hey guys my wife and i are looking to do a Disney cruise next year. She was wondering if you use their transportation to the ship from a resort hotel what time do you usually arrive? Thank you
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Transportation time question
- Thread starter Matt in the Hatt
- Start date
EOD K9
Well-Known Member
Based on my experiences, anywhere from 1245 to 1315. Yes, you get there later than others, but there is generally little to no wait at check in, your rooms are ready, and you go right on board.
Thank you
Excellent question, along with a whine or two.
We just got off the Fantasy from a week over the Christmas Holidays. Very nice, but getting back to Disney World had it's headaches. Our breakfast time was 6:45 a.m., for disembarkation day, which is very early with 2 kids in tow. So we were up at 6. My wife is very organized, and everything was prompt and in order. We were breakfasted, customed, and off the ship and in our motor coach back for the Boardwalk by 7:50. only to be told by the driver that we would be sitting on the bus in the terminal parking lot for an hour. Needless to say, the phrase "Hurry up and wait" was on our minds.
We finally left the parking lot terminal at 8:45, and had no further travel delays, making it to the Boardwalk by 10 or so. Of course, our villa through DVC wasn't yet ready, but they stored our bags while we sleepily hit Disney Studios and Star Tours. We were back at the Boardwalk by 1:00, but our villa still wasn't ready. So we sat in the lobby until 3:15, with my daughter sprawled on a couch asleep, my son staring glassy-eyed at his phone, and my wife and I sniping a bit.
Just to be clear, each cast member was excellent and sympathetic. The Boardwalk gave us an extra fastpass for Soarin' that night. My complaints and questions are one of organization:
(1) Why did we have to sit on the stupid motor coach for nearly an hour after dragging ourselves out of bed at 6 am? We were ready to hit the road at 7:50. Our particular motor coach only went to Boardwalk, Beach Club and Port Orleans. Why can't they hit the road earlier but hit a couple extra resorts? Go to 6 or 7 resorts, but get rolling within a reasonable time of people clearing customs and getting their bags?
(2) Why couldn't Disney have coordinated this better for people who they know will be arriving mid-morning after a very early start on the ship? It seems that DVC and the resorts in general could do a far better job timing the housekeeping at the resorts for arrivals, especially those arrivals which are part and parcel of a companion Disney entity like the cruise line. FYI: No one is bright-eyed on disembarkation day. Everyone is sleepy, sad, and filled with a "Let's just get over this" attitude.
I'm not being snobby or elitist, but we spent at least $18,000 between the cruise and Disney vacation. That's about $1,500 per day. (A Christmas cruise is at least twice the cost per day compared to other weeks of the year.) We blew premium DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk over New Years as well, far more points than normal. Yet we were left dog tired slouched down in the lobby like a bunch of exhausted homeless people. In a better world, we could have been in our villa by around 1 pm or so, napped and fresh for a great New Years eve at Epcot. I completely sympathesize with housekeeping and all that, but an opportunity for far better coordination would have been in order. Again, the CMs were great, but being told over and over that check-in isn't until 4 is little solace for people who just spent an expensive day of vacation being pretty miserable. Somehow, some way, this situation should be avoidable with better coordination between the cruise line and the resorts.
We just got off the Fantasy from a week over the Christmas Holidays. Very nice, but getting back to Disney World had it's headaches. Our breakfast time was 6:45 a.m., for disembarkation day, which is very early with 2 kids in tow. So we were up at 6. My wife is very organized, and everything was prompt and in order. We were breakfasted, customed, and off the ship and in our motor coach back for the Boardwalk by 7:50. only to be told by the driver that we would be sitting on the bus in the terminal parking lot for an hour. Needless to say, the phrase "Hurry up and wait" was on our minds.
We finally left the parking lot terminal at 8:45, and had no further travel delays, making it to the Boardwalk by 10 or so. Of course, our villa through DVC wasn't yet ready, but they stored our bags while we sleepily hit Disney Studios and Star Tours. We were back at the Boardwalk by 1:00, but our villa still wasn't ready. So we sat in the lobby until 3:15, with my daughter sprawled on a couch asleep, my son staring glassy-eyed at his phone, and my wife and I sniping a bit.
