Buses at POR

[daniellen94]

How are the buses to the parks from POR?

Is there another resort that has the best busing from your experience?

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

I was concerned about this a little too. ALthough I have not YET stayed at POR, I have been reading the POR thread and there seems to be a consensus that the bus service is decent. There are multiple stops and it shares buses with sister resort POFQ.

This was not the case when we stayed at POFQ in 2001. Bus service was very slow. However, we've stayed onsite several times now & I think bus transporation in general has improved.

All the mod's have 2-4 stops coming & going to parks - I personally don't think it takes that much extra time as long as the buses are arriving every 20 minutes.

There's always going to be those times when you JUST missed the last bus and the next one takes the full 20 minutes to arrive. As expected, when leaving at park closing, buses are full and you may have to stand but we still enjoy the non-driving part of our trips to WDW

P.S. I've found the Allstars to be among the best in bus service! We're doing a split stay next trip POP & POR. POP does not share and has only 1 bus stop and I've read their bus service is really good. POR is so pretty I just had to give it a try!

 

[Blonde]

We stayed at POR this past March and to say the least, we were not thrilled with the bus service. They were many times when we would be waiting for a bus much longer than twenty minutes or the bus would stop and already be full. The biggest problem seemed to be when leaving a park in the evening- there would be enough people in line to fill up two buses so you would have people crammed in like sardines!!! It was Spring Break, so I don't know if that was the reason why. With that being said, we stayed at CSR two years ago over Spring Break and had absolutely no complaints with buses.

 

[charcoal]

We stayed at POR a couple of weeks ago and have no complaints. Even if we had just missed a bus, another one came seemed to come in 10-15 minutes. There was one night after Illuminations where there were two busses worth of people, but the next bus came 5 minutes later. I also noticed additional buses coming in the morning from the main depot at POR. Once morning, within 10 minutes, there were 3 buses for MK. We did stand a few times, but that didn't bother us. We stand when we go to cities with subways as well.

 

[Missytara]

The added bonus of staying at POR or POFQ is that you have the bus hub at DTD that runs the resort buses and then you have access to the water taxi back to the resort.

Often, I plan my last part of the day to be a dinner at a resort, I take my time going through the shops, or having a drink at the bar. Then I hop on the bus from the resort back to DTD.

Since the water taxis run every ten minutes after 4 p.m., you are never waiting very long for a ride back to the resort.

 

[minnie mum]

We stayed at POR this past March and to say the least, we were not thrilled with the bus service. They were many times when we would be waiting for a bus much longer than twenty minutes or the bus would stop and already be full. The biggest problem seemed to be when leaving a park in the evening- there would be enough people in line to fill up two buses so you would have people crammed in like sardines!!! It was Spring Break, so I don't know if that was the reason why. With that being said, we stayed at CSR two years ago over Spring Break and had absolutely no complaints with buses.

Very busy periods (school holidays, summer, Christmas) will always test the capacity of the Disney transportation system, no matter what resort you are at. The same is true for any park closing. Buses will be packed to the rafters for all of the resorts as thousands and thousands of guests all leave the parks at the same time.

Having stayed at all of the mods, and at POR multiple times, I cannot say that any mod has better or worse bus transportation than another.

 

[Mamato3Princes]

We were there at the end of May. We never had to wait longer then 15 mins for a bus. Of course, every time we left at closing the buses would be packed but we always had a seat. And we had some great conversations on those evening bus rides with other families on the bus. My boys especially loved talking to the other kids on the bus about their day. The whole stay was very pleasant and we're actually tempted to stay there instead of BC in Sept. But we'll see!

 

[Pinkgirl]

POR has a number of stops around the resort. Where as POFQ only has the one stop. It seems that after 9am the buses stop at FQ then do the circuit at POR. So, if you are early risers then the FQ is better for an up and out.

Returning, when stay at POR we would often go in the FQ queue if it was shorter (and there were separate stops) as it was quicker to walk back for us from FQ to our building at Riverside.

 

[buzznina]

We have stayed at all 3 resort levels and can honestly say that the transportation is hit or miss. Our last trip to POR in March we had very good bus service. I believe we waited only once longer than 20 minutes and that was because we did not want to get on the bus that had standing room only so we waited for the next bus. Our last stay at CSR, we had very good bus service also and this included the night we left MK at closing and the line was VERY long. We got on the 4th bus and it took about 40 minutes, a lot of other folks would be on the forum complaining but we were impressed, because of the mass of people they were able to transport in that amount of time. We normally never leave the parks at closing, we will either leave earlier or just window shop or sit down and have a late night snack while watching the heard of people passing by

 

[twoplustwins]

Our biggest issue was all the stops around the resort going to and coming back from the parks. We have also stayed at CBR and had the same issue.
POR was frustrating because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for their routes.
We did not have an issue with buses coming though. They were always there every 10-15 minutes.

