Bus Transportation Slow Downs

[cblodg]

Staying at BCV this October. Hope this gets better by then. At least I have two parks we can walk to.

BC, BW, and YC have loooooooooong terrible wait times. Not to mention that these resorts are all on the same loop. I couldn't believe when we left from Epcot and went the BW to take a bus to Downtown Disney, that we waited for close to 45 minutes. When we finally got a bust it was already stading room only and still made the rounds to YC, and Swan and Dolphin Resorts. Are you kidding me?! No one was gitting off, and all it did was make the people that wanted to get on that bus even angrier that they couldn't!

Once we finally made it to Downtown Disney we didn't even both trying to catch a boat back to OKW as it was past the run time for the boats. We waited at Downtown Disney for almost 35 min. for a bus. We finally hopped on a SS bus and took the walking path back to OKW.

 

[WDWRLD]

I find it much more magical to have my own transportation so I may come and go as I please.

There's just something very unmagical about waiting forever to get somewhere when you could have already been there in your own car.

Yea, but you dont get all the great advice thats overheard from other gusts like how yesterday the went and swam with Shamu at Animal Kingdom and tomorrow they are going over to universal to ride Tower of Terror.

 

[Lucky]

Longer waiting times for buses to save on gasoline costs could backfire on Disney. Not just by causing people to stay off property, as some have noted. But also by selling fewer park hopper tickets to guests who stay on property. If park hopping means another 45-minute wait for a bus, what's the benefit?

But the bigger danger is that they're going to ruin the magic. Wasting a lot of extra time in the hot sun means more angry guests, who will treat CMs and each other less respectfully, and CMs in turn will be less pleasant toward guests, etc.

 

[Brwneyedgirl72]

We had the same issue this past Friday. Had dinner at the BC and decided to catch an 8:00 movie at PI. We got to the bus stop at 7:00PM, waited 40 minutes for a bus and when it did show up, there was barely standing room only. By the time we got to DD, the first stop, it was 7:55 and we missed the movie. My main objection is don't tell me that the buses run every 20 minutes if they don't!

 

[DDuckFan130]

We went Memorial Day weekend, which is technically a very busy weekend. Not only did the rain keep the parks at a good crowd level (yay!), but we didn't wait long for a bus. And we stayed at POR, which is pretty bad transportation-wise. We were going to DHS and decided to just wait for the next bus because the last one had too many people...another one came 2 minutes later

At MK, we didn't wait long to go back either.

Guess we didn't have such bad luck

 

[Omnimover]

This is slightly off topic (and feel free to move me if necessary), but does anyone have info regarding the transportation system at Caribbean Beach? If there's a trick to which section we should book our room in to facilitate travel, I'd love to hear it. Long waits are bad enough, but they're made worse if you have to walk a long time or make five other stops at the resort before you head to the park.

 

[DisneyJoe]

This is slightly off topic (and feel free to move me if necessary), but does anyone have info regarding the transportation system at Caribbean Beach? If there's a trick to which section we should book our room in to facilitate travel, I'd love to hear it. Long waits are bad enough, but they're made worse if you have to walk a long time or make five other stops at the resort before you head to the park.

Each "island" grouping of buildings has its own bus stop, as well as Old Port Royale for a total of 7 stops. The route alternates, so you have a 50/50 chance of being the first off the bus or the last, depending on your island. So while the distance from your room to the bus stop shouldn't be far, the time spent on the internal loop can be.

 

[RiversideBunny]

There's another consideration also.
There could be a bus stop near your building but you may not be catching the bus from there all the time.
You may be leaving from the lobby building, such as after eating in the food court, so the distance to the lobby building may be very important.

Tks.

 

[uklad79]

It sounds like they spent millions on Magic In Motion but didn't use the GPS to put "time till next bus" displays at the stops. This would have give people a better idea of wait times.

 

[Computer Magic]

We had the same issue this past Friday. Had dinner at the BC and decided to catch an 8:00 movie at PI. We got to the bus stop at 7:00PM, waited 40 minutes for a bus and when it did show up, there was barely standing room only. By the time we got to DD, the first stop, it was 7:55 and we missed the movie. My main objection is don't tell me that the buses run every 20 minutes if they don't!

first, you think Disney would not want people to be standing around and waiting for a bus. More people waiting for a bus means less time for them to spend money.

