Travel Time Question - Pop Century to Parks

My 5 year old & I will be staying at Pop Century from 7/2/15 to 7/7/15. This is our first visit. I will be using a stroller. I am trying to decide if I should get a rental car (although I really don’t want to drive).

I am wondering how much time I should allocate for traveling between Pop and MK/AK/HS/Epcot? I was told they had their own buses & travel on a 20 minute time table. Would an hour be enough time for morning/afternoon/evenings?

Almost everyday I have early morning ADR’s, so I would need to be there before rope drop, which I am under the impression if you tell the front desk at the hotel, they make sure the bus comes early around 6:30?

Everyday I will be doing afternoon rest breaks… If I allocate 1 hour for bus ride to hotel, 2 hours for rest, then 1 hour ride back to the park… would that be realistic?

One hour should be plenty of time. The only time you’d likely be looking at more than that is if you stay til closing and try to exit with the masses.

I haven’t done WDW with a kid since I was one, but I think you will be able to manage without a car. While the buses do generally come every 20 minutes, there are sometimes longer waits. Travel times vary depending on which park you’re going to, obviously. HS is a very quick trip from Pop, the other three parks are longer. I think MK was about 20 minutes. If you talk to the hotel front desk, they should be able to guarantee you transportation, even to a pre-RD ADR.

I think that planning an hour each way for your break is good, but two hours might not be a long enough duration with a little one. Are you hoping to swim? Nap? I’d plan on a 2.5 - 3 hour break, personally.

I would say “gernerously” realistic. The actual bus rides average about 20 min. Taking into account the walk from the park gate to the bus, waiting, riding, and walking from the bus to your room (and vice versa), 60 min is probably about right. PoP does not share busses with other resorts; the 20 min schedule is “on paper”; I’ve seen busses as close as 10 min apart and I’ve waited nearly 30 on occasion.

I’ve never done pre-RD ADRs, so I have no first-hand knowledge there - but many Liners have posted that it’s no problem (although some prefer to take a cab).

I always drive to WDW, so I always have a car, but use it as little as possible once I’ve checked in. If I flew I doubt I would ever bother with a rental car.

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We’ve stayed at Pop twice and used the bus service exclusively both times. That seems like plenty of time. Pop is pretty centrally located and does have its own bus system, as @bswan26 says. @Outer1 is correct too, the longest waits were in the evening after a nighttime event. It’s good to remember that AoA buses could also be an option if they arrive first or there is less of a line. We had wanted to walk around that resort anyway so combined it with a return trip back to the resort one evening. We just walked back across Generation Gap bridge to Pop.

Have you checked out this link? It may give you an indication on travel times: http://www.ourlaughingplace.com/aspx/twiz.aspx#.VWYHKs-6e1s

:smile:

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I am 100% open to taking a cab if need be (however if I can get away with riding the bus for free, that’s preferable)… I plan on doing that for any resort-resort ADR’s I’ve scheduled.

THANK YOU!!! What a cool link!

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You’re most welcome! :smile:

Resort-to-resort travel is the one time that I DO use my car (and would use a cab if I didn’t have a car). it can be done by bus, but it’s a long and tedious process (it took me almost 90 min to get from BW to Poly via DTD one evening).