Just to be clear, each cast member was excellent and sympathetic. The Boardwalk gave us an extra fastpass for Soarin' that night. My complaints and questions are one of organization:
(1) Why did we have to sit on the stupid motor coach for nearly an hour after dragging ourselves out of bed at 6 am? We were ready to hit the road at 7:50. Our particular motor coach only went to Boardwalk, Beach Club and Port Orleans. Why can't they hit the road earlier but hit a couple extra resorts? Go to 6 or 7 resorts, but get rolling within a reasonable time of people clearing customs and getting their bags?
(2) Why couldn't Disney have coordinated this better for people who they know will be arriving mid-morning after a very early start on the ship? It seems that DVC and the resorts in general could do a far better job timing the housekeeping at the resorts for arrivals, especially those arrivals which are part and parcel of a companion Disney entity like the cruise line. FYI: No one is bright-eyed on disembarkation day. Everyone is sleepy, sad, and filled with a "Let's just get over this" attitude.
I'm not being snobby or elitist, but we spent at least $18,000 between the cruise and Disney vacation. That's about $1,500 per day. (A Christmas cruise is at least twice the cost per day compared to other weeks of the year.) We blew premium DVC points to stay at the Boardwalk over New Years as well, far more points than normal. Yet we were left dog tired slouched down in the lobby like a bunch of exhausted homeless people. In a better world, we could have been in our villa by around 1 pm or so, napped and fresh for a great New Years eve at Epcot. I completely sympathesize with housekeeping and all that, but an opportunity for far better coordination would have been in order. Again, the CMs were great, but being told over and over that check-in isn't until 4 is little solace for people who just spent an expensive day of vacation being pretty miserable. Somehow, some way, this situation should be avoidable with better coordination between the cruise line and the resorts.
I completely understand that. The annoyance was the dozens of other guests who were arriving with luggage and getting into their rooms right away. Again, the CMs were great. Once we arrived back that early afternoon, they assured us that our villa was next on the housekeeping list. I'm just saying that the cruise line, a Disney entity, forces people top be out of bed and off the ship at a far earlier time than they would normally get up for vacation. It takes time to clear customs and get luggage, but even with the ridiculous parking lot delay which was literally 100 yards from our state room, we were at the resort around 10:00 a.m.
Disney markets land and sea vacations, but then doesn't coordinate them as well as they could. I would hazard to guess that many people arrive tired at the resorts, but few of them are arriving tired specifically because the cruise ship requires a very early morning for disembarking. When Disney itself is the cause of the fatigue, it would be wise for some care/communication/coordination to make the guests comfortable.
In my opinion, certain circumstances would warrant priority housekeeping, including guests with disabilities, and guests who just had a fatiguing time due to another Disney entity, such as cruise ship disembarkation. We've flown in at the crack of dawn, but that was our flight choice. We did not directly choose to be up and going at 6:00 am.
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
They make you get off the ship early because they have to get everyone off, clear customs, and then do load in for the next cruise. All cruise lines do this. It's not fun, and it's not enjoyable, but it is part of cruising.
As for your bus, that is a good question, I cannot think of any valid reason that once a bus was loaded, it could not leave.
I think the rooms were explained prettly well by the OP.
You seemed to have a perfect storm of bad luck with everything, but still, it was not something that was totally unreasonable.
My experience has been that the busses leave back to the resort as soon at they are full - arriving at 9:30 to 10 AM
-dave
As for your bus, that is a good question, I cannot think of any valid reason that once a bus was loaded, it could not leave.
I think the rooms were explained prettly well by the OP.
You seemed to have a perfect storm of bad luck with everything, but still, it was not something that was totally unreasonable.
My experience has been that the busses leave back to the resort as soon at they are full - arriving at 9:30 to 10 AM
-dave
The problem at the terminal was that the bus wasn't full. We had the first breakfast seating, and hurried to get off the ship. But we then waited for nearly an hour because other people were either a later breakfast seating or putzed around. An extra hour of sleep would have been very welcome instead. At 8:45, we finally left the parking lot. We had been sitting there for about 55 minutes, but the bus still had empty seats.
My 1st point: Why wait around for a half full bus to hit only three resorts? Why not fill buses quickly with guests from 6 or so resorts, and get them going? It's only a 5 to 10 minute stop between most resorts, so even if you're the last one, you'll get there far quicker than if you sit around a parking lot for an hour at Port Canaveral going nowhere. We drove right past Coronado and Caribbean. why not load up with those guests as well and get out of the stupid parking lot?
