Which resorts offer the worst transportation? And random resort questions.

[trirae]

We just got back from an offsite trip 10/20-24. This was our first family trip (I hadn't been since I was 2). I didn't mind the transportation. Depending on the park, time of day, etc, it was anywhere from 25-45 minutes to get back to the house. It strikes me that range is probably pretty similar to onsite resorts. Is that true?

We're in the early stages of planning a trip for January 2006. I know I want to be onsite. Not just for transportation reasons but also for continuous magic and other ammenities.

I am hoping, of course, that next year will bring similar BDL codes, which will make our range of options for resorts larger.

I like the idea of the WL or CR for having an additional transportation option. Since it's January I'm not sure that a moderate is a good choice. PLEASE TELL ME IF I'M WRONG HERE. BUT since one of the major benefits is the pool area, and I'm not sure that the pool will be an option in January, it almost seems we'd be better off Value or Deluxe (sort of the all or nothing philosophy).

I know we and my dd (who will be 4) would love AKL, and it's definitely an option, but the transportation there scares me a bit with it's location.

I have lots of time to decide, but I'm just looking for input here to help me in my planning.

1. Are there resorts you would rule out because of transportation?
2. Are there signficiant benefits to a moderate over a value other than the pool area? Sit down restaurants in the hotel aren't a necessity to us.
3. Does the time of year (January in this case) make a difference in which resort you would choose?

Thanks so much in advance for any insight.
Tricia

 

[goofy4tink]

I've stayed at all levels in WDW. I like the AllStars a lot. I don't use their pools tho. Dd, 11, wasn't really tempted to swim last Dec but that was a product of the chill in the air, not the pool. The pools at the moderates are much better than the value pools. Bigger, and better themed and they have slides.

I haven't noticed a huge difference in trans. at the different resorts. Yes, the GF, Polynesian and CR have monorail access. Also boat service from Polynesian and GF and WL. I loved being able to walk to MK from CR. I actually liked CR more than the Polynesian.

As to the time of year and choosing a resort...I would say that if you go during a hot and crowded time it's more important to stay at a deluxe on the monorail for both the nicer pool and the ease of getting back to your room to swim in said pool during the day!! But if you go during a more quiet time, such as Jan., then I wouldn't think it would matter as much.

I don't think the moderates offer enough added value to warrent the addtl. price per night. I love POR but I think that if I'm basically going to be going to the parks and sleeping then I might as well stay at a value resort. The bed size is the same, the square footage is not all that different and I can make do with just one sink vs. the double at the moderates. As I said before, the pools at the mods are nicer but if you are visiting in Jan will you be doing enough swimming to warrent the extra cost?

An example...we own DVC at BWV. We stay at BWV from Sunday thru Friday then make a switch to an AllStars, either before our BWV stay or at the end. Depends on when we arrive or depart. But the Fri and Sat nights are at one of the value resorts. If I get a good enough code deal for the moderates then I might stay there. But it would have to be less than $100 a night, more like $80.

So...transportation has never been an issue at any of the resorts. I actually found that AllStarMusic had wonderful bus service. I use the food courts more than sit-down at the resort. And the pool is only an issue for me during the heat of summer.

 

[mom23guys2]

We've always found the AKL to have great transportation. All of the busses only have picked up there and gone straight to the park, etc. I never even had to stand. The All Star resorts have been a nightmare. Always crowded and sometimes long waits. I think your choice for transportation purposes has a lot to do with your choice of parks. If you go mostly to MGM and Epcot, the Epcot resorts are fantastic but it does take a longer time to get to MK and AK. WL is great for MK. I don't know if it is still the same but to get to some of the other areas you had to go to T&T and switch buses, I found that really annoying so have stayed away from WL. CR has great transportation options as well as Poly. POR and POFQ can also have long rides due to the many bus stops.

I think all resorts have their benefits and drawbacks as far as transportation goes, but the benefits of being onsite and not having to fight the crowds on the roadways leaving the parks far outweigh the few extra minutes on a bus. Enjoy your planning!

 

[mkymouse4ever]

Transportation:

The worst transporation we have experienced was at the WL. We were there when they shared the bus service with Fort Wilderness, not the other resort hotels. This was terrible. FW is huge, and riding around there seems to take forever late at nite, standing in a crowded bus with your kids. This was truely bad. I know it has changed, but occassionally the wdw bus system tried it out a few more times, and then went back to wl with the resorts. I would clearly check this out before I stayed there again.

On property, we still use our rental car quiet a bit. You get free parking. and its very quick. Jump in and out. While your on the wdw bus, note the roads they use and pay attention, you can use the same ones.

