Bad bus drivers

[kjs1976]

We had an unusually poor experience with our bus drivers this trip. On every prior trip we have been so impressed by how patient and friendly the drivers were on each route...even at 11 at night. This trip we had awful experinces. One night when it was raining, we decided we needed to lift our spirits, go to MGM, and hope that it would let up enough to do our fav rides and see Fantasmic. Well, we get out to the MGM bus stop and up pulls a full bus that says MGM right away. Already starting to feel better, we board the bus, take our seats, and she pulls off. Then she gets on the speaker and announces her stops are DTD and DTDWS. My husband and brothers and I look at each other like, did we just hear that? She goes on and on about all that there is to do at DTD and we just sit in amazement....yes, her bus said MGM and yes, we were at the MGM bus stop. Ok, so we decide that if she ever shuts up, we will ask if there is service to MGM at DTD because I couldn't remember. About ten minutes into the trip, my husband and I observe her changing the sign on the front of the bus from MGM to DTD...we are furious! She never stops talking, so we wait until everyone exits at DTD and ask about changing buses. In a very snotty and pretentious tone she firmly states, "No, No. There is NO service here to any of the parks. You must exit this bus, wait for another bus back to your resort, and get on that to get to the parks. You cannot get to any of the parks from here." Stunned at how rudly we are treated, we stumble off the bus into the rain and try to think of the next best plan, since it is nearing 7:30 now.
We decide to go to OKW and get on an MGM bus there. We finally make it to MGM...an hour after our journey began. This also happened to another family on one of our buses from the resort and we all stood behind them because the driver had changed his sign mid-way though the trip.

On two other trips we had pushy driver who did not speak English very well and kept bugging us to "Move to the back" until there was more space to fit everyone on. We had elderly people and small children who had to stand and there was no room at all to move back further but they insisted we "move back" until finally one guy said something about being squished as far as we could go and he stopped pushing us. He also didn't know how to use the handicapped lift in the back to get someone on in a wheel chair so a full line of people waited for 10 min while he tried to manuver the thing. I know not everyone can be a smiling and happy driver but we had two silent drivers who said nothing until we got to MK and said MK or to our resort and said the name of our resort.

The last trip we made was finally a friendly one with an older driver who told jokes, played a state guessing game with us, and wished everyone a magical night because tomorrow was his day off and he was going to be sleeping in while we put on our mouse ears and headed out.

I by no means expect evert driver to be super friendly and talkative and helpful....however, suprisingly, this is how they have always been up until this trip and the rudeness of the majority of them this time really suprised me. Anyone else have poor experiences?

Thanks for letting me spout!
kjs

 

[epcotfan]

That's terrible that your bus driver didn't alert you that they were headed to DTD before taking off. The SIGN should have been changed prior to admitting passengers! What a waste of your time.
What resort were you staying at?

 

[GeorgeG]

You had every right to be upset. Did you file a complaint?

In 16 years of going to WDW we've only had two problems with bus drivers. One, and older gentleman, was smoking the whole trip and the other was driving too fast. The vast majority of drivers have been great.

Every so often we hear about rude cast members and I'm sure some will always manage to get hired. I would be surprised, however, if they kept their jobs very long. WDW has a reputation for being a very demanding employer and my guess is it doesn't take very many complaints before a troublesome employee becomes an ex-employee.

I've often wondered if WDW has "undercover" quality control people who pose as guests to identify problems. Wouldn't that be a great job to have? For that matter, they should be regular readers of these boards, too!

I hope your next visit is much better.

 

[Alexander]

We've had years and years of waiting at the diesel smelling, hot bus stops only to get on an overcrowded bus. We've also had several drivers that go way too fast, now I'm no slouch on the road myself, but when you're seated, and being tipped out because the driver has taken the corner on what feels like two wheels, that's a little too fast! We have come up with the master plan to avoid the bus service, and that is to rent a car. We have never had a more peaceful visit than in April when we completely stayed off the busses.

