Hi again, another question from me.
We are staying at POP and we have a 7:50 Kona Cafe reservation. We will be relying solely on Disney transportation to get us there. Obviously we will need to get to the TTC and walk over to Poly - but my question is will this be possible? Do the buses run that early to the TTC?
Thanks!
There's no such thing as a bus from WDW resorts to the TTC. They don't exist. The ONLY Disney Transport buses that run to/from the TTC are a bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios and a bus to Animal Kingdom.
Supposedly, there is a "Breakfast Bus" that picks up people with early morning breakfast reservations. Three weeks ago, we were staying at AKL with an 8am ressie at Kona, but when I asked about the Breakfast Bus 3 different times no one had heard of it. We took a cab and it cost nearly $20.
Part of the problem at Disney World is that exployees are poorly trained and poorly informed regarding anything outside their absolutely direct job duties. Unfortuntely, resort CMs are (with many exceptions, I'm sure) notoriously bad at providing information about things such as transportation, theme park policies, and so on.
I'm not surprised that people at AKL weren't aware of Disney Transport policies.
The fact is that buses start running at around 6:30 or 6:45 a.m.
As you learned from accord99cutie, your best bet is to take a Magic Kingdom bus, and from there take the resort monorail to Polynesian. The monorail stop is on the second floor of Polynesian's Great Ceremonial House, and so is Kona Cafe! Once you enter the GCH, the Kona is to the left maybe about 20 oe 30 steps away.
Im not sure exactly how early the busses start, but for our 830 ressies at Ohana we took the MK bus and the driver asked if anyone was actually going to MK, or if everyone was going to the Poly or GF for breakfast... no one on the full bus was actually going to MK, so the driver brought us to Poly, and then continued to GF to drop off the rest.
This happens pretty often. According to Disney Transport bus drivers who've posted on other boards, drivers get to pick their shifts based on seniority, and the most popular shift is the early one. Therefore, you're getting the most experienced bus drivers during that early morning time. They not only know all the ins and outs of what they should do and can do, but they're also people who obviously like their jobs and like making Disney guests happy. Thus, many of them are happy to drop off guests at Contemporary and at Polynesian during those very early morning runs (before park opening).
Yeah,
I just got off the phone with Pop and they said I would need to take the bus to MK and then Monorail to Poly. Just like you mentioned above. Maybe we'll get a cool driver like you got
That was very nice of them.
One of Disney's best kept secrets is that there is no way to call any WDW resort directly. Yes, Disney publishes a "direct" telephone number for each resort, but this is an illusion, pure Disney magic. When you call a resort number, your call goes to a call center with the very boring name "Main Switchboard" (Disney's actual name for it).
The cast member answering the phone can see on their computer screen which resort you are attempting to call, and will answer the phone as if they are at that resort, when in fact the person answering the call may or may not be in Florida. This cast member will usually answer your question, which often has disastrous results because they often have no first-hand knowledge of that resort. Many CMs just wing it a lot of the time, or so it seems as evidenced by the mountain of bad information people get.
But in your case, you get perfect information! The CM has the option of putting you on hold, while he/she calls the actual resort and asks a CM there if he/she would like to take the call. If the resort refuses the call, the CM gets back on the phone and, as one CM once wrote, "tap dances their way through an answer" that may or may not be correct.
The CMs at Main Switchboard are trained to be gate-keepers. They are trained to NOT let a call go through to the resort unless absolutely necessary, and a transportation question is usually not a necessary reason to transfer your call to the resort.
