Is this new?

Mousewerks

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 9, 2008
Messages
565
I was in Orlando for a business meeting and had some time to kill before heading home to the airport. So, I went and had lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe (which was quite delicious) and on return noticed this at the bus stop:




Is this new? I haven't had occasion to travel by bus to the GF before.
 
They are relatively new - we saw them last June. The prior year - 2012, they had interns at almost every hotel and bus area writing down and tracking times for buses. They said they were doing research on the timing of the buses, etc. We also had someone ask us questions as well. I think many people have gotten frustrated with the wait times so they post them in "real time". I also noticed that if it said a time and it got changed, it updated the time and put "traffic" or "accident" under it so you would know why the time changed.
 
Not new, don't other resorts also have the same system?

:earsboy: Bill
 
SSR doesn't have those at any of the bus stops and I did not see it last time we were at BLT either. I haven't been to any others in the last year so I wouldn't know about those.
 

Our last trip to OKW we did not have them...smjj
 
GFV had them last April. On our last trips to OKW and BWV, neither had them at the bus stop.

It was a nice addition, we liked knowing when the next bus was coming.
 
I was at BWV last week, didn't have it. It would be neat if they could put something on the room TV. My room was at the far end of the hall and it was actually closer to go to the Swan bus stop. So I had to decide which to use. Unfortunately, I went to the Swan bus stop on Thursday and the bus went Swan-Dolphin-Boardwalk after a long wait. I probably would have been better off at the BW stop, may have caught the one before.
 
Great idea! Did you stay long enough to see if the times were correct?
 
They've been at GF and Kidani for awhile. Too bad other resorts haven't add them also. :(
 
I sat waiting at the bus stop at GF for at least 1/2 hour earlier this month waiting for DS13 to come back from DHS. The times were pretty accurate. I even noticed some bus arrival times change by a minute or 2 later from their original arrival time based on whatever delay they must have experienced on the way. I was impressed that it was that accurate.
 
On one of our recent trips, GF also had CMs with iPads directing bus traffic for guests. I just thought it was some new concierge service for GF. Maybe that was a beta testing and the plan will be to put these at other resorts.
 
A few years ago Disney installed a bus dispatch system. In theory the system would count riders as they entered the bus and the system using GPS would know the location of the buses would route additional buses as necessary.

The system had vendor/software issues and never worked as planned.

Shortly after the system rollout Disney began using GPS for bus announcements and music selection. Recorded info and music are played based on where your bus is located. That system seems to work well.

With MB's Disney can now easily determine how many guests are queued for the buses and I expect that we will be seeing upgrades to the bus routing system next year.

:earsboy: Bill
 



















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