 

[CleveRocks]

How are the buses to the parks from POR?

Is there another resort that has the best busing from your experience?

The bus service is pretty much the same at all resorts; buses to each destination are supposed to run on average about every 20 minutes. So why do so many people insist it's bad one place and good at another? Human nature, or at least two aspects of human nature. One is a phenomenon you can call the "grass is always greener" effect (everyone else's experience seems better than our own), and the other is the mistaken assumption that what happens to us once is the way it usually is for most people at most times.

"The grass is always greener ...." For EVERY resort, you can find posts from people saying something like this: "We waited forever at closing time at Magic Kingdom for a bus to (our resort) while we watched 4 buses from (another resort) drive on by." Seriously, there's not a resort this hasn't been written about.

The second point is perhaps the more important point. Just because you have a not-so-great experience with buses at a resort doesn't mean the bus service stinks. It could mean they were having a rough day or two. But more likely it means that you were just unlucky with timing.

My example is my stay at Polynesian a couple years ago. We noticed by our second or third day that we never, and I mean NEVER, waited more than about 2 minutes for whatever bus we wanted, whether going from resort to park or park to resort. So we started to joke about it as we walked up to the Poly bus stop in the morning or to a park bus stop when leaving a park, but it always worked that way for that entire week.

So, should we conclude from that that Polynesian has the best bus service ever? Absolutely NOT. It just means our timing was very lucky. Imagine another family that did everything exactly like we did, only they always did it exactly 2 minutes later than we did. They would've had a dreadful bus experience, as they would've waited almost 20 minutes for every single bus for an entire week. Does their bad experience mean Poly has bad bus service? Of course not, just like my great experience doesn't mean it has the best bus service.

In the same way, my great bus service at Caribbean Beach Resort in 2005 and my so-so bus service at Port Orleans French Quarter in 2006 DOESN'T mean that CBR's bus service is better than POFQ's, it just means that my individual experiences on those exact days was better at CBR than at POFQ.

And that's why we read such mixed reviews of bus service at various resorts. Just because someone had a lot of wait time doesn't mean the bus service stinks.

I strongly advise you to pick a Moderate resort based on the theme, as well as the small ways they differ in amenities.

 

[dansdad]

CleveRocks, that is THE BEST answer to the very often asked question of "which resort has the best buses?" And "we're thinking of staying at xxx, but I've heard horror stories about the buses "

This should be a Stickey at the top of multiple sections. I am going to bookmark this and link to it often.

You rock!

 

[minnie mum]

CleveRocks, that is THE BEST answer to the very often asked question of "which resort has the best buses?" And "we're thinking of staying at xxx, but I've heard horror stories about the buses "

This should be a Stickey at the top of multiple sections. I am going to bookmark this and link to it often.

You rock!

I absolutely agree! Well said, CleveRocks!

 

[dvcwannabe]

Maybe I am in lala land while in the World, but the bus service at all the resorts seems about the same to me. We have never had any big issues.

 

[CleveRocks]

CleveRocks, that is THE BEST answer to the very often asked question of "which resort has the best buses?" And "we're thinking of staying at xxx, but I've heard horror stories about the buses "

This should be a Stickey at the top of multiple sections. I am going to bookmark this and link to it often.

You rock!

I absolutely agree! Well said, CleveRocks!

Thanks guys!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Very busy periods (school holidays, summer, Christmas) will always test the capacity of the Disney transportation system, no matter what resort you are at. The same is true for any park closing. Buses will be packed to the rafters for all of the resorts as thousands and thousands of guests all leave the parks at the same time.

Having stayed at all of the mods, and at POR multiple times, I cannot say that any mod has better or worse bus transportation than another.

This is our exact experience as well, based on 18 trips to WDW, many of them split stays so lots of experience with the various resorts' bussing!

POR has been fine for us, our last stay was a year ago for 14 nights. We had only one time when for some reason we waited over an hour for a bus to AK.

At park closing, especially during peak seasons, its always going to be a madhouse.

I find POR's internal route of going to the four stops pretty quick for the most part. About like CSR's but quicker than the seven stops at CBR.

I will take any resort that has multiple stops over a resort that shares busses with another because to me it just feel like it takes longer when you have to exit one resort then enter another to pick up its guests.

I will also say that if a watched pot never boils, a rush to get to rope drop or an ADR will make any wait feel about ten times longer than it is.

Bottom line, never pick or don't pick a resort based on bus reviews, even your own, and always allow plenty of time to get where you need to go.

 

[NCDisneyFanatic]

We have stayed and find that time of year has more to do with bus issues than moderate hotel. Our last stay at POR was in 2009 and buses were very fast. The only issue was that, during busy times of day, we usually went to one of the first bus stops. By the 3rd or 4th they were getting full and some times no space even standing. With that being said, another bus came quickly. POR is by far my favorite moderate, especially Alligator Bayou.