Heads up if you plan on resort hopping from Disney Springs!
Disney Springs bus service to Walt Disney World resort hotels are now requiring verification of your resort stay, dining reservation, or recreation activity.
Cast Members stationed at the Disney Springs bus loop are scanning MagicBands to confirm you have a valid reason to travel to resort hotels. You currently need one of the following in order to board:
- An active resort hotel reservation at any Walt Disney World resort hotel
- A confirmed dining reservation at the resort
- A confirmed recreation activity, such as a boat cruise departing from the resort
Cast Members have indicated this is a temporary policy for the busy Easter season. The goal is to keep parking available at Disney Springs by preventing guests from leaving cars there while heading elsewhere, and to help reduce longer bus lines.
A similar approach was used during the peak holiday stretch around Christmas and New Year’s.
Guests without a confirmed reservation won’t be able to board buses from Disney Springs to the resort hotels. Verification is done at the bus loop before boarding. This policy applies to all resort hotel routes from Disney Springs, while regular theme park transportation and other Disney transit options continue to run as normal.
So far, limiting bus access to resort guests hasn’t become a permanent policy, and Disney hasn’t made any official announcement suggesting it will.
While Disney Springs offers free parking, many offsite guests and locals without an annual pass park in the garages before boarding the buses to travel around to resort hotels, or transfer to a theme park. Should this ever expand beyond Disney Springs, enforcing something like this across all the different bus stops and resort locations would be complicated, adding extra strain to the current Disney Transport system and how it operates day to day.
What do you think of this operational change? Should Disney keep resort bus access strictly to their onsite guests?