Also, I like resorts that have a dedicated bus system. (to them) akl sometimes goes with CS? Seems the epcot resorts really are packed into the buses too. swan, dolphin, yc, bc,bcv, bw, bwv all in one bus? Know and expect these things prior to going to the resort if your using the bus alot. So there are no surprises.

Mod vs. value: Only big diff is the location, theme, and mod have boating, PO's have transportation per boat to disney village shopping / PL / disney west side. Mod have 2 sinks usually, and slightly bigger, slightly nicer furnishings. That's the differences. Moderates all have a large theme pool and several small pools.

Season does affect which resort if you like to swim. We were at CR in december and with the wide open to lake Not a good idea for very long. While AKL is more blocked by the wind, and sheltered. If the pools etc.. matter to you.

Rember if you thinking between value /mod / deluxe? I like to play with prices. The CR wings are a really good buy with the discounts offered. Rooms are identical to the tower, and your in walking distance of the MK. AKL & WL are also good buys. Be sure to shop all prices, sometimes these 3 are only slightly higher than the moderate price.

Good luck, MKY

 

[kylara]

Now i have the opposite view than Goofy as far as the resort making more of a difference in the hotter months. I feel the need to like the resort more in the cooler months like Jan because the parks aren't open as long and you end up spending more time at the resorts.

I will admit to not liking the value resorts. I find them too big and too crowded and I really don't like the theming of them. I was suprised to see that my nieces don't like them as much either. by that I mean, if given the choice, they prefer to stay at mods or deluxes (partly why my sis doesn't often give them the choice..haha).

Now my nieces are from MA so they tend to swim even in Jan. The pools are heated and as long as it is at leat 60 degrees, they will go in. They love the water and don't care that the air temp is cool as long as the water is warm.

You might want to look at the hours of the parks at the time of year you are going and then see how much time you will spend in the room. Once you know that, you can choose a resort that will be most comfortable for the amount of time in the room.

 

[Scoootch]

Okay, I'll do my best to take a stab at your questions

1. Are there resorts you would rule out because of transportation?

It kind of depends on things like : will you spend most of your time in the parks? And any particular park?...And is your child one who'd need to go back during the day for naps? or would you want to take that mid-day break for the pool? And the biggest one...if you will be using a stroller that is either heavy or the basket is loaded to the hill, being on the monorail line or being able to wheel that stroller onto a boat and not have to fold it up is sometimes worth it's wait in gold -- same with being able to just simply walk to a park. If you'll spend alot of time at either MK or Epcot and have the stroller factor or would not want the 1/2 hr to 45 minute sometimes transportation time back and forth, the deluxes are worth it.

If none of these transportation factors are an issue however the next things to consider are would you use the resorts ammenities or just be mainly sleeping at your resort.

2. Are there signficiant benefits to a moderate over a value other than the pool area? Sit down restaurants in the hotel aren't a necessity to us.

The differences between a value and moderate are these:
value resort rooms will be slightly smaller (less sq. footage).
They also will not have a water slide or a hot tub at their pools and will have a food court but no sit down restaraunt. They will not have valet parking or room service and no indoor corridors. They will have nicely themed pools and good food courts though and the rooms are a good price especially with the discount codes. All WDW pools are heated in January though. Transportation at all value resorts is strictly buses and some are shared between them like ASSp sharing with movies and or music.

Bumping up to a moderate will get you a food court plus a sit down restaraunt (except no sit down rest. at FQ but you can walk over to POR and they have one). Limited room service (limited to only pizza delivery from the resorts food court). You will have slightly larger rooms. Water slides and hot tubs at the main pools. No indoor corridors or valet parking. Strictly bus service to the parks ~ FQ has excellent bus service though IMO.

NOW, that being said bumping up yet another notch to the deluxes will get you larger rooms,room service,indoor corridors (great on rainy days),valet parking,water slides and hot tubs at the pools. Usually 2 sit down restaraunts and 1 fast food type restauraunt. On site character breakfasts often times (i.e. O'hana at the POLY, Cape May Cafe' at the BC). Transportation from many of the deluxes is monorail or boat and parks are within walking distance as well at some. Making transportation options much more convenient.

You really need to look at the ammenities the resort offers and ask yourself if you'd use them enough to make it worth the extra price ~ if at all. If you'll mainly only be sleeping at the resort and hardly use the pools or room service or valet parking,etc. then why pay extra? But if you'd use all these things then it can make it all the more worth it.

3. Does the time of year (January in this case) make a difference in which resort you would choose?

Depends again on what you're looking for in the resort, if it will be too cold for you to use the pool and you most likely won't and wouldn't use any of the other ammenities, then why pay extra to stay at Y & B for use of SAB?? But if you'd love it for being able to walk to EPcot and MGM then it may be worth it or if you would still use the pool...choose by if you'd use the resorts ammenties.

We just got back from an offsite trip {snip} Depending on the park, time of day, etc, it was anywhere from 25-45 minutes to get back to the house. It strikes me that range is probably pretty similar to onsite resorts. Is that true?

Kind of but...from what I understand off site resorts that have shuttles only run at certain times of the day (maybe twice a day or 3 times a day, whatever). The time to travel back to some resorts can be 25-45 minutes but the difference is you don't have to wait until 1:30pm for example (just using any example) to go get that shuttle and have it take that 25-45 minutes if it's only 11:45pm. The WDW buses run every 20 mins or so, so you can go get the bus anytime you want to to go back to your resort and the longest wait time you'd have for the bus would be 20 mins and often times not more than 5 or 10mins. It's sometimes a 25 minute or more ride back but you save yourself that hour and 45 mins of not having to wait until there's a shuttle at any particular time. Make sense?

WL by the way, although in the deluxe catagory is one of the lesser expensive deluxes as well as AKL. Also even though AKL is strictly bus service, they do not share buses with any other resort so the transportation time from what I understand isn't all that bad. Just some things to keep in mind.

Anyway, there's some food for thought. Hope it helps you out some. Happy planning!

 

[ChairborneRangr]

If your primary concern is transportation then Poly is the answer.

If you stay in a building to the right of the ceremonial house you are with in a few minutes walk of the TTC.

MK resort monorail loop with GF the only intermediate stop.
EC short walk to TTC and Monorail
ST Bus shared with CR, they pick up at CR first
AK Bus shared with CR, they pick CR up first (longest ride)

When you are coming back at night you can get on almost any transportation because they generally hit the TTC after their major dropoff. Once at the TTC it is a short walk back to your room.

 

[dischick4778]

I stayed at ASM one night and that was one night too much for me. Not only was transportation slow but the rooms were soo small and there is only one pool.

Transportation depends on the size of the resort as well as its location. We stayed at CBR and POR and found the slowest part of the transportation was riding around the different stops w/in the resort. At OKW we happened to be at a good bus stop and didn't travel too far before leaving the resort.

One night we took the boat from MK to the Grand Floridian in order to catch a bus to DTD. The DTD bus took 45 minutes to arrive at GF. I don't know if it was just that night or if that's how it always is. But that is way too long in my opinion.

As far as choosing a resort. I have become spoiled. I like space. The values are too small for me. The moderates are my last option when booking. Mostly b/c I've seen them all and want to move on to bigger and better things. Time of year does not play into which resort I choose.

Have a great trip.

 

[Mich Mouse]

The absolute best transportation is your own! We always rent a car, and use it!

After one experience of trying to get to get around the world on Disney transport, we decided a car would save us SO much time. If you are just concerned with the parks, Disney transport is not too bad. However, going to different resorts to eat or use the kids clubs, or visiting Downtown Disney can turn quickly into a transportation nightmare.

Happy Trails !

 

[ChairborneRangr]

On the very RARE occasion that Disney transportation hasn't worked for us, we called a cab. Fast, efficient, and much less than renting a vehicle. Being from Colorado, there is no way I am going to drive 3 days each way for WDW.

BTW ALL Values have at least two pools. PC has three plus a Pop Jet area.

ASMo has The Fantasia Pool, the Duck Pond, and the Pop Jets at Herbie's Winner's Circle.

To each their own. I have stayed Garden level CR as well as the All Star's. It just isn't worth it to me. I'd rather have two value rooms. If you are following a park plan, you don't have much of a wait anyway. And coming back at night, we like to hang out in the parks and have a slow ending of the day. We have to wait for 1 bus full ahead of us that way.

That said, we are going out to the beach club for a couple of days to take in the Epcot Resort area, but we aren't doing any parks for those two days. We are spending the extra to enjoy SAB, the boardwalk etc.

 

[clkelley]

I have found that I hate resorts with multiple bus stops.

Animal Kingdom Lodge would seem ideal to me because there is one stop and it goes straight from the resort to the parks.

Pop Century also fits into that category.

The Epcot area resorts would bug me because of the loop the buses run before heading off to their destination. As a matter of fact when going to Downtown Disney after leaving Epcot in the evening, we make it a point to find out which of the resorts is the last stop in the loop so that we go straight to Downtown Disney.

