The buses that serve the Wyndham Palace are the Hotel Plaza Blvd. Buses.
These buses run on a schedule and in my experience they kept to their schedules. The schedule was very simple to understand. The buses picked up guests at the hotels on the half hour (i.e. 8, 8:30, 9, 9:30 etc.) and the buses departed the parks a quarter after each hour and a quarter till each hour (i.e. 8:15, 8:48, 9:15, 9:45, etc.). Please note that these DEPARTURE time schedules are very strict. The buses depart at their appointed times with only minor (less than 2 minutes) deviation. There was a slight variation for AK but that is not germane to this discussion. People with poor time management skills will be left behind and forced to wait for the next bus. People who practice good time management will be generously rewarded.
In our experience it worked just great for us. In the mornings (from 8 AM until 11 AM) the buses actually picked up more frequently than every half hour. So, for example, if you walked out of the hotel just as the MK bus was leaving you only had to wait 10 or 15 minutes for the next MK bus. Of, if you didn't want to wait that long all you had to do was catch the next Epcot bus and then take the monorail to the MK. While there are many permutations as to how best use the bus system, we found that we never had to wait for a bus. Some of it may have just been dumb luck but I prefer to think that our flexible plans made the difference!
The Hotel Plaza Blvd. Buses have a fixed route and the hotels are picked up in the following order:
1. Wyndham Palace
2. Hilton
3. Holiday Inn (Former Courtyard by Marriott)
4. Royal Plaza
5. Doubletree
6. Lake Buena Vista
7. Grosvenor
Since you are staying at the Wyndham, you are guaranteed to get a seat. If you stay at any of the last four resorts then you may have to stand. However, during our stay we made about 30 bus trips and only during two of those trips did some folks end up standing. We stayed at the Holiday Inn so we always got seats although I did once give up my seat to a beleaguered lady with a small child.
The departure from each park is interesting because many folks seem to misunderstand how it works and this is what causes them to miss their bus! As I stated above, the Hotel Plaza Blvd. Buses always DEPART each park on a fixed schedule. However, they more often than not arrive 10 or 15 minutes prior to their appointed departure time. As an example, if you decide to leave the MK at 3:15 PM it would be in your best interest to arrive at the Transportation and Ticket Center by 3:00 PM. We used this technique when we departed each park and NEVER had to wait for a bus. We simply walked out to lane #26 and got on the bus. Also, the buses either had a movie playing on the overhead TV monitors or they had one of the local easy listening music radio stations (FM 105.1 or 107.1) playing on the sound system. So, even if you had to sit on the bus for 10 or 15 minutes before departure you got some entertainment! This was a true blessing because it really kept all the mindless chat and banter to a minimum. The bus passengers kept quiet! A real miracle in my opinion.
Let me give you a real life example of how it worked for us. Our normal routine on any morning was to just amble down to the bus stop about 8ish. We sat down on the bench and just waited for the first bus to come along (never more than 5 minutes during our entire stay). In reality the Hotel Plaza Blvd. Buses have really just two routes (except for the water parks, but that's another deal), you either catch the Epcot/MGM bus or the MK/AK bus. It's that simple. We learned a long time ago (with over 25 years WDW experience), that it doesn't really matter at which park you begin the adventure. On our first day the MK/AK bus showed up first so we went to MK. It took about 15 minutes to arrive at the TTC and we caught the monorail to MK. We didn't carry bags so we left the security checks to those less fortunate people. No lines at the entrance, so we put our AP's into the machines, had our fingers scanned and before 9 AM we were riding the Walt Disney World Railroad on our way to Frontierland. By 2 PM we had done all the attractions (all were walk-ons except for Peter Pan and Pooh so we fast-passed them) and we were ready to go back to our room and avoid the dreaded 3 o'clock parade. We are not parade people! We spent a little time browsing the various gift shops and then decided to catch the 3:15 bus back to the hotel. We boarded monorail red and rode up front with CM "Louie" the pilot. He was very kind to us! We got to bus stop #26 at the TTC at 3:04 PM and the bus was waiting for us. We boarded the bus and then precisely at 3:15 PM the bus headed back to the hotel. After a stop at the Wyndham Palace and Hilton, we were dropped off at the Holiday Inn. Total return bus trip was 23 minutes.
We make it a habit to visit AK or MGM or MK during the day and we really enjoy visiting Epcot or DTD at night. So, we walked out to the bus stop about 6ish and decided that if the Epcot bus showed up shortly we'd go to Epcot, if not then we'd walk the 3/10 of a mile to DTD and eat dinner there. Within a minute the Epcot bus pulled up, we boarded and we were off to Epcot. Bus lane #26 at Epcot is about 150 feet from the All-Star WDW bus pickup area. Keep that in mind. I have waited at that All-Star stop on many previous trips.
We rode Spaceship Earth and then had dinner at the Cantina de San Angel. We then took a leisurely walk around the World Showcase. Now that those stupid parades (ToN & ToD, remember, we are not parade people) are gone, we could walk through all the little shops and take our time! By 7:55 PM we had just finished at Morocco and decided we had better head for our hotel by catching the 8:45 PM bus. We're all in good health so walking from Morocco to the bus stop in 35 minutes would have been easy for our group. However, Mother Nature had a different plan for us. A sudden, heavy rain shower came from the south and we were forced to take cover inside the French pavilion. I think it was the biggest crowd they had seen all day! We decided to stay for "Impressions de France" and had a great time with the CM's after the show. It's 8:45 now so we decided to catch 9:45 bus back to the hotel in order to avoid the crowds after "Illuminations" (we're not fireworks people either).
The walk back to the bus was leisurely and we arrived at 9:35 PM. The bus was waiting for us at lane #26 and we boarded the bus. The driver put a DVD into the video system and we began to watch "The Wizard of Oz" on the overhead LCD screens! That was a lot of fun. I glanced over to my right and noticed that a LONG line had developed at the All-Stars bus stop. Several WDW buses were there but no one was being loaded. During the next 10 minutes our bus continued to load, we watched the movie and I continued to occasionally look over to my right and view the increasing crowd of All-Star resort passengers that were not being loaded into their buses. I don't know for sure, but (from previous experience) I suspect that one or more of those buses had ramps that got stuck in the out position. Our bus left at exactly 9:45 PM with about 38 people on board. The bus was quiet because everyone was interested in watching the movie. As we pulled away I once again noted that the All-Star crowd had grown very large and they were not happy. I felt sorry for them because the same thing happened to me last year. Been there, done that!
The bus got back to our hotel at 10:10 PM. We met some really nice folks from the UK and spent some time with them socializing before we called it a night. So, this was rather a rather typical example of our daily routine at WDW while using the Hotel Plaza Blvd. Bus system.
Also, you got a GREAT deal on the Wyndham!:sohappy: I haven't stayed there since 2001, but our previous stays there were always great.
P.S. The Wyndham Palace is a WDW on-site hotel and it's right across the street from DTD. Your group will have a wonderful time!:wave:
