disney buses

[MillauFr]

I really don't mean to seem argumentative, but seriously? To have buses arrive every 5-10 mins would mean doubling the number of buses and drivers out on the roads!

I just think Disney should strongly discourage people from driving cars to the parks. They offer free parking so I am renting a car. If they charged me $25 a night to park it and gave me a discount on the room if I arrived by bus then I would change my choice.

 

[3Gsandme]

I just think Disney should strongly discourage people from driving cars to the parks. They offer free parking so I am renting a car. If they charged me $25 a night to park it and gave me a discount on the room if I arrived by bus then I would change my choice.

Why?

 

[MillauFr]

Why?

I guess I am just cheap. Always trying to improving efficiency in movement of people and goods.

Passenger cars are one of the most inefficient methods of moving people between point a and b.

I got rid of my car when I figured out how much it was costing me. I also dropped my bus pass when my employer started charging $20 per month. I mean how do they expect me to pay for Disney vacations if they are trying to charge me $20 per month....

 

[goofy4tink]

I guess I am just cheap. Always trying to improving efficiency in movement of people and goods.

Passenger cars are one of the most inefficient methods of moving people between point a and b.

I got rid of my car when I figured out how much it was costing me. I also dropped my bus pass when my employer started charging $20 per month. I mean how do they expect me to pay for Disney vacations if they are trying to charge me $20 per month....

That's all well and good for you. BUT....if Disney actively tried to discourage guests from driving to the parks, you are going to have an even longer wait for the bus...with less seating. Why? There are a lot of guests that drive in order to easily manage their large strollers or ECVs. Once you start charging people to park at the parks, those people will start using the buses. And that means fewer available seats due to more ECVs. It means longer waits while those ECVs board. It means less space and longer wait times while those huge strollers get on board.

there is no perfect answer...at least not one that benefits all on-site guests. If a guest chooses to drive a car, that's their choice. They get to decide if it's the best option for them. If a guest decides to use the bus system, with the inherent issues, fine. We all realize that the bus system isn't going to be rapid, and there is a good chance a seat won't be available for everyone.

But, I have to ask....if you no longer drive a car, and you chose not to pay $5 a week for the bus...how do you get to work? I would have thought that $5 a week for transport is a pretty good deal.

 

[epsmith921]

My husband despises the buses. We are not really public transport folks being from detroit. Because of that, we choose to stay in Disney resorts with alternatives to buses. Not kidding, my husband would rather take the monorail from MK to Epcot and then walk through Epcot back out the international gateway to get to our Epcot area resort than ride the bus. So this is what we do. We make the choice knowing what we prefer. We also try not to be leaving the parks with the masses when someone's rear end will be much closer to our face than 20 inches if we are sitting.

We have also witnessed some fights for tram seats and decided after our last trip with a rental car, the bus was going to be just fine for us. We do still stay in the Epcot area to have alternatives, but we found it worked for us.

 

[Disuser]

I would think having passengers standing on busses would be illegal. We had to stand once on our last trip. We were going about 55 down the highway and if we had we hit a car no doubt we would have gone through the front window. I won't ride a bus again when I, or a family member, has to stand.
Cops should be issuing Disney tickets.

 

[TeachTink]

I would think having passengers standing on busses would be illegal. We had to stand once on our last trip. We were going about 55 down the highway and if we had we hit a car no doubt we would have gone through the front window. I won't ride a bus again when I, or a family member, has to stand.
Cops should be issuing Disney tickets.

People stand on buses everywhere, not just Disney. I went to school at Penn State and used buses to get from my apartment to campus. We were crammed in like sardines. People stand on the subway and buses in NYC. That's just the way it is.

 

[maxiesmom]

I would think having passengers standing on busses would be illegal. We had to stand once on our last trip. We were going about 55 down the highway and if we had we hit a car no doubt we would have gone through the front window. I won't ride a bus again when I, or a family member, has to stand.
Cops should be issuing Disney tickets.

Nope, it is not illegal at all. No reason to write tickets.

 

[MPB82]

Someone (or a few) said it at the beginning, if you need to sit, get in line and when its your turn to board and there are no seats just let people pass.

Just realize that you will be standing in the same line as you would on the bus so you really are just waiting to sit when by that time you might be back in your room (or wherever you are going)

Nothing is perfect and getting on a bus with an open seat is def nice but I don't think this is really going to get better unless they just have 5,000 busses going back to back to back and then it will just be a traffic nightmare

 

[Eighty8Keys]

Someone (or a few) said it at the beginning, if you need to sit, get in line and when its your turn to board and there are no seats just let people pass.

Just realize that you will be standing in the same line as you would on the bus so you really are just waiting to sit when by that time you might be back in your room (or wherever you are going)

That's exactly what I was going to point out. I prefer getting a seat, but if it's a choice between standing an unknown amount of time in line waiting for the next bus or standing for the 10-20 minute bus ride back to the resort, I'd rather be on my way back to the resort.

