Animal Kingdom to Parks

[aprilhendrix9]

Hi All~
We are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in September. I know that all parks are directly accessible by bus only. Can anyone tell me about how long we can expect to wait for the buses leaving from AK to the parks and about how long the rides are?
We are not afraid to wait but our last trip we stayed at the Polynesian and with 2 parks accessible by monorail right there, we were able to come back in the middle of the day and swim/take naps and get ready for a night out. I just wandered if staying at AKL is going to make this very difficult or just a little bit more inconvenience.

Thanks!
april

Counting down 'til September 21!

[Carolla]

When I stayed there the buses ran VERY frequently. I don't recall waiting more then 15 minutes or so. The trips really don't seem to take that long ESPECIALLY since they are direct. No stopping at other resorts like the bus service from the other "deluxe" hotels! And I have NEVER been stuck on a bus for 45 minutes "waiting for clearance" (which has happened to me twice on the monorial. I admit it's my least favorite Disney transport. Once you get over "wow" it becomes "this is really not that great" IMHO)

[WDW4Ever]

I stayed there last in July 2008 and busses ran very INFREQUENTLY. Ironically we waited the longest to get from AK to AKL. About 20 minutes. All the others were usually about 10 minute waits.

[LordQx4]

I have stayed at Animal Kingdom 2 or 3 times now and have never had an issue with the buses at all. I only use the Disney Transportation system while in WDW so I may be a little biased on it. I may have waited for a bus longer then 20 minutes at times but then other buses were pulling up right when I reached the bus stop. IMO, it all evens out in the end.

The longest ride from AKL from my experience is going to the Magic Kingdom which was a bout a 15 minute ride or so. The other parks weren't as bad, especially going to AK.

[bigthundermicky]

My wife and I are DVC members and our home resort is AKL. The bus wait times have never been more than 10 minutes for any park. They run very frequently. The times are about the same to get to the MK is about 15 - 20 minutes of drive time. The last time I stayed at the Polynesian, the bus drive time to get to the AK from Poly is the same time to get from AK to the MK. We are biased because we love the AKL so much. It will be well worth the stay.

[grumpy of ohio]

I may be biased too....we've stayed at the AKL once and we're Disney transportation users all the way but didn't care for the service there, no real organization for lining up, to me a mess. Being biased, I mean we usually stay at deluxe resorts that have 2 options, monorail and bus or boat and bus, I like having the 2 options to break up the monotony of travel. We're fans of the MK and staying at AKL made the trek there a real pain, probably my biggest peeve was getting to and leaving AK back to AKL took longer than usual, we waited for the AKL bus too long for being that close, resort to park. Just my opinon but it cured us of staying at the AKL again. AKL does have its fans, we're just not one of them based on location and resort layout.

[Neeka7701]

I stayed there at 2001 and 2002 and the busses rarely ever came!! We had to wait 15 minutes at least every time we waited for a busI don't know if any of that has changed but I loved the resort other than that!