options, including a taxi, or stepping aside and waiting at the front of the line for the next bus. Yes, even if there's already been a long wait for a bus.

I absolutely applaud your post. Disney transportation is mass transportation. Delays happen and the experience one day to the next or within the same day will often vary. They get full, have mechanical problems, or it could just be heavy traffic. One day the pumps below the water bridge weren't turned on, causing the road to flood and buses had to route all the way around back stage to get to MK. Stuff like that can happen and cause delays.

As far as the deluxe resort thing, I again agree with the previous poster. Transportation is transportation and Deluxe resorts typically offer multiple forms of transportation.

As for safety, I had a guest once complain on the boat that we were loading it to unsafe levels, despite the fact that capacity is 120, we had 108 on the boat, and there are over 140 life vests on board. Ironically, she was happy to stay on the boat despite her apparent safety concerns.


Lastly, I want to do my best, at every opportunity, to put something to rest on these boards. There have been no cutbacks in the number of buses,watercraft, or monorails currently running due to the economy. In fact I have asked bus drivers and they informed me they have nearly 300 buses running every single day.

The boats(at least MK boats) do not cut back due to the economy either. In order to refurbish boats, sometimes in the middle of the week and during the day, a boat will be pulled out of the operation to be worked on, but by the time the park is getting heavy traffic again around 4pm, we are back to peak capacity.

Overall, our coordinators and managers do a good job at dealing with challenges on a daily basis. It was remarkable to see the quick action taken when the monorails went down last week. Very quickly, buses and watercraft stepped up and had extra boats running and buses created a stop specifically for the resort loop. Do you think that might effect other areas of the resort? Of course. Again, these are things that happen, be it large or small, on a daily basis.

I think I've made my point, but if I've bored anyone who scrolled to the bottom, here is a summary of my point:
Disney transportation is mass transportation and you should allow 1 hour for each form of transportation necessary to get to your destination.

 

[michelleiada]

I would just like to say that I understand that things can occasionaly, unexpectedly occur to cause a delay in a bus. I am not an unreasonable person, nor am I a snob by the way. However, like I stated before, in May 2007 we stayed at the Swan for 10 days and had reasonable waits for buses. An occasional extended wait was ok because it was not constant. In May of this year it was constant waits. Everytime we needed a bus it was a LONG wait. One day when we were leaving miday at Animal Kingdom there had to be 300 people waiting for the EPCOT Resorts bus while buses came and went for all of the others. After an hour of waiting, and listening to other guests complain and still no bus, I used my cell phone to call the hotel lobby to find out what was going on and if they were having a problem. People were yelling while I was on the phone "tell them they better get a bus down here or we are going to burn this pavillion down". People were really getting inpatient, that doesn't happen with reasonable wait times. I was told by the hotel that they didn't know what was going on. After another 20 minutes went by, two buses pulled up at the same time, one said "VIP" which makes me think they sent it because of the complaints. We also complained several times to other bus drivers who simply ignored us. They didn't even respond to the questioning. On another day it took my husband and our friend two hours to get back to the hotel from Typhoon Lagoon. They were beside themselves when they returned. I am not exaggerating and we are not people that are difficult to please. In fact , quite the opposite. We are not complainers! This was one problem after the other with the buses and it really had a negative impact on the vacation. We love Walt Disney World and will continue to visit and hopefully the bus problem will be remedied by the time of our next vacation. Oh...and I still feel strongly that standing room only on a bus is not acceptable or safe. I saw people almost fall several times when the bus stopped short, once it happened to my mother. I wonder how many people have suffered injuries traveling this way. I don't care if this is how public transportation works, it shouldn't work this way, risking injury to people. I am not trying to argue with people on these boards because I know that people are entitled to there opinions. I am simply justifying the way I feel. With all of the money being made at WDW, the bus system could certainly work better.

