Disney World Adds Rule Restricting Resort Bound Buses
Walt Disney World is implementing restrictions on which guests can use the free buses between Disney Springs and the resort-bound hotels. This not-so-new rule has resulted in a surprising amount of backlash on social media and confusion. Here’s what’s happening and why, along with our potentially unpopular opinion that WDW should implement harsher rules of this nature.
During the peak week of Easter, Disney Springs has limited who can utilize the bus service bound for the Walt Disney World Resort Hotels. The restriction was put in place for Spring Break, and we headed to Disney Springs today to learn more about the restrictions and what you can expect if you’re visiting soon. (Okay, mostly for the brunch burger at STK and Gideon’s…but I also checked out this while there.)
It’s our understanding that this is a temporary rule, with the restriction expected to lift in the coming days or weeks. Given that the height of Spring Break season is already almost over, this might be over by the time you read this (at least, for now). In other words, this is not intended to be a permanent policy, but rather, a mitigation measure during times when there’s less ‘parking and bus bandwidth’ due to higher crowds.
With this restriction, Walt Disney World is limiting use of bus transportation from Disney Springs to the resort hotels to guests who have business to be there. Meaning they have an active reservation at a resort hotel of some sort–a hotel stay, Advance Dining Reservation, or some other booking. (I doubt Mobile Order or Table Service To-Go qualifies, but didn’t ask to confirm.)
Walt Disney World is doing this to ensure that there’s ample bus transportation available to guests who are staying at the resort hotels or guests who have a legitimate purpose for being there. The idea is reducing lines and wait times for the buses.
Awareness of this rule also helps increase parking availability at Disney Springs, which is actually the scarcer resource right now, although that’s part of the longer game. Even with multiple massive parking structures, Disney Springs can have limited spaces during peak periods.
The more immediate impact is shorter lines for the buses. During our visit, Disney Springs was an absolute madhouse, including the roads to get in and the parking structures. Meanwhile, the lines for the buses were virtually nonexistent.
Guest Relations Cast Members are working as gatekeepers to the bus loops, scanning MagicBands, Key to the World Cards, or reviewing My Disney Experience bookings to ensure eligibility. Guests who do not have a valid reason to use the transportation are being politely informed that buses to resort hotels are currently only available for resort guests, and are turned away.
While I was waiting for my Pop Century-bound bus to arrive, I saw several parties appear to be turned away. (Emphasis on appear–there are multiple bus loops at Disney Springs and Cast Members might’ve been directing them to a different one. There’s a lot of confusion here even on a normal day.)
It’s worth noting that the reservation checkpoints are before the various sets of bus loops, and not at the specific stops. Once you’ve proven you’re an on-site guest or have an eligible reservation of some sort, you’re free to access whichever bus stop you’d like. Meaning that this does not impact resort hopping for on-site guests; the restriction is aimed exclusively at those staying off-site.
It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time Walt Disney World has done this with the buses from Disney Springs. There were reports of this happening over the most recent holiday season, and even that was nothing new. I’m not entirely sure how frequently it happens, but I recall having my MagicBand scanned pre-COVID at some point (I think it was Christmas 2019).
Although I couldn’t get a firm answer as to when this policy would end, I’d be surprised if it’s still around by late April or May. Summer is slower season at Disney Springs, so it’s unlikely to be needed then. I could see this returning around Columbus Day and remaining in place through early January 2027, but that’s purely speculative.
It’s also possible that the restriction will have run its course after this weekend, and won’t be reinstated again for a while. These checkpoints are labor intensive (there were multiple Guest Relations Cast Members and a manager for each loop), and deterrence is one of the end goals. If word gets out now that you can’t park at Disney Springs and take a bus to the resorts, maybe that ease the strain on the parking structures this fall and holiday season.
This is just one of many restrictions aimed at preventing guests from taking advantage of free parking and free resort transportation.
There’s a reason you can’t simply drive up to the Contemporary and park without any business for being there. Or, more recently, why even Caribbean Beach has become one of the more “locked down” resorts, when it was never that way pre-Skyliner.
There’s also the fact that bus service doesn’t go from Disney Springs to the theme parks…for a reason. This is nothing new, and has the exact same underlying motivations. That reason, of course, is because parking is free at Disney Springs but costs $35 at the theme parks.
