Bus Wait Times at Disney World Now in App
Walt Disney World has unveiled a new bus wait time feature in the My Disney Experience mobile app that shows real time bus stop departure times. With this feature, Disney will provide up-to-the-minute estimates for when the next buses will depart from their Disney Resort hotel and arrive at their destination. In this post, we’ll provide a quick summary of the announcement, along with extensive commentary on this news.
These real time bus waits will provide current estimates for buses heading to all four theme parks, both water parks, and Disney Springs. The feature can be accessed in My Disney Experience by tapping “See Bus Times” when viewing an active hotel reservation. (In other words, unlike attraction wait times, these bus waits are not available if you’re not presently staying at Walt Disney World.)
In addition to the new bus wait time feature, My Disney Experience has a new design for the app, offering improved navigation and functionality. In playing around with MDX for a few minutes, I found it to be snappier in loading, and also much more intuitive in terms of navigation.
During the past year, Disney has added several features to My Disney Experience that allow guests to view room charges, track Disney dining plan credit usage, check into resort hotels online, make mobile orders at select counter service restaurants, and use their mobile devices as a digital key.
Anyway, here are our thoughts on the addition of bus wait times to MDX…
Our Commentary
As might be evident in us writing a blog post about an update to the My Disney Experience app, we view this as fairly significant news in terms of the quality of our Walt Disney World trips. We lauded the debut of the wait time boards for buses a couple of years ago, and begged for those times to be incorporated into the MDX app.
Here we are over two years later, and wait times for buses are finally in My Disney Experience. Calling these a game-changer would be hyperbole. It is a significant upgrade that will make getting ready and leaving our hotel in the mornings a smoother process, and will save us a decent amount of time over the course of a trip. Just as importantly, it adds predictability to the transportation experience.
Now, the current system is not perfect. There have been a handful of situations when the wait times have not been accurate for us, or have increased a couple of times while we’ve waited. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of traffic and other delays. Given the nature of bus transportation and extraneous variables, we’ve found the wait times to be about as good as can be expected.
The increased transparency with regard to buses in the past several years is not just a step forward, it’s a leap forward. Inconsistency in bus deployment was a serious issue for a while, and one we regularly lamented in trip reports. I still vividly recall multiple occasions of waiting for a bus to one park while 4-6 (that is not hyperbole) for a different park would pass.
While there are still times when we see a couple of buses for one park before a single bus for a different park, gone are the days when you might see 4 Disney’s Hollywood Studios buses and 0 for Magic Kingdom. I cannot even recall the last time we experienced that, but it has been at least 4 years.
Shortly before the wait time boards were introduced, we began noticing that bus transportation became more consistent. Wait times could still be a bit too high (in my opinion) at times, but the incredibly frustrating imbalance of buses was corrected, and I’d assume that’s thanks to backend software that makes bus allocation smoother. Whatever the explanation, the bus service at Walt Disney World is lightyears better today than it was around 2010.
Predictability and transparency in bus transportation are something I really value–perhaps overvalue. Even more than a long wait until the next bus, uncertainty over how long the wait will be is something I absolutely hate. It can make even a 5-minute wait excruciating, and is one reason why I always prefer to walk whenever possible. I just prefer being in control of my own destiny to the greatest extent possible (and I’m cognizant of the fact that this is odd).
However, this desire to be in control does not outweigh my hatred of driving. I also recognize this is odd, but I dislike driving, and especially dislike having to deal with it while traveling. (In my ideal world, I could get 90% of where I want to go via my feet and rail.)
Setting that aside, I think the leaps forward that Walt Disney World is making in terms of transportation coupled with the ubiquity of Uber and Lyft really call into question the need for a rental car at Walt Disney World. To be sure, there are some visitors who will spend a lot of time off-property, and it’s advantageous from that perspective to save money.
Historically, the more compelling argument in favor of renting a car at Walt Disney World has been to save time. At one point, this was unquestionably true. Now? I question that. There’s nothing convenient about trudging through a parking lot, having to deal with the Ticket & Transportation Center to get to Magic Kingdom, or being redirected to another lot (an infrequent occurrence now, but expect that to change once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens).
