buses to parks, too many for one, yet few for another

[coachsomer]

the question and story:

my question is when the third Animal Kingdom Bus pulled in, and no-one is standing by
that stop. WHY couldn't he loop around and change his sign/route to Magic Kingdom
a start to bus some of the gathering crowd waiting at the MK stop ?



this past June we were staying at Beach Club Villas. this was early magic hours for MK, and
our plan was early attack and jump in the wait line for the Mine Train, using our fast passes for
later in the day when crowds showed up.

We were the second family that we saw that morning at the bus stop not sure if any buses
had already been thru (for Breakfast crowds) but we were there early.

the short of it was 4 buses for Animal Kingdom picked up a total of 3 people, one HS bus
picked up 2 or 3 families, MK no buses. the clipboard kid just kept saying they're on the
way. Finally the first MK bus showed up and all the seats were already filled. being we were in the front of the line we were able to fit on this bus. as we pulled away a 2nd MK bus was pulling in.
from what I saw they would need a third bus to handle all the families still standing
at the bus stop.

we arrived almost an hour past, thus killing our Early am hours. the line for the mine train
was wrapped around the ride and down the path "as far as the eyes could see". we never
got to ride the mine ride this trip "our trip was ruined...LOL" do to our schedule and the ride
being down a lot that day.

my question is when the third Animal Kingdom Bus pulled in, and no-one is standing by
that stop. WHY couldn't he loop around and change his sign/route to Magic Kingdom
and start to bus some of the gathering crowd waiting at the MK stop ?

I talked to the front desk later that day, about the 3 busloads of unhappy guests at
the bus stop that morning, and was told they couldn't do anything about the buses
but they had heard of an issue involving the bus system in the morning,
but wasn't sure if it was the MK loop.

 

[goofy4tink]

The buses are on a set route...they aren't allowed to just circle back with a different destination showing. A bus driver should have called dispatch to send addtl MK buses! That's unacceptable. The front desk CMs are basically clueless as to any transportation....I've actually had them tell me that I can expect the buses to start about an hour or so before a park opens!! Of course, I knew better. I asked what I needed to do in order to get to my Crystal Palace breakfast ADR...at 8:00....the answer? "Well, you can take a bus and hope that it gets you there in time, I mean, it could come a bit earlier than 8, or you can take a cab. A cab is probably the best idea." Alrighty then.
But, I have had to let a driver know that his bus is the second bus to a particular park, while I have stood waiting for a bus to my park for over 30 mins at that point. He has always called it in, and my bus has arrived within 5 mins.

 

[sam_gordon]

Don't most busses hit more than one resort? So just because no one (or a few) wants to go to AK at your resort, wouldn't that bus either already have people on it or going to another resort to pick up people for AK?

Here's my idea... put push buttons at each bus stop for each destination. Those buttons "ring back" to dispatch, so dispatch would know SOMEONE (but not necessarily how many someones) at BCV wants to go to MK, someone else wants to go to DHS, and someone wants to go to AK. The drivers have a remote control that could 'reset' the count, or just leave the count if they couldn't pick everyone up.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I was at WDW for the 24 hour day. We got to the bus stop at CBR at 5:40 AM. There were a TON of people there. I heard a guy get on the phone at the stop and tell someone that he'd been waiting for FORTY MINUTES for a bus. Which means that apparently, no buses had come to that stop at all yet and it was 20 minutes to park open! DH and I said forget that and we turned around and got in the car. I was willing to deal with the monorail or boat rather than a bus that may or may not ever arrive. On our way out of CBR, we had to drive past one of the other bus stops and there were just as many people standing there. I have no idea what was going on, but it seems like there are some transportation issues going on. We drove everywhere for the rest of the trip.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'ts this sort of thing that has caused us to be DRIVERS. Even to MK. I cannot deal with waiting and waiting and waiting.

Don't most busses hit more than one resort? So just because no one (or a few) wants to go to AK at your resort, wouldn't that bus either already have people on it or going to another resort to pick up people for AK?

No, I don't think so.

 

[seashoreCM]

A transit system needs a playbook with an alternate procedure to follow if a blockage should occur in any location in the system. Including such things as rerouting buses past Port Orleans and Ft. Wilderness if World Drive has a problem.

Admittedly some alternate routings might not be worthwhile, for example if the Magic Kingdom busway is blocked and everyone has to be let off at the Transportation and Ticket Center and be commingled with day guests vying for the monorail and ferry.

At least you should be at the bus stop early enough that, assuming no delays, there would be two to choose from as opposed to finding the one and only suitable bus arriving too full for you i.e. the next bus is too late for you. This usually means being at the bus stop a little over an hour before you want or need to be at the destination.

By the way, the first Animal Kingdom bus you saw might have been All Star Sports's next Epcot bus and the second AK bus you saw could have been AK Lodge's next Hollywood Studios bus. The bus routes are usually not simple back and forths for the same driver between one resort and one park. (Empty in the morning from AK to ASSp is a short leg compared with full again, from ASSP to Epcot.)

 

[anonymousegirl]

I use the buses all the time as i am usually going solo and hate trying to navigate WDW alone. In all my trips (see my signature), I have only had a couple of instances where I was severely inconvenienced by the lack of buses (or the scheduling) and one of those times (the worst in fact) was when there was a bomb scare and EVERY bus had to be searched and cleared before it could be sent out again. I ended up sharing a taxi to EPCOT for my dinner ressie. Otherwise, I have been overall very happy with the service. It saves me money and reduces my stress and my "car" is always air-conditioned and cool when I get on.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm not sure how early you were at the bus stop, but if you didn't arrive until an hour into EMH you have way more patience than I do. I would have been in a taxi and gone. But if I am hitting morning EMH I am at the bus stop an hour ahead of time.

As has been pointed out, it is not a simple as one bus swooping in to pick up passengers for a different park than their original destination.

 

[JAG107]

We encountered this on our last trip at BWV. Both days we went to MK there were substantial waits. Once we counted three empty buses leaving for AK, while there were 2 or 3 full loads' worth of MK passengers. Clipboard CM was useless. Got the same canned response, "it's on the way." And them getting on the radio doesn't get the buses there any quicker. Just a reminder of why we love BLT so much! Never had a bus problem there, except for a maybe 20 minute wait for DtD once. As to the OPs question, I really have no idea why they can't get the bus system running more efficiently. The electronic sign at GF is nice, but its not enough. There needs to be better MK transportation, especially at the crescent lake resorts.