 

[Greysword]

I just think Disney should strongly discourage people from driving cars to the parks. They offer free parking so I am renting a car. If they charged me $25 a night to park it and gave me a discount on the room if I arrived by bus then I would change my choice.

Tink already addressed this, but I wanted to add something.

I wanted to point out that WDW was designed to be driven in our personal cars. Walt Disney bought the land where it sits due to the intersection of two major thoroughfares (Interstate 4 and the Florida Turnpike), with the intent on making it easier to drive to and from the resort.

Also, the Magic Kingdom was designed to be experienced via the TTC, and I think using a bus for the first visit diminishes the experience that was intended (drive under the arch, trams to TTC, boat or monorail to the MK).

lastly, WDW is very efficient in their road network. The roads are well marked and pretty easy to navigate.

Personally, I would rather they charge a lot for rooms and build a monorail or WEDway Peoplemover to each park (and DTD) from each resort

 

[ccgirl]

We were at disney last november and the only negative thing about the trip was the buses.
I understand it is about money but,I feel that as a resort guest we should have a comfortable ride on the buses.Standing is a little rough especially if you are a littli older.Having another person standind 20 " from your face ( butt first) to me is not disney magic.We stay at resorts for that little extra. I feel this is not very professional. just wanted to say my two cents.

Which is why we always rent a car. It's important to remember, these are not coach transportation. It is more like public transportation. I think sometimes people expect otherwise.

 

[ccgirl]

I still figure you deserve a comfortable ride on the bus
You pay enough to stay at a resort
Its not like paying a dollar for mass transit
To each his own

You don't have to stay on site to ride the buses. Any visitor to wdw is able to ride the bus.

 

[seashoreCM]

... I wanted to point out that WDW was designed to be driven in our personal cars. ...

For those staying on site, WDW was designed so having a personal car would not be necessary. With Walt's love of railroads and of futuristic things, the monorail was chosen as the transportation between resort and park.

Walt did not live to see even the first park open. With the opening of more resorts, it became clear that monorails and private cars would not be able to reliably handle the guest traffic at reasonable cost. (You know about all of the monorail breakdowns, no?) So WDW did what any big city would do, run a bus system.

The transportation & ticket center was to give guests the illusion of transitioning from the real world into a fantasy world (and back to reality at the end of the day). But bringing all of the resort guests there to ride the monorail or ferry to Magic Kingdom would overload those facilities. Also too many guests want a more direct trip to Magic Kingdom although it was too late to reconstruct things so guests driving could avoid the TTC to MK link.

Who remembers that Walt's original design for Living Seas was a base deep down under the sea and "hydrolators" would "transport guests down and back up". Long waits for the hydrolators were common. Partly to improve guest traffic flow, the attraction was rethemed to be "on the surface" and the hydrolators, which really did not go anywhere vertically, were replaced by a straight through corridor.

Who would be in favor of covering all of the bus windows and have decorations and maybe even have several video screens all along the inside walls, to provide a more magical trip from resort to park? This way guests would transition from the real world to a fantasy world upon arrival at their resorts.

 

[maxiesmom]

For those staying on site, WDW was designed so having a personal car would not be necessary. With Walt's love of railroads and of futuristic things, the monorail was chosen as the transportation between resort and park.

Walt did not live to see even the first park open. With the opening of more resorts, it became clear that monorails and private cars would not be able to reliably handle the guest traffic at reasonable cost. (You know about all of the monorail breakdowns, no?) So WDW did what any big city would do, run a bus system.

The transportation & ticket center was to give guests the illusion of transitioning from the real world into a fantasy world (and back to reality at the end of the day). But bringing all of the resort guests there to ride the monorail or ferry to Magic Kingdom would overload those facilities. Also too many guests want a more direct trip to Magic Kingdom although it was too late to reconstruct things so guests driving could avoid the TTC to MK link.

Who remembers that Walt's original design for Living Seas was a base deep down under the sea and "hydrolators" would "transport guests down and back up". Long waits for the hydrolators were common. Partly to improve guest traffic flow, the attraction was rethemed to be "on the surface" and the hydrolators, which really did not go anywhere vertically, were replaced by a straight through corridor.

Who would be in favor of covering all of the bus windows and have decorations and maybe even have several video screens all along the inside walls, to provide a more magical trip from resort to park? This way guests would transition from the real world to a fantasy world upon arrival at their resorts.

Remember how Disney was sued by the woman over the hydrolators? I can't help but think that is at least part of the reason for their removal.

As far as covering the bus windows, ick. Smacks of being kidnapped. I mean, what next, blindfolding guests that arrive via the airport? Only removing it once you are at resort check in? Not to mention, covering the windows is a good way to make people motion sick.