There have been a number of times when friends have offered to give us a ride from Magic Kingdom to Epcot or our next destination, and I’ve politely (but awkwardly) declined, saying I want to ride the monorail or take another form of transportation instead. This is in part because I love the monorail, but also in part because I hate dealing with the parking lot, looking for the car, and then getting into a 150º vehicle.
In addition to being a more pleasant experience that maintains the ‘Disney Bubble’, I think the monorail or even the buses are more efficient, anyway. (P.S. If any of our friends who have had one of these awkward encounters with me in the past are reading this, I swear it was nothing personal!)
I know there are some Walt Disney World regulars who are staunchly pro-rental car based upon experiences a decade or more ago, but I’d encourage you to rethink that perspective. For some people, renting a car is absolutely the best move. For others, it might just be a relic of conventional planning wisdom from years past, such as October being a great month to visit or that the Disney Dining Plan is a good deal. I’ve digressed pretty far from the point here, though… 😉
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Your Thoughts
What do you think about this new feature in My Disney Experience? Are we a bit too excited about it? Do you think we’re underestimating the value of a rental car at Walt Disney World, or do you agree? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I think it stinks that this feature is only available to people who stay at the Disney Resort Hotels! Not everyone can afford to do that and we still need to move from park to park efficiently!
The bus times feature is still not acceptable. It only works FROM the resort, but no information when you are trying to get back to the resort. Disney Sprongs continues to take forever with no information on wait times. This upgrade is a start, but barely.
Does anyone know if the new bus times feature only works during your stay? I have a reservation 35 days from now and wanted to check it out and familiarize myself with the feature, but it’s not showing up as an option on my app.
It becomes active while you are on your vacation. I had the same question and it worked great once my checkin day arrived.
Great! This will help visitors plan their day better.
Thank you for the post! My girlfriend’s brother is now working at Disney and is taking their transportation, very good and useful app.
Do I need to delete my current version of the Mydisneyexperience app and download a new version as my current version does not have the bus times feature as in the video above? I have a current trip booked with fastpasses and dining reservations. Will those come thru on the new version I download, if that is what I need to do?
Now I will be torn next time. But then I am always torn. I love the magic express, I love the watching the Disney videos on the way to Disney getting me in the mood and excited even though we have been there many times. And of course having Disney get our luggage is nice.
BUT we love having a car especially for early in the morning. I can’t image trying to get to Animal Kingdom for rope drop and waiting for a bus. And sometimes getting home later at night. Not to mention getting to another resort for dinner. But in the middle of the day when you are going to have to park far away the buses are better.
Honestly, do consider the Minnie Vans (or even a regular uber/lyft, those are still available) for those times you mentioned. Yeah it’s $25 a trip, but do the math and see if that ends up being cost effective compared to having a car the whole time. Heck, even just the hassle of keeping track of a rental car plus checking it out and in again. There is the car rental place on site too. One trip we used it just for two days during the middle when we wanted to get out into Orlando which was incredible and super convenient. I do agree though, Animal Kingdom isn’t the easiest to rope drop on the bus system.
I will continue to rent a car. WDW transportation is unreliable. I am unable to get from Kidani to Contemporary for Dinner easily or within a reasonable time. And the car in the parking lot may be hot but it will be only my sweaty family in the car. The Minnie Vans at $25 a pop is too expensive – adding $50 to my Cali Grill Dinner – when I can rent a car for less than $200/week. This next trip I am renting a car for $189 for 9 days. That being said, we are DVC and don’t pay the parking fees – ask me when they start charging me for resort parking fees. And I can come and go as I please – to me $189 is worth saving 15 minutes to an hour plus on each end of my day.
We just came back from a 9 day stay at AKL and I think we rode the bus maybe 4 or 5 times. We took breaks every day except one too! We loved the Minnie Van service because the buses were always late or crowded in our opinion at least. We also found the monorail midday to be super packed. With an 8 yo and a 2 yo, the $25 for peace and quiet with a car seat guaranteed was well worth it!
We were just at WDW in May and although we did still have some issues with the buses, we found the departure boards a massive improvement over our previous trips (2012 and 2015).
On one occasion when we did experience a severe bus delay, my husband spoke to guest services about it and suggested the addition of bus times to the app! We are pleased to see this now being added (although mildly annoyed that it didn’t happen a month ago!).
