We spend a lot of time thinking about what happens once you get inside Disney World.
The food crawls.
The resort hotel dining.
The best quick service spots nobody talks about enough. That is our whole world. But getting to Disney World and moving around once you are there is the foundation everything else is built on, and right now that foundation has two cracks in it that guests with upcoming trips need to know about. The first one hits your wallet before you even reach the resort. The second one affects how you spend your day once you are already there. Neither is a disaster. Both are worth knowing about before you land at Orlando International Airport assuming everything works the way it always has. Here is the full picture.
Mears Connect Is Charging More. Here Is Why.
A notice currently posted on the MEARS website reads: “Please Be Advised: A 3% Fuel Surcharge Will Be Added to All Reservations Until Further Notice — Thank You.”
That is the whole notice. No end date. No detailed explanation. Just a heads up that your Mears Connect booking is going to cost a little more than you originally calculated.
The likely reason, though MEARS has not spelled it out, is the fuel price situation connected to conflict in Iran and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which have been putting upward pressure on oil supply and gas prices across the United States. Other transportation companies are handling it differently — Lyft and Uber have rolled out driver relief programs rather than passing the cost directly to riders. Mears went the more direct route and added the surcharge to reservations.
For context: Mears Connect is the 24/7 Florida-themed shuttle service that runs between Orlando International Airport and Walt Disney World Resorts, Disney Springs Resorts, and other Disney-area hotels. If you have used it before, you know the drill — it is one of the easiest ways to get from MCO to the resort without renting a car or dealing with rideshare logistics after a long flight. The service has not changed. Just the price. On a round-trip family booking the 3% impact is not enormous, but if you budgeted before the notice went up, your final charge is going to come in higher than you planned for. Update the spreadsheet.
The Disney Springs Bus Situation Is a Different Kind of Problem
Okay, this one has been generating a lot more heat online than the surcharge, and we understand why.
Cast members at the Disney Springs bus loop are now checking credentials before letting guests board buses to Walt Disney World resort hotels. To get on the bus you need one of three things: an active resort hotel reservation, a confirmed dining reservation at the destination resort, or a confirmed recreation activity like a boat cruise. No qualifying credential means no bus. The check happens before you board. All other Disney transportation — theme park buses, the monorail, boats, the Skyliner — is running normally. This is only the Disney Springs to resort hotel bus service.
Cast members have been telling guests it is a temporary Easter period measure. Disney ran a similar check from Disney Springs around New Year’s, so there is precedent. The official reason is parking management — discouraging guests from leaving their cars at Disney Springs and riding buses elsewhere on property during a period when Disney Springs parking is already stretched.
We are not going to pretend the reasoning has no merit. There have been very real reports of guests using resort hotel buses to access resort pools they have not paid for, which is not exactly a victimless move when hotel guests have paid a lot of money to be there. But the policy also catches a lot of guests who were doing something completely innocent, and the online reaction reflects that tension clearly.
What People Are Saying and We Are Here For All of It
On X the responses have been all over the map. Some guests got it immediately. “They typically do transportation restrictions like this during peak periods. So right now would make sense.” And: “This isn’t the first time that they enforced this.” Others explained what they think drove it: “Yes — I saw earlier that people are taking the resort buses from Disney Springs and using the resort pools which is taking away from the guests who are staying on property.” One commenter went full send: “I saw this coming. They’ll eventually make this permanent because people are jumping on buses to resorts they aren’t staying at. It’s becoming a security risk. I knew this was coming. We can thank influencers and former guests giving tips to do this. They’ve ruined it.”
Then there were the guests pushing back on behalf of everyone who was not abusing anything: “If true, this policy will only hurt Disney’s bottom line. Locals and Passholders have long enjoyed the tradition of visiting resorts to see their Easter and holiday decorations. They spend money on food and merchandise just like those with resort and dining reservations.” That is a fair point and one we feel personally — wandering a resort lobby and grabbing a cocktail is spending money, just not in a way a reservation system can track. Another commenter went nostalgic: “The resort monorail used to be just for resort guests too. It was nice.” And one went straight to the guest experience stakes: “Think about this if you’re going during a busy time of year, people are paying so much money for the hotels they don’t want a bad experience!”
The Reddit post that has been making the rounds is the one that really lands though. This family was not doing anything wrong. They just wanted a nice afternoon: “We are on a short family trip and had a very simple plan: hit Disney Springs, grab a snack, then take a bus to a monorail resort to wander the lobby, check out the seasonal display, and do a little food crawl. No pool time, no ‘hacks,’ just the classic resort atmosphere that is honestly one of my favorite parts of being here. At Springs a cast member told us we could not board the resort bus unless we had a dining or resort reservation. They were polite and I do not blame them, but it still stung. The message felt like: if you are not spending extra money in a way they can track, you do not get to enjoy the resorts.”
And then the pivot: “We tried to pivot. The boats were packed, a rideshare felt silly for such a short hop, and suddenly our relaxing afternoon turned into another round of logistics: debating costs, juggling reservations, and explaining to tired kids why we could not just go look at the big lobby tree or whatever the seasonal display was.” The closing line: “Resort hopping used to be the easy, calm alternative when the parks got overwhelming. Now it feels like you have to pay for permission to stroll and soak it in.”
We felt that last line.
What You Should Actually Do Before Your Trip
On the Mears side: check your booking, factor in the 3% surcharge, and update your transportation budget. Simple.
On the Disney Springs bus side: if resort hopping is part of how you like to spend a Walt Disney World day — and honestly it is one of ours, we have strong feelings about lobby bars and resort food crawls — make sure you have a qualifying dining reservation at wherever you are trying to go. Even a lounge reservation or a quick service booking will likely satisfy the requirement. It adds a planning step but it keeps the day moving.
No reservation and still want to get to a resort hotel? Boat service connects several resort areas independently of the Disney Springs bus loop. Rideshare works. Some walking paths exist between certain properties. None of those are as seamless as just getting on the bus, but they are options.
The policy is described as temporary. Whether it sticks around after Easter or eventually becomes permanent is the conversation everyone is already having.
We are keeping an eye on both of these situations and will update as anything changes. Our full Walt Disney World transportation and resort dining guide is on the site — go check it before your trip, update your Mears budget, make that dining reservation, and then come back to us when you are ready to talk about what to eat at whatever resort lobby you end up in.
Have you run into either of these changes during your visit? Drop it in the comments. And if you have been to a resort hotel recently and found a dining gem worth knowing about, we definitely want that too.
