We left Orlando on Saturday night & got back to the UK on Sunday after 14 nights at the Yacht Club, in a water view room (2043) which had a lovely view over to the Boardwalk, the room had a king bed, a large leather chair with foot stool & the usual desk & chair, no sofa of any description though so definitely not suitable for a family but perfect for the two of us.
Mousekeeping were up to their usual high standard & kept our room looking immaculate & well stocked with towels, coffee pods & the other usual amenities.
The resort as always at this time of year looked even more beautiful than normal & all of the front line cast members that we met & spoke with were fantastic, they really are the heart & soul of the resort.
The only negative part of our visit was the bus service which was awful from when we arrived to when we left, buses would show as being 10 minutes away on the app & on the board by the bus stop & then would just disappear for 5 minutes & when they came back they were for 20 minutes later, it also became a running joke how many times buses arrived earlier than was shown on the board & the app & then drive off usually as ourselves & other guests were walking out of the front door of the hotel.
One morning we along with a few other people were waiting for an AK bus, we saw it turn in to the bus road & get as far as the barrier at the bottom of the road that leads up to the YC bus stop but it never appeared, we then saw it heading back down the road.
There was a cast member at the bus stop with an ipad who seemed to be counting people & when she was asked where the bus had gone, replied that it had been sent to the BC & she was doing a headcount to see if we would all fit on the bus, if not then we would just have to wait for the next bus to appear.
I along with several other people told her that we were not happy with that scenario given that some us had already been waiting 20 minutes.
The bus did eventually turn up & everyone ended up getting on, but we were not impressed, we found out from someone that had asked the cast member what was going on & had been told that the previous AK bus had only been able to pick up 2 people from the BC so they had decided to prioritise BC guests on the next bus over YC guests.
On one hand I understand the logic but surely the correct thing to have done would have been to put an extra bus on!!
Why potentially upset two sets of guests?
The second incident was what caused me to speak to a manager, we had a dinner reservation at Wilderness Lodge & based on how sucky the buses had been already decided to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the MK & then either get a resort bus or boat up to WL.
To further complicate matters the usual YC bus stop was closed, so buses were picking up & dropping off from the YC Conference centre, we got down there 90 minutes before our ADR & as we arrived saw a MK bus pulling out a few minutes earlier than it was listed to on the app.
Not a problem we thought, we have loads of time to spare, only we didn’t, 30 minutes later & still no sign of an MK bus, by this time there were at least 30 people waiting.
A DS bus pulled up & as guests were getting on it a MK bus finally pulled up behind it, we along with everyone else waited for the DS bus to pull out & for the MK bus to take its place when the driver of the MK bus suddenly pulled out & drove past the DS bus, myself & couple of other people tried to stop it by shouting & waving to the driver, who slowed down, looked at us, laughed & then drove off towards to the BC.
At that point we made the decision to head back to reception & get an Uber, I tried to see a manager to let them know what had happened but there were none available at that time.
We did speak to a manager the following day to make them aware of the two incidents & he confirmed that we were not the only people to complain about the buses that week he also confirmed that he would speak to someone in transport.
We have never experienced the same level of issues with buses on our previous visits, it got so bad in the end that we used Uber & or drove way more than we normally do, to ensure that we got to places on time.
I don’t know what has changed because we always visit at the same of year, i.e. the week before & of Thanksgiving.
We did notice that there were significantly less cars in the car park this time so possibly the cost of parking your car is causing more people to not drive or hire cars & hence use the buses.
The sharing of Disney Springs buses with the BW, Swan & Dolphin & YC & BC also resulted in some very crowded & uncomfortable journeys to & from DS.
With the exception of the issues involving buses we still had a great time & the YC has confirmed itself as our favourite onsite resort.
Although we plan to eventually get round to trying the other deluxe resorts I doubt that we would consider staying anywhere else for a full two weeks.
As we sit in a very cold London writing this, we would both give anything to be back in our happy place at our favourite hotel right now.