My 2nd point: Disney could easily upgrade their registration and housekeeping systems by alerting the staff which rooms will have guests arriving early and unusually fatigued. All cruise guests arrive early, and virtually all cruise guests arrive very tired. A better system could be in place. I fully understand that this may make no difference for unusually busy times and with the vagaries of check-ins and checkouts. Nevertheless, my 10 year old daughter had a late night at Edge, and was then sleeping on a couch in a deluxe resort hotel lobby for two hours the next day. This not only looked terrible, but made us and the hotel staff very uncomfortable.
I fully assume that the housekeeping staff, if alerted, could have gotten to our room earlier than they did. On average, it takes an hour for housekeeping to transition the room for the next family. Boardwalk has dozens of standard view one bedroom villas. Ours did not get priority even though it could have been made obvious with a simple notation on a computer screen, "Coming from Disney Cruise Line--Priority". We paid $1,500 per day to be on the Fantasy, and our DVC villa was 48 points for that one night. I assume the nightly rate, if rented, would have been in the $500 per night range at least. Yet we were stuck in the lobby. No, we're not high and mighty, but a system of prioritizing which rooms will have early arriving guests should be easy to implement.
Similarly, guests with disabilities or from Make-a Wish, for example, should not be forced to wait around a hotel lobby in a wheelchair, or exhausted from cancer treatments. Housekeeping room assignments, I assume, could somehow take this into account. "Disabled guest--Priority." I fully assume that some late arriving guests at the resort had a cleaned up villa waiting for them at noon, but didn't arrive until late afternoon or evening. Meanwhile, we napped in the lobby, after trying to nap on a non-moving bus, because no one told housekeeping that we would very predictably be there early.
My 1st point: Why wait around for a half full bus to hit only three resorts? Why not fill buses quickly with guests from 6 or so resorts, and get them going? It's only a 5 to 10 minute stop between most resorts, so even if you're the last one, you'll get there far quicker than if you sit around a parking lot for an hour at Port Canaveral going nowhere. We drove right past Coronado and Caribbean. why not load up with those guests as well and get out of the stupid parking lot?
My 2nd point: Disney could easily upgrade their registration and housekeeping systems by alerting the staff which rooms will have guests arriving early and unusually fatigued. All cruise guests arrive early, and virtually all cruise guests arrive very tired. A better system could be in place. I fully understand that this may make no difference for unusually busy times and with the vagaries of check-ins and checkouts. Nevertheless, my 10 year old daughter had a late night at Edge, and was then sleeping on a couch in a deluxe resort hotel lobby for two hours the next day. This not only looked terrible, but made us and the hotel staff very uncomfortable.
I fully assume that the housekeeping staff, if alerted, could have gotten to our room earlier than they did. On average, it takes an hour for housekeeping to transition the room for the next family. Boardwalk has dozens of standard view one bedroom villas. Ours did not get priority even though it could have been made obvious with a simple notation on a computer screen, "Coming from Disney Cruise Line--Priority". We paid $1,500 per day to be on the Fantasy, and our DVC villa was 48 points for that one night. I assume the nightly rate, if rented, would have been in the $500 per night range at least. Yet we were stuck in the lobby. No, we're not high and mighty, but a system of prioritizing which rooms will have early arriving guests should be easy to implement.
Similarly, guests with disabilities or from Make-a Wish, for example, should not be forced to wait around a hotel lobby in a wheelchair, or exhausted from cancer treatments. Housekeeping room assignments, I assume, could somehow take this into account. "Disabled guest--Priority." I fully assume that some late arriving guests at the resort had a cleaned up villa waiting for them at noon, but didn't arrive until late afternoon or evening. Meanwhile, we napped in the lobby, after trying to nap on a non-moving bus, because no one told housekeeping that we would very predictably be there early.
Unless something has changed, the DCL and the resorts computers do not connect to each other in any way. For all intents and purposes the DCL and the resorts might as well be owned by different companies.
There is however a way to increase your chances of being able to get into your room early. If you do online check in you can indicate an early arrival. It also helps if you have no special requests other than "want first room available".