 

[goofy4tink]

Here's the thing....Disney bus transportation is very fluid. I have stood and watched, at various resorts, as buses to parks other than the one I wanted, came and went...repeatedly. Drove me nuts. I have stood and waited for the bus to MK to come at BW, only to watch 3 AK buses and 2 DTD buses come along. It can happen anywhere. For the most part, the bus system at WDW is very good. It's far from perfect, but it is mass transit, even if those buses have Mickey's on 'em.
Deluxe resorts are considered deluxe for several reasons...size of rooms, amenities offered and ability to get to a park without buses. I still feel the best bus transportation, onsite, is at POP. I own DVC at BWV, and would love to see park buses that stopped only at the BW, but it ain't gonna happen. Can you just imagine a bus with only 14 people on it??? Surely that's not cost effective for Disney. The buses to AKL/VAKL makes stops only at those two resorts...not bad at all. Far superior to some.

If you are at a bus stop, and you feel you have waited overlong for a bus to come, pick up that phone that's at the deluxe bus stops (not sure if there are any at the moderates or values) and let someone know..that's what it's there for.

Considering how many people Disney has to move around, it's incredible they do as good a job as they do now. BUT....if anyone doesn't want to take a chance on it taking a longish time (and that is going to be different for each family), then a rental car will be the best option..that way waits will be minimized.

This is what is go terrific about these boards. When someone comes along, and lets us know about their experiences, it enables others to make choices based on what has happened. Someone could read this thread and say to themselves..."Hmmm, I don't want to take that chance. I think we'll rent a car." Or, "Well, I think we will need to leave a bit more time to get around if we're going to use the bus system."
Even if someone's experience isn't perfect, it's still good to hear about it. Thanks for letting us know what your experiences have been.

 

[goofy4tink]

I would just like to say that I understand that things can occasionaly, unexpectedly occur to cause a delay in a bus. I am not an unreasonable person, nor am I a snob by the way. However, like I stated before, in May 2007 we stayed at the Swan for 10 days and had reasonable waits for buses. An occasional extended wait was ok because it was not constant. In May of this year it was constant waits. Everytime we needed a bus it was a LONG wait. One day when we were leaving miday at Animal Kingdom there had to be 300 people waiting for the EPCOT Resorts bus while buses came and went for all of the others. After an hour of waiting, and listening to other guests complain and still no bus, I used my cell phone to call the hotel lobby to find out what was going on and if they were having a problem. People were yelling while I was on the phone "tell them they better get a bus down here or we are going to burn this pavillion down". People were really getting inpatient, that doesn't happen with reasonable wait times. I was told by the hotel that they didn't know what was going on. After another 20 minutes went by, two buses pulled up at the same time, one said "VIP" which makes me think they sent it because of the complaints. We also complained several times to other bus drivers who simply ignored us. They didn't even respond to the questioning. On another day it took my husband and our friend two hours to get back to the hotel from Typhoon Lagoon. They were beside themselves when they returned. I am not exaggerating and we are not people that are difficult to please. In fact , quite the opposite. We are not complainers! This was one problem after the other with the buses and it really had a negative impact on the vacation. We love Walt Disney World and will continue to visit and hopefully the bus problem will be remedied by the time of our next vacation. Oh...and I still feel strongly that standing room only on a bus is not acceptable or safe. I saw people almost fall several times when the bus stopped short, once it happened to my mother. I wonder how many people have suffered injuries traveling this way. I don't care if this is how public transportation works, it shouldn't work this way, risking injury to people. I am not trying to argue with people on these boards because I know that people are entitled to there opinions. I am simply justifying the way I feel. With all of the money being made at WDW, the bus system could certainly work better.

I'm really sorry you had the bus issue you ended up having....while it isn't a common occurance, it doesn't make you feel any better knowing that. I will say that I was at WDW in Dec, April and again in August. We had few issue with the buses...a few longish waits but nothing out of the ordinary.
As far as the safety issue goes...the buses are designed for people standing. If they didn't allow for standees, there would have to be double the number of buses. And you really don't want to see what happens to resort prices if they had to add buses and drivers. It is safe to stand on a bus...those who don't want to stand, or can't stand, are free to wait for the next bus and be first on the bus and able to get a seat. Most people are good about giving up seats to those who can't stand, or look uncomfortable standing. I can't tell you how many times I was offered a seat on a bus in August...it was getting ridiculous. I had to get back to my room and look in the mirror to make sure I hadn't aged suddenly!!

