Anyone hear of WDW bus drivers in labor dispute?

[nanalisa]

Having just returned from a 13 day trip to WDW DH and I heard that drivers were in a labor dispute and were "trying" to make passengers uncomfortable. Which I'm not sure I believe. We never drive our van to the parks and use the resorts transportation and are always satisfied to be a passenger. But, we noticed a few things and I'm if curious if anyone else had noticed the same thing. Buses were warm/hot from resort to park. I have to say they were always cool going from park to resort. Could this be a way of conserving gasoline? Drivers going way out of their way to get from park to resort or visa versa. Driving very very slow. After 3 or 4 days of this, we heard others complaining about how slow the buses were traveling and had been told about a labor dispute.

 

[bicker]

Well, I've also read messages in the last week about bus drivers giving incredibly wrong information about things, so I suppose they could be deliberately doing so as part of a job action -- of course, fostering customer dissatisfaction like that probably won't help their employment concerns.

 

[Pkdcoastrs]

Having just returned from a 13 day trip to WDW DH and I heard that drivers were in a labor dispute and were "trying" to make passengers uncomfortable. Which I'm not sure I believe. We never drive our van to the parks and use the resorts transportation and are always satisfied to be a passenger. But, we noticed a few things and I'm if curious if anyone else had noticed the same thing. Buses were warm/hot from resort to park. I have to say they were always cool going from park to resort. Could this be a way of conserving gasoline? Drivers going way out of their way to get from park to resort or visa versa. Driving very very slow. After 3 or 4 days of this, we heard others complaining about how slow the buses were traveling and had been told about a labor dispute.

We had an issue with a bus driver who was REALLY obnoxious to foreign guests about putting their shirt on after getting on the bus at Typhoon Lagoon. Yes shirts are required, but if you heard the words he used I think everyone on the bus that heard him were offended. He went on to blast the heat while we were waiting in standstill traffic in the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot so that he could "warm" those three guests after he knew he had really made them mad. The bus was so hot that people were sweating bad, and it was just uncomfortable.

My mom nicely asked if he could put the heat to a midway point so that the wet waterpark people and dry Downtown Disney people could both be satisfied. No one in the first place said they were cold, it's Florida during a rainstorm..... it's never "cold" that people need fully blasting heat! I'll end it here because I'm going to write more in my trip report, but all I can say was that the bus driver came back with one of the rudest and un-Disney replies we have had in 10 visits. My mother wasn't making demands, just asking to go midway so that people weren't getting hot in a bus with no windows open and the heat blasting!

 

[peter11435]

Having just returned from a 13 day trip to WDW DH and I heard that drivers were in a labor dispute and were "trying" to make passengers uncomfortable. Which I'm not sure I believe. We never drive our van to the parks and use the resorts transportation and are always satisfied to be a passenger. But, we noticed a few things and I'm if curious if anyone else had noticed the same thing. Buses were warm/hot from resort to park. I have to say they were always cool going from park to resort. Could this be a way of conserving gasoline? Drivers going way out of their way to get from park to resort or visa versa. Driving very very slow. After 3 or 4 days of this, we heard others complaining about how slow the buses were traveling and had been told about a labor dispute.

Buses are often warmer from resort to parks in the morning because they have not been in operation long enough to cool off yet. As for the routes, they are predetermined by Disney, and a driver can get in trouble for changing it on his own. The routes Disney chooses often seem to go out of the way but this is to avoid traffic build up, by creating routes that avoid others and busy areas if at all possible.

 

[nanalisa]

Buses are often warmer from resort to parks in the morning because they have not been in operation long enough to cool off yet. As for the routes, they are predetermined by Disney, and a driver can get in trouble for changing it on his own. The routes Disney chooses often seem to go out of the way but this is to avoid traffic build up, by creating routes that avoid others and busy areas if at all possible.

Well of course that makes sense in the morning, but there was no air conditioning in the evening also. This was our 13th trip in 10 years and are very familiar with bus conditions and routes. Bus transportations is one of the main reasons we stay onsite and I don't believe I've ever complained about the bus service. This year was different. We did have several trips with very nice drivers and provided a nice, comfortable ride to the parks but there were some that just seemed like they had an ax to grind.

 

[mickey2000]

This might be a good way to save fuel with the prices being so high!

 

[peter11435]

Busses are always being changed and new brought in. Thus it is possible that in the evening you were on bus that had been sitting in the sun idle for hours. This is common in the evening because many buses are parked during the afternoon. As for routes they often change routes over time to what they feel may be more efficient. As for a labor dispute. It is very possible you had some bad drivers, and some who were unhappy with there jobs. However at this time there is no labor disbute. That said there is currently a bus driver shortage (all CM for that matter) Disney is actively trying to hire thousands of new employees. However this is difficult as the area has a very low unemployement rate.

 

[ztbz]

Currently there are No major active Labor Disputes that I am aware of, The reason why the Buses are driving slow is because D.O.T., Florida Highway Patrol and Orange County Sheriff has advise Disney that any Disney Bus caught speeding will be Fined, and not many drivers can afford the speeding ticket. You may notice buses doing 35 mph or less in the area from the Magic Kingdom toll plaza to the Magic Kingdom bus station as this area has a 35 mph speed limit, also there is a speed trap just before the entrance to the Wilderness Lodge Resort, normally there are four to six deputy sheriff waiting to write anyone (and I do mean anyone not just Bus drivers) a Speeding Ticket if you go above 35 mph speed limit.

As Far as the Buses being Hot, I can tell you that 99% of all Bus Drivers do not like to drive a HOT Bus (I normally will shut a Hot bus down if I find one). You probably had the misfortune of getting on a bus that was just started up in the Heat of the day and the Temperatures lately has been in the High 90’s to 100’s every day.

 

[nanalisa]

ok, no labor dispute, thats good. Plus I'd rather ride in a slow bus that is safe than one that going too fast even if it takes more than 30 min. to get from POFQ to MGM. But, I'm telling the truth when I say that the buses had no air on from the resort to the park. It happened during various times of the day. Out of 13 days I would say it happened 6 or 7 times. It didn't matter if the bus was full w/people standing or half empty. It happened from POFQ and WL. It doesn't matter. We all survived, it was just very uncomfortable. It certainly won't keep us from going back.

 

[HUFF590]

We were staying at SSR a few weeks ago and at the bus stop we were alone when one of the buses arrived, he got out of the bus and talked to us for awhile and even let my wife sit in his seat for a picture. I think this was super nice and helped make our trip.

 

[mitros]

We rarely use the buses, but always thought they drove kind of slow. Did you ever get in back of one while driving on property? Besides the belching smoke clouds, that is, they don't move to break any land speed records. Hopefully Tyler, wherever you are, may be able to shed some light on this?

 

[nanalisa]

We were staying at SSR a few weeks ago and at the bus stop we were alone when one of the buses arrived, he got out of the bus and talked to us for awhile and even let my wife sit in his seat for a picture. I think this was super nice and helped make our trip.

The bus service to and from SSR was the best of our trip, (except coming back from Downtown Disney Westside one night - it's quicker to walk from SSR to DDWS which is why they went to the trouble of pouring the walkway.)

There was never more than a few people on the buses. Even coming home from the parks at night the bus was never full.

 

[yoopermom]

We had one very chatty nice bus driver on our trip in late July who told us that she had moved up over fifty places on the seniority list in the six or so months she's been employed there. Said they're always desperately hiring, so I really think a lot of it just has to be put down to new drivers without adequate standards/training/supervision?!?

Terri

 

[Mickmse2002]

Currently there are No major active Labor Disputes that I am aware of, The reason why the Buses are driving slow is because D.O.T., Florida Highway Patrol and Orange County Sheriff has advise Disney that any Disney Bus caught speeding will be Fined, and not many drivers can afford the speeding ticket. You may notice buses doing 35 mph or less in the area from the Magic Kingdom toll plaza to the Magic Kingdom bus station as this area has a 35 mph speed limit, also there is a speed trap just before the entrance to the Wilderness Lodge Resort, normally there are four to six deputy sheriff waiting to write anyone (and I do mean anyone not just Bus drivers) a Speeding Ticket if you go above 35 mph speed limit.

As Far as the Buses being Hot, I can tell you that 99% of all Bus Drivers do not like to drive a HOT Bus (I normally will shut a Hot bus down if I find one). You probably had the misfortune of getting on a bus that was just started up in the Heat of the day and the Temperatures lately has been in the High 90’s to 100’s every day.

Boy this takes all the fun out of conspiracy theories on how all the evil bus drivers are in cahoots to ruin vacation magic.