That being said, getting into DVC rooms early is pretty hard under the best of circumstances. DVC rooms run at near 100% occupancy year round and they take longer to put back in service vs standard rooms. Housekeeping starts servicing rooms as soon as they can, but they can not do much if guests are still in them until the clock rolls around to 11.
I can all but guarantee you that the CMs wanted to put you into a room, but there simply was not one available to do so.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
My travel agent had informed me, sometime over the summer, that the DCL bus to WDW does not leave until close to 9am now.
Did you note your early arrival on your room reservation when you made it? Did you do online check in? This would have alerted the room assigner and staff to attempt to have your room ready early if possible.
You cannot assume that all cruise guests arrive fatigued . I have sailed on numerous Disney cruises and have always dropped our luggage at the resort and headed to the theme parks. From my experience with my travel agency clients, many others do the same. (not all, but many) They are all well advised that they may not possibly have a room until 3 or 4 pm.
Good points, all. I assume DVC and the resorts in general could ask somehow somewhere if you're arriving early, have disabilities, or (in my case) are arriving from the port. Our situation on Saturday was probably not typical because (1) we had a younger child in tow; and (2) It was New Year's eve and wanted to stay very late at the parks that night. There is no way our daughter could have made it all day.
Last edited:
They do if you you check in online. You can also have it noted on any reservation under special requests.
Good to know. Will definitely do that next time.
I guess what really bugs me longer term is the fact that the buses are all sitting around until 9 now. Why? We're done with breakfast by 7:30, down the gangplank at 7:35, through customs by about 7:45, and out the door with our bags by 7:50. Disney has spent abundant resources to get us out the door of the terminal courteously and quickly, yet they then will tolerate people sitting on a bus for an hour after that. No sense whatsoever.
I once sailed on the Norway, and they treated us like cattle on disembarkation day. That final impression stuck with us, and we never considered cruising with Norwegian again even though the rest of the cruise was pretty good.
By comparison, Disney treats us wonderfully up through the door of the terminal, but then makes us wait nearly a full hour before getting on our way to the parks. They should rethink this. Load the buses and get people on the road. Like I said, only 3 resorts were served by our bus. Double the resorts per bus, make a couple extra stops, and at least give disembarked guests the impression that Disney is diligent in getting us going. I don't see how making people have breakfast at 6:45 makes sense when we're stuck in the parking lot until 9 anyway. Next time around, I'll sleep in until 8:30, skip breakfast, and go directly to the gangplank. Yeah, I may be the last one on the bus, but I'll be far more rested than the rest of the schmucks who sat there for an hour.
I guess what really bugs me longer term is the fact that the buses are all sitting around until 9 now. Why? We're done with breakfast by 7:30, down the gangplank at 7:35, through customs by about 7:45, and out the door with our bags by 7:50. Disney has spent abundant resources to get us out the door of the terminal courteously and quickly, yet they then will tolerate people sitting on a bus for an hour after that. No sense whatsoever.
I once sailed on the Norway, and they treated us like cattle on disembarkation day. That final impression stuck with us, and we never considered cruising with Norwegian again even though the rest of the cruise was pretty good.
By comparison, Disney treats us wonderfully up through the door of the terminal, but then makes us wait nearly a full hour before getting on our way to the parks. They should rethink this. Load the buses and get people on the road. Like I said, only 3 resorts were served by our bus. Double the resorts per bus, make a couple extra stops, and at least give disembarked guests the impression that Disney is diligent in getting us going. I don't see how making people have breakfast at 6:45 makes sense when we're stuck in the parking lot until 9 anyway. Next time around, I'll sleep in until 8:30, skip breakfast, and go directly to the gangplank. Yeah, I may be the last one on the bus, but I'll be far more rested than the rest of the schmucks who sat there for an hour.
You'll probably receive a survey, let them know how you feel then, or write DCL a letter, or both.
FYI - serving only 3-4 resorts is standard practice for Magical Express and DCL. If they served 6 resorts there would be many complaining about being let off at the 6th resort.
Monty
Brilliant...and Canadian
- In the Parks
- No
I can explain a few things.
Customs and Immigration agents are notoriously unpredictable. DCL tries to stagger disembarkation to spread the load for them, but it comes down to one family that was scheduled to board your bus being delayed by a detailed interview or possibly a luggage search will mess up everything. The buses are all pre-allocated with passengers based on how many are going to which resorts that are most efficient to navigate to. While reassigning passengers between buses seems like a simple solution, it is actually a logistic nightmare [I've been involved in similar processes loading buses in the military], the biggest risk is in keeping track of how many passengers are dispatched with each bus and then running out of buses before the last passengers arrive.
