Leaving Epcot by bus...Sat. June 10

[mantysk8coach]

I have meant to post about this since I got home from WDW on June 16, and just thought of this again now.

Was anyone here leaving Epcot via Disney bus on the evening of Saturday, June 10? It was the weirdest thing. We were tired and hot and planned Illuminations for another night, so we left to return to Pop Century, if I remember correctly, it was probably about 7 p.m. Yes...it was 7 or 7:30 ish because it was right after our dinner at LeCellier.

So we go to our bus stop, and all of these totally unmarked, coach style busses were pulling up to all of the resort bus stops (not just Pop's). The busses were just totally white mostly, no writing on them at all. Some of them actually looked kind of beat up. Also, there were several actual Disney busses just sitting in that open area of Epcots lot near where the busses pick up, doing nothing.

So the plain bus pulls up, and people just start blindly piling on to it. Red flags were going off in my head all over the place. However, I am totally NOT one to provoke confrontation, so I said nothing. I was about to step on to the bus, and THANK GOD the lady behind me asked the driver to see some ID. I immediately stepped off the bus and could have kissed her feet for being the one to ask.

Now I figured there had to be a reasonable explanation, and was 95% sure that these buses were probably legit, but the driver was NOT able to produce ID showing that he was able be driving for Disney. All he said was "We are contracted by Disney." But he would not elaborate anymore than that.

So we decided not to get on the bus. Neither did the lady who asked him for the ID, and several other people in line.

In this age of suicide bombings, and terrorism, etc., you just can't be too careful. I mean, you just never know where this bus may have taken us. So we got on the Monorail to Magic Kingdom and got on the Pop bus from there without a problem.

So is this a normal thing? I have just never seen that happen before. Like I said, I'm sure it was probably legit, but especially with my 2 year old along, you can't be too careful.

Can anyone shed any light on this! Sorry this got so long, but this has been bugging me since we got home.

 

[AllyBri]

Someone had posted on another board, that Disney had outsiders driving buses and doing mousekeeping. It seems that they are so busy and don't have enough CMs of their own to do all the work.
Don't know if this has anything to do with what you saw.

OT........I think when we all go down to WDW we should all pitch in and help Disney out for a day.

 

[mytwotinks]

Whatever the reason it still seems odd that he had no i.d. I thought that they all wore photo i.d.s. Maybe I'm wrong. I would have probably been like you and not wanted to bother anybody with my ?'s. Good for that lady for asking though!

 

[SuBeat]

We had a similar experience during our stay. I think it was on the evening of June 15, we were leaving Epcot to catch the late Fantasmic at MGM. We waited quite some time for a bus, and when one finally pulls up it is not a Disney one and the driver is not wearing purple pants. She insists that she is working for Disney. Our group of 9 and one other couple are the only ones on the bus. We're a weird group, so we get the nervous giggles talking about this being like something out of a movie and wondering if the driver is taking us to MGM or to some unknown destination. We arrived safely at MGM, and I must admit this was a much more comfy bus with padded seats and 50's tunes playing on the radio. But it was a STRANGE experience.

 

[lyzziesmom]

This happened to me on our last trip in May, but I had been warned by a different bus driver that a non-Disney bus may pull up now & then. Apparently the bus company they contract with occasionally will send a driver from a different route to help cover the Disney routes. We very much enjoyed riding to the MK in a nice motorcoach!

 

[momof2minnies]

Yes last year they were also using a motorcoach co. and we were on one.

 

[clkelley]

While I never rode one, I noticed on our trip in May, they had a contracted coach running the All-Stars/Blizzard Beach route. It was a plain, silver coach type bus with a cardboard sign in the window that said All-Stars/Blizzard Beach.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

When Disney does not have enough drivers or buses, they will contract out to Mears for additional buses to help with the traffic flow.

When Mears does not have enough drivers or coaches to handle thier work, they will sub-contract out to other coach companies. (hence, the plain white unmarked coaches)

I can completely understand the skepticism when a non-Disney bus pulls up. But they are legit.