What time to catch buses?

[alh2011]

we will be in parks 9/27 to 10/1. We are staying at POP. What time should we catch buses to each park if we want to make 9am rope drop?

Also what time should we catch bus to make 810am ADRs at BOG and Tusker house??

Thanks!!

 

[Alesia]

we will be in parks 9/27 to 10/1. We are staying at POP.

1. What time should we catch buses to each park if we want to make 9am rope drop?

2. Also what time should we catch bus to make 810am ADRs at BOG and Tusker house??

Thanks!!

1. 8:00 am

2. 7:00 am

 

[tlmadden73]

I stayed at Pop in August. It is a long bus trip from Pop to MK .. so plan at least an hour (or more) to be standing in line AT the bus stop ready to board.
Plus you can't rely on the timing of the buses. Disney usually is good about buses, but sometimes things run behind or a bigger crowd than you expected is at the bus stop.

When I was trying to make the 8:00 AM EMH at MK we were at the bus stop at 7:00 AM sharp .. a bus didn't show up for about 10-15 minutes (but when it did show up .. about 3 buses showed up at the same time for MK (which meant everyone waiting got on a bus). We were walking up to the ticket gate around 7:50 .. catching the last few seconds of the opening show. We never made it to the actual "rope" (we weren't trying to rush anywhere), but got on plenty of rides in that first hour.

The other parks you could probably get away with 45 minutes before rope drop, but an hour sure won't hurt.

 

[BrianL]

It really shouldn't take an hour that early in the morning, but if you want to be safe, an hour early is always the rule.

 

[Disnsyncey]

Strange thing.....Tuesday, we were going to MK for our 8:05 BoG ADR....we got to the bus stop at 7:10-7:15....we waited for at least10+ min, while we saw multiple CHARTERED Buses with Disney transport tags in the front window pick up other parks.....our bus came for MK, and it was a rando charter bus......it had picked up at other resorts (not sure which ones though) and we proceeded to MK.....they dropped us off in the TTC bus parking and we had to either get on a ferry or walk around to the monorail side of the parking lot onto ANOTHER charter bus.....which then took us to the MK bus dropoff.....I was way confused. I know that the monorail is down, and they definitely had resort buses to take guests those places as well, but it just seemed super strange that we went to the TTC......they could have just as easily done the whole bus distribution at the MK stop.....

but yes! to answer the question! allow an hour....I actually really liked the rolling up to the parks at like 8:50 and trickling in instead of the flood of people racing to go through the gates....

 

[cavepig]

agree, allow an hour, Those POP bus lines can fill up quickly in the morning and the last thing you want is to be is stuck there waiting for a bus in a long line, much better to have extra time waiting actually at the Park.

 

[Robo]

our bus came for MK, and it was a rando charter bus......it had picked up at other resorts (not sure which ones though) and we proceeded to MK.....they dropped us off in the TTC bus parking and we had to either get on a ferry or walk around to the monorail side of the parking lot onto ANOTHER charter bus.....which then took us to the MK bus dropoff.....I was way confused.

It's not too unusual for Disney to call in extra buses from Mears** to handle extra traffic (and if too many of their own buses are out of service for some reason.)

What is ODD is that your MK bus dropped you at TTC. That sounds like a possible driver error.
Either that, or there was so MUCH bus traffic at the MK gates that they were using that method to move the overflow of guests via TTC that day.


**Mears has a transportation contract with Disney.
Mears actually operates all of the Disney Magical Express buses, too.

 

[disnut8]

we will be in parks 9/27 to 10/1. We are staying at POP. What time should we catch buses to each park if we want to make 9am rope drop?

Also what time should we catch bus to make 810am ADRs at BOG and Tusker house??

Thanks!!

As far as an "exact" time, I'd go with others have said and even add time. Kind of like living in the Atlanta metro area. You can mapquest a location and it'll tell you "45 minutes" but once you've lived here long enough, you just automatically add another 30 to that estimate.

 

[alh2011]

Thanks everybody for info!

 

[Disnsyncey]

It's not too unusual for Disney to call in extra buses from Mears** to handle extra traffic (and if too many of their own buses are out of service for some reason.)

What is ODD is that your MK bus dropped you at TTC. That sounds like a possible driver error.
Either that, or there was so MUCH bus traffic at the MK gates that they were using that method to move the overflow of guests via TTC that day.


**Mears has a transportation contract with Disney.
Mears actually operates all of the Disney Magical Express buses, too.

yeah, it was weird, cuz it wasn't even Mears, it was some rando bus company I have never heard of......though it seemed they were ready for all these buses to come in, because there were buses waiting for the monorail resorts and MK...though we had to walk THROUGH the TTC to the other side of the parking lot, right next to the monorails for the security CMs to direct us to the bus or ferry.....they should at least have had us transfer in the same parking lot.......but I did notice other times in my stay that they had a few buses coming out of that lot with a policeman (or guard or so) directing traffic while I was on my way back from MK.....

I just feel bad for the first people on my bus, they must have been on there for 20+ minutes before they picked us up....

It seemed as they were ready for us, even our MK bus waited for more people........it would be just as easy to have the staging area at MK........and I saw that we were the only bus that pulled into the MK bus stops....so maybe most of them were stopping there? Anybody else know?