Disney Buses for newbie's

[abuck75]

My family is fairly seasoned visitors to Disney World with ~ a dozen trips, but we have never been on a Disney bus, mostly because we have only stayed on property twice.

- We stayed at BLT for 4 days during our first trip, but had a car and parking was free at that time and ultimately never utilized buses.
- For the next several trips we stayed at Reunion Resort and almost always drove (with a rare uber)
- The last couple years, we had stayed a few times on points at the Waldorf and simply found taking uber/lyft convenient and given the "free" lodging, the cost didn't really bother.
- In June, we were fortunate to stay on property again at a monorail resort, and we were planning to take a bus one afternoon, but when we walked out and saw it was a 20 minute wait, decided just to Uber.

I know many people swear by Disney buses, so we'd like to give it a try our next trip, but at the same time, it does seem that it adds quite a bit of time. Is there something special about the buses, or is the equation as simple as the cost benefit ratio between the cost of an uber and the added time you have to allow when traveling by bus?

 

[bigbabyblues]

Where are you staying next trip? The bus drops you off right at the entrance to MK; otherwise you go to the TTC and have to take a ferry or monorail across to the entrance.

The buses aren't bad if you happen to get there just as the bus does. It can seem like it takes a long time, but they will get you where you are going. I think you're right with the cost/benefit between Uber and the time it takes with the bus. However, if we knew we are going to have to pay for an Uber or 2 every day, we would much prefer to have a car and drive ourselves.

 

[sethschroeder]

I like the simplicity of it.

I would never drive on a vacation at Disney personally if I could help it. As far as Uber/Lyft I use it a lot for work and I feel as if it can't be much better which means random wait times, variety of vehicles, sometimes strange drivers, and sometimes longer than expected waits at peak times (with higher pricing to go with it).

Some say its way worse more recently so we will see on the upcoming trip but we also would need 2 car seats which would preclude almost exclusively to minie vans which raises the price even higher.

In the past we have stayed at Boardwalk where you can walk to 2 parks. This time we are at AKV which supposedly has some of the best bussing. We will see but if I feel as if I need to drive or get lyft on anything but an exception I won't be back and will travel elsewhere in the future.

 

[Master Fastpasser]

Its free and convenient not to mention USUALLY efficient.

I will say though that after staying value, mod, and deluxe values tend to be the most efficient and deluxe the least efficient.

Stayed at CR a couple weeks ago and hated how the arrival times changed every couple minutes and then 3 buses showed up at once and everyone was walking in every direction to get to the bus they needed. I like to arrive at the parks well before RD but the day I went to HS I walked out of the hotel at 7:45am and didn't arrive at HS until 8:40am and then bag checkw as parituclarly bad that day for some reason and walked into the park at 8:59am.
Not ideal.

When headed to MK its always better to take the bus vs drive unless you enjoy having to get from the TTC to MK.

Depending on where I stay for my next trip I may choose a Minnie Van.

 

[ncc1701]

Its free and convenient not to mention USUALLY efficient.

Agreed. Disney buses are like any other mass transit system. More buses during rush hours ( usually) & less during off peak hours. We have had days when it took longer than usual but plenty of others when our wait was minimal. DH uses mass transit everyday to go to work, as did I before retiring, so we know to give ourselves plenty of time heading to/from a park. However if we are going from our resort to another for an ADR we usually taxi to/from save time.

 

[SteveH]

Our past few stays have been at the Swan/Dolphin, before that CSR & Fort Wilderness Cabins. The bus service at S/D has always been great, though we don't need it for 2 of the 4 parks so that helps. But getting to MK has never been an issue, AK just takes a bit longer but still not bad. Bus service at Fort Wilderness was awful but that was the internal bus system.

For me, I don't want to drive or worry about things so the buses are just fine. However, it wouldn't mind using Uber or a Minnie van if buses were really backed up.

 

[crzy4dsny]

I love to just relax! ! I take the bus because I don’t have to think about anything. I don’t want to drive around In a car thinking about directions, parking, taking a tram to the front of the park. Let someone else do that, that’s a big part of what makes staying at a Disney Resort special. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose with the bus service. Sometimes you get right on and sometimes you could wait 30 minutes. Its never really bothered me either way because I’m on vacation. I don’t even look at those monitors when I get to the bus stop. I just wait until the bus pulls up and I get on. Recently we’ve started taking an Uber sometimes if leaving somewhere at a crowded time and it would be easier. For example if we are at the Poly for dinner and we are heading back to our resort after the fireworks, we will just Uber to our resort instead of taking the monorail back to MK and getting the bus. Or leaving Epcot after illuminations we’ll walk to BC and Uber from there.

 

[abuck75]

Where are you staying next trip? The bus drops you off right at the entrance to MK; otherwise you go to the TTC and have to take a ferry or monorail across to the entrance.

The buses aren't bad if you happen to get there just as the bus does. It can seem like it takes a long time, but they will get you where you are going. I think you're right with the cost/benefit between Uber and the time it takes with the bus. However, if we knew we are going to have to pay for an Uber or 2 every day, we would much prefer to have a car and drive ourselves.

I plan to stay at Yacht Club next trip, however when we Uber to Magic Kingdown we get dropped at the contemporary. That said, I can see the value of a bus taking you right to the park entrance at MK.