Now, if they could just iron out the dispatch kinks at park closing so that resort guests aren’t waiting over half an hour in huge lines for their bus back to the resort…
Maybe we were just lucky. We were in WDW two Christmas’s ago and had no trouble at all getting buses. On Christmas Day my daughter and I walked up at 8am and all bus lines were completely empty! I actually thought for a second I had the days wrong! Actually I was severely sleep deprived since my other daughter was up all night puking from the flu, but I digress…. I was so surprised by the lack of insanity to get to a park I even took a picture of my daughter with all the empty bus lines behind her We were headed to Epcot and just as we got to the bus stop a bus pulled up. We got on. Waited a few seconds and left! Had the whole bus to ourselves! We waited a few minutes some days but I was very pleasantly surprised. Sounds like that isn’t the norm for everyone but hoping the new info on the app only makes things better overall!
I generally enjoy driving, but it’ll never happen at Disney World. Hasn’t yet in 27 years of visits.
I’m one of this weird people who has trudged through virtually every inch of Disney World, including throughout all the Resorts. My wife thinks I’m nuts, but I love it, I need to see everything.
Everything that is except the parking lots.
Zero interest there. Disney bus/boat stops have their charms.
Disney parking lots? Ummm no.
This bus news is fantastic. Being able to check the app & know I can spend an extra 6-7 minutes finishing my coffee/beer on the balcony before leaving the room works for me. Been waiting for this!!
Wait over an hour for a bus to a park, like I have, and the bust stop loses its charm.
Wait over an hour for a bus to a park, like I have, and the bus stop loses its charm.
Last summer, I got an “any ride” fastpass for our family after a 50 minute wait at wilderness lodge past the original posted time (it kept changing, but the bus never came), when we were trying to get to HS early for jedi training signups. I dont know when the bus came because I ordered an uber eventually and complained to a CM (hence the FP). I think the problem is shared service at mutiple resorts filling up buses (we shared with the contemporary resort). I wish I could say the FP was worth it, but it really wasn’t–we wanted that jedi training! I am worried the app will be just as unreliable, with posted wait times changing whenever a bus you are waiting for fills up or gets diverted.
Yes, we had the same problem at Wilderness Lodge in 2016. The time posted on the board kept creeping up & up, and finally we asked a bus driver headed to a different park. She got on the radio & ensured that someone would come for us, but we waited ages (35+ minutes), with that wait time changing from 5 minutes, counting down to 1 minute, and then jumping up to 10 minutes, with the pattern repeating & adding 5-10 minutes every time. It was frustrating. Having said that, it was the only problem we had with the bus service over our 2 week stay, so I guess we can’t really complain!
Tom when I first loaded the updated app it says I can upgrade to an Annual Pass – Right on the App. “Apply the Cost of Your Ticket to an Annual Pass”
Correct me if I am wrong but this is the first time you can do this in a digital medium outside of going to Guest Relations…
To my knowledge, you are correct.
When I loaded for the first time, I also noticed my AP had an expiration in 2030, but that now does not seem to be the case (sadly).
I’m actually waiting to bridge a ticket for an upcoming trip. Now just to figure out how to actually do this within the app!
I’m planning to bridge some tickets on our next trip too. I tried to figure it out on the app, but I could not. It looked like it would only let me purchase APs not upgrade tickets. My tickets were not purchased from WDW (but are linked to my account), so maybe that’s why. Mike, post if you figure it out. I’m interested to know know if you get it to work. Thanks.
Same here–it told me I could upgrade my 5-day park hopper tickets, but when I went through the steps, it would only allow me to purchase a new AP at full price. And I purchased my tix through Disney as part of a package…
Please let us know if this works for you with a ticket bought through a discounted site. Looking to do this in November, so I know a lot could change by then but really hoping discounted ticket bridging is still possible. Possibly a new post Tom??
So here is the response I received from the Support people I emailed within the App.
“To upgrade to an Annual Pass, your tickets must be used at least once before they are eligible. Once you arrive at Walt Disney World Resort and use your ticket to enter a park, you will be able to upgrade and apply the cost to an annual pass.”
