Disney Springs Resort Bus Checkpoints in Effect Until at Least April 5th
We sent one of our park reporters out to Disney Springs this morning to gather some information about the recent bus restrictions. As you may have read, there have been reports that Disney Springs Transportation Cast Members have been checking MagicBands and tickets to verify Disney Resort reservations prior to entering the bus loading area. This prohibits people from parking at Disney Springs and taking buses to Disney Resorts where they are not registered guests.
The Resort check point is pictured above. Guests wanting to board a Disney bus from Disney Springs will need to scan in at the umbrella pictured. The photo above was taken at the Town Center bus stop earlier today.
Once guests have cleared the check point, they may board any bus for any resort.
The Cast Members on duty today explained that, as of now, this process will be in place through April 5th. We will check back to see if there are changes after April 5th.
How do you feel about this process? Have you ever boarded a bus at Disney Springs headed for a resort other than your own?
You May Also Like...
-
Disney Springs is a standalone part of Walt Disney World. This area is dedicated to shopping, dining, and enjoying a few…
-
Disney just released a new Land and Sea / Sea and Land offer today! Folks getting off a Disney Cruise have…
I’d be interested in ANY data about who does this strategy regularly to save on parking costs. Yes it can save you money, but the amount of time to drive to the Springs, bus trasnsfer to hotel and transfer again to a park seems like a try it once and realize its not worth it for the time lost strategy. Not to mention you can’t park early enough and no busses that run early for most park openings or even mid-morning. And similar issue for late park closings of trying to get back to the Springs.
For Magic Kingdom or EPCOT, it’s a bus ride to Contemporary or Beach Club and then walk to the park, or a Skyliner ride to Studios.
I’m sure they haven’t sone this on a whim; there’s probably a bunch or data analysts behind the scenes that have calculated the disparity in the expected parking fees vs. reality; as well as the number of parking spots taken in the Springs ramps vs. the actual number of people walking around. It’s suddenly gotten to be a significant number so that’s why they’re acting on it.
It keeps people who aren’t resort guests from going to the resorts (particularly one close to a theme park) from skipping on Disney parking. But at the same time, the Disney Springs buses aren’t running in the morning, and it would eat up a lot of time to save a paltry parking fee in comparison. Maybe for parks that have a party or special afterhours event it could make sense to do Disney Springs parking.
It also makes it more equitable for guests indirectly paying for the service who are resort guests to be able to utilize the transportation without overcrowding(?) of non resort guests. It could also be a way to judge actual ridership and if Disney could cut a few buses if there are less guests riding them.