Deluxe Resorts and the Busses

PJean710

PJean710

Active Member
My parents and sister's family are staying at GF. My wife and I haven't decided if we want to stay there with them or one of the Epcot resorts. I'm not crazy about GF's theme. The deciding factor for us is the bus service. Every time we've been to any of the deluxe resorts we've hated the bus service. Between Yacht, Beach Club and GF is the bus service better at any of those hotels vs the others? I'm not concerned about GF having the monorail or walking to Epcot to me those are a wash.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
PJean710

PJean710

Active Member
Original Poster
thanks. As a follow up, I think I'd prefer the Epcot resorts. So my question is which one? Beach, Boardwalk, or Yacht? The times Ive spent at Boardwalk the busses have seemed terrible. This is usually the biggest complaint about it. I rarely read anything about the others having bad bass service.
 
Upvote 0
Ariel484

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
From what I remember, the Epcot resorts share buses a lot more...Boardwalk will always share with Swan and Dolphin, and all 5 Epcot resorts share buses to Animal Kingdom. But you can walk/take the boat to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Grand Floridian shares buses with Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian, but you can monorail to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and have access to the boats. It's not going to be perfect anywhere. Getting to DtD will always be crappy.

I've stayed at GF, BWV, BWI and BCV. Haven't gotten to stay at Yacht yet, but my mom and brother were there last January - their room was beautiful and they really liked it. Personally I think all of the Epcot resorts are really nice and the rooms are laid out similarly. Yacht and Beach have Stormalong Bay, which is a huge plus, and there are restaurants IN the resort, which you don't get at the Boardwalk. Whenever we stay at an Epcot resort we usually end up just hopping off of the bus at the first stop - whatever resort that may be - and walk back to our room from there. And FWIW we just stayed at the Grand Floridian in January and LOVED it. The CMs are very welcoming and we felt very comfortable there. :)

I don't think you can go wrong with any of these resorts...not a bad choice to have to make!
 
Upvote 0
disneygirl76

disneygirl76

Carey Poppins - Nanny and Disney Enthusiest
PJean710 said:
My parents and sister's family are staying at GF. My wife and I haven't decided if we want to stay there with them or one of the Epcot resorts. I'm not crazy about GF's theme. The deciding factor for us is the bus service. Every time we've been to any of the deluxe resorts we've hated the bus service. Between Yacht, Beach Club and GF is the bus service better at any of those hotels vs the others? I'm not concerned about GF having the monorail or walking to Epcot to me those are a wash.
Click to expand...

I have stayed at all 3. When we stay at BC/YC, we take the boat to DHS and walk to Epcot. So we only hit the buses for MK and AK. We have on occasion (b/c we get park hopper) walked through Epcot and taken monorail to MK but this is not a time efficient method.

We stay mostly at GF and we take the mono to Epcot and MK which we head to the most.

Here's the thing with the buses. With either option, you eliminate 2 places to take the bus. You are left with 2 parks to access via bus. In my opinion, the bus system, no matter where you stay, is a MAJOR aggravation. Which is why we like to stay at Deluxes in order to eliminate half of our time on the bus. When we stayed at PORS in September, the buses were far worse then anything I ever experienced during our stay at any of the Deluxes (we have stayed at WL, GF, BC and YC). They were awful!! So I would stay at the Deluxe you like best and the buses shouldn't really factor in.
 
Upvote 0
pmaljr

pmaljr

Well-Known Member
We stayed at GF in 2010 and found the buses to be annoying there, more than at any other resort we've stayed at. They can be less crowded but you share bus stops (at least you did then) with the Polynesian and Wilderness Lodge. Plus, the bus stop was out of the way from our room location. It seemed to take forever for a bus to arrive. So, it was a pain for us. However, one of the things that would have dramatically helped the situation was the new LCD monitors that they have installed now that tells you when the next bus will arrive. So, it would be a good problem to have to find out now if it was better :)
 
Upvote 0
erstwo

erstwo

Well-Known Member
We stayed at the Beach Club the first week of February last year. My husband was at meetings all day, so I was single parenting it to the parks. The buses were great, very timely and they even had games set out (sometimes staffed by CMs) for the kids to play while we waited.
Now I will say, BC was very busy the first week of February last year. The National Homebuilders Conference was in Orlando (it's in Vegas this year and next - boo) and there was a conference in the Beach/ Yacht Club conference area. Parks were open to 12 or 1 am almost every night. So maybe the buses ran more often because the knew attendance was higher?
THIS year, we were there the first week of February. (Buses were still great at Pop Century, but there WERE 10000 tour groups at Pop. :)) But parks were only open until 9 at the latest - DHS closed at 7! every night! :eek: So I wonder if the buses were slower at the BC that week.
 
Upvote 0
bethymouse

bethymouse

Well-Known Member
We enjoyed the monorail and boat launches, but it is very expensive! I like to walk to EPCOT and DHS from BC. It's nice to be able to walk to DTD from Saratoga Springs. It just depends on the kind of experience you want. AK only has bus service. So... if you're not visiting AK, then a resort w/ monorail or boat launch service is the best. Otherwise, you'll be using the bus service unless you drive, rent a car, or take a taxi.:)
 
Upvote 0
pcarathers

pcarathers

Active Member
we just returned and yes the Epcot resorts all share 1 bus! We were planning on staying at Boardwalk until we saw that! NO WAY IN MAY!!! I don't mind so much the sharing, it is just all the stopping and our resort somehow ALWAYS manages to be the last one!!!!
 
Upvote 0
luv

luv

Well-Known Member
I've stayed in all three, multiple times each. My favorite is Beach Club if I get a FULL balcony that allows me to look over the water and see the Boardwalk, followed by GF. If I can't get a FULL balcony, i prefer GF. BWI is a very distant third.

I do not ride the bus and done know how that would work, but I know I have heard many more complaints about bus service at BC and BWI than at GF.
 
Upvote 0
HouCuseChickie

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
We had excellent bus service at YC and Contemporary, but the service at WL left a lot to be desired. I don't know if we just had great bus karma on the other trips, but seriously- we had little to no wait ever for anywhere at YC and Contemporary.
 
Upvote 0
Genie of the Lamp

Genie of the Lamp

Well-Known Member
Yeah every resort ain't going to have the perfect bus service, but I'll always stick side by side with my Epcot Resort hotels like the BC, YC, BW, and S&D. Beach Club is my favorite resort and have stayed their the most. Plus being that you don't need to bus for 2 of the WDW parks when you stay at these places, it really comes handy and isn't really as bad as some of the other resorts although I'm not saying it's good service at any of these places.
 
Upvote 0

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom