Thoughts - Just Returned

[draybook]

I wonder what the actual wait was for Frozen. We went Memorial Day week this year and it always said 80 minutes but the actual wait we experienced both times was 25 and 30, respectively.

 

[jloucks]

Our last trip was 2016. We stayed at POP. same as before - Love the refurbished rooms. We had a queen size bed and a Murphy Bed (which we didn't use) and made the room seem so much bigger. No carpet. Sliding doors to the sink area and another the bathtub/toilet area. A separate cabinet for the frig with an added coffee maker. Loved this since I hate the coffee they serve in the food court. Huge TV. Awesome.

More scooters and strollers than I have ever seen before. Waiting on scooters to be loaded was almost on every bus and two more often than just one. On every previous trip they were few and far between (just an observation not an argument) However, in some places they did make them go through the line rather than them going directly to the front. As far as strollers they are bigger these days and take a lot of room up. However, if they weren't broke down by the time they got to the door we were told a couple of times to walk by them and get on. (on a side note: it was announced over the loud speakers while waiting in a queue: "if the party in front of you does not move ahead, go around them").

The parks didn't seem that crowed and wait times were reasonable. Our first day at HS a 15 minute wait on TOT was pretty much what we saw until we left around 3:00 in the afternoon (We actually rode Slinky, Alien Saucers, TSMM, ToT, & RnRcoaster all before our first FP kicked in at 10:20. So we rode ToT, RnRcoaster, and TSMM again. Note this was on an early entry day). We saw 15 minute waits for Soarin in EPCOT(rode it, ate breakfast, rode it again with no wait) , but TT was over 60 minutes and Frozen was 60-80 minutes.

Also, using early entry and FP we got to ride FoP 4 times without a wait. Awesome ride loved it. Na'vi River was about a 40 minute wait both times we rode it. I liked the ride even though some here don't. I would recommend going on t.

After leaving HS we went to MK to do a few things and catch the fireworks since it was on a non-Halloween Party day. The new fireworks show is amazing. The best the have put on.

HOWEVER, we could not believe the bus line when we got to our station. It took up two bays. 7 complete lines inside the rails and extended down the walkway. It took us 6 buses, which 2 were the doubles, to finally get on. I looked behind us when I got on and the line was still quite long. This happened again after going to the River of Lights show at AK. These two experiences were so unpleasant we did not go to any more night entertainment shows. These are not the only two times that we had come across long bus lines for POP. It happened at our resort and changed our plans and got on a different bus. After leaving a park, we could always tell where the POP bus station was when approaching the bus stations. It was always, yes always, the longest and most crowded station. I know POP is very popular but if they have a resort that large they should have the bus service to accommodate. With this experience I cannot recommend going to POP to anyone who asks my opinion.

All in all we made the best of our trip and had a great time.

I always point this out when the topic of buses comes up, and am going to again...

One of the things I strongly dislike about WDW is the busing system. It is one area that WDW is far inferior to Universal Studios. @ Uni, you can just take a leisurely walk to your hotel. WDW, it is the cluster fudge you described. Almost every time. Mysteriously however, not every time. I don't get it.

 

[graphite1326]

Not really... YB & Boardwalk cater to a different group than the resorts being connected and have significantly different levels of offerings at the actual hotel itself. If all you're thinking about is park access, maybe. But the average guest at Y&B doesn't stay in the park all day, and is more apt to be interested in having a spa, upscale restaurants, room service/concierge lounge availability, and interior rooms (not motel style). This is also a group that greatly prefers to be able to walk in and out of epcot quickly and not take an additional mode of transportation. None of this means it's better, it's just a different offering.

I more wonder about the boats to DHS... in practice its taken me like 30+ minutes to get from DHS to Epcot via friendship boat, and heaven forbid you should be left on the dock when the boat is at capacity. I anticipate a lot of people taking advantage of the skyliner and skipping the boats, which will leave their route to the studios in question. It's about as far for swolphin to walk anyways, and it's pretty close to YB&B. I'm still slightly confused why they didn't do a direct connect from Epcot to DHS.

Got left behind at the HS boat doc. It took us 1 hour to get from HS to Epcot. 30 minutes before a boat got there and then a 30 minute ride. Mistake on our part to try and take advantage of this service.

 

[larryz]

Got left behind at the HS boat doc. It took us 1 hour to get from HS to Epcot. 30 minutes before a boat got there and then a 30 minute ride. Mistake on our part to try and take advantage of this service.

