Guest Blogger Sherry recently had the privilege of staying on and off property at Walt Disney World. During that trip she realized there were many differences in Disney and non-Disney resort transportation that she wanted to share with fellow Main Streeters! ~Aut
Recently we spent a few days in Lake Buena Vista prior to the beginning of our Disney resort reservations. During this time we spent a day at Downtown Disney and another day shopping at the outlets in Orlando (we drove ourselves to Outlet). We opted to walk from our hotel to the Marketplace side of Downtown Disney on our Downtown Disney day instead of using the resorts transportation. We walked all through Downtown to shop and stopped at T-Rex for an amazing lunch. We continued walking all the way to Splittsville and by now we were all beat. We started looking for the bus stop to get back to our hotel but no one seemed to be able to tell us where the non-Disney resort buses picked up at. We finally made our way to the bus area for “other hotels” on the extreme other end of the West side. There was only 1 canopy over a bench to sit and wait in the shade for a bus. There was also nothing to tell us what bus was going to our hotel or when it would be there. After asking a few of the cast members that were waiting for their bus, we found where we had to go. We waited for at least 30 minutes before a bus to our hotel finally showed up. We checked with the driver and he said “yes” he would be going to our hotel so we jumped on. When we got on the bus, we found out that we had to pay to ride this bus, something we were unaware of until that moment but luckily we had cash on us. Once we paid the bus was off, but we rode right past our hotel which was when driver told us he only stopped up the road from our hotel. By now we are really exhausted, we are from New York and not used to this heat and sun. When our bus finally stopped we found out we had to walk back to the resort and cross 6 lanes of traffic to do so.
Our second experience on a non-Disney resort bus wasn’t as bad. We rode to the Transportation and Ticket Center where we rode the monorail to some resorts and walked around and enjoyed the scenery. The bus ride wasn’t horrible and we didn’t wait too long for it to arrive. When we went back to the bus stop to return hotel, we waited for over 20 minutes and I began to notice all the differences between the Disney and non-Disney buses were the same ones I had noticed at Downtown Disney. We had no shade over our bus stop and nothing was labeled the way Disney stops are. When we were dropped off, we were told there were 2 stop numbers to return to so we waited at the stop we were dropped off at. When the bus came, we were told that we had to get on at the other bus stop. By then we were the last ones on and the seats were few and far in between. The bus was loud, I don’t mean the people on the bus, but the bus itself was loud. It made sounds that I’ve never heard on a bus before. And the worst part, we did not get a “Welcome Home” when we got to the hotel.
From what I saw those two day using non-Disney transportation, the Disney resort buses are so much better. Disney buses and their stops are well marked, shaded, and better maintained. This was my experience on non-Disney buses. Maybe I was just been unlucky when it comes to the bus transportation at non-Disney resorts.
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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I did not see that you mentioned which off site hotel you stayed at. So very difficult for anyone to give any comments as such.
For the last 17 years we have been coming from the UK and staying at the Wyndham hotel, just 2 minute walk from DTD. Although not a Disney hotel it is within the compounds of their property. The shuttles that run from the hotel, have 2 buses that run every 30 minutes each to 2 parks. Same with the return journey. You get picked up from the stop you get dropped off at, so very easy to find. Buses start 1 hour before park opening and go on until 1.5 hours after park closing. There are two separate buses that do each side of Hotel Plaza Blvd. Bus A and Bus B. should you just miss your one, you can easily take the othegr and get dropped off at one of the hotels other side of the road nearest to yours. Evening the buses run to DTD itself. Used to be up near the back of Trex but with the construction work, not sure at the moment.
Using the Disney buses actually from DTD could go Disney resort hopping as well which we spent a day doing, just to be nosey 🙂 – we love staying at one of the Hotel Plaza Blv hotels as you certainly don’t need a car, tons of places to walk to outside of the hotel .. DTD one end and Crossroads with its grocery store and numerous restaurants, the other end. Also a very handy Lynx bus stop virtually outside Wyndham and Hilton so can for $2 go to seaworld etc etc though we tend to take a hotel town car as its much quicker 🙂 although of course more expensive.
We stayed off property once and used bus in evening. We had to be at bus stop at 930 for one and only pick up so never saw fireworks at epcot and of course magic kingdom. Asked if we were late it was basically tuff luck. Won’t stay off property again