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I am not the type of blogger who tells you everything is perfect and wonderful at Disney World. I love Disney a lot otherwise we would go back there year after year after year. But being a so called Planning Expert by some people I do want to keep all my fans informed on some of the issues we experienced last week while at Walt Disney World.
Last week was the first time we were able to stay at a Deluxe Resort. Most times you will find us at the Pop Century. In case you didn’t know I do work for a living and just do this blog part time on the side. Yes its hard to believe with News & Views coming out every hour that I do this for fun and on the side. So staying at the Boardwalk was a big upgrade for us.
The resort is beautiful and the staff are great. The issue we had with Melissa from Disney on Wheels and our handicapped room was handled professionally and respectfully. We really enjoyed staying here for the most part. I think one of our biggest issues we had was the TRANSPORTATION!
I have always loved the Friendship Boats and enjoy taking them between Hollywood Studios and Epcot. I guess when you are at a resort that depends on these boats to get to and from the parks your bound to run into some issues.
Our first issue was shutting down the boats due to lightening off in the distance.
I am no meteorologist but being a surfer since I was very young I tend to pay more attention to the weather than most people. I can tell when it is storming pretty bad off in the distance and when it is raining buckets overhead. Being shoved off a boat and forced to march across a lake instead of taking the 2 minutes to finish your last stop to me is bad form. Don’t get me wrong I am all for safety but for me if Disney was so worried for our safety they wouldnt just throw the people off the boat and into the strike zone?
That issue while it was irritating and with a screaming baby made for a stressful 10 minute walk from the Beach Club to the Boardwalk, I can live with things happen.
Our second issue was with the Monorails.
We had a ADR at Kona Cafe at 7:30am one morning. It just so happened that the MK was under Extra Magic Hour and opened at 8am. So having jumped the bus from the Boardwalk to the MK and thankful that we didn’t have to stop at every resort on the way (stay tuned for more on that) we made it to the Magic Kingdom in record time. Now if they could have done something with the vomit smell on the bus. Oy
Jumping off the bus we took off for the Monorail to make our way to the Polynesian Resort. It was around 7:15 at this time. As we are walking up in ramp to the Monorail I notice an exodus of people from the boarding side and we just missed some announcement which apparently made people quite mad. Once arriving to the top we notice a empty monorail departing and upset looks on the remaining peoples faces. After about a 5 minute wait another Monorail shows up with people in it. They get off and we get on. Looking at my watch we have 10 minutes to get to the TTC or the Poly. We don’t mind the short walk between the 2 stops.
We jump on board and sit there, and sit there, and sit there. After about 10 minutes we hear an announcement about a safety check??? Ok we know we are going to be late at this point, but we patiently wait, and wait, and wait. More and more people run to get on the monorail and it is getting packed!
5, 10, 15, 20 minutes go by and still nothing. After about 15 minutes people start leaving after saying a few choice words. We give it 5 more minutes and decide we are already :30 minutes late and the park just opened so forget it lets go have breakfast at Main Street Bakery. After a quick detour at Space Mountain. (see below)
This leads me to my 3rd and final issue with the Disney World Transportation – The Buses!
So staying at a Deluxe Resort like the Boardwalk you would think they wouldn’t be like staying at the All Star Resorts. I mean even the Pop Century has direct buses to the parks.. My biggest complaint was how staying at a Boardwalk you had to visit the Beach Club, The Swan, The Dolphin, and sometimes the Water Parks.
That could easily take a 10-15 minute ride and stretch it over 40 minutes!!!
That is insane!
I imagine this is due to Disney cutting corners or saving money. If it is about saving gas then Disney needs to take a page from where I work and get Hybrid Transportation. While a little costly upfront the overall savings to the budget and the environment really shines in the long run.
My suggestion would be if you can’t give each resort their own bus then split them up Beach Club & Boardwalk in one bus then Swan and Dolphin in another.
No matter how you slice it Disney needs to work on its transportation. Bad transportation leads to upset visitors and in turn less visits to the parks. The first 2 issues I lived with but after a few days the buses really irritated me and many other passengers to no end. Your spending good money on a nicer resort they should get better service shouldnt they???
I want to hear your transportation woes in the comment box below.
Related articles
- Resort Transportation: Walt Disney World Transportation Methods (couponingtodisney.com)
- 5 Things we LOVE About the Disney’s Beach Club Resort (chipandco.com)
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