AKV and the quarter-mile long hallways

[jarestel]

My goodness, the difference of 5-10 minutes travel time to the parks is not going to make a difference no matter where you stay.

Yet there are many who post here who would rather drive to the parks because they disagree with your conclusion. Different strokes!

Regarding the distances on the chart:
According to Map Quest, driving distance from BC to Epcot is 2.98 miles. Evidently the distances posted on the chart pertain to driving, not walking.

 

[minnie61650]

The "science" of guess-timating transportation times is extremely imprecise, to say the least. Some measure from the moment one steps onto the conveyence to the time one steps off. Others will factor in their wait times. Still others add in time spent walking to/from the transportation depots as part of the trip. I suspect many don't measure at all but simply go with a general "That wasn't bad" or "That was horrible" perception. All of these conflicting methods contribute to the confusion whenever the topic arises.

As crisi mentioned, if you have a "magical" trip where every bus/boat/monorail is pulling in just as you arrive, your perception of that resort will be that the transportation is fabulous. On the other hand, if your ride seems to always be pulling out just as you arrive and you have to wait for the next one, your enthusiasm for the transportation at that resort will be tempered somewhat.

Of course, neither of these scenarios is the norm, but they do happen and people without a lot of experience at a resort tend to assume this is what they can expect, good or bad, on future trips. The reality lies somewhere in between. Sometimes it's a fairly short trip & sometimes it's not. I don't expect AKV will be any different in this respect than any of the other DVCs.

Thanks for your obsevations. I think you have made some very good points.


I would just like to clarify that the transportation times from the Passporter book that I posted are the average times that once the bus leaves the resort until the bus arrives at the park.

Have fun at Disney!

 

[BCVBRUCE]

Yet there are many who post here who would rather drive to the parks because they disagree with your conclusion. Different strokes!

Good for them. I am not debating the issue of driving your own car vs utilizing WDW transportation. The issue at question is which resort is closer, which resort has the longest travel times AND since we all forgot, whether or AKV halls are too long.

My opinion and not a conclusion is that it is trivial if one is to worry about the difference of 5-10 minutes of travel time, which resort is closer, which resort has the "longest hallways", and etc.

There are more important things to worry about, while on vacation at WDW, such as are your kids smiling when they see Mickey or experience the WDW magic.

This last trip, we waited 52 minutes for a bus from EPCOT to SSR. Yes, I was mad. However, I do not let that one trivial thing dictate my WDW experience.

Regarding the distances on the chart:
According to Map Quest, driving distance from BC to Epcot is 2.98 miles. Evidently the distances posted on the chart pertain to driving, not walking.

I knew someone one say that. It is misleading. The PassPorter "Travel Time" chart is more representative of actual WDW transtortation. The distance chart is pointless!

 

[jarestel]

I knew someone one say that. It is misleading. The PassPorter "Travel Time" chart is more representative of actual WDW transtortation. The distance chart is pointless!

It depends how you count time. If you read minnie61650's explanation of how the times were derived, then you know that is the average drive time counted from the time you step on the bus to the time you step off. No wait times or other factors are counted. But as you told us you waited 52 minutes for a bus. So certainly that is time that most folks do account for when determining transportation times, passporter values notwithstanding. It would seem reasonable also that regardless of drive times, to drive 12 miles would take longer than driving 6 miles, yes? The only point of the distance chart is to emphasize "distance" which usually equates to time on a trip, yes?

Depending on one's agenda, you could report only the actual drive time (making a resort's transportation look great since it wouldn't matter how long you had to wait before boarding the bus) or you could start timing it the moment you leave your room and head to the depot and report that value (making the transportation time a bit more realistic -and longer- than simple drive times).

Some people are concerned with the amount of walking staying at a certain resort entails and the time it takes to utilize Disney transportation. Evidently you're not one of them, but as I said, different strokes! What does it matter to you what someone else chooses?

 

[Anthony1971]

Interesting...the majority of the reports I've read (and I've stayed there a few times, and agree with them) disagree. They peg the AKL transport as the most efficient bus transportation on property, and right up there with any of the deluxes...you're just not as "close" to any one park as many of the deluxes are.

I have never known the bus service at any deluxe to be efficent I found the moderates to have much better bus service. I can tell you I stayed at POR and CSR and bothe were short wait times and fast rides POLY and CR were bad BW BC I will not even go there. By far none of these were good.... I would say the bus service at the mod. is better than OKW and SSR which are both very efficent.
AKV no one will know until 2009.... I would hope they add more buses as there service now will not accomadate the number of people and also an internal loop as those wishing to eat at BOMA or JIKO will need some way to get between the resorts and all of the other resorts of similar distnace to the main building do the same.
Time is hit or miss period if you like seeing the animals than it is worth it if it ends up being longer.
I will say AKL has better bus service then the other Deluxe resorts --see above-- but that is the only means of getting to or from the resort.

 

[owensjro]

My daughter often has a hard time falling asleep once we are back in the room, even after a long day at the parks. So, for us, a slightly longer bus ride is perfect. Just that much more time for her to fall asleep so we can get her in bed. Often the ride is just a bit too short and she is close to falling asleep but then perks back up as soon as the bus stops.

As for bus service, I've stayed at CS, CB, POR, VWL, ASM, POP, BCV, BWV, and OKW all within the last 6 years or so. The best bus service I have encountered was at POP (which I have actually stayed at 3 times now). Line management at the resort is great...I love that they have actual queues to stand in. Bus frequency was good on all stays except on one occassion...but there are always exceptions. And it was "close" to all of the parks.

I felt the worse busing was from BCV with OKW a close second. This was mainly due to the fact that there are multiple stops and if you aren't at the right stop you may have a full bus pulling up with no one getting off and thus no one able to get on. That to me was more frustrating than having to wait a bit longer for any bus to arrive.

Jim

 

[Robo-Daddy 3000]

You may be right about this for buses running to AK from other resorts. There is bus transportation from BB to AKL and back as well though so they have to stop there at least some of the time, though as I'm trying to remember, maybe it's only the DTD bus that makes this stop.

We stayed at WL in April and after we boarded the bus and were on our way to AK in the morning with a fairly full bus, the driver asked if anyone on the bus was going to BB. As it turned out, no one was, as it was a whole bus of people on their way to AK. So, he just bypassed the BB stop on the way there. But on the way back in the afternoon, he stopped by BB and picked up to 2 people for the return to the WL.