POR Bus Rides

[tmaxwell]

So tell me how the busses are? Is it a long ride to get to MK? I read someone spent about 3hrs a day on the busses. Is that true? We plan on taking mid day breaks. We are staying in a Royal River room if it makes any difference. Thank you!!

 

[herewego1]

So tell me how the busses are? Is it a long ride to get to MK? I read someone spent about 3hrs a day on the busses. Is that true? We plan on taking mid day breaks. We are staying in a Royal River room if it makes any difference. Thank you!!

I would never spend 3 hours on a bus. If the bus line looks long, we take a cab. If you are going to MK, you could take the cab to the Contemporary and walk to MK. Money on cabs when needed, is money well spent, IMO! We NEVER had a problem with a bus back to POR. Most of the time in the afternoon, there were only a handful of people. Of course, the time of year you go makes a difference.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We have never really had a problem with bus transportation at Port Orleans Riverside but we may be more patient than some. I would also not pay for a taxi when you can order an uber or Lyft for half the price. One stay was June and the other March. Three hours a day on a bus is hyperbole. The longest bus ride is less than 30 minutes. You would have to take 6 of those to equal 3 hours. Now, add in waiting time

 

[herewego1]

We have never really had a problem with bus transportation at Port Orleans Riverside but we may be more patient than some. I would also not pay for a taxi when you can order an uber or Lyft for half the price. One stay was June and the other March. Three hours a day on a bus is hyperbole. The longest bus ride is less than 30 minutes. You would have to take 6 of those to equal 3 hours. Now, add in waiting time

Ah yes!! That's a good idea, too!

 

[Liv4Dis]

Staying at Riverside now and have been here since the 4th (this is also our 5th or 6th stay at this resort ?). Anyway the longest we have waited for a bus would be 15 minutes except today my son was at Magic Kingdom at around 2 and waited 45 minutes for a bus to Riverside which is totally unusual.

 

[rosiebean]

This past August, I took buses to parks for half days...trip to and from the resort was 30 minutes at most (combined, not one way). Heck, one day, we took a bus from GF to AK, jumped back onto it to look for a dropped magic band, ended up taking that bus to Pop (we jumped on as it was pulling out of AK and it turned out the GF bus goes to Pop after AK)...took a taxi from Pop to GF (to get our backup magic band after failing to find the dropped one on the bus), grabbed the backup magic band in our room, grabbed another bus from GF to AK...all in about 50 minutes.

Bus service was fantastic. Granted, on other trips, round trip bus rides have taken closer to 45 minutes.

If anyone spends three hours a day on buses, they are going at Christmas or are visiting three or more parks a day, IMO. Or, they're exaggerating.

 

[Kaytie]

Three hours? In three hours you can be almost in Fort Lauderdale. I think that person exaggerates.

 

[tmaxwell]

I would never spend 3 hours on a bus. If the bus line looks long, we take a cab. If you are going to MK, you could take the cab to the Contemporary and walk to MK. Money on cabs when needed, is money well spent, IMO! We NEVER had a problem with a bus back to POR. Most of the time in the afternoon, there were only a handful of people. Of course, the time of year you go makes a difference.

We go towards the end of August. Only time we can go since I'm an accountant and my husband is a teacher. Do they have Minnie Van Sevice there now? I know the resort is beautiful, I'm just second thinking my choice in resort.

 

[dansdad]

We go towards the end of August. Only time we can go since I'm an accountant and my husband is a teacher. Do they have Minnie Van Sevice there now? I know the resort is beautiful, I'm just second thinking my choice in resort.

As of now the Minnie Van service is only available at the Deluxes.

 

[vinotinto]

We didn't have any issues with the buses at POR. In fact, I thought they came more frequently than for the deluxe hotels we have stayed at. There is a monitor at the POR bus stop and you can see when the next one is coming. The South Depot also had a coordinator that helped establish lines for the different parks. There are 4 stops and they pick up and drop off in the same order: West - North - East- South.