Disabled guests who arrive early are more likely to have to wait. The disabled guests departing are more likely to take longer getting prepared to check out. It's something that goes with the territory. Accessible rooms are the priority for disabled guests, they can't just be given the next available room, but that results in disabled checking out and disabled checking in, both needing more time to get things done. It's a no-win situation for Disney, but they really do try their best.
Lastly, you arrived on one of the worst possible days at WDW. The resorts are almost always completely booked for New Year's Eve, I know a number of locals who have DVC and only use their points for NYE or 4 July bookings, so DVC is almost always at 100% capacity.
Customs and Immigration agents are notoriously unpredictable. DCL tries to stagger disembarkation to spread the load for them, but it comes down to one family that was scheduled to board your bus being delayed by a detailed interview or possibly a luggage search will mess up everything. The buses are all pre-allocated with passengers based on how many are going to which resorts that are most efficient to navigate to. While reassigning passengers between buses seems like a simple solution, it is actually a logistic nightmare [I've been involved in similar processes loading buses in the military], the biggest risk is in keeping track of how many passengers are dispatched with each bus and then running out of buses before the last passengers arrive.
Disabled guests who arrive early are more likely to have to wait. The disabled guests departing are more likely to take longer getting prepared to check out. It's something that goes with the territory. Accessible rooms are the priority for disabled guests, they can't just be given the next available room, but that results in disabled checking out and disabled checking in, both needing more time to get things done. It's a no-win situation for Disney, but they really do try their best.
Lastly, you arrived on one of the worst possible days at WDW. The resorts are almost always completely booked for New Year's Eve, I know a number of locals who have DVC and only use their points for NYE or 4 July bookings, so DVC is almost always at 100% capacity.
Thanks for the input, but I would think that sitting around on a bus in a parking lot for an hour is more complaint-inducing than being the 6th resort served.
Pre-allocation of buses probably sounds good to the Disney people, but I think it stinks when it gets in the way of guest comfort. Why not have a simple list of each person/family going to which resort? Put them on a bus that's going there, and get that bus on the road as soon as it's reasonably full. If all buses are pre-assigned, prompt people like me will then be waiting around for late sleepers, slow breakfast-eaters, disorganized customs preparers, and (to put it bluntly) idiots. An organization that lumps diligent people with slow idiots is not doing its job as well as it could. If I'm stuck in the entry line at the parks because some bozo can't find a magic band, I move to a new line with minimal delay. If I'm stuck on a bus waiting for a late sleeping clueless idiot, I'm stuck for potentially an hour. Bad system.
Overall, it's the same feeling with lines at the attractions. A line that takes less time, but doesn't move, will make people angrier than a line that moves but actually takes longer. These days, the impression of moving forward is important. Sitting around the parking lot made a very poor impression, especially after being rousted out of bed at 6 a.m.
Last edited:
KCL
Active Member
@Ralphlaw, I know it's not helpful but here's an anecdotal story. On our second cruise we drove ourselves back to the resort, but on our first cruise we used WDW transportation back to our resort. We actually missed the line for express deboarding but still made it off pretty early. Instead of getting put on a bus we were put in a Mears passenger van with a family of adults (five, I think plus my wife and I). And pulled out of there within five minutes of walking out the door. Don't know if that's even remotely normal or whether we were just extremely lucky that one time. They stopped at Beach Club and then we were last at Coronado.
21stamps
Well-Known Member
Suggestions for next time- We had a 5am flight and I was worried about not having a room ready (the day after thanksgiving) so I went ahead and booked the night before..figured it was 7 hours that I wasn't willing to chance. It's not a great option, definitely not an attractive one, and I've questioned that decision many times..I do keep trying to push the memory away though.lol
So, if you don't want to potentially throw money away, and you're ok with the gamble, there is a spot right on the app that asks what time you are arriving. It also asks you if a room being ready is more of a priority than a different room request.
The bus thing is odd and I was surprised when my TA told me. In the future I'd use Uber in your situation. Or even rent a car. Car rental isn't an option for me, but Uber is definitely my choice over the DCL transport from port - WDW.