A Guide to DCP Transportation

Ask any former CP about the DCP buses and you will get good reviews and bad. Ask me, and you will get a good one! Obviously if you have a car, bring it. But if you are like me and your invisa-mobile is constantly in the shop, don't sweat it!

What are the DCP Buses?

Part of your rent goes towards the transportation that can take you to and from work, the parks, Publix (a grocery chain in Florida) WalMart, the post office, and the Florida Mall. The buses are not the Disney transport buses that you take as a guest in the parks, when I was there they were run by American Coach but I believe we have switched companies. The buses have trolley or public transport style seating on the inside (the front half has seats that line the bus and the back has rows) and a ticker on the front of the bus will flash what stops the bus makes.

The Schedule and My Example Route

I remember getting my schedule for the first time and glancing over it I thought that I was going to get so lost because it looked complicated. But it's not. Once you sit down and read it, it will make sense, promise!

I still have my bus schedule so I will use my commute to work as an example. I lived in Patterson and worked at the Polynesian Resort. To get to the bus stop, I walked over to Chatham's bus stop that we share and caught the bus there. The bus schedule will group certain stops to letters. For example, to get to the Polynesian I took bus B which also stopped at the Grand Floridian, West Clock (a place for CMs) and the Transportation and Ticket Center.

Say I was working the breads shift which went from 13:30-22:00 (yes, Disney uses military time) That means I have to be clocked in and upstairs in the kitchen dressed and ready to go at 1:30. There is a bus that gets me there at 12:20, 12:50 and 13:27. Obviously, the 13:31 bus gets me there too late. The 12:54 is doable. But for me I would rather get there at 12:24. This gives me a chance to guarantee that I am there on time, if there is an issue with my costume I can walk over to costuming and get a new one, and go through social media one last time before work. I would always recommend taking the bus before the bus that gets you there on time, just to be safe.

Now, the bus that gets me there at 12:24 shows that it leaves Chatham at 11:50. Once the bus pulls away, they cannot stop. If you try to wave them down they will legitimately just wave back and continue driving, they cannot stop. So always try and be there 5-10 minutes before the scheduled time. So I would have to be sitting at the Chatham bus stop at around 11:40. Once you take the route a few times you will see its trend, does it tend to come 5 minutes early and park there or come right on time? Just make sure you are there on time.

Car .vs. Bus

The reason why people suggest bringing a car is because it will save you time. For example, the Polynesian driving from Patterson court is about 15-20 minutes away. Not too bad. My time from pulling out of Chatham to the Polynesian is already 30 minutes because we have to stop at Vista Way as well. The commute back if I catch the 22:16 out of the Poly gets me into Chatham at 22:53, nearly 40 minutes later. My friend with a car could have already been back to her apartment and starting to eat her dinner when I would still be on the bus. Although we are the same distance away, the DCP buses make stops that eat up time. but in my opinion, if you just bring your iPod or a book, you will be all set. I used to take some really good cat naps on the bus back from work!

I will have more information about dcp buses coming up in future posts such as what happens if you are scheduled to work before your bus runs, but be sure to leave any questions about transportation or any aspect of the dcp in the comments below!