Ever since I’ve been an active participant in the Walt Disney World fan community, which is 20 years as of this year, it’s been a controversial hack to park at Downtown/Disney Springs in order to circumvent parking fees. I vividly recall the flame wars on the frontlines of the forums as people debated the ethics of this–it was right up there with reusing reusable mugs! (IYKYK.)
The bottom line is that you can save money by parking your car at Disney Springs and taking a bus to a resort that is close to the park you’re intending to visit, and then walking or taking another bus from there. This was a well-known trick back in the day, and I can only imagine how much worse it’s gotten in the TikTok and Instagram era where every little guest courtesy is exploited and abused to the point that it becomes a problem for Disney.
While some fans consider this parking hack morally reprehensible, I honestly couldn’t care less about the ethics or whatever of this. We’ve never recommended this to our readers because it’s a colossal waste of time. If you have the financial resources to visit Walt Disney World in the first place, your limited vacation time has enough value not to jump through pointless, time-consuming parking hoops. Just pay the $35 and be done with it. (Alternatively, just stay on-site at a Value Resort–the perks alone are worth it.)
Nevertheless, when I’ve seen the social backlash to this temporary rule, this tidbit about the free parking hack is conveniently omitted.
There’s a lot of bluster about Walt Disney World being “cheap” by doing this, but that’s not my perspective at all. To me, that feels like people telling on themselves because, frankly, I don’t know why else someone would have a strong opinion on this unless they are trying to circumvent parking fees. (I’m sure there’s some other niche use case, but it’s going to be rare and pretty much any valid purpose involves a reservation.)
Look, I’m very much a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” kind of person. As much as I dislike eBay pirates, for example, my perspective has consistently been that Disney could shut that down in an instant if they so desired. (Or people could just stop buying overpriced junk at a colossal markup.) So yeah, the pirates are bad, but they’re going to prosper until Disney acts.
It’s a similar story with circumventing parking fees. I think it’s stupid and a waste of time, but to each their own on that. At the same time, that “don’t hate the player, hate the game” mantra works in reverse. The player cannot hate the game when the game gets them, and closes a loophole that they’d exploited. And that’s really what this is.
Accordingly, I will present the flipside to this frustrating rule restricting bus access, which is that I’ve been in a long line for buses at Disney Springs. I’ve “missed” a bus to my resort because the line got cut in front of me.
That happened while attempting to get back to the Contemporary at a time when most other bus stops had minimal lines. Of course, I can never know for sure that anyone in front of me was trying to circumvent parking fees, but I can make an educated guess based on the circumstances.
It wasn’t really a big issue in the grand scheme of things, as another bus arrived in 10 minutes or so, and my time doesn’t really have much value anyway. I even got a seat whereas I would’ve been standing, packed with fellow sardines, on the previous bus. But as someone whose DVC dues were quite literally paying for that bus transportation, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little perturbed by the situation.
Back when we were locals, we also had countless frustrating experiences with a lack of parking at Disney Springs. It’s my understanding that this has only gotten worse, so I can’t fault Walt Disney World for wanting to limit parking to guests who actually plan on patronizing Disney Springs. I’d hazard a guess that the third party tenants are not upset about this rule!
My potentially unpopular opinion is that Walt Disney World restricting access is a good thing that should happen more often.
Honestly, I don’t really think this is even a particularly unpopular opinion. It doesn’t play well on social media, which is populated disproportionately by locals and other budget-conscious guests trying to do Walt Disney World on a dime. I don’t begrudge those individuals, but I do think it’s important to be cognizant of the limited nature of resources, and which guests should be prioritized.
I’d hazard a guess that it’s not really on the radar of most tourists, so they don’t have a strong opinion one way or another. Or they reflexively oppose any new decision or changes made by ‘modern’ management, assuming they’re being made with ulterior motives, cost-cutting, nickel & diming, etc. (Can’t really fault fans for instantly having this type of skepticism!) Another possibility is that they don’t give it much thought, so they’re sympathetic to the complaints and backlash. After all, why can’t everyone enjoy the magic of Disney…bus transportation?!
The problem is that capacity is finite. This is pretty well understood when it comes to Walt Disney World as a whole, as opening the floodgates means higher attendance, and in turn, higher crowd levels. Nobody likes heavy crowds and long wait times, even if they may not appreciate the means to accomplishing lighter attendance.
We’ve also seen this come up with topics like the switch from evening Extra Magic Hours to Extended Evening Hours. By late 2019, the former had become miserable. We actively avoided them and recommended readers do the same because you were better off, from a strategic perspective, in seeking out the parks that weren’t hosting the ‘exclusive’ perk.
