Better bus service? All Stars or POP?

[momof3+twins]

I am trying to decide if I want to drive to the parks or take the bus. We have 5 kids, 10,8,5,2,2. I don't want to be miserable because of the buses and the kids Or should I say the kids and the buses? LOL! Well, it is funny now but you know how it is with buses and kids. So, is Pop's bus service better or worse than All Stars? Or is it the same?

[Jasper]

Whatever anyone else tells you the service is really all about the same. During a seminar I was at sometime back at Disney they showed us the system they use for bus distribution. One of the key components is the bus drivers and what the called ground observers. Both of these people monitor the lines at the bus station and can call in for additional buses.

Once on the buses if they are full there may be some standing. However, chivalry is not dead and most of the time if you have very small children someone will give up their seat to you. It is not that long of a trip to either resort so standing is not that big of a deal.

[momof3+twins]

Yes, I remember the nice people on buses. We have actually had people offer to hold strollers. For everyone reading, give up your seat for the elderly, pregnant women, and small children. And for goodness sake help those people with sleeping children. You are lifesavers when you do these things!

[JPL]

I would give my vote to Pop I have stayed there several and have never had a problem with the buses. Also they have dedicated buses the All-Stars share buses.

[Marker]

All in all, I'd say they're about the same.

As for the sharing of buses at the All*Star, they do share stops. However, during busy times, such as coming home at closing from a park, they run individual buses for each of the All*Star.

In two separate visits to the All*Stars, AS Music in September '07, and AS Sports in March '08, I'm only recalling one occasion where we stopped at the other resorts. It was one morning on the March trip, I headed to MK nearly an hour before it opened. With all three stops the bus was still not filled to the point where people were standing. Every trip back to the resort, for both trips, we had separate stops. So the sharing of stops was not an issues.

Also, for what it's worth, even when they do share stops, there are only 3 stops. At many of the moderate and deluxe resorts while they may not share stops with other resorts, they have more stops within the designated resort.

So, all in all, I'd say they're about the same.

[Tuke]

Gotta say I disagree. There is a difference between the bus lines, and Pop Century wins hands-down. I've stayed at all three All-Stars, and Pop multiple times, and there is a difference. The major factor is that Pop does not share a bus. When you get on a bus at Pop, your next stop is your destination. Not so at the All-Stars. You will be making one or two more stops at the other All-Stars on your way out. If you're really lucky, the driver taking you back to your resort will reverse the order, and you'll have to stop at the other two All-Stars before you get to your room. It happens.

Enjoy your trip!

:thumbsup:

[teambricker04]

Well, I must start by saying that I haven't stayed at POP, only AS. My bit of advice if you go that route is to stay at Sports since it is the first pick up and drop off on any of the shared buses.

I once had to sit on the floor with a sleeping baby because no one would give up their seat on the AS bus. I agree that chivalry mostly isn't dead, but when it happens that way, it sure does stink.

[Disneyfun]

I can 100% confirm what Tuke said. In a side by side comparison - PoP wins hands down. I couldn't believe not only how crowded it was when DW and I stayed at AS Music, but just how long it took to get back and forth to the parks - even very late at night!
PoP was much quicker and generally less crowded.
BUT, if you are going to have your car, I would drive with that many children in your party. It will be less of a headache, everyone will have their own seat, and there is no charge for theme park parking for WDW resort guests!
You'll just have to remember where you parked! :thedolls:

[svarhall07]

I have stayed at every value resort, and some more than once. I have never noticed any resort having better/worse transportation than another. It just depends on the time of day you plan to get on the bus. If you go on a Monday morning at 8:00, then it will be crowded no matter where you are. If you go early/late, it will be less crowded. These resorts have more quests than any other resort, so in staying there you must adapt. You get what you pay for. Buses are constantly coming and going, so by all means, spend you time worrying about more important details. You will get to/from the parks. Have fun, with that many kids it can be a blast!

[lulu'smom]

If you absolutely can't handle the thought of you or your children standing, you should drive to the parks. When I board a Disney bus I know that I might have to stand, it seems that they fit more standing passengers on than sitting. I would never get on a full bus and expect someone to give up their seat for me. I dare say the majority of people have children with them, so who is to say which child is more deserving of a seat?

Remember too that you do not have to board a bus, if you see it is standing room only. You can wait for the next one, or grab a taxi. They have taxis at all of the resorts and theme-parks.

BTW the All-Star Resorts do not always share a bus. It depends on time of day and crowd levels.

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

Thumbs down to POP - their bus service was horrible the last time we stayed there. No matter what time we tried to get to a park. I don't think I ever got a seat on the bus, neither coming or going. Just the opposite at ASMu though. The bus transportation was great........:number1: We only shared 1x and that was late morning on the way to AK. In the mornings there is a dedicated bus for each resort to the different parks, and the same at night. During the day though, they might share, but that wasn't a big deal because they weren't busy.

[nyobabe2]

Pop definetly. The bus only has to make one stop! Theres several for All Stars, that's huge when you're kids are cranky and you need to get back to the hotel!

[nyobabe2]

Oh wait, you're going to have a car with you? DRIVE YOURSELVES! Getting them to the car will be a whine fest because they'll be exhausted but it's worth it to be in your own car.

[Sean Riley Taylor's Mom]

Here goes the oddball again. ;)

We have stayed at Movies four times and Pop once. Maybe we were just lucky but, we never shared a bus when staying at Movies. The buses were always just for Movies. Each stay was in September. Yes, they were crowded. But, not bad enough that we were frustrated.
Pop buses were always busy when we were there in September of 2006. We decided to give Pop a try from all of the rave reviews we heard. It may have its own buses but, the resort is very large. Which means more people at the one bus stop. We thought the buses were much more crowded then Movies.

I would drive if you are concerned about having a seat for your kids. You can also do what we do. If a bus is standing only, we wait for the next one. It can mean longer wait times of course but, we know that our kids at least will have a seat. My husband and I will stand if we have to but, I would prefer for my kids to sit.

[Soul_Power]

Although I have only stayed at POP, I would suggest POP over the All Stars. Like many have said, POP does not share buses with any other resort. At the end of a long day at the parks, only making one stop at your own resort sounds a lot better than stopping at three different resorts!

When I was doing all the research for our first trip and what resort to stay at, the buses for POP vs. All Stars won me over!

[Jasper]

I would like to weigh in with another couple of comments that I forgot the first time.

1. There have been times when we had our own car at WDW that for various reasons some of our party used to go to the parks while others of us rode the bus. In virtually every case the people on the bus got back to the room quicker than the people in the car when leaving the same park at the same time. This was done at both Pop and all three of the All Stars.

Granted, there wasn't much difference in the arrival times but there was a slight advantage to the bus. And by the way, it was almost always my wife behind the wheel of the car and she has a really bad lead foot. Believe me she has the tickets to prove it!

2. I forgot to mention that during that visit to the transportation office several years they showed us how they were constantly running statistics to monitor how long guests had to wait for a bus, how long they were on the bus, and, of course, how many stops each bus had to make. The result of their continual statistical analysis and juggling of buses was that the value resorts actually had the shortest wait times for buses and the shortest times spent on the buses. They also showed that both Pop and all three of the All Stars were almost identical in times.

Disney has also done their own comparisons of the buses vs. riding in a car and if you follow all speed limits and other traffic regulations then the buses almost always got you to your value resort faster then in a car. And to eliminate any differences they started out their comparisons with both the bus riders and the car riders leaving the front gates of whatever theme park they were studying at the same time and had a point at the resort that they had to reach as their destination.

Of course, this did not include any comparison to the monorails because as they said, "That is a completely different model of transportation." They did admit that the monorail was very effective at moving large numbers of people very quickly and that they would love to expand the system but couldn't because of the huge cost involved.

As a side note though you just know that Disney has to spend a ton of money on fuel for the buses each year. So with the increase in the cost of fuel I just wonder at what point it becomes cost effective to move away from buses and into more monorails?

[joonyer]

We always drive our car to get to WDW, but we NEVER drive it to the parks. WE use the buses. We tried it both ways driving and parking and riding the bus, and we'll never drive to a park again. Especially at Magic Kingdom,it takes forever to get to MK from the parking lot to the gates, and even longer to get back at park closing. But all the resort buses drop off and pick-up right at the park gates. Even if you have to wait for a while at park closing for a bus, you'll still get back to your resort sooner than taking a shuttle boat or monorail and then another shuttle to your car, and then you have to find the car before you get back to your hotel. By then if the kids are tired they'll be whining anyway, and if you rode the bus they may be complaining but you'll already be back at the hotel. For us we've found it's almost always less convenient to drive to the parks. (The one exception is when we have an early ADR for breakfast in the AK, to insure that we get there on time. Arriving before 8:00 a.m. you can park pretty close to the gates there).

WE park at our hotel when we arrive in WDW and don't get back in our car until we are heading home. WDW transportation is just much more convenient than driving and parking in those huge theme park lots. Plus, it might not save you a lot of $$, but it's free (well you're paying for it anyway) so let Disney burn their gas or diesel, and ride their bus.

[E-OR]

My son and his two friends are staying at POP right now. None of them are old enough to rent a car and so they are using WDW transportation. Last night I happened to phone him while he was waiting for the bus back to the resort. He said that they were all having a great time except he felt that a lot of their time was spent waiting for busses, especially at the end of the night when the park was closing. He was also not feeling well and really needed to get back to the room and had been waiting in a line for the bus for a while. He began to wonder if he was in the wrong line so got out of line to get in another line, which was actually the wrong line finding out the first line was the right line. It would not have been a big deal but he kept getting sicker and was feeling miserable. We have always rented a car, especially when the kids were little. After a long day at the park we did not want to stand in line with tired kids waiting for the bus. My vote is rent a car and come and go as you please.

[wdwnomad]

I thought the buses were better at All Star Movies than at Pop. Sure, Pop always has its own buses. When I stayed at All Star Movies the only times when buses were shared was during non peak hours. That was no big deal because they weren't really crowded and they are like a minute away from one another. During park openings and closings each All Star had its own bus.

Just from my personal experience, I always ended up standing the Pop buses (of course, I could have waited until the one). On the Movies buses I ended up standing maybe half the time.

[letsdoitagain]

I don't know why everyone says the all stars share busses? When we were there last August (second week) each all star resort had its own busses. The only bus that was shared was the downtown Disney bus.

[tnpoohbear]

I prefer the bus service at Pop because you did not have to share with other resorts like you do at All Stars, however, we did not like the Pop resort itself!

We have driven and have taken the buses and we have to have a wheelchair for DS and I prefer the bus no matter what resort we are at. It is just easier and less of a hassle. Even with more children (I only have 2 and they are now teenagers) but when they were little I still used the bus. The only time we used to take our car was when we went to DTD and now we still do that.:mickey:

[magicofdisney]

*Take the bus to MK regardless of where you stay. Drive to other parks.

*Pop is bigger, so lines are fuller.

*We will never choose to stay at Pop again.