Agreed -- timing is everything on the Friendship boats. Getting on at Y&BC is a crapshoot since the boat could conceivably fill up at the Epcot stop.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Same here. We watch what we can from near the exit, and then watch the finale out by the bus stops. We don't get to see the full effect of the fireworks, but we can't physically stand in line for an hour waiting for a bus, either.

We walked from the middle of Hollywood Blvd to the bus stop in less than 6 minutes (when I say walk it was more of a speed doddle lol).

 

[dieboy]

Maybe the long bus lines at POP are a direct reflection of the fact, it is supposed to be a budget resort, hence the budget service? I guess i would expect that kind of thing there and it wouldn't surprise me.

Compared to paying out the rear, and having either walking/monorail access to some parks at somewhere like the Floridian or the Contemporary.

Does it not in the end, boil down to the old adage 'you get what you pay for? (most of the time)'

 

[graphite1326]

Maybe the long bus lines at POP are a direct reflection of the fact, it is supposed to be a budget resort, hence the budget service? I guess i would expect that kind of thing there and it wouldn't surprise me.

Compared to paying out the rear, and having either walking/monorail access to some parks at somewhere like the Floridian or the Contemporary.

Does it not in the end, boil down to the old adage 'you get what you pay for? (most of the time)'

Maybe, but none of the other budget resorts were like that. Not even AoA.

 

[DougK]

Maybe the long bus lines at POP are a direct reflection of the fact, it is supposed to be a budget resort, hence the budget service? I guess i would expect that kind of thing there and it wouldn't surprise me.

Compared to paying out the rear, and having either walking/monorail access to some parks at somewhere like the Floridian or the Contemporary.

Does it not in the end, boil down to the old adage 'you get what you pay for? (most of the time)'

POP is not exactly cheap you know. The "value resorts" are only cheap when compared to other Disney resorts. There should be excellent bus service at all Disney resorts.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Not really... YB & Boardwalk cater to a different group than the resorts being connected and have significantly different levels of offerings at the actual hotel itself. If all you're thinking about is park access, maybe. But the average guest at Y&B doesn't stay in the park all day, and is more apt to be interested in having a spa, upscale restaurants, room service/concierge lounge availability, and interior rooms (not motel style). This is also a group that greatly prefers to be able to walk in and out of epcot quickly and not take an additional mode of transportation. None of this means it's better, it's just a different offering.

I more wonder about the boats to DHS... in practice its taken me like 30+ minutes to get from DHS to Epcot via friendship boat, and heaven forbid you should be left on the dock when the boat is at capacity. I anticipate a lot of people taking advantage of the skyliner and skipping the boats, which will leave their route to the studios in question. It's about as far for swolphin to walk anyways, and it's pretty close to YB&B. I'm still slightly confused why they didn't do a direct connect from Epcot to DHS.

I agree. I own at the BCV. now I admit that I love the ability to walk home from Epcot and DHS but neither is my favorite park so that would not be the incentive to stay there or for me owning at BC. Again it's a pretty nice perk but let's put it this way, even if I didn't have my ownership there I still would not drop down from the deluxes. no shade on any of the other levels, just our preference.

The real advantage for us to be able to walk to World showcase is the ability to get to different restaurants.

I don't think folks staying in the Epcot restaurants are now going to drop down the the moderates due to the skyliner.

 

[BraveGirl]

I have also experienced the ridiculously extra long bus lines for POP. That is the only thing I don’t like about that resort. They need to have more busses running.

In regards to the scooters, I’ve been saying for years that they should have a special van or small bus that picks them up, and have it run every hour on the hour. It wastes so much time to load them, and they take up so much room, and if they have a large group with them or if there are 2 or 3 scooters on one bus it prevents a lot of other people from boarding....even if those people without the scooter were on line first. They really need to come up with a better idea.

Agreed. It's very frustrating when you've been waiting for a bus for a long time, and large groups with scooters come up just as the bus is pulling up and get on first (with their whole party, which can take up half a bus) and then you miss the bus, and have to wait again. Only for the same thing to happen the next time.....

This is a new phenomenon, which I attribute to the ease of renting scooters off-site, which is a relatively new thing. Way more scooters now than ever before, when you only had a scooter if you brought it from home.

 

[bhg469]

POP is not exactly cheap you know. The "value resorts" are only cheap when compared to other Disney resorts. There should be excellent bus service at all Disney resorts.

It is absurd to think that because the resort costs less, you should have less attention from Disney when it comes to getting you to the parks. That is the reason people are even in those hotels to begin with. No one stays at Pop to go golfing only.. The busses are lacking, and they will not improve when the skyliner opens. They need more busses and drivers period. It is the only thing that will fix their issues.

 

[westie]

On our last trip we stayed at Port Orleans and every single night leaving Epcot or DTD the line were outrageous! Something akin to a 2-3 bus wait. Some night it was soo bad the crowd began chanting,"Send a bus!" Over and over. Funny enough a couple bus' would show up at the same time. But yea POP seems to be the worst with people smashed up against the windows. And yes, I will select a resort with better transportation options.

 

[geekza]

The hell with the Gadsden Flag? That was a battle flag of the Continental Marines (AKA the forerunners of the modern United States Marine Corps) during the American Revolution.

It's been co-opted by a current political movement pretty heavily, so I imagine that they didn't want to deal with complaints.

 

[planters49]

The buses are terrible at all the resorts especially when a park closes. If you have a car, you will save A LOT of time driving yourself to the parks. The only exception would be riding the bus to the Magic Kingdom and leaving well before the park closes since the MK bus drops you at the gate instead of the TTC.

 

[graphite1326]

Agreed. It's very frustrating when you've been waiting for a bus for a long time, and large groups with scooters come up just as the bus is pulling up and get on first (with their whole party, which can take up half a bus) and then you miss the bus, and have to wait again. Only for the same thing to happen the next time.....

This is a new phenomenon, which I attribute to the ease of renting scooters off-site, which is a relatively new thing. Way more scooters now than ever before, when you only had a scooter if you brought it from home.

I noted this above: In some cases they were making the scooters go through the line like everyone else.

 

[Kevin_W]

I have also experienced the ridiculously extra long bus lines for POP. That is the only thing I don’t like about that resort. They need to have more busses running.

Right. Over the years all the planning resources tout POP over the All Stars due to "dedicated buses". But at park close (and open) the All Stars also have dedicated buses and POP doesn't have nearly enough. We've stayed at POP many times and joke that you can always find the bus stop without looking at the numbers simply by finding the one with a line 2-3x longer than any other resort. (And it's not really a joke, it's true!)

 

[graphite1326]

Right. Over the years all the planning resources tout POP over the All Stars due to "dedicated buses". But at park close (and open) the All Stars also have dedicated buses and POP doesn't have nearly enough. We've stayed at POP many times and joke that you can always find the bus stop without looking at the numbers simply by finding the one with a line 2-3x longer than any other resort. (And it's not really a joke, it's true!)

That is exactly how we looked for our bus station.

 

[geekza]

How hard is it to get a Lyft or Uber around park closing? I'd imagine that's when they'd make their most money. I'm not sure I want to brave the buses these days at closing, even though we'll probably only be in parks at closing on two nights. I'm old, so staying to see HEA or Illuminations is going to test my will to live, though I'll do it, by gum.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

How hard is it to get a Lyft or Uber around park closing? I'd imagine that's when they'd make their most money. I'm not sure I want to brave the buses these days at closing, even though we'll probably only be in parks at closing on two nights. I'm old, so staying to see HEA or Illuminations is going to test my will to live, though I'll do it, by gum.

Well, I admit that we don't have a smart phone. Gasp! I have an old flip phone that I hardly even turn on. So, someone like me (a dinosaur) LOL, would not be able to use Lyft or Uber. But I know that and it doesn't bother me. We either wait on the buses or wait a little longer to leave the park. The buses have always been horrible at any park closing, the worst for us being HS one night.

 

[geekza]

Do you believe that people are renting scooters at the parks just so they don't have to wait in the long bus lines? Like, they don't actually have a condition and can walk just fine, but they're trying to circumvent the system?

I'm sure some do. In every large enough group, you're going to find garbage people. I'd say that they're probably a small percentage of the larger Scooter Squad, though. As someone pointed out on the boards a while back, using a scooter is actually far more inconvenient than most people think. I imagine that someone who is completely able and is thinking that they can cut some corners by using a scooter would realize pretty quickly that a slightly shorter bus wait time isn't worth the rest of the hassles that go along with using a scooter.