Originally Posted By mickey_ring I thought of a good WDW trivia question, but I can't find the answer. Trying to find out when WDW shuttle bus service began at the Hotel Plaza Blvd. hotels. I remember there were WDW Transportation buses going to those places in the 80s, but haven't found any info stating when the bus ride began. Was it when the hotels were new in the early 70s, or after that some time?
Originally Posted By jkayjs We were at the Royal Plaza in 94ish and they did have buses but they weren't WDW buses. They had some different group. I remember that at Epcot the return stop was out in the center part not along the curb where all the WDW buses pick up resort guests. You were given a # and that was the parking spot they came to. The Hilton is the only other Hotel Blvd hotel we've stayed at but that was maybe 18 years ago. We had a car and didn't use buses so don't really remember. If we wanted to use WDW transportation from the hotel we walked over to DtD and caught it there. I don't remember seeing actual WDW transportation turning into any of the hotels at that end anyway when we were there. I know that for the MK we were dropped off at the TTC and took the Monorail over instead of at the gate like the resort guests. Not much help sorry.
Originally Posted By mickey_ring They used to be official hotels of WDW, but I figure that the Mouse wanted his own moderate-price hotels for the revenue and brand-name consistency. Why rely on (and make money for) Howard Johnson's and the like when Mickey can control the image and guest experience of his own? It is a little uncomfortable to see the huddled masses waiting in the parking lots for a Hotel Plaza bus. 'Specially when those places were IT for a full-feature, on property hotel at a decent price until Caribbean Beach, Dixie, etc.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I know that back in either the late 70s or early 80s my mother put one of my sister's names in and won a contest for a free trip to WDW. I didn't get to go on that trip. But, three of my sister and one brother went and stayed at the Hilton in DTD. They said they had to take WDW bus transportation to Ft Wilderness first then transfer on to the MK. As part of the prize they were given food vouchers good at any restaurant on property for anything on the menu. So they quickly decided to always order the most expensive thing on the menu. Intresting that even back then Disney offered meal vouchers. Anyway getting back to the original post. I think initially transportation to the DTD Hotels was via Disney transportation with transfers through Ft Wilderness Campground.
Originally Posted By mickey_ring The FW connection makes sense. A bus would be the way from the Fort to MK back then. So direct transit to the MK and Epcot Center probably started in '83. I remember buses tagged with colored triangles to show what went where.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney WDW Transport provided service to/from the Hotel Plaza hotels from 1975 until sometime in the early 90s when WDW's resort building boom began. I'll try and find out an exact year, but I think it was around 1991 or 92.
Originally Posted By CMDad We stayed at Royal Plaza in 1975 and there was direct transportation to TTC at that time.
Originally Posted By RobinsonCrusoeEsq If you can get your hands on the '82 or '83 Birnbaum book, he had a great bus chart in there. There were buses with blue, red, green, blue-and-white, and red-and-white flagged busses that ran to and from all points, including the Hotel Plaza. I don't know how far back in history this service goes, but I would imagine there were always shuttles to the Plaza hotels.
Originally Posted By mickey_ring Thanks for the memories... I can always count on fellow LPers for great info. Laughing Place = best Google and Yahoo searches = crud