Now, I think there were means of reforming Extra Magic Hours without going as far as Disney did with Extended Evening Hours, as the optics of that aren’t great, but I don’t have the repulsion to ExEH as do many fans. Especially since it’s accessible without breaking the bank by staying at the Swolphin or renting Disney Vacation Club points.
Also along the lines of capacity allocation is the changes in policy and prioritization of lines made over the last couple of years with Lightning Lanes and standby lines. As we’ve written repeatedly over the years, queueing is a zero-sum game, and the changes that Walt Disney World has made have achieved a better balance between interests of guests using standby lines and Lightning Lanes–a rare positive for guests not paying extra for line-skipping!
A final example is with the Island Tower at the Polynesian, which is home to terrace gardens with fantastic fireworks views. Because of these, elevator access requires a room key. To me, this makes perfect sense. Those terrace gardens are incredibly low capacity, and if they were open to the public, people would loiter around in them, and paying guests with limited/valuable vacation time wouldn’t have a chance at using them.
Nevertheless, on one of the nights when I was staying at the Island Tower last year and watching the fireworks from the terrace garden, a drunken gaggle of guests occupying the front row seats was loudly boasting about how they weren’t actually staying at the resort. (They obviously knew this wasn’t going to endear them to anyone else; it was almost as if they were seeking a confrontation, which they never got.)
I’m not saying this because I’m some “let them eat cake” Walt Disney World elitist. To the contrary, our stays at Island Tower will be few and far between; we won’t be able to access the terrace gardens when staying at All Star Sports or anywhere else, which we do far more often than the Poly.
However, I can recognize that as a practical reality, prime fireworks viewing in these spaces is a scarce resource that should be treated like it is–as an amenity for registered guests who are staying in the Island Tower. If there’s still excess capacity with the keycard system (there isn’t!), expand the eligibility pool to all guests staying at the Polynesian Villas or even on the hotel side.
Expensive hotels ration and reserve amenities for registered guests pretty much everywhere. I’m not sure why this concept is controversial among Walt Disney World fans. People paying Poly prices/points should have priority over visitors.
It’s a similar story with security being stringent and not allowing guests without stays or dining reservations to park at certain hotels.
While I agree that there needs to be a better solution to this for locals wanting to spend money at a bar or whatever (parking validation with minimum purchase, ideally), my general belief is that common areas of several Walt Disney World resorts are already overcrowded and those hotels need to be more restrictive, not less.
I’m not exactly sure how Walt Disney World resorts accomplish that from a practical perspective given how porous arrival points are, but it’s not unprecedented. Tokyo Disney Resort does exactly this with Toy Story Hotel and Fantasy Springs Hotel. Disneyland Paris does the same with Disneyland Hotel. It sort of happens at the Grand Californian, but only via the curb front walkway.
Locals and off-site guests have expressed annoyance at all of this, asserting that they do spend money at hotels, buying drinks at the bars, etc. I can appreciate this to an extent, and understand the frustration.
It’s an outgrowth of the infamous ‘unfavorable attendance mix’ comments the former CFO once made on an earnings call. No one who is already spending a lot of money wants to be told that, actually, they aren’t spending enough money.
At the same time, I’ve been around the block and have a lot of experience with Disney hotels; there’s a small minority of people who monopolize these spaces to the detriment of paying guests. (I’m also not casting stones! I’ve been one of these locals, working remotely from on-property.)
I’m not sure what the answer is to all of this, but I do know that space is scarce at some resort amenities and the guests paying hundreds (if not thousands) per night should be prioritized and the atmosphere of those spaces preserved. I also know this is a distinctly Disney problem; it’s not something I’ve encountered at other high-end hotels in the real world.
I can understand why this is more controversial, and I’m certainly not suggesting that every Walt Disney World hotel should be on total lock-down to the point that you can’t set foot in the lobby without spending thousands per night. That’s too extreme.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are certain lobbies and lounges that are teetering on having a Starbucks vibe–and not in a good way. As someone who has been a local on both coasts, my hope is that Disney finds a way to thread the needle and balance access. The ‘vacation bubble’ of Walt Disney World is something special, and as Central Florida’s population continues to grow, this could turn into a bigger problem over time.
