Hi! I am currently planning my family’s second trip to Disney World in September. Our first trip was pre-covid and we stayed at Art of Animation, so we took the busses everywhere and it was great.
This time around we are staying at the Polynesian Resort. Both trips I have used the Unofficial Guide and this most recent version advises against using the busing system due to Covid layoffs leaving the bus drivers in a shortage.
However I’m wondering (hoping) since it was written almost a year ago now if that recommendation would change? At least for Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.
The Guide says it is about ten minutes faster to drive our car to HS and twenty minutes for AK.
Polynesian has perhaps the best transportation situation in the World. We stayed there in October 2021 (right in the thick of the Covid era) and we never waited particularly long for a bus (30 minutes is a typical max, but 10-15 minutes is more common).
Plus, Poly has the Resort monorail by the lobby and the Express monorail at the TTC (which is actually a closer walk than the lobby to some rooms), the resort ferry and TTC ferry, and the Epcot monorail from the TTC. So you really only need a bus to AK and HS.
I highly recommend the Poly to anyone who can afford it, for many reasons, transportation being among them.
I would say that it would be more convenient to drive to HS and AK if you have a car. If you don’t the buses will be fine. There are more buses but at times Poly has been sharing buses with another resort (usually GF and usually mid day).
This is only accurate if you don’t get lost, which we always seem to do.
December 2020 and June 2022 we used busses always from Saratoga Springs. Don’t recall being annoyed at the wait. But saving time isn’t really on our Disney radar.
The busses were crowded last June. If you’re concerned with talk of cases increasing maybe mask up or drive your car.
LOL! This is a minor concern i have… i am fairly decent with directions and we will have google maps. However i have heard it is incredibly easy to get lost at disney. Im not familiar with the area at all, and my sense of direction will only get us so far!
That was one reason i was so excited with our first trip when i read that using the busses was recommended. I was really disappointed to read this edition that the times were so much longer. However if they have gotten better i would prefer to use the busses those two days
I’m firmly in the “don’t drive” camp. DH does most of the driving (quite well!) while I try to navigate. I do not like the pressure of trying to do that at WDW! Yes, there are lots of big, obvious signs, but sometimes it’s not always very clear which “turn right” exit they mean. It’s easy to turn too soon or too late. It’s not like the place is laid out with straight streets in a North/South/East/West way. So much of it is freeway style. Thankfully the advent of apps like Waze and Google Maps really helps.
But at the end of a long day when I’m so tired, it is so easy to just hop on a bus and leave the driving to someone else.
We never have a car and dont mind the buses. We stayed at the poly at the end of June and had no issues with the buses for HS and AK. They came about every 10-15 mins. We never waited long on the way back from the parks either. We did share buses with GF but it never made the buses full or anything anf they picked up at Poly first and dripped at the poly first.
Google bought Waze sometime ago, and has basically merged the data. They still exist as different apps, but fundamentally it is the same in terms of routing you places.
In all 3 of our WDW trips in the past two years we only ever used Disney transportation. Buses, boats, monorail and one skyliner ride. We had 2 scooters all trips and we never had any real problems with getting around. But we didn’t try to stick to timetables either. We stayed at YC, GFH, AK, POFQ and CR.
The trip to the parks in the mornings do take longer just because you are driving to another resort ( even just next door) loading passengers and then going to the parks, It is one of those things that comes up sometimes when people talk about AKL being so “far away” and long travel times. Timed bus trips by liners have repeatedly shown that AKL transportation can be quicker to HS than Poly because it does not have that extra resort stop.
Thank you so much to everyone who has commented! You’ve all had some really good points that i hadnt thought about and reassured me that we should be ok on the busses.
I’m not super concerned about stopping at GF in the morning. Just adding a few minutes here and there hopefully wont be too noticeable.
My thought was that we are going early-mid September, which is supposed to be the “quietest” time of year and im worried they will have taken away busses because its not super busy and it will take 50 minutes to get anywhere, according to the book… which i honestly dont even understand how that is possible to take so long but thats what it says, so it must have happened at some point to the researchers. And i an pretty sure that doesn’t account for waiting for the bus, it’s just ride time.
However I am feeling better about them not taking too long recently so thank you all!
I can not say that it has ever taken me that long to get to a park on the bus. I have waited a long time for a bus during covid. We were there 3xs during just because they didnt fill the buses. So it took 3 buses to transport the amount of people one bus would fill pre covid. Since buses are at full capacity I have not had any issues. Besides going back to AKL after extended hours at epcot. The line was looooong but they adjusted quickly and buses were added. I will add tgat the bus schedules in the app were accurate as well so you shouldnt have to wait at the bus stop too long.
It did take us that long to get from our resort to a park once. Unfortunately I dropped the ball and made an ADR for a resort restaurant in the MK area on an MK hard ticket night.
Always zig when others are zagging.
Bus schedules are meant to be on the hour and then every 20 minutes, so 20 and 40 after the hour. Stuff happens of course.
We try to be at the bus stop at either 15, 35 or 55 minutes after the hour. At times other than when everyone else is traveling. So 7 am or 4 pm. Like that. It’s guidelines.
But saving time isn’t really on our Disney radar. 
