Recent experiences at POR with buses

[dsnymania]

My DH and I will be taking our first week long vacation without kids since our honeymoon 22 years ago. We are very excited and counting down the days as we are booked at Riverview Royal room 2/23 - 3/2. However , I have read several reviews about long waits for the buses. We have previously stayed at CBR and never had an issue. Could someone tell about their recent experience?

[Tygger7]

My mom and I stayed at POR (in one of the Royal Rooms) back in September 2012 and had great experience with bus service. We never waited more than 15 minutes at the resort or parks. The ONLY long wait we had was trying to leave the Magic Kingdom one night. A torrential downpour started during Wishes, which created a mass stampede out of the park. ALL of the resort buses had very long waits, but even with all the craziness we only waited about 30 minutes.

I think you will absolutely love POR...I fell in love with the resort the first time we stayed there and would go back in a heartbeat. It's got a very relaxing feel to it, and the grounds are beautiful. I'm always amazed as to how quiet it is...just very peaceful. The food court was very good and quite manageable even during peak times. We never had trouble finding seats.

Be sure to take the boat to DtD...very romantic at night. :cloud9:

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We were there in October, and had no issues. From the Royal Rooms, it is a short walk back to the main bus stop, and we never had a problem getting on a bus heading from the resort. There were times when the bus was full and it left right from the main depot, and other times when it quieter that we did have to go around to the other stops, but it just took a couple of minutes.

Even coming back, which can be busy, moved quickly and I don't remember any particular issues.

[BigRedDad]

People are far more likely to express discontent than praise for something. This is why you see more of it. You also do not know what they are really complaining about either. In my experience, when someone complains about bus service, they are complaining because of poor planning. They arrive at the bus stop at 8:30AM for a 9AM park opening, expecting a bus to be waiting for them and at the park right at 8:45AM. Then, they find out that there are 500 other people at the resort leaving at the same time and they are not up front.

In order to have the best experience with buses, leave at odd times. For us, we get to the parks about an hour early. Kids can play out front of MK. CMs have chalk sometimes, hoola hoops, entertain the kids. There are a lot of things you can look at in DHS. AK has all of the great scenery.

[larjani]

We just got back from POR, and the bus service was excellent. Sometimes they would share with French Quarter, sometimes not. The resort was real nice. We stayed in the Alligator Bayou, but we are park commandos. We didn't spend enough time at the resort. The wife are I are talking about going back without the kids. Maybe alternate park visits with stay in resort time to make the trip more relaxing.

[AmandaChan]

Only input on busses I can say is that POFQ busses were long waits in our experience but dh and I were late starters and I know the busses would go over to por and pick up ppl. The location of the OR resorts are out there in relation to distance to parks. I

[debbymc4]

I loved the resort. I always hate the buses everywhere. But, as far as buses go, they were fine. I was there in January.

[CleveRocks]

I never ... EVER! ... pay any attention to reviews of how long someone had to wait for a bus at whatever resort. Bus service at all resorts is pretty much the same, no better and no worse than at any other. Buses run, on average, about every 20 minutes.

Let me explain the experience I had with buses at Polynesian in 2009. In the entire week we were there, we never waited more than about 2 minutes for a bus, literally. It was great!

Should we all conclude from my experience that Poly has great bus service? NO. In fact, we were just insanely lucky. Imagine, if you will, another family that followed our same schedule but was always 2.5 minutes behind us. THAT family would've waited about 20 minutes for every single bus. THAT family would come back complaining about how bad the bus service is at Poly.

And that's why I ignore reviews of bus service.

[Lindsey]

Above post. :thumbsup: