CBR Transportation Nightmare

[bedogged]

Okay, I admit it. I am living vicariously through my daughter and son-in-law's WDW trip. LOL!

I just wanted to report the problems that they are currently having with transportation at CBR and using an ECV. First, they are staying in Barbados which is now the LAST stop on the bus circuit around the resort. The last time we were there, we stayed in the same village and it was the second stop. She is reporting that she and my son-in-law having to wait for three or four buses to get anywhere.

All buses are full when they reach them, standing room only. Interestingly, she says the parks are not that full. Maybe that's just a subjective view, but she is really irritated about the problem.

Yesterday, they attempted to return to CBR at 5:00 p.m. from Animal Kingdom. They had to wait for four buses, She is saying that they are seeing quite a few ECVs waiting, but that often the bus drivers are only taking one ECV per bus.

My daughter is a vocal woman so she is complaining to any bus personnel that she encounters. They say that they will work on the problem or some other thing to placate her at the moment. I told her to call the general number and ask for transportation to complain. She understands that they may have to wait for a bus, but FOUR buses is ridiculous!

 

[maxiesmom]

I can see where it may be a bit frustrating, but the busses can only hold 2 or 3 ECVs at a time. I would be more suprised if your daughter didn't have to wait. Four busses is a long wait, but if there are a lot of people using ECVs, then it is what it is.

As far as which order the bus picks up at, that can change. It is not written in stone at any resort that x stop gets picked up before y stop.

Again, I understand it being frustrating, but it is not anything to get all upset about. I can't see how complaining is going to help anything. They can't just throw more ECVS onto the busses, and they won't just send busses to pick up ECVs if there are not enough people to fill another bus. It is free bus transportation, so you have to take the bad with the good.

 

[dclfun]

I think that waiting through four busses is unconscionable, esp. if the busses are standing room only vs. having other people with ECV's also waiting. A bus manager can call in additional busses. When I've been left behind before, the driver has often told me that he/she has called for another bus to come right away vs. waiting for the next scheduled arrival.---Kathy

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Honestly? Waiting for multiple busses at parkclosure (AK at 5 pm) is not ridiculous at all, but rather the norm than not for those of us using mobility aids. Heck, it's more the norm than not for those that walk, skip and move around in other ways besides using mobility aids.

Obviously I'm not there at the moment and don't know what's going or not. What I do know is that timing is everything. Some part of timing has no rhyme or reason as those of us can testify having been in the situation of seeing 5 busses to each park come by before the first bus destened for the park they're wanting to go to finally arrives. Other parts of timing (most, as far as my experience goes) come from logics. During crowded times in the day, the wait will be longer. Never mind that a park might be busy or not, when all families are getting ready to hit the park in the morning it will be busier on that bus than when you hit the same bus at 12 pm. Same goes for park closure, it's not without reason that advice has always been to either go back to the resort early (and that's not like 15 minutes earlier) or hang around a bit after closure, lingure, enjoy the scenary and then hit the transportation.

As far as CBR goes; she has one huge benefit there. She can easily drive herself to whatever village is the first stop for the park she's hitting that day. Driving there takes very little time but does increase the odds of getting on compaired to being the last stop. Same goes for getting off; finding the bus too crowded? Hop off at the first stop and drive back to the room. CBR is a lush resort where a drive is not a punishment at all.

We all know transportationplanning apparently needs higher powers sometimes for those transportation powers that be at WDW. Full busses, irratic amount of busses headed to the same destination right after eachother and what not. It happens at all of the resorts when looking at reports and can hit at any time of year or day.

I don't know what's going on with loading only one ECV if there are 2 or 3 spots still avail (going to assume that for a moment, allthough that's not always clearly visable when waiting outside) and more than one guest with a mobility aid is waiting for said bus. Perhaps there's something there to look into, I don't know.

But being honest, I'ld say she's being vocal at the wrong moment and having unrealistic expectations when complaining about having to wait for multiple busses at park closure.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Kathy, what have you done to your signature? Not saying that I don't love the update but you were always so recognizable for me. Skye would just pop out and that would mean Kathy is posting.

This one has way too much stage for the cup and too little for Skye, imho.

 

[dclfun]

Kathy, what have you done to your signature? Not saying that I don't love the update but you were always so recognizable for me. Skye would just pop out and that would mean Kathy is posting.

This one has way too much stage for the cup and too little for Skye, imho.

LOL- you have no idea how I struggled to even change that photo. I had several people telling me that I needed to update my photo since Skye is now 8 years old vs. the 2-year old she was in that photo with Snow White, so I chose one from our recent trip to DL. I can try and find another one with more "Skye", if I can figure out again how to change it!---Kathy ( and Skye)

I agree with you that it's the norm to wait for busses, but usually if it arrives full with no room for chairs and ECV's they'll call another one to shorten the wait time.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

At the current time they are repaving all the roads and bus stops at CBR, so traffic is temporarily messed up. Last Sunday I had to meet some people at Old Port Royale. Normally I would come through a Cast gate near Pop and get into CBR near Trinidad South, which is just a quick hop to OPR. I was diverted before Trinidad North and had to go almost all the way over to the Custom House to then get to OPR.

 

[Singledad]

I also think it has a lot to do with when she is trying to grab busses... 5pm is near enough to a dinner hour that a lot of people are trying to move to their dining reservations, or have just finished and want to get 'home'. I agree with PP in that taking a ride over to whatever lot they are picking up first could be the best bet.

 

[Bete]

in touch with placing two scooters or a scooter and a wheelchair on the bus. They have to be more critical to the scooter driver, too. I have seen some scooter drivers take 15 minutes to park it on the bus. I know from personal experience that the first scooter on is always easier than the second one. Maybe, the time constraints had something to do with it all. You have packed buses and it takes longer to load with so many people. It could be bus drivers are being watched on their times in this way, now. Who knows if Disney is not cutting back on the number of buses available. There are a lot of variables. The repaving as explained by another poster could be a big factor, too.

We almost always get a preferred location. We like staying at POP; it seems with the special queues there it's just more organized.

I agree if you don't want to wait for more buses you have to go at less crowded times. You need to usually be very early or very late compared to park hours and parades and firework times. We have learned to linger a while longer and enjoy the park going out if we do it at peak times.

We use a car more and more to go to the parks. We find it easier and better that way. I really don't think with the baby boomer population growing and growing into retirement that this is going to get better at Disney or anywhere else. Also, being a more overweight country and having issues because of it and needing more scooters doesn't help, either. We are guilty of being overweight ourselves; so, I feel I can remark about this aspect of it.

 

[bedogged]

Sorry I haven't responded before now, but I spent last night in the hospital and am just now having the opportunity to read your posts

Gosh, I thought that there might be a bit more sympathy for their situation. My daughter and son-in-law do not expect NOT to wait, they just don't think that they should have to wait LONGER than walking people. I don't think that is unrealistic. IMHO I also think that complaining about it to the powers that be, even at Disney, is the proper thing to do. I guess we will disagree about this.

I, myself have stayed at this EXACT TIME of year at WDW for the last two years using an ECV. One of those weeks was at Barbados in CBR. I didn't experience any of the problems that they are having. I would have rated the bus service there and everywhere else as excellent.

On the day that they visited Animal Kingdom, closing time was 6:00. At 5:00 they thought that they would be early enough to miss the closing crowd. Obviously that didn't work out too well. LOL

Thank you so much for the information about them working on the bus stops at CBR. I will also pass along the recommendation that they figure out what the first stop is and travel there to catch the bus. That was something that I didn't think of.

 

[maxiesmom]

Sorry I haven't responded before now, but I spent last night in the hospital and am just now having the opportunity to read your posts

Gosh, I thought that there might be a bit more sympathy for their situation. My daughter and son-in-law do not expect NOT to wait, they just don't think that they should have to wait LONGER than walking people. I don't think that is unrealistic. IMHO I also think that complaining about it to the powers that be, even at Disney, is the proper thing to do. I guess we will disagree about this.

First off, I hope everyone is ok.

