Which hotel has the transportation system to/from the parks?

[nancy drew]

We will be visiting WDW for a long weekend, and will be staying on property. We've had hit or miss experiences with the buses, boats, and monorails.

What has been your best experience with high season hotel/park transportation?

 

[abdgeek]

I always travel to WDW during high peak times(Xmas, Easter, summer) and have had no problems with WDW transportation. They usually add more buses during that time due to crowd size. The boats don't run as often, so I don't take those. The monorail can get overcrowded because everyone wants to take it, so I usually don't do that either.

Some of the resorts have less bus stops than others(value resorts, etc.) so they can be mobbed. I stay at the DVC resorts and I have never had many(more than 5) other people waiting for the bus at the same time I was.

 

[Kimberle]

Your best bet is to stay near the park you'll be visiting the most. If you stay at CR, you can walk to MK. If you stay at BC/YC/BWI you can walk to Epcot and/or HS. You can always grab a cab, too.

 

[mickeydonalgoofyyyy]

Hi nancy drew, We have had great experience with WDW transportation overall but, with a shorter trip we look at which parks we will be focusing most of our time and choose a resort closest to those. For example, during the Food and Wine Festival we always choose the Beach Club Villas for the proximity to Epcot. It is a short walk or boat ride. DHS is so close as well. We love WL and the monorail resorts for quick travel time to MK. The Contempory is a short walk to MK which I often prefer to waiting for transportation. Happy Planning!

 

[nancy drew]

We will be going to MK one day and Epcot one day. The third day is up for grabs.

Any info on hotel bus services to avoid would be great! Thanks!

 

[Sue M]

For MK and Epcot IMO Poly would have the best transportation. Boat or Monorail to MK, and walking path to TTC for Epcot monorail.

 

[nancy drew]

For MK and Epcot IMO Poly would have the best transportation. Boat or Monorail to MK, and walking path to TTC for Epcot monorail.

I had no idea you could walk to the TTC from any resort!! So Poly is the best choice for MK and Epcot then, right? Wow!

 

[Santa]

BWI, YC & BC are great for Epcot & Hollywood Studios but not for MK. Those 3 resorts share buses & also include stops at Swan & Dolphin.

Depending on budget, I would go with Poly or Contemporary.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

OKW is not near any of the parks but is close to DTD. It is one of our favorite resorts. The buses are some of the most reliable on the property. They do not share a bus with another resort as many of them do. Even AKL share a bus with those going to Blizzar Beach. I think that SSR is the only other resort that does not share a bus with another.

 

[HM]

DD and I did a long weekend in early August. We stayed at All Star Sports. We had the best transportation luck in our 15+ trips to WDW. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus, we never had to stand because we were never on a full bus. We only shared with the other two All Stars when coming back from DHS midday on one day. All other rides were a straight shot in or out of AS Sports.

(Worst experiences were Poly and GF).

 

[heidijanesmith]

We will be going to MK one day and Epcot one day. The third day is up for grabs.

Any info on hotel bus services to avoid would be great! Thanks!

We stayed at the Poly July 2010, super busy time of year and the YC Aug 2012

We had the best experience at the Poly for MK. Taking the monorail from the GCH was super fast and easy. You can also walk to the TTC to the EPCOT or MK monorail (5 min from Niue longhouse). I also had the best bus experience for all the other locations. The buses seemed to come quickly at the Poly and sometimes did not share with any other resort or maybe GF or the CR.

I liked staying at the YC to walk to the IG at EPCOT, but there is no transportation to the front of EPCOT and we ended up having to take a cab a couple of times for the tours this summer. We also ended up taking a cab from YC to DTD and to TL. We either had the worst luck with YC buses or the bus service is sorely lacking. We always shared with BC, BW , Swan and Dolphin. It look along time just to pick up at the other resorts and then finally get to where we wanted to go.

For me the Poly has the best transportation options.

 

[lanejudy]

I think getting "poor" transportation service can occur at any given resort any time of year. Likewise, superb service can occur at any given resort any time of year. Buses break down, monorails need maintenance, as do boats. I'm sure we could find DISers who can report mishaps on any mode of transportation and that it made them late for rope drop, missed an ADR, was uncomfortable waiting for the situation to be resolved.

As I read once on another post...if my family consistently has the luck to arrive at the bus stop 2 minutes before the bus arrives, all week, we're going to walk away saying "this is the best resort for transportation!" However, another family that arrived at the bus stop 3 minutes later than we did (and therefore just missed the bus we took), consistently all week, then had to wait 19-20 minutes for the next bus to come - they are going to complain "we spent so much time waiting for transportation, we'll never stay here again." Everything else being equal, the only difference in experience was simply the lucky/unlucky timing of when each family arrived at the bus stop.

That said, yes there are resorts with multiple options to get to various parks and shorter time spent while actually en-route.

 

[Sue M]

I had no idea you could walk to the TTC from any resort!! So Poly is the best choice for MK and Epcot then, right? Wow!

Poly is the only resort with a path to TTC, it's a short 5 min walk, depending on which longhouse you're in. We were in Tokelau, which is very close to path.

 

[Sue M]

BWI, YC & BC are great for Epcot & Hollywood Studios but not for MK. Those 3 resorts share buses & also include stops at Swan & Dolphin.

Depending on budget, I would go with Poly or Contemporary.

When we stayed at BCwe only shared with YC for MK bus . BWI shared with Swan/Dolphin for MK.

 

[Wood Nymph]

When we stayed at BCwe only shared with YC for MK bus . BWI shared with Swan/Dolphin for MK.

We only shared with YC when we last stayed at BC, too. That was March/April 2011.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[canopynut66]

we have are heading for our 65th trip and we have over the years stayed at all deluxe and moderates and like them all but the best bus serive on property is POP cnetury and the worst is deluxe buses. the monorails have always been in the good range. our favorite moderate is POR but bus serive there is scary. may have to wait two or more buses to get on as they cover so many areas over there.liked Yachstclub and Poly but same thing or AKL waited three buses and all were very late to begin with. boats we seldom have problems with getting on one. but we go September thru late Febuary times not thru the summer. but plenty of holiday times. and we learned thru the years if atying until park closes for fireworks or illuminations then we sit down and relaz and drink a coffee and wait until crowd dies out and then just go walk onto a bus..is better to sit and wait than stand and wait in line. sometimes it may take hour and sometimes may be half that. but time goes faster when sitting down relazing as it ther eis some type of crowd all the time.

 

[jaysmom4285]

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards[/QUOTE]
As far as bus transportation goes, keep in mind that each resort doesn't have its own fleet of buses. All the buses are dispatched from a central location. So the frequency of buses will vary through no fault of, or credit to, the specific resort.