Second...I know will some call me a deluxe snob, but if I'm paying $325 for a room at BC, I shouldn't have to stand around waiting for a bus or sharing a bus with another resort :lookaroun Steps off soap box.

 

[DisneyJoe]

There's another consideration also.
There could be a bus stop near your building but you may not be catching the bus from there all the time.
You may be leaving from the lobby building, such as after eating in the food court, so the distance to the lobby building may be very important.

I know what you are saying, however, this doesn't hold true at CBR, as the hotel lobby is in the Customs House, and the food court is at Old Port Royale; so to be more accurate, I would restate your sentence as:

"You may be leaving from the shopping/food court building, such as after eating, so the distance to that building may be very important."

 

[bgoebel]

A DVC friend of mine went and stayed at Old key west and said they had her do a paper survey of how long her party waited for the bus when they got on. She said she only waited 3 mins. Apparently if they are surveying people, they are trying to investigate how bad the problem is (at least I hope)

 

[DDuckFan130]

first, you think Disney would not want people to be standing around and waiting for a bus. More people waiting for a bus means less time for them to spend money.

Second...I know will some call me a deluxe snob, but if I'm paying $325 for a room at BC, I shouldn't have to stand around waiting for a bus or sharing a bus with another resort :lookaroun Steps off soap box.

Deluxe snob :lookaroun

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Guess Ill have to keep using the car or the teleporter

 

[Computer Magic]

Deluxe snob :lookaroun

parade hater :fork:

 

[DDuckFan130]

parade hater :fork:

I love the parade...that wasn't the problem :lookaroun

 

[O'Malley]

Hey, can you Fastpass a Disney bus ride?

 

[elizs77]

It sounds like they spent millions on Magic In Motion but didn't use the GPS to put "time till next bus" displays at the stops. This would have give people a better idea of wait times.

My husband brought this up on our last trip! We were at AK at midday and waited over 30 minutes for a bus to the Grand Floridian for lunch. While we stood there, three OKW buses came and went. But we were saying as we were waiting that if the DC Metro can give you the wait time, why can't Disney? :shrug:

And yes, call me a deluxe snob, too. We had our 10 month old with us on our last trip, and even though we love the WL, my husband refused to deal with the buses every time b/c of the stroller. So, we did pop for the Poly and only had to deal with the bus a few times. And we were glad! Especially after that one long wait, and then there was our journey from Poly to the MK to BC, and the bus driver appeared to get lost on the way between the MK and the BC as we ended up driving through Coronado Springs.

 

[cblodg]

Second...I know will some call me a deluxe snob, but if I'm paying $325 for a room at BC, I shouldn't have to stand around waiting for a bus or sharing a bus with another resort :lookaroun Steps off soap box.

I agree with you on this. Though we're DVC members and are not 'technically' spending the $325 for the room, the bus thing just doesn't make sense. I understand that BW, YC, BC, DWS, DWD are all close to one another and Epcot and DHS. But come on, to have to make that whole loop is just rediculous.

 

[IheartWDW]

We usually take our annual trek to Disney in January when its generally less busy so we expect a little longer of a wait for the busses. But when we got to the airport we waiting almost 45 - 50 mins for the bus to take us to SSR. My BF was almost ready to walk down and rent a car, but the cast member was able to talk him out of it. We were ok with busses until we went to Epcot. When we were trying to leave the SSR line was filled to capacity, we unfortuantely were at the tail end of the line. POR was filled as well, and they had a cast member directing extra busses 2 at a time to try and get down the line. Which was great for them, since it seemed that no matter how many dual bus pick ups they had there was still a aboundance of people waiting. Of course to us it meant that we were stuck waiting for our bus for almost an hour to get back to the hotel. We were so po'd that we just went to sleep instead of meeting our friends in PI.
Its unfortunate because it seems as if more guests are having the same expierences that we had.