Best Moderate Hotel for Bus Transportation

[Mjt5126]

Hello all,

In the process of planning a trip for late October with my soon to be wife, my father in law and sister in law with her boyfriend. We are planning on staying at a moderate resort but trying to figure out which one has the best bus transportation. I stayed at Port New Orleans and back in 2010 and really enjoyed the hotel but it felt like the lines were much longer for Port Orleans than some of the other hotels (Speficially for MK).

My soon to be wife and I were there in April and stayed at Boardwalk via a work function and had no issues there but just trying to get a current vibe on what we might expect for a moderate hotel. If anyone could provide some suggestions, I would appreciate it

 

[Darkseid]

I had the best luck with French Quarter.

 

[Minnie Mum]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I wouldn't select a resort based on its buses. POFQ only has one bus stop, but it is half the size of the other mod resorts, which all have multiple bus stops (the bus proceeding around the resort to each stop before leaving for the park). Lines for the bus will always be long around park opening or park closing times, and can vary considerably from day to day, regardless of the resort. If you are lucky enough to have a room close to the first bus stop, you're pretty much guaranteed a seat. But if you're at the 3rd or 4th, you may find the bus is already full, and have to wait while they call for another bus to pick up the rest of the waiting guests.

Are you going THIS October? I'm assuming you are going to need 2 or 3 rooms? You might have to be flexible getting 3 rooms together at this late date. October, with both the Halloween parties and the F&W Festival, has become more crowded every year. I don't think you can afford to be too selective with only 2 months to go.

 

[m steve]

French Quarter. The single bus stop makes a big difference.

 

[Driver]

Hello all,

In the process of planning a trip for late October with my soon to be wife, my father in law and sister in law with her boyfriend. We are planning on staying at a moderate resort but trying to figure out which one has the best bus transportation. I stayed at Port New Orleans and back in 2010 and really enjoyed the hotel but it felt like the lines were much longer for Port Orleans than some of the other hotels (Speficially for MK).

My soon to be wife and I were there in April and stayed at Boardwalk via a work function and had no issues there but just trying to get a current vibe on what we might expect for a moderate hotel. If anyone could provide some suggestions, I would appreciate it

Just an FYI no resort gets preferential bus treatment over another. Dispatch during the day is done by computer, at night the parks go on "visual " so it's by as needed basis. If you feel a resort got better service on a particular visit it was merely a coincidence. In fact WDW is very adamant about all resorts getting equally serviced.

 

[CLEtoWDW]

Just an FYI no resort gets preferential bus treatment over another. Dispatch during the day is done by computer, at night the parks go on "visual " so it's by as needed basis. If you feel a resort got better service on a particular visit it was merely a coincidence. In fact WDW is very adamant about all resorts getting equally serviced.

True but let’s not forget location. Some of the moderates are a decent distance to MK and AK so those bus rides can be a little longer compared to some of the others.

 

[Driver]

True but let’s not forget location. Some of the moderates are a decent distance to MK and AK so those bus rides can be a little longer compared to some of the others.

True true !! I guess in my response I was thinking along the lines of " better resort, better service " which should never be the case. Location and travel times, yes different issue. And if that's a factor then I would recommend staying at resorts in the center of property. Boardwalk, Yacht, Beach, Swan, Dolphin etc. Any of those resorts have an estimated " travel time" of approximately 20-30 min depending on traffic. That's what we use when scheduling bus routes.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

French Quarter also shares buses with Riverside, or at least they used to. During non-peak hours, or when going to Disney Springs POFQ guests might still find they stop at four additional bus stops before heading to their destination.

I found Coronado Springs had less crowded buses compared to my stays at POFQ and Caribbean Beach.

I found Coronado to be the best, and Caribbean Beach the worst, but all were fine. I wouldn't consider bus service to be a deciding factor in which resort to stay at.

Port Orleans also has the Disney Springs boats, which is a nice change from buses.

 

[Buzz2001]

I've always had great luck with CSR buses.

