transportation getting worse?

[dup27]

Just got back, third year in a row we go to disney. found that we waited long for bus ,example one night we decided it was too cold for the illumination show so left 1hr before show. When we got to bus stop it was packed problably could of filled 3-4 buses. Problem there were no buses ,one just left & took forever for another to come. Seen all kind of empty buses going by. Why couldn't they stop or call for more buses immediately? Everybody around were clearly upset with the system. There are more examples... Also found some bus drivers (not all) just plain miserable. The whole magic doesn't seem so magical anymore. Is it just me??

 

[CleveRocks]

I wouldn't think that it's "just you" ... I mean, you experienced what you experienced, right?

But I'm happy to report that I had a very different experience during my recent Feb. 7 - 14 trip. We had the best luck with buses during this trip than we did during our May 2005 and November 2006 trips.

We joked that we stayed Saturday to Saturday and it took until quite literally Thursday that we had to wait more than 2 or 3 minutes for a bus, boat or monorail. I realize that isn't "normal," but it was sooooo consistent that way across so many days in a row. We were so spoiled. On that Thursday morning, we waited about 15 minutes for an Animal Kingdom bus, while 3 Downtown Disney buses and 3 Hollywood Studios buses passed us by (I counted). We realized how spoiled we were at feeling antsy waiting 15 minutes for a bus, especially when they are supposed to run every 15-20 minutes.

Like I said, I realize our experience can't be considered average or normal, but WOW was it great!

I need to add, however, that we never tried to catch a bus after fireworks or a park closing. We stayed at Polynesian, so we had the monorail from MK and Epcot. And the night we saw Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios was an EMH night and we stayed and played for a while after the show, and thus we didn't leave the park the same exact time as multi-thousands of other people.

We also didn't use buses to go from resort to resort. We took a taxi from Poly to Yacht Club for an IllumiNations cruise, and after the cruise we also took a taxi back. We did no other resort-to-resort travel, except for Contemporary to Poly via the monorail.

 

[disdriver]

The empty buses you saw were probably the ones that were staging in the back of the parking lot.They are dispatched directly from there to all of the resorts and that includes those on the other side. I speak from experience that sometimes a simple thing like a change in the temperature can cause thousands of geusts to leave at once...that will catch them off gaurd. However, like everyone else, they tried to institute a dispatching program that was supposed to use less drivers and be more efficient. You'll have to judge for yourself on that one. I do apologize for the drivers....I was a driver until last august....it was the hardest role(job) that I loved. My geusts may have waited, but they were laughing by the time we got to the resort. Hopefully, the economy will get better and Disney will need us old CT busdrivers again. Til then, remember, you are on vacation. Don't let anything ruin it. Even standing in line for a Disney bus has to be better than working.

 

[maxiesmom]

I think that leaving before Illuminations is probably considered and odd time to leave, and that Disney sends out fewer busses then. I know a couple years ago we were waiting to watch Illuminations, and you could see lightning pretty close by. So we decided to leave. I didn't want to be leaning up against a metal railing around a big body of water right then. Anyway, we did have to wait a while for a bus to come, probably around 30 minutes.

I figured Disney was stacking up the busses for after Illumintations, and were only sending the bare minimum before it ended.

 

[VAN]

I agree that the bus service is not what it used to be. We were there in September ... ate at the Poly and then took the monorail to MK to catch a bus to our resort. It was a full hour past the park closing time and there had to be at least 4 bus loads in front of us. Also at the nearby resort bus-lines too. We were there a good 40 minutes before they started sending in a stream of buses to clear the joint out.

In all my trips to Disney, I do not ever recall this happening. Usually they have the stream of buses there at park close and an hour later you would just walk onto a bus.

The last couple of trips we took the bus from TL to resort. OUR resort bus did not come for at least 45 minutes, while all the other resorts had buses come and go on a regular basis! Ugh.

We have a rental car booked for our next couple of trips. The whole bus thing where they are spaced out so much that you have a full 1-1/2 buses full of people lined up before a bus comes gets old real fast. Then, of course, some try to squeeze in so everyone can get on - while others proceed to stop 1/2 way and block the back of the bus where there is still standing room.

I could go on and on.

Again, we are getting a rental car ...

 

[Kathi OD]

We never seem to have long waits for buses UNLESS we are leaving the park when everyone else is, and I think that's to be expected. On the last few trips we've been on, there have been several times when we were the only people on the bus and even more when there was 1 or 2 other groups.

It's not even like we are staying at the same resort or only going to and from the parks. However, I will say that the worst transportation problem is going from one resort to another. Depending on the time of day and where you're headed, that can take quite a long time.