All of the moderates have multiple stops inside the resort.

All-Stars has multiple stops for some of their routes, but it doesn't seem as extreme as some of the moderates or the groupings of deluxes.

Also since the All-Stars are so close together, I can ask the transportation folks which All-Stars is the last stop before going off to the parks and walk to that bus stop.

Carol

 

[DisneyFan09]

With my recent stay at Pop Century, I can say that I have stayed at all 3 resort levels.

Of course my very favorite is the Polynesian, and while the boat and monorail were great the bus was not the most efficient mode of travel.

By far the worst that I have experienced is CBR and as someone posted earlier, it takes a very long time to get in and out of the resort because of all of the stops.

I have to give 2 big thumbs up to the buses at Pop Century, so far they have been the very best. It only took us about 10-15 minutes to get to any of the parks! The only problems we had were the huge lines at the end of the night leaving MK, but they always had someone standing at the bus stop with radios calling in extra buses, so it never took as long as we thought it would.

I agree with the poster who said value or deluxe, the moderates do not offer enough more than values to justify the higher price.

 

[tinkerbee]

I have always found that the value resorts have very good transportation. The best though is to drive your own car. It always saves us time mostly at the end of the night when thousands of people are trying to get on the same bus at the same time

Since you are staying in Jan. I would go with a Deluxe resort because you are more prone to be in your room more and they have better lobby areas with more to see and do than the value resorts. Have a great time!!1

 

[kelscross]

I have stayed at all three different types of resorts over the years. I didn't think it would matter, but after staying deluxe this year I really think I will be hard pressed to stay anywhere else.

While the theming for the Allstars really appeals to my young children ( 3and 4) I didn't care for the transportation. I gets really, really crowded having them share a bus.

CBR transportation wasn't up to par when we stayed there either. It took well over 25 minutes for busses to come to places like DTD and AK. With the resort being so large it was always crowded, plus it made stops all through the resort.

I did like the food court in CBR, there seemed to be ample choices. Actually I think I liked the food at CBR better than the Poly.

O'hana at the Poly is excellent, but their food court is non existent. It's just mearly an alcove that sells breakfast stuff and off the grill stuff. From what I hear they are expanding that as we speak though.

The transportation at the Poly was great to the MK. We found the boat to be much faster than the monorail. To EPCOT you just walk to the TTC. I did find that the bus transportation to the Poly was mediocre at best. I guess they figure that if you can zip over the MK and EPCOT then you can wait forever for the rest of the parks. But we spent most of our time in the MK so other than the one visit to AK and MGM we didn't use the busses.

The difference in the pools didn't matter to us as my girls are too young to use the slides. The ASMO's Fantasia pool was large. The CBR's pool seemed larger than the Poly. And the CBR's kiddie pool was much better than either. I did like the zero entry feature of the Volcano Pool at the Poly though.

I have enjoyed all of my stays onsite and I would never choose to stay off site again. Well..maybe if it were free or something...ha! Whichever you choose you will have a wonderful time!

 

[flyball]

It pains me to say this, because we really love the feel of the resort, but we've avoided staying at WL due to transportation issues. It's true that they have the boat and the busses, but the bus waits were exceedingly long and the bus runs were extremely annoying (multiple stops). If we ever did stay there again, we'd definitely use our car. We've stayed at AKL multiple times and have never had any trouble with the busses. We especially like that their busses are dedicated to the resort, so we would always go directly to our destination. They are always timely and fairly empty. The only exception was the bus to DTD. I'm convinced that the DTD busses are an afterthought at all the resorts, so I'd either take a cab or my own car to get there. POR transportation was excellent, but it does make multiple stops. We've never stayed at a value resort, so can't comment on the advantages/disadvantages or compare to other resorts. We really enjoy the deluxe resorts, especially during inclement weather. Good luck with your planning!

 

[Grumpy92]

We had the same concerns about AKL, but we loved it. The transportation has to be one of the best resorts. The drivers were very friendly and we never waited 5 minutes for a bus. The best thing the buses only went to AKL. Many of the resort buses share with another resort, so this was a time saver. The only resort that we have stayed at that was bad on transportation was CBR.

All pools at WDW are heated. So it is getting in and out that might be chilly. Most of January is very slow so you should be able to get a discount and avoid the crowds.

You wont go wrong with any of the resorts. Sounds like you are having are hard time choosing. Have to say being on the monorail does have its advantages. But he boat from WL is wonderful too.