WL Transportation rant

[schumacher]

Just returned from another wonderful week at the WL. Had a 6th floor Woods view of the castle (my new favorite view) and all was as we remembered except for either terrible luck or terrible Disney planning on Transportation. We arrived on the 12th and realized it was a busy weekend (SS and F&W conclusion) and although we were not particularly rushed, we were shocked at how bad both Bus and Boat transport was. We have stayed 5 times over the past 4 years and can't recall ever waiting more than 10 or 15 minutes max for transport, that has changed. Sunday morning we decided to head to Epcot to catch the last day of F&W, after waiting 25 minutes for an Epcot bus I asked the CM at the bus stop if there was a problem and he stated "it does seem a bit long doesn't it" he called on his radio and after another 10 minutes an Epcot bus showed. In the meantime we saw 4-5 AK buses 3 MK buses and 4 DS buses plus 2 DD buses and it was 9:30am (DD not even open yet). So after getting to the bus stop at @9:30 we finally go to Epcot about 10:30 (wow!!!!).
We figured this was a fluke but boat service to the Contemporary was even worse. Those of you who have been to the lodge know it is about a 150 - 200 yard boat ride from WL dock to Contemp dock but you can't walk it due to the water (maybe they need a bridge). Well on two nights Tuesday and Friday they only had the small boats running and Tuesday after picking up at FW there was no room on the boat so we waited for the second boat (15 minutes for the first boat and 25minutes for the second) we were able to get on the second but many families were still waiting. Close to an hour to go 200 yards is frustrating. Friday was even worse, after dinner at the CG around 9PM we walked to the contemp dock to find close to 30 people waiting and saying they had not seen any boats (it was chilly Friday evening too), after ten minutes we walked to the front and took a cab.
I am not one to get too wound up about these things as we tend to go with the flow, after all we are on vacation but either we were very unlucky or Disney needs to review the WL transportation situation immediately. I can never remember it being this poor in the past.
Thanks for listening to my rant, other than this we had a wonderful time. I just hope that the WL can rethink/retool their transportation system. I honestly can't imagine how bad this gets at peak season, it was relatively quiet in the world after Monday. I realize a bridge or walkway from WL to contemp may not be easy or feasible but I think a lot of folks would really not mind the walk instead of being at the mercy of the boats at crowded times..

Cheers,

Schuey

 

[mtdevine615]

Poor transportation seems to be trend lately at WDW. I don't know if I would narrow it down to just the WL. The last couple of times we've been it has been getting worse. Once at YC and once at PC. But like you we usually are not the concerned because we're on vacation. But when it starts taking you and hour to go from the WL to the CR, that's crazy.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

We were at WDW last week (11/12 - 19) at the CR. We had no problems with transportation all week. However, we did see one family at GF. Our bus was headed to the Studios and we were the only ones on it. The CM at the GF bus stop asked if they would go to AK because this family had been waiting -- with the CM -- for over 30 minutes! We said that was ok with us 'cause we were in no hurry.

We did overhear some others talking about slow bus service from WL, GF, and even the Epcot resorts. I wonder if they were shorthanded after the early Nov. crush of events.