My recommendation is to walk around the resort when you first arrive so that you can get oriented. You'll have a bus stop that is closest to your room, but there may be another bus stop that will save you time, either going to the parks or returning from the parks. For example, our closest stop was south, which was the best stop to the parks because it was the last one to get picked up, but returning from the parks, it was the last stop. So, after we walked around, we realized we could get out at the first stop (West) and even walking to our room it saved us time.

We took Uber twice and it worked very well. Once to Disney Springs. We had planned to take the boat, but they don't operate it if there are thunderstorms in the area. We went Labor Day weekend and there were thunderstorms every afternoon. So, we took an Uber. It was $7 plus tip and it was very quick! The other time, we took it to GF to eat at Narcoossee's. Again, it was very reasonable and very quick and saved us from having to take the bus to MK and then switching to the monoral and going all around the resorts.

 

[loves to dive]

The buses are the buses are the buses, no resort has better or worse service. The time to MK depends on traffic, no one can predict that but with the exception of the monorail resorts and WL, all the resorts are at least 20 min. from MK, doesn't matter who is doing the driving. I've stayed at just about every resort on property and with no exceptions have at one point or another had to wait 30 min. or more for a bus and have waited no longer than 2 min. for a bus. If you look on the POR sticky in the resort forum, it will tell you the order of the bus stops so you can determine which one you want to get on and off at.

 

[Sue M]

Had several stays and never spent 3 hrs on busses. That statement is taken out of context. We don't know how many trips were in those 3 hrs.
No matter what resort we've all had those morning where every bus but yours goes by several times. And park closing at MK can be a mess. I was caught in park closing one night and took an hour to get to GF.

We take mid day breaks too, and it's never been a problem.

It's not a long ride to MK. POR is surprisingly close to Ft Wilderness and the bus uses that back road to MK. Never any traffic.
We had a Royal room in Oak Manor and just walked to the back and thru parking lot to bus stop sort of between Oak and Magnolia Terrace. Much more pleasant than the main Depot imo.

 

[Sue M]

As of now the Minnie Van service is only available at the Deluxes.

And not much of a deal at $20 per trip.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

So tell me how the busses are? Is it a long ride to get to MK? I read someone spent about 3hrs a day on the busses. Is that true? We plan on taking mid day breaks. We are staying in a Royal River room if it makes any difference. Thank you!!

We stayed at POR in the royal rooms in Magnolia I believe and our bus experience was fine. We were there Aug 11-15, 2017, so fairly recent. We did come back midday sometimes and it was a breeze. The only time we had a bus issue, and I will use issue loosely, was when we left MK at close. The bus was very crowded but we still got on and got a seat, didn't have to stand which was nice. I will say the busses will likely always be full since POR is just so big but our trips to MK, AK and Epcot were all fine.

 

[stinkpickle]

When returning to the resort, watch for POFQ buses, also. It's an easy walk from there to POR's royal rooms. Of course, those buses might stop off at POR afterwards, anyway.

 

[siskaren]

And not much of a deal at $20 per trip.

And that's why I don't see why there's so much fuss over them.

 

[Sue M]

And that's why I don't see why there's so much fuss over them.

I agree, people think they're cute, but for $20 I'm over it! I thought they were bringing something out that would be competitive with Uber. This is not.

 

[siskaren]

I agree, people think they're cute, but for $20 I'm over it! I thought they were bringing something out that would be competitive with Uber. This is not.

Actually, it sounds like it's mostly an advantage for families who need 2 car seats.

 

[Sue M]

Actually, it sounds like it's mostly an advantage for families who need 2 car seats.

I know you can request a taxi van from the onsite Mears taxis. We request them because of luggage when we move resorts. I thought I saw car seats one time. I could be wrong, it was a few years ago.

 

[vinotinto]

When returning to the resort, watch for POFQ buses, also. It's an easy walk from there to POR's royal rooms. Of course, those buses might stop off at POR afterwards, anyway.

Forgot to mention earlier that this is what we did at MK closing one night. The line for POR was very, very long. So we took the bus to POFQ and walked to POR. It's a pretty walk along the river. We were not the only ones walking. Took less time than waiting for multiple buses to load, etc.