 

[juniorthomas]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I wouldn't select a resort based on its buses. POFQ only has one bus stop, but it is half the size of the other mod resorts, which all have multiple bus stops (the bus proceeding around the resort to each stop before leaving for the park). Lines for the bus will always be long around park opening or park closing times, and can vary considerably from day to day, regardless of the resort. If you are lucky enough to have a room close to the first bus stop, you're pretty much guaranteed a seat. But if you're at the 3rd or 4th, you may find the bus is already full, and have to wait while they call for another bus to pick up the rest of the waiting guests.

Are you going THIS October? I'm assuming you are going to need 2 or 3 rooms? You might have to be flexible getting 3 rooms together at this late date. October, with both the Halloween parties and the F&W Festival, has become more crowded every year. I don't think you can afford to be too selective with only 2 months to go.

I wouldn't allow buses to be the sole decision when selecting a hotel, but it's certainly a worthy consideration.

At the end of the night, as I sprint to the last row of buses at MK carrying bags and a sleeping 4 year old, what I wouldn't give to have a shorter distance to that bus ride home.

 

[DarthVader]

French Quarter. The single bus stop makes a big difference.

Being a single bus stop, do you have to deal with larger wait times, as its a squeeze point where everyone from the resort needs to go to hop on a bus?

 

[Tuvalu]

Being a single bus stop, do you have to deal with larger wait times, as its a squeeze point where everyone from the resort needs to go to hop on a bus?

No. Having stayed at POFQ many times, the bus service is very good, never more than 20 minutes most times less. Bus was always direct to/from the parks and only shared with POR to Disney Springs. The resort is much smaller than POR so no “squeeze point.”

 

[DarthVader]

No. Having stayed at POFQ many times, the bus service is very good, never more than 20 minutes most times less. Bus was always direct to/from the parks and only shared with POR to Disney Springs. The resort is much smaller than POR so no “squeeze point.”

I'll have to re-review POFQ, one of the things that my kids loved about POR, was the pool. The last time I visited POFQ (while staying at POR), they were underwhelmed by the slide

 

[Minnie Mum]

I'll have to re-review POFQ, one of the things that my kids loved about POR, was the pool. The last time I visited POFQ (while staying at POR), they were underwhelmed by the slide

The nice thing about the Riverside resorts is that they are sisters. So you can legally pool hop between them. About a 10 min walk.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Bus service is hit or miss regardless of where you stay, but I will say I've had the best luck with bus service at French Quarter as well.

 

[Driver]

No. Having stayed at POFQ many times, the bus service is very good, never more than 20 minutes most times less. Bus was always direct to/from the parks and only shared with POR to Disney Springs. The resort is much smaller than POR so no “squeeze point.”

AK bus will share POR as well, but the bus stops at FQ first .

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

AK bus will share POR as well, but the bus stops at FQ first .

We've stayed at POR & POFQ every year for the last 5 years and we haven't had to share a bus in a long time. Not even during midday when the buses were empty. I was under the impression they stopped sharing them.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We've stayed at PORS and CBR and had fabulous, super-frequent (by which I mean, it was rare that we had to wait more than 5 minutes for a bus) service both places. Although I was hesitant at first due to the large number of stops, the depots are really close together and I didn't feel like the multiple stops added any appreciable time to our commutes. I wouldn't hesitate to stay at either one again, in terms of transportation. (Candidly, the only bad bus experiences we've had -- where there were long, unreasonable waits -- were at Wilderness Lodge, a deluxe resort with just one bus stop.)

 

[Driver]

We've stayed at POR & POFQ every year for the last 5 years and we haven't had to share a bus in a long time. Not even during midday when the buses were empty. I was under the impression they stopped sharing them.

At AK, there is one load zone for POR & POFQ it's number 11, there is no other way to get to either one of those resorts from AK. Just saying....

 

[JohnD]

POFQ for single bus stop. Doesn't hurt that it has boat service to DS also. I'm staying there in December.