niteobsrvr
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by shari71
We have stayed at POR many times without much problem with the busing system. This year we stayed at the GF and it was horrible. It was nothing to wait an hour or more for a bus and then to be crammed on because they service three hotels and only have one bus for the round. Almost afraid to go back to POR if this is the new system. Bus drivers were always friendly in the past but the ones this trip were downright rude. Try getting off a bus that is packed with two sleeping kids and a stroller and the driver will not open the back door....basically we had to unload the bus because he was being a crab about opening the doors.
The Grand Floridian is definitely served by more than one bus. In fact, busses are dispatched about every 15 minutes or so. The problem is we can not yet predict when everyone is going to leave their rooms at the resort and converge on a bus stop and all want to go to the same place. When this happens, especially at night, there is no way to respond immediately with another bus. Depending on where it comes from it will take at least 10 to 15 minutes for it to arrive and by that time the next regular bus would be there. Often times these crowded situations occur for one moment in time and then it is over.
As far as waiting an hour goes, it is virtualy impossbile for that to happen. The bus drivers hear this all the time but in oder for it to be possible every bus sent to a resort would need to breakdown because the time between any two regularly dispatched busses is not greater than 20 minutes. If there is an extremely busy time busses will be dispatched more often than that.
Other reasons for delay would not be avaioded regardless of how many busses we sent to a resort. For example, a traffic accident or other situation that ties up one of the major arteries. Sometimes the delay is the guests at another resort not entering the bus efficiently, haveing one person get on the bus and as the driver to wait while the other three in the family are a block away. Maybe there is a mobility impaired guest boarding that requires extra time to strap down the wheelchair etc.
The reason the Grand FLoridian is tied to the COntemporary and Polynesian is that any one of those resorts by itself does not usually generate enough traffic to warrant their own bus. Resorts like Port Orleans can often fill a bus on their own becasue there are 4 stops and 2000 rooms (3000 when french quarter is open). The combined total rooms between the Contemporary, Poly, and Grand FLO is 2805.
A great rule of thumb is that if you have some place to be at Disney by a certain time is....Allow at least one hour for transportation. THis means if you have a priority seating at 6:30 pm at France in Epcot be at your bus stop by 5:30. This way if something does go wrong with the system (you dealing with mechanical systems and people, so it happens) you have plenty of time to get there.