So, again....if the bus waits and having to stand on buses is going to be an issue, rental cars are going to be the best option. Staying off-site due to the bus situation?? I don't think so. When staying off-site you may get much more room for your money, but you are going to have to rent a car anyway. Those resorts that offer shuttle service usually charge for it. And, they don't run the shuttles very often...very inconvenient to say the least.
The bus system is not likely to change any time soon. I guess we'll have to make the best of it the way it is.

 

[bookwormde]

I had a chance to “study” the bus system last time at WDW and also stayed at AKV. Part of what you are seeing is that during parts of the day the busses are assigned by park exit loading without regards to any observable influence of resort loading (the have a transportation supervisor at each park, reassigning bus destination dependent on waiting crowd at any one loading “corral”). I had a chance to talk to a couple of them and while they are they diligent if they get 2 or 3 big clumps of people for a single grouping of resorts this happens. The real problem is that there is no monitoring system for the resorts beyond the bus drivers radioing in (or I think I have seen them push buttons on the transportation consol) to let dispatch know that they could not fit everyone on the bus.

Specifically to AKV the biggest problem I have seen at this visit compared to my previous visit is that often the busses were “packed” (30+ people standing) with many times during the morning people had to wait for a second bus. Part of my stay was a Jambo and I learned to walk up to Kidani if I wanted any chance of the kids getting a seat (I always give mine up anyway). I am not sure they have “upgraded” the quantity of busses to account for the extra volume and loop time requirements of Kidani. Also later in the day when there is not a coordinator at the parks I have particularly seen AKV have more than its share of “multiple busloads” waiting at the parks, and I do not think there is anything fundamentally different about the AKV guests patterns to account for this.

Quite honestly with the $ they spent on the IT upgrade to the bus system it is unconscionable that they did not put a card (room card) scan system at each bus stop with a park selection button, to have both time wait and quantity wait to supply to either the computer or the “flow coordinator” at the parks.

bookwormde

 

[kaytieeldr]

I absolutely applaud your post.

Thank you I wasn't guessing, by the way - I've actually talked to Disney Transportation Managers.

Lastly, I want to do my best, at every opportunity, to put something to rest on these boards. There have been no cutbacks in the number of buses,watercraft, or monorails currently running due to the economy. In fact I have asked bus drivers and they informed me they have nearly 300 buses running every single day.

Thank you for clarifying!

 

[kaytieeldr]

If you are at a bus stop, and you feel you have waited overlong for a bus to come, pick up that phone that's at the deluxe bus stops (not sure if there are any at the moderates or values) and let someone know..that's what it's there for.

Can't speak for the Moderates, but there's no phone at Pop Century. Disney makes us frugal Guests go back to the lobby if there are any transportation issues... or (the kaytieeldr approach) have someone tell another bus driver that X buses have come for that same destination but none for 'mine'... or, um, oh yeah - if there's a white van with someone in it in the bus pickup area, go talk to that person.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

If you are at a bus stop, and you feel you have waited overlong for a bus to come, pick up that phone that's at the deluxe bus stops (not sure if there are any at the moderates or values) and let someone know..that's what it's there for.

Unless I missed it, I don't remember seeing this phone at the Contemporary bus station.

 

[TheWog]

Based on the original post it would have been a great day for going to DHS. I think it is luck of the draw. We stayed at AKL right before AKV opened and left the day after it opened and only had 1 bad bus wait and that was for DTD in the middle of the day, which I knew was a possibility of happening. Otherwise we had great service to and from. Hope it is better next time for you.

 

[spider0215]

I guess I got lucky, stayed at POP in Sept and never had problems with the bus.