That’s separate from the temporary bus rules, though. As for Disney Springs restricting bus access to guests with reservations at a resort, that is very obviously a positive from my perspective. Frankly, I’m not even sure how this is even remotely controversial.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on this Disney Springs bus rule? What are your deep thoughts on Walt Disney World restricting access to the resorts, or otherwise allocating amenities to paying guests? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
Years and years ago. when I was in my early 20s, md i was a sporadic visitor to Epcto for drinking around the world, I went to Disnry with a group of friends, and one member claimed to be an expert of all things Disney. She had us park at DS and do the bus “hack” transfer, etc. It was terrible and was a huge waste of time, just to save some money when we could have split it between everyone. I’ve grown, became a Disney regular who likes to stay at the resorts and think this should be a permanent change.
I am a local with an Annual Pass. In my view, this is an extraordinarily crowded Easter week / Spring Break. Imposing this rule is justified, however, I highly doubt that it will be permanent, especially during slow times of the year. There can be profit for Disney from those who stop at a Resort for lunch or a drink or two before proceeding to the Park of their choice. In spite of free parking through my annual pass, I will often take a bus from Disney Springs to Riviera Resort, take the short walk from the bus stop to the sky buckets…umm ..Skyliner to be left right at the gate to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios. It is a pleasant trip and it avoids the possibility of being sent all the way down to the end of the parking row in lot and having to schlep all the way back to the tram.
I remember back in the day they used to check your room key before you were allowed to use WDW transportation. They could also just start charging for parking at Disney Springs like they do at CityWalk- maybe they could just choose to validate parking on purchases of $35+.
Back in the day the styrofoam coffee cups in the hotel rooms and the ones at resort food court restaurants were the same, so a popular hack was to take the room cups and use them to get coffee “refills” at the food courts. Obviously Disney caught on to this long ago, but still you have to wonder about people’s integrity (or lack thereof).
Personally I’d be happy if they closed the bus loophole permanently.
Great article. Try to thing of other trying to enjoy there vacation as well. Another annoying transportation issue is people who rent mobile devices from a third party and get priority boarding buses and take lots seats. The buses load slower and fewer guests can get on. We have waited for three buses before being able to get a bus from and to our resort.
In December we heard MANY conversations on those buses from people who would park at DTD, go to a resort and then take that bus to a park. They would still skip paying the parking, just at the “low cost” of more bus time. We also got on the bus in DTD back to our resort and a group of 14 got on with us. They were staying offsite at motel in 3 different rooms and bragged about parking at DTD all week to get around “for free”.
In DTD, we saw a massive group in line for Contemporary. They would have required 2 – 3 busses. I believe they were from Brazil. Somebody asked where they were going. They said to the Christmas party. They could have all been staying at the Contemporary, but I doubt it.
I would like to see this become permanent. I know that puts a damper on things for guests off property, which is not really my intent. Disney will not really be losing money when you consider they need to have a reservation of sorts to go to the hotel. They will still go there to eat. Just now to shop and look around. What it may do is curb some of the AP resellers who go to the resorts and buy up all the resort-specific merch for their side Disney business. If nothing else, maybe Disney could do this for March – end of April and September – mid-January.
We will happily pay the $35!! It’s a great day out visiting all the resorts, using the transportation, shopping, dining, and Disney Springs! This should have happened years ago and we’ve just been very lucky that it didn’t happen sooner.
i agree with you Tom. There are so many people who will always try to game the system. The next comment I have will date me for sure. I remember as a young kid that you had to show your resort ID or park ticket to even ride the bus. it worked pretty well back then to reduce those long lines. this was also when all of the buses were color-coded for their routes.
LOL Tom your response backs up Kelsey’s comment
I feel like some of the full busses from DS to the monorail resorts and Saratoga to the parks could be relieved by providing an option to travel between DS and the parks again. Make it so you have to be staying on property to use it. That’s fine. Otherwise even onsite resort guests are clogging up Contemporary/GF and Poly buses trying to get to MK or EP from DS and vice versa filling up SS busses from the parks trying to get to DS!
Tom, and I say this with love and respect as a reader of 10+ years, no one can write thousands of words about a temporary change to a free bus system like you can.
Ha, thanks–I think.
It’s really an article about systemic stresses at Walt Disney World due to changing guest demographics, through the lens of news about a “temporary” change.
(Air quotes because, even though it’s apparently over, that’s very much just a “for now” thing. This change was/is part of a larger shift that’s happening in the background.)
Tom I think your response backs up Kelsey’s comment
After one of your posts, my mother, daughter and I have been going to Disney World during the holidays for several years to see all the decorations. We usually spend many hours each day in Disney Springs, but also take the buses to different resorts to see the spectacular decorations. In addition, we normally do a lot of shopping at the gift stores and eat several meals at the resorts (mostly the not popular ones) for those days. I don’t think a free trip on the bus should be a big deal to Disney World when, otherwise, I wouldn’t be there spending all this money in their resorts vs. going to something like International Drive to spend my money.
This policy would not have affected you: it affected day guests.
Each year we spend the month of February in Orlando, to escape the cold Michigan winter. We frequent Disney Springs for happy hour or dinner several times and usually attend the parks once during the month. The amount of time and effort that is required to park at Disney Springs and bus it to a resort then to the parks is not worth it – I say this never having done it myself, but have spoken to people who have. Ugh, I repeat not worth it to save the $35. Also, the Disney Springs parking situation is pretty frustrating in general and on weekends intolerable, especially when any one of the lots/garages are out of circulation as was the Lime garage this February. Disney Springs parking should be for Disney Springs visitors. Disney parks visitors not staying on property should spend the $35 and park in the Disney park lots.
I agree with others who say that it’s too much work to park at Disney Springs just to save a few bucks. Time is money, after all. Guests buy LLs just to save some time at the parks. I think the issue here is social media sells these “hacks” to people that don’t know any better. The viewer sees it and believes it. It’s not until they do it that they realize not it’s not really a hack and it’s a lot of work. I just read a competitor Disney park theme site the other day telling people about the bus-hop-resort hack even though it’s restricted to resort guests at this time and saw a Instagram post about how to watch the fireworks at the resorts without being a guest.
Totally agree. I wonder how many guests do this hack the first day of a trip, and then opt to pay for parking on all subsequent days. I’ll bet the number is decently high. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Unfortunately some people love to post “hacks” on social media to get more likes. I stayed at the Wilderness Lodge resort in Club Level and watched a couple try and sneak in by standing by the access door that I need to use my room card to access and then walk in behind me. I immediately notified the club level host so they could go and make sure they were actual club level guests. A few minutes later I saw them being escorted out while they were attempting to grab some food and drinks.
I’m in Orlando right now visiting my parents (who are locals) for Spring Break/Easter. We typically would have visited the different resorts to check out the Easter decorations, but decided to skip this year because of the crackdown. It’s not that we’re trying to save money by not paying for parking, since we normally take an Uber, which costs more than parking if you add in the tips; it’s that we got the general impression that people not staying at the resorts weren’t welcome. That’s too bad– the chocolate Muppet display looked cute in the pictures.
Strangely, when we did venture out, the crowds didn’t seem any worse to me than on any other Easter, so I have no idea why there was a crackdown now.
I agree with the crowd level assessment. This Easter weekend definitely did NOT seem insanely crowded.
Presidents day weekend felt much more crowded in general.
I don’t think it’s about higher crowd projections than an average Easter (although Disney Springs was slammed yesterday—more so than MK). It’s being more proactive about what has been allowed to get out of control (the hacks) over the last several years.
Disney has ended the restriction, according to this link:
https://blogmickey.com/2026/04/walt-disney-world-ends-disney-springs-bus-restrictions/
Have to say I’m torn on this one. I’ve experienced the “pirates” when I’ve stayed at a resort hotel close to a park that I paid a premium to experience and yes it’s a bummer. But my personal counter is two fold:
1) I’ve stayed with the wife at a Disney Springs hotel on a weekend in Xmas season before a work convention the next week and loved having the buses to do the “Christmas Lobby” tour of the resorts without going into the theme parks. My wife loves the walking around and seeing the decorations and spending money on the specialty snacks or Christmas themed resort buys. Holy moly though I can totally see how p’d off I’d be if I was a Grand Floridian resident and had my lobby literally overrun to the point I can’t use the Monorail because it’s elbows to earholes crowded.
2) I’ve also seen how dead some of the resort areas can be because of limited accessibility. The Boardwalk area can be downright a ghost town at times and that should be a hopping “Disney Springs Adjacent” type location with multiple successful restaurants and amenities that for now sit idle. I **think** a big part of the problem with that is unless you’re staying at one of the Boardwalk resorts, it’s hard to get there without buses. So is Disney losing out on revenue here by not making that area more accessible? Hmm. Hard to say.
