Staying at AKL- Drive our car or use buses

We are staying at AKL second week of May, we will have our own car but one of the draws to staying on property for us has always been not dealing with parking, carseats, etc. I have read a lot of reviews that AKL is soooo far from everything- will we lose a lot of time using Disney transportation? We are early parkers, usually taking a break mid day and heading back for the evening. I’m wondering if that’s not as feasible with buses at AKL. Thoughts? Should we drive to any parks in particular?

It is really up to you if you want to drive but I will share my experience. I have stayed at AKL multiple times. I love that resort. Let me tell you- I am a little crazy- ok- maybe very crazy… a couple of years ago I started timing buses. I think it started when the AKL driver said we would be in MK in 10 minutes (nope- usually about 20). On the other hand- Poly to HS was over 26 minutes from the time I sat on the bus ( bus also stopped at GF).

In the long run my bus trips have always ended up being much shorter staying at AKL, than trips at Poly, WL, YC and BC. All those other resorts travel through parking lots and streets to a second resort whicjph adds time to the bus trips.

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Thanks for the feedback- this is what I was looking for- some real life experience that it isn’t so bad! :slight_smile:

We had pretty good experiences last trip except when my slow family made us miss the breakfast bus and we waited 25 minutes for the next one… but it was fine. Our fault, not the fault of the bus. Agree with PrincipalTinker, love having just two AKL stops close together rather than doing the tour of one to three other resorts as we’ve done to/from YC and WL. Used our rental car for water parks and legoland, and occasionally for parks with Grandpa’s handicapped parking pass due to mobility problems.

Part of my idea of a vacation is NOT having to drive anywhere. I have stayed at POP, ASM, CR, ALK, CBR, and SOG, and other than the obvious ease of getting to the MK from the CR, when you average everything out, the time differences from ALK to the parks by bus are really insignificant compared to other resorts.

The buses “may” take a little longer (although I am not fully convinced of this), but it’s vacation, and a few extra minutes is a price I’m willing to pay for not having to drive, park, hike into the parks (or wait for a shuttle), etc. And if I want to have some “adult beverages”, I don’t have to worry about getting behind the wheel to drive back to the hotel.

But there are a couple of “rules” I always follow. I always take the bus to the MK, and I always drive if I am going resort-to-resort, especially after hours.

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Use the bus for mk.

As for the others it is up to you. The time probably is about equal. And dealing with strollers on the bus is not the easiest experience either.

Totally agree that the bus situation is fine at AKL. Big advantage being that they are dedicated to AKL/Kidani. Disney has it down, just like they do for the value resorts.