So according to them it still sounds like you can do this without going to Guest Relations you just have to have entered the park at least one day. My next trip is not until December so I won’t be able to test this until then. If anyone tries this out before then post an update!
I always rent a car each Disney trip even though its an extra expense. Its convenient to travel when you want to or from Epcot, AK, DHS, other resorts, or Disney Springs without dealing with buses, taxis, Uber, etc. Also, it the buses have too many unruly guests on board that ruin the experience. I will continue to rent a car regardless of the improvements to transportation.
We agree…while busses are sometimes convenient (MK, AK) we were reminded this past January of why we also rent our own car. Somewhat stranded at the Polynesian with a young child, and no monorail service working, we chose a private service (an upgraded taxi/SUV) waiting nearby. It was the most peaceful, pleasant Quiet ride back to the Beach Club. Loved it! Guests on buses, especially adults from the northeast, can be noisier than kids and not what you need after a long day at a park.
That’s weirdly specific guest profiling there. How do you even know they’re from the Northeast? I get that there are some regional accents, but still . . .
I wish they would have a rail/transportation system as efficient as the Paris or Tokyo Metro. I would love to see the cost comparison. Would be nice to throw in guest satisfaction as a factor in determining which would be better.
Well, nothing underground would be possible given the swampland, and monorail expansion costs are estimated to be incredibly high. I think the most realistic hope for efficient transportation is further gondola expansion.
Generally building street-level light rail is miles cheaper than building underground or above ground, provided, I assume, that you don’t have to build new roads. Streetcars can also be programmed to control the traffic lights they’re approaching, making them even more efficient. However, this would obviously involve taking away lanes from drivers.
Has Disney ever toyed with the idea of installing a shared bike service (like Bixi) and a network comprehensive bike lanes and paths? I imagine that the profits wouldn’t be enough to justify it, and it wouldn’t be practical for everyone, including families with small children, but having the ability to easily bike from park to park would offer an appealing kind of freedom for a good many people.
A huge improvement. That being said, I’m looking forward to the day when they can give me an idea of how long it’ll be until a resort bus arrives at a park, rather than the other way around. I’ve had very good luck with short waits for buses from my resort but midday bus waits from the parks back to the resort have been as long as forty-five minutes before!
Agreed, it’s interesting that the app only shows timing for buses leaving the resorts, and not those headed to the parks. Both directions are very important, but I would argue that the return-to-the-hotel bus wait *might* be a little more useful. That is, if I’m leaving the park and it’s going to be 30 minutes before a bus shows up (and there’s already a big line and my kid is getting cranky), that would be good to know so I can cut my losses and call a Minnie Van.
Oops, I meant “not those headed BACK FROM the parks.”
Completely agree!! I was hoping that update would go hand-in-hand with the resort-to-park info. When we stay on site for 2 weeks it is always the buses back from the parks to our resort (Caribbean beach) that spoil our memories of our trips – such as waiting 45 minutes at Animal Kingdom for a bus when the temp is in the 90’s cursing the 4th Pop Century bus that’s gone past 🙁 We hire a car for a few days at the start of the trip to go to walmart/publix for in-room water/beers/snacks and a day off site in Spring Hill or Clearwater, but now that they have started charging overnight to park at the resorts we may re-think!!!
“… gone are the days when you might see 4 Disney’s Hollywood Studios buses and 0 for Magic Kingdom.” I wish we could say that for our 5/5 – 5/12 trip, but we were frequently frustrated by this very experience on multiple days between POFQ and the parks (both directions). What was especially frustrating is knowing POFQ has only one stop–a key reason for us staying there every year instead of POR–yet we still had times where we always seemed to be waiting for the bus that wasn’t coming. I love the bus time displays at POFQ, and understand scheduling accuracy is relative, but we had at least two occasions where the wait time just kept increasing by about 5 minutes every couple of minutes. Like you, I want control of my own destiny, and this was incredibly frustrating to the point of (almost) taking a different bus and then transferring to the actual park we wanted. Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed (meaning my wife and boys were calmer than I), and we waited for what obviously would have been a much shorter travel time in the long run. I love that MDX now has this bus time feature, just as I loved when the signs initially went up at the resorts. I just wish there wasn’t a camera in them seeing that it is I waiting for the bus so therefore let the delays begin. : )
Wow, this is disappointing to hear. Any other readers have a similar experience to JimW in the last 1-2 years?