I think in general the policy is good on balance. The premium resort guests SHOULD get preferred (or exclusive) access to the premium benefits– I’d include restaurant reservations in addition to transport, viewing locations, etc. Increased use of Magic Band scanners and verification personnel is a easy fix I’d think, but that’s the kind of labor that Disney has been trying to freeze out.
So what’s the happy medium? Maybe charging a small fee for Disney Spring parking? $5 all day? that would break the psychology of “the hack” while not inconveniencing locals or other guests who want to spend a day or evening at Disney Springs.
I think, that much like online outrage more generally, there aren’t that many people who would actually be upset at more restrictions applied to resort access.
Sure, the group may be loud, but by comparison, quite small.
My guess is that an overwhelming majority of Disney guests would be supportive of some restrictions and it wouldn’t be controversial at all.
TERRIBLE look for WDW. It certainly would encourage us to use our non-park day spending our money off-property rather than my usual Springs/resort-hopping routine. We are an empty-nesters couple that no longer makes big week (or more)-long trips down to Orlando, but instead makes 2-3 short trips a year, basically for the different EPCOT festivals. And because we no longer have to work around kids’ school schedules, we do try to aim for the least-busy weeks (so hopefully this rule won’t ever affect us)…. I should mention that one of us travels a lot for work, so our hotel stays with IHG are almost always completely comped by loyalty points – so any hotel that costs more than zero, including “Value Resorts” is going to be a major increase in expense. But we usually spend one day at EPCOT, and one day doing the Disney Springs/ resort-hopping thing. And we spend a good deal of money at those resorts, buying drinks, having snacks here and there, (neither of us cares for big sit-down meals that you’d need an ADR for – it means less room in our stomachs to sample stuff from many resorts!), and also buying resort merch. But I can tell you right now, if they tell us we can’t catch a bus from Springs to a resort, we’re just gonna leave, and go spend our time and money elsewhere that day. And all of these little perks that Disney keeps taking away (while the prices keep increasing) make future Disney trips seem less and less tempting. And this is coming from a die-hard from the cradle, (I’m talking since the 70’s!), WDW fan. It’s just a lot of money to be spending to be told you’re unwelcome. Very disappointing. Anyway, we’re headed there in 2 weeks, (again, purposely scheduled well *after* Spring Break is 100% over with, but before any schools are out for the summer), and hopefully this little rule has been put away till the next super busy time?? If it’s still being enforced (and I’ll call to make sure), our Springs/Resort -hop day will turn into a Disney-gets-no-money-from-us day. We’ll go to other places that actually want our business.♀️
Lisa, I feel like you didn’t even read Tom’s post.
I agree with David.
Did you read the headline and compare it to the online outrage and then comment?
As a DVC/OOS AP, I encourage requiring proof of reservations for buses AND pools AND some resorts (looking at you, Grand Floridian and Poly,) at least during busy seasons, preferably going forward in general.
We have literally seen folks throw pool birthday parties at Animal Kingdom with locals attending. Poly is so often overrun, and the fact that it shares buses with VGF is crazy to me. These are the top two resorts at WDW and they don’t get their own dedicated buses? Wuhhh? Throw in moochers on infrequent, overstuffed buses, grrr.
VGF any time from November 1st on is such a nightmare. I know I’m in the minority, but I’m hoping the gingerbread house is rehomed somewhere else that doesn’t get as much foot traffic — or that can handle the foot traffic.
It’s funny, as a Riviera owner, folks love to rag on the inferior lobby space compared to the other resorts. We’re frankly relieved our lobby is “boring” to most folks. After a busy day in the parks, we’re people’d out and like the serenity. We also appreciate OKW and SS for the same peace and quiet. We did one stay at VGF during early December and hated the infrequent buses and nonstop crowds no matter the time of day.
I’m rambling now, but checking for reservations to utilize public spaces that are getting overrun is a plus in my book.
Hi Tom,
I haven’t seen any comment about it, so I think I’d mention, you didn’t write anything about the Disney World Good Neighbor hotels. Good Neighbor hotels offer a free shuttle once or twice a day to a certain location (usually Epcot or the TTC) and that’s it. Guests staying at a good neighbor hotel are expected to then use Disney provided transport for the day after their courtesy shuttle drops them off. So another case scenario for someone not staying on property who needs to use those Disney Busses who is not trying to circumvent paying for parking, would be these Good Neighbor hotel guests. They don’t even have a car to park usually.