Wilderness Lodge and Saratoga Springs Park Bus Service.

[Kidd McFluff]

The Unofficial Guide from 2019 says the busses for these resorts are rubbish. Anyone been recently? How were the busses?

[loldis]

Recently, bus transport is pretty rubbish from ALL of the resorts because of driver shortages and reduced capacity on board. So I wouldn't use recent experience as an accurate measure TBH.

But I think the main complaint for WL pre-Covid was that it often shares with other MK area resorts instead of being dedicated. People who aren't expecting that are going to be caught off guard and then unhappy about it.

SSR is a bus only (I'm not counting the DS boat) large resort with multiple stops. Again, this is a common complaint for all the resorts that have this. But from my own experience, I've never had an issue with this style of bus service.

My most recent stay was CSR which also gets slated for the buses and I thought the buses were great. Especially with the arrival times listed in the app, so you can check before you leave your room so you know you won't have long to wait for one.

[Mrs Red C]

2019 trip at Saratoga was okay when we were at the Paddocks as we used the Carousel Bustop. As we went further round the site, the buses filled up rapidly so they were full near the Main buildings! We were glad it didn't affect us too much.

[BevS97]

We stayed at WL in 2019 and loved it. We took the boat to MK and the bus elsewhere. The only issue we had was to DS as the bus went upto the contemporary after picking us up and then came back down past WL. There was a traffic jam So we were sat on the bus for ages and ended up back where we’d started.

[KarenG]

I’ve had good and bad bus service at every Disney resort I’ve stayed in (including those two). It’s usually pretty good though to be honest.

I wouldn’t base a resort decision on how the bus service was (I probably would if it included other transportation options though).

[YorkshireT]

You’ll hear buses from SSR, OKW, AKL are bad.

I’ve never had an issue.

Worst busses are the Boardwalk to MK (when it used to also stop at Dolphin) and WL/Contemporary to HWS. That one is truly dreadful (well that’s maybe over dramatising, it’s slow), it goes to both resorts on the same trip, often doesn’t come for ages, and when it does, it is sometimes full in peak times.

People also extol the brilliance of the monorail. Epcot to say Contemporary on the monorail takes an age, long stops at stations etc. When I was at BLT I took it once, never again, and took the bus instead.

As Karen says buses are pretty good generally.

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

You’ll hear buses from SSR, OKW, AKL are bad.

I’ve never had an issue.

Worst busses are the Boardwalk to MK (when it used to also stop at Dolphin) and WL/Contemporary to HWS. That one is truly dreadful (well that’s maybe over dramatising, it’s slow), it goes to both resorts on the same trip, often doesn’t come for ages, and when it does, it is sometimes full in peak times.

People also extol the brilliance of the monorail. Epcot to say Contemporary on the monorail takes an age, long stops at stations etc. When I was at BLT I took it once, never again, and took the bus instead.

As Karen says buses are pretty good generally.

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I’m digressing a bit, but the most long and interminable Disney bus journey I EVER had was the Magical Express from MCO to BLT. OMG it takes so long trailing around those MK resorts and it was Christmas Day so you can imagine the traffic 😂

We were delighted the drop off route was Poly, GF, WL before finally arriving at the Contemporary last. I felt like I’d aged at least six months 😂

[Gill H]

Yes, I think lots of people will choose Uber or a booked transfer instead of the Mears paid service. Not much difference in price and you go straight to your resort!

We only had a few issues with buses, both times at MK going back to SSR, and it turned out the first night there had been 4 road accidents nearby so maybe that was why. We waited over an hour in bitterly cold weather for the bus, which then took an hour to get to SSR and of course had the air con set to freezing all the way! Got back after midnight and turned the room A/C to warm!

Mostly it was fine though. We were at Congress Park so always got a seat. Often by the time it got to Springs it was full and sometimes didn’t even stop.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by Kidd McFluff

The Unofficial Guide from 2019 says the busses for these resorts are rubbish. Anyone been recently? How were the busses?

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Well as must of us are British there won’t be much experience post 2019.

We were at Wilderness Lodge in September 2019 and after a week we had to ask to be moved as the buses were so bad, definitely not what we have experienced elsewhere. We waited 45 minutes for a bus back from different parks on several days running and then when it was similar the next morning trying to get to a park we decided that was enough. We were moved to the Grand Floridian for the final six nights which was great.

Wilderness Lodge is a definitely not somewhere we would stay again after that experience.

[disney332]

At WL you only need to get the bus to 2 parks (or only 1 if you choose my last option)

Boat to MK for park and walk up to monorail for transfer to Epcot via TTC.

You could also walk through Epcot and get a friendship boat to HS via the International Gateway.

Disney332