I hope I didn’t just jinx myself for our next trip by stating that this never happens anymore. (Not that I believe in that sort of thing!)
We just got back from a four day stay at Yacht Club. We had a similar experience where the bus estimated times would continue to rise. For one bus to AK, we waited over 30 minutes while 3 buses for Hollywood Studios made the rounds. It wasn’t every bus trip but enough to frustrate even the most patient in our family.
We had a similar experience this past April at POP. My husband and I commented more than once how that trip was the worst bus luck we’ve ever had. It was our first time at POP with the timing boards up and watching the wait times increase every couple of minutes was excruciating!
We stayed at POR in December 2016. Stayed there many times, but will not do so again until they fix the bus issues. We had numerous during our stay, but the two worst were (1) my wife waiting over an hour for an MK bus around 10 AM and (2) waiting nearly an hour at DS for a bus home when the property adjacent to DS had 4 buses come during the same period. We talked to the manager, and he was genuinely empathetic. He encouraged us to complain directly to Disney transportation, because our story was one he heard constantly, but is out of his control. We did get several golden ticket FP, which was nice, but the constant bus woes have turned us off a resort we have stayed at about 5 times.
I was at WDW during the same 5/5 to 5/12 trip dates staying at POR. We ran into the same thing. It seemed as if there were 4 AK buses for every MS and EP bus we saw. Wait times to get back to the resort were also miserable even after waiting 30+ minutes after fireworks had ended at each park.
We stayed at Contemporary last Oct. AK had morning EMH starting at 8am. We were told the first bus would run an hour early, so we were at the stop at 645 to be safe. We saw 4 HS busses go by, which we found odd, as they didn’t open until 9, and no AK bus. Eventually a line was forming and still no bus. At 720 (!!!) I finally flagged the HS bus down and asked to please get a bus to AK for us. One arrived at 735. It was frustrating.
We also waited 40 minutes for a bus from MK to Ft Wilderness. Had to have the transportation guy radio it in.
In two of our delayed experiences, I also ended up asking a driver going to a different park if he could radio for additional buses for our park. Both indicated there wasn’t anything they could do. Some of the people in line decided to go back to the resort front desk to see if anything could be done, but I’m pretty sure transportation is an independent entity and the resorts have no control or visibility into its scheduling. We had also waited for an early EMH rope drop one day and similarly saw buses arrive for parks that didn’t open until 9. That was really puzzling (and frustrating). (And strangely, given its half-day park status right now, they were usually more HS buses.) We’ve been going to WDW in early May for many years, and while there’s always some delay here or there (as expected), this year was definitely the worst we have seen it. Here’s hoping to a 2018 anomaly!
The buses are always so bad. I never understood why they don’t have magic band scanners at all stops they are missing out on so much data.
This is suuuuch a great idea, I mean seriously. Just knowing how many are waiting, how old they are, maybe even how many are marked as mobility impaired. In the short term it can tell dispatch which areas might need a bit of help, and in the long term it gives them valuable data that can be used to improve the system.
that is a FABULOUS idea to know how much demand is for a certain park and to send a second bus, etc.
We were super-lucky last week and at least 4 times were walking to the bus stop, saw the bus we wanted and ran and got on with no wait. Our longest wait from a hotel to the park for an entire week was 5 minutes. While I’m sure most of that is luck, some is probably better management on Disney’s part of the bus fleet.
But this will be a great addition! One of the saddest things in Disney is walking to the bus stop right as a bus is pulling away. Now we’ll know if we need to hurry of not. (n.b. My wife does not share this opinion at all.)
BTW, I suspect you are in the majority of wanting to control your own fate and preferring walking, etc. for that reason, I know it applies to me.
And not related to the subject, but your comment: “but also in part because I hate dealing with the parking lot, looking for the car, and then getting into a 150º vehicle.” I just got a Tesla model 3. I’m pretty sure my favorite feature is being able to turn on the A/C from the app on my phone so the car is cool when I get there! (Turning off evangelism. Living in CA, you probably get than enough!)