Value v. Moderate: Transportation?

[LuciferKitty]

For those of you who have stayed at both Value and Moderate level resorts, have you notced a marked difference in the levels of efficiency in transportation? We have never done a value resort, and we are a little bit wary as to whether or not you "get what you pay for" when it comes to that aspect of the on-property experience. I don't know if it matters or not, but if we were to stay at a Value, it would more than likely be Pop Century. Thanks in advance!

 

[frankd1962]

I've stayed at both Value resorts and I'll use my recent experience as the standard. There seems to be about a twenty minute wait between buses going to and from the Resort to any spot in the Resort. The Buses, for the most part, go to only one place and drop you off then return. The one that goes to DTD also stops at Typhoon and AK stops at the Winter/Summer mini-golf and Blizzard beach. From any of those spots (except DTD) you can go anywhere else in the Resort also. Buses from DTD only goes from there to the hotels.

I did experience waiting for a bus at Port Orleans. I wanted to go from DTD to Epcot and one of the CM told me it would be faster to go to P.O and then catch a bus to Epcot. While the area is beautiful, the buses take forever in that place. There are a number of spots all around it instead of the one (like the Values) to catch the buses. Don't get me wrong. If you're on the other side of P.O., you don't have to walk to the Main Building to get a bus but still it seemed a long ride around before you start off to where you want.

So stay at the Pop. They do send extra buses out for the EMH parks to cut the time down for waiting when there is a lot of people waiting to go to and come back from.

Advice: When leaving the parks at closing, hold back a bit and go very slowly to the buses. It will give them time to get this who rushed to the buses a chance back to the hotel. Grab a snack at one of the places in that park because if you get back after midnight or close to it, there is a chance the Food Court will be closed and they reopen around 6:30a. For going to, get up early, and take advantange of the 6:30a opening of the Food Court (if you don't have breakfast ressie). The first station open offers waffles & crossiants. Then go out to catch the first bus to the EMH morning park. Just watch out for the Derby.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Based on what I've read here over the years (!), bus service efficiency does not depend on what you're paying for your room.

People have complained about busses at value resorts as well as at deluxe ones. A consistent issue, however, is that the All Star resorts share busses and Pop has its own bus. I would add that this is also the case at Port Orleans--the bus comes to French Quarter first, then Riverside. Every morning (when the busses are busy) we had to stand because they were already full.

It does seem that WDW is always tweaking the system to make it more efficient.

 

[bhg469]

i have stayed at all star music once coronado about 4 times and POR once. I have visited every resort as well. i can say that staing at coronado we rarely had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus and the busses were never packed unless the park was letting out. This is probably due to the hotel being used for conventions so alot of people tend to not go to the parks from there which benefits the people hat do.