CSR to DHS for 8am ADR?

sophie_the_pooh

sophie_the_pooh

Well-Known Member
Hey guys!
I have a 8h05am ADR at Hollywood and Vine (I know, I know,many of you hate it, but my son is a HUGE Jake fan...!) during our September trip, and we're staying at CSR. We won't rent a car and will be relying on Disney's buses. I'd rather not take a cab since we won't have a car seat for my then 4 year old son.
Do any of you guys know how early DHS buses start running from CSR? Did you experienced it for an early ADR and got there on time?

Thank you!:)
 
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sophie_the_pooh

sophie_the_pooh

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
BigRedDad said:
Buses will start running about 7AM, if not earlier. You will want to be out there no later than 7:15 to catch the bus.
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Last year, we had a 8h15 ADR at Tusker House and barely made it on time...We were at the bus stop at 7am, but the bus only came 40 minutes later...That's why I was wondering if there were earlier buses. I guess we had a bad experience (we were staying at CBR and the bus service wasn't very good), but I'll make sure to be at the stop before 7am, just to be sure!
 
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BigRedDad

BigRedDad

Well-Known Member
Disney buses are unreliable in the morning. I experienced the same thing you did once. We were at AS resorts. We had an 8AM at Tusker house. We were out at 7AM, bus came at 7:40AM, next stop at 7:45, next stop at 7:50, and got to AK at 8AM. We had to rush to Tusker House and got put way back in line and not seated until almost 8:45AM because of Disney buses.

This is why we always have a car now. Relying on Disney buses is like winning Mega Millions and Powerball on consecutive days. We drive to all parks but MK. If we do choose to go to MK, we will either park at the CR or Wilderness Lodge.
 
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DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
We had an 8am ADR at Hollywood & Vine back in early December. We were at the bus stop (at Pop) at 7am and picked up soon after. We were at DHS by 7:30. They let us in at 7:50 and we were the 5th or so family to be seated.

Side note, that breakfast was our favorite table service of our trip!! Food was great, lots of choices. Our server was extremely friendly & attentive, and character interaction was perfect. My daughter is a huge Doc, Sofia & Manny fan. Our table was right on the aisle where they do the dance parties. Not only did each character take their time at our table, every time they walked by they would wave to my daughter, or give her an extra hug. When were leaving, she really wanted to say goodbye to Doc so our server brought her back over to us. The whole experience was perfect :)
Have fun!
 
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MickeyMomV

MickeyMomV

Well-Known Member
They say that bus service starts 1 hour before park open and goes until 1 hour after park close.

In all of our time we spent at the World in the past we have only had 1 issue with bus service and it was only because the epcot monorail was down (we were trying to go from hotel to hotel and thought we would transition at Epcot). We have stayed at CSR, CBR, ASMo, and AKL and we would not have any issues with taking bus service on our next trip.
 
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Ariel4711

Ariel4711

Member
As someone planning a first trip to WDW (staying at AOA 12/15-12/18) it was very helpful to read this. I am six months out and already anxious that bus service may not get us to ADRs on time.

Thanks for the tips :)
 
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sophie_the_pooh

sophie_the_pooh

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DisneyDreamer08 said:
We found the bus service to and from Pop this past December to be great. No major issues. When you think of the number of resorts, times the number of buses, Disney does an amazing job overall. I was told most buses start by 6:30am and in my few experiences, that has been accurate.
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We had better bus service at Pop than at CBR, maybe because of the multiple bus stops. This year we are trying CSR, less stops and some guests attending conventions instead of going to the parks, so I'm hoping the bus service will be better than from CBR!
 
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sophie_the_pooh

sophie_the_pooh

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DisneyDreamer08 said:
We had an 8am ADR at Hollywood & Vine back in early December. We were at the bus stop (at Pop) at 7am and picked up soon after. We were at DHS by 7:30. They let us in at 7:50 and we were the 5th or so family to be seated.