While I am not unsympatheic to your daughter and son in law, expecting the wait time with a scooter to be equal to the wait time without one is unrealistic. There are at most 3 spots for scooters on a bus. I'm not sure how many normal seats there are but way more than that. Add to the the standing room space, and it is clear that more people without scooters can fit onto a bus than people with scooters. I'm sure it is disappointing, but I can't see how it would be unexpected to have a longer wait time using a scooter.

I do hope they are managing to enjoy their vacation anyway.

 

[bedogged]

First off, I hope everyone is ok.

While I am not unsympatheic to your daughter and son in law, expecting the wait time with a scooter to be equal to the wait time without one is unrealistic. There are at most 3 spots for scooters on a bus. I'm not sure how many normal seats there are but way more than that. Add to the the standing room space, and it is clear that more people without scooters can fit onto a bus than people with scooters. I'm sure it is disappointing, but I can't see how it would be unexpected to have a longer wait time using a scooter.

I do hope they are managing to enjoy their vacation anyway.

I haven't spoken to them yet today, but as of yesterday, they were having a ball! At first my daughter worried that some of the rides might be too much for him. He has some trouble supporting his upper body. My daughter tells me that he is being a daredevil. He went on Mission Space yesterday alone because she refused. Once, two years ago was enough for her! I'm thrilled he is having so much fun!

 

[Talking Hands]

Gosh, I thought that there might be a bit more sympathy for their situation. My daughter and son-in-law do not expect NOT to wait, they just don't think that they should have to wait LONGER than walking people. I don't think that is unrealistic. IMHO I also think that complaining about it to the powers that be, even at Disney, is the proper thing to do. I guess we will disagree about this.

It has been my experience that I almost always wait longer than walking people when riding the buses. The worst resorts are those with multiple bus stops. This is the reason I prefer staying at one of the resorts that has only one bus stop. That way when the send the bus that the driver calls for it comes to that one bus stop and not to multiple bus stops and you again may get a full bus.At least, for most they can see shows and do rides at anytime. With a hearing loss if I miss several buses it can mean I miss an interpreted show and they are only interpreted once a day on the the days the interpreters are in that park. So 2 times a week except for Animal Kingdom which is only once a week.

 

[blondietink]

I believe that all of the bus stops at CBR have phones. USE IT! We did in August when we waited for just one Epcot bus.... all the other park buses went around 2 or 3 times, but not Epcot. The internal resort bus driver stopped after seeing us waiting there and told us to call on the phone at the bus stop. We did and within 4 minutes, no lie, there was a bus for Epcot there. My DS has a wheelchair and we had no other problems at CBR after that.

 

[retired and happy]

We travel with three wheelchairs and have rarely had to wait long for a bus. We occasionally have to split our party unto two busses, especially if the older busses come along with only two chair spaces. This year we plan to carry a folding chair so one can transfer to a regular seat while the other two ride in their wheelchairs. We also rarely travel at peak times, so we help ourselves there too. Go with the flow and don't line up in the regular queue. If the driver sees you, he is more likely to load you. And if he can load you first, he won't have to move alreadsy seated passengers.

 

[Bete]

but I'm also realistic. We have a scooter and wheelchair and there are times it seems to take too long to get a bus and other times just right and still other times where it seems to be the first bus we get and we are lucky. In some ways, I wish it would be more consistent, but I don't think Disney can realistically judge every moment of park crowds.

My worse situation with the buses is when they bring more buses and they park on the outside of the designated parking spot; so, no handicap vehicles can get on. To me, that's an injustice. I can't see why they can't time it to come in after the other bus just leaves; so, handicap vehicles have a better chance when it's crowded. In one instance we waited for 5 buses; because, we couldn't get on three of them.

Hopefully, if you don't get the pixie dust one way you will get some another way. I still feel it's going to get worse in this way; because, the growing population needing handicap vehicles is not going to keep up with the bus situation. I think this is one of the major reasons for the newer buses having three spots and not just two.

 

[bedogged]

I just wanted to update their trip. Transportation has vastly improved from CBR over the last couple of days for them. I really don't know why, but now they seem to be able to get on a bus within a reasonable amount of time. Maybe the squeaky wheel. This morning my daughter reported that they were even able to board the first bus that came and an additional bus was right behind the first one. I hope this trend continues for them!