POP vs All Star Bus Routes

[Capt.EO]

All,
Trying to decide between POP and AS Movies and have a question. I know that for right now POP has a bus route of its own to the parks while the AS resorts still share (most times). Last time (Thanksgiving 2009) we stayed at All Star Sports and found the bus times/crowds to be tolerable but by no means great. I am wondering if POP having it's own bus makes that much of a difference.

Thanks!

 

[lilclerk]

The times and crowds were roughly the same in my experience, but only having only one stop guaranteed is great.

 

[mr_braver23]

Having stayed at both, the one stop at Pop is great! But it's not a killer as far as where to stay.

 

[wolf359]

The thing I love most about the All Stars is how many people believe Pop Century has better bus service.

Pop Century is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WDW_Emily]

We have had good and bad days at both.

After Wishes, Pop Was AWEFUL! At least a half hour wait.
At All Stars, we never waited over 10 minutes for a pick up, even after fireworks.

However, this past trip we were in like for about 25 minutes at All Star Sports waiting for the epcot bus. The people in front of us said they had been waiting for around 10 minutes before we got there.

 

[Rob562]

One thing to remember that even when the All-Stars are running individual buses (like at closing at MK and Epcot) Pop Century is 1.5x larger than any individual All-Star resort, so there are potentially that many more people waiting for a Pop Century bus than for a single All-Star resort.

And with All-Stars, especially with Music, you have the option of hopping on the bus going to any of them and walking over to your resort when you get back.

-Rob

 

[smk]

All,
Trying to decide between POP and AS Movies and have a question. I know that for right now POP has a bus route of its own to the parks while the AS resorts still share (most times). Last time (Thanksgiving 2009) we stayed at All Star Sports and found the bus times/crowds to be tolerable but by no means great. I am wondering if POP having it's own bus makes that much of a difference.

Thanks!

Give POP a try and see if you notice a difference. I did and it was not as favorable as most would think. At Sports in September we only shared a bus ride to DTD, never to the parks and I sat each time, going and coming back. At POP the year before we waited and waited one night after wishes and I thought the crowd was going to hyjack a bus just to get one to go to POP, seriously. People were stepping out onto the bus lanes to stop buses and yell they wanted a POP bus. Like someone said before me, if a Sports bus is too crowded, take a music bus and walk to Sports. We have done that too when we felt we had waited long enough and there was not a Sports bus in sight but Music bus pulled up. It is a short walk across a parking lot to get back to Sports, no difference really than walking to the back of the resort from the resorts own bus lane.

 

[Mongomil]

I have stayed at PoP and ASMovies before. Both did a very good job. Although when we went to ASM the whole area was pretty empty. It was 2002 pretty soon after the Trade Center tragedy. Now PoP was 2009 during Thanksgiving. After the firework show at MK was the worst time for us but at the same time they did a wonderful job. They had the Magical Express busses there getting people. They were a little harded to load up because of strollers/wheelchairs having to go under the bus but it loaded alot more people.

 

[Master Yoda]

Does anyone know of any solid data on the average bus wait and travel times? As popular as this subject is you would think that a site like Touringplans would have done some time studies on this by now.

 

[lilclerk]

Does anyone know of any solid data on the average bus wait and travel times? As popular as this subject is you would think that a site like Touringplans would have done some time studies on this by now.

I think they have it in the Unofficial Guide book, not on the website.
This link may work. The chart is on the next page.

 

[WDW-Crazy]

We have had good and bad days at both.

After Wishes, Pop Was AWEFUL! At least a half hour wait.
At All Stars, we never waited over 10 minutes for a pick up, even after fireworks.

However, this past trip we were in like for about 25 minutes at All Star Sports waiting for the epcot bus. The people in front of us said they had been waiting for around 10 minutes before we got there.

I agree with you regarding your post. I've mentioned this in aonther thread with a similar topic but during our recent trip, it seemed like everyone in the parks was heading for Pop's bus stop (surpassing the All-Stars greatly). After Illuminations, Pop's bus stop was a almost an hour wait (with lots of people utilizing double strollers which took up space on the buses not alliviating the problem at all). Also, keep in mind that this is supposed to be the September off-season as well. During this time, all three of the All-Star bus stops didn't have nearly half the people that Pop had and they were bussing them out without a problem. Those stops were almost empty by the time we boarded our bus (with still a good amount of people after us waiting to board and that was after they began bringing in MULTIPLE buses to try to kill the line). One of the many problems we had at that resort over the All-Stars.

I think it's safe to say that we'll be back at the All-Stars again on our next trip (which we will!). We never had experienced that many people boarding a bus at once at the parks during our previous stays at the All-Stars. I don't take the phrase "Pop's bus service is better because they have their own line" anymore. It's just getting waaay too old. At least I won't have to wait close to an hour to board a bus to go back to my resort anymore.

 

[disneygirl1]

Yoda that's a great point you would definitely think that I site like touringplans would have done a study of bus wait times by now!

But in all honesty to answer the OP's question... It really is the luck of the draw. We have stayed at ALL the All-Star resorts and POP and have had good and bad experiences with both. I hated that the All-Stars shared buses but at the same time, felt that POP's bus stops were the furthest stop at at the bus loop at all the parks and at the end of the night, especially at MK the POP's line was the longest! The All Stars had buses pulling up none stop.

Needless to say we are heading back to POP at the end of August!

 

[Dwarful]

We have stayed at every level at WDW. We have stayed at all 3 Stars and Pop. We have gone during the summer, Christmas and for the F&G Festival. The only time we really noticed any bus issues would be during mid day breaks. If the buses weren't full you might stop at the other Stars before heading on to the park. However, this was also the case when we stayed at the deluxe resorts Boardwalk & Yacht Club. Not sure how they will handle the buses when the new resort opens by Pop.

 

[WDW-Crazy]

Has anyone factored to when the Art of Animation Resort is done will that be sharing the same bus route with Pop?