 

[PamOKW]

I've hit some of these lousy bus drivers....makes you really appreciate the good ones like the fellow you mention. It doesn't do you much good now but may help others --- always ask the driver where he/she is going as you are boarding. I've also seen buses with the wrong destination. If this happens to others, I would also ask the driver to either contact dispatch or tell you where you can find the dispatcher. Tell that person that the bus had the wrong destination. My guess is they will do something to get you to the right place ASAP.

I would let Disney know what happened and try to give dates and/or times if you can.

 

[the Legend]

Although we've always appreciated the 'free' transport WDW provides, we will always opt to use our own car when in the 'World'.

We encountered a mix of Drivers on our last trip, ranging from excellent to those trialing for the Richard Petty experience. However, it only took a few bad apples to ruin it for the others and we felt for the sake convenience, we will drive ourselves. Once you are late for PS's or stranded at hubs trying to catch connecting routes (I get enough of this with flights, I dont really need on my vacation) is just too much especially with Seniors and Children in tow.

We didnt complain because the ratio was 3:1 good:bad but the one bad was bad enough to put me off for good. This holiday we are definitely driving (staying at the WL and AKL so it makes sense)

 

[BounceyOne]

Wow! We have only had good experiences with the buses. The funniest was a new bus driver was taking us to MGM from the WL. He missed the exit on the road, it just so happened there was an off duty bus driver on the bus to help him correct his mistake. We just thought of it as an adventure

We also had a wonderful late night driver coming back from the MK who started the bus singing, the wheels on the bus go round and round. He would beep the horn when the song got to that part and act out whatever could be.

This trip (august) I plan on writng down the names of CM I enjoy.

 

[Kim&Chris]

We've tried the bus thing a couple of times and just found it to be way too inconvenient. Boarding a bus with bags, cameras, etc can be pretty frustrating, especially when the bus is full & you have to stand.

Not to mention that some people are pretty "ripe" after a full day in the park, so sitting next to someone that's ripe can also ruin your day.

Here's our solution: we rent a car. With the help of this site & mousesavers, we've been able to snag cars at incredible rates. No more waiting at bus stops, no more hot busses, no more offensive (i.e. stinky) bus riders. We simply hop in our own air-conditioned car and zoom off to our choice of parks.

 

[Meagansmom]

I can only say that we have had only good experiences on the buses in the past. This last visit, we did have a bad one. The experience was not us but someone else. It was early in the morning, one of the first buses at the bus stop, the bus was pratically empty. We stopped at the next and last bus stop at POR (I cannot remember where we were headed). A man in a electrical cart wanted to get on and the bus driver pretty much acted like he did not want to load the man on the bus. He gave I think every excuse not to load the man. At the time, the last bus stop at POR, had a CM working at it. I think she was even dumbfounded why he could not put the man on the bus. Needless to say, the man did not board our bus. We all felt so bad for the man. It was uncalled for. Not thinking until it was too late to complain. I hope the man did. I guess we hit one unlucky bus driver.

 

[PlutoPal]

That has never happened to me. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

 

[cakathy57]

My DH drives citybus for a living. So we drive ourselves when we are at WDW. He hears enough, both from customers and other drivers, during his "day job", he does not need to hear it, or deal with it on vacation.

 

[Belle5]

Apparently, it doesn't seem to matter the least what your personality is like (to WDW staffing, anyway) if you are a bus driver or a CRO reservationist. Some of these CM's are nice but the ratios just aren't good in comparison with CM's in other roles. We have had several incidences of nasty, grouchy 2 wheeling bus drivers, as well.

 

[DeeP]

I have rode many many WDW buses and I can honestly say I can count on one hand the number of grouchy, nasty bus drivers. Some merely do their job, they are fully competent but do not go the extra step with Disney trivia, songs, etc. But that is perfectly fine because they are definietly doing their job but we have also gotten many great bus drivers who held Disney trivia questions, sang songs, told jokes, etc. These bus drivers are like the icing on the cake of Disney magic.
We did have a bus driver last month with somewhat of a heavy foot, I have NEVER gotten from DTD to BWV so fast in my life!

 

[Horizons16]

Oh my...

Im sorry. I hope your trip was ok after all of that. You should have slipped her a Franklin or something and asked her to go to MGM

~Steve