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 done with by the time you visit. 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. The more immediate impact is shorter lines for the buses. During our visit, Disney Springs was an absolute madhouse, but 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!