Side note, that breakfast was our favorite table service of our trip!! Food was great, lots of choices. Our server was extremely friendly & attentive, and character interaction was perfect. My daughter is a huge Doc, Sofia & Manny fan. Our table was right on the aisle where they do the dance parties. Not only did each character take their time at our table, every time they walked by they would wave to my daughter, or give her an extra hug. When were leaving, she really wanted to say goodbye to Doc so our server brought her back over to us. The whole experience was perfect :)
Have fun!
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Thanks! It's nice to read a positive review of Hollywood and Vine! My son is looking forward to meeting Jake and Doc! How long did you stay there for breakfast? Is an hour enough to meet all the characters?
 
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DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Yeah an hour should be perfect. I think we stayed about that, maybe an hour & 15 minutes but we were purposely taking our time. We were heading to the 9:30 Frozen sing a long so I want to say we left H&V between 9 & 9:15.
Another nice thing about the first seating was that we got to meet all the characters first, then go up and get our food. Made for a much more relaxing breakfast than eating/meeting characters at the same time :)
 
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DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Ariel4711 said:
I will be scheduling an ADR at H&V for our first day once I am able to start making ADRs (June 18th, hurry up!!) so I am also happy to see a good review of the breakfast.
I, like Sophie, am going so that my 5 yo daughter can see Sofia, Doc, and Jake -- she loves them all!
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If you can, aim for that 8am ADR. The breakfast choices are really good and like I said, it was nice to meet all the characters before my daughter was a sticky, syrupy mess :) We were seated at one of the first tables on the right side of the restaurant so the characters were constantly walking past us. If we were in the back/corner our interaction would have been much more limited. My daughter still talks about this breakfast, I really can't say enough good things :)
 
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Ariel4711

Ariel4711

Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
If you can, aim for that 8am ADR. The breakfast choices are really good and like I said, it was nice to meet all the characters before my daughter was a sticky, syrupy mess :) We were seated at one of the first tables on the right side of the restaurant so the characters were constantly walking past us. If we were in the back/corner our interaction would have been much more limited. My daughter still talks about this breakfast, I really can't say enough good things :)
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So this actually reminds me of a question I have.
Let's say I make the ADR at H&V for 8am that day, which is our very first day in WDW. Do we need to have done check-in at AOA BEFORE going to our ADR? I assumed we would have to so that a CM can activate or MagicBands or something along that line.

This will be our first trip so I have no idea how that all works, but I figured that we couldn't just walk straight into the parks that morning without talking to a CM first/checking in.

If we do have to check in first, about how long should I expect that to take? If that takes a while I think I will have to bump our ADR to a later time.

Thanks in advance for your help!! :)
 
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sophie_the_pooh

sophie_the_pooh

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ariel4711 said:
So this actually reminds me of a question I have.
Let's say I make the ADR at H&V for 8am that day, which is our very first day in WDW. Do we need to have done check-in at AOA BEFORE going to our ADR? I assumed we would have to so that a CM can activate or MagicBands or something along that line.

This will be our first trip so I have no idea how that all works, but I figured that we couldn't just walk straight into the parks that morning without talking to a CM first/checking in.

If we do have to check in first, about how long should I expect that to take? If that takes a while I think I will have to bump our ADR to a later time.

Thanks in advance for your help!! :)
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It will be faster if you do the online check-in before you get there. Once you get to AoA, just go to the online check-in desk, quicker than the regular one. You can leave your luggage with bell services if you don't want to stop by your room.
I know there's a new direct-to-room check-in service, but I can't help you with that, I'm from Canada so I still have to stop by the front desk to get my magicbands, which are not shipped to us. Good luck!
 
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Worldlover71

Worldlover71

Well-Known Member
You should check with the front desk at CSR the evening before your ADR. They can tell you when the first bus to DHS is scheduled. Since the buses run infrequently until one hour before park opening, you don't want to miss a bus by a few minutes, have to wait a long time and potentially miss your ADR.
 
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HouCuseChickie

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Buses start running at 6:30am...some resorts are 6:30 resorts while others are 6:45. You can confirm this with the front desk at the resort. You can also see if they can confirm how frequently they'll run. Even at that early hour, they're supposed to run every 15 min, but we once waited over 45 min for an early bus at WL b/c the driver failed to make his stop- twice. Best back up plan is cash handy for a cab.
 
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