Magical Express - no seats?

To me, that's not a valid option. As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you), if I couldn't get my travelling party on the bus, I'd insist on Disney providing alternate transportation. I held up my end of the bargain, they need to do theirs.

I absolutely agree with this. Hopefully, it will never happen to you again OP but I would have gone in to the front desk and asked them to arrange for alternate transportation as the bus was full. They can give a voucher for a cab to the airport. They gave us one once when we missed the bus because one of my boys got sick on route.
 
When we departed OKW August 1, we arrived at the ME bus stop about 40 minutes before our scheduled departure, mostly because my mother-in-law had already turned in her rented scooter. An older CM working at bell services asked if we wanted to board the ME bus that arrived almost immediately after we got to Hospitality House. We declined; we always find we have tons of time at MCO.

The CM also told us we could get on any ME bus that arrived. We just needed to let him know.

Couple this lax policy with ME drivers that don't even look at the transportation letter -- ours didn't -- and you could run into some of the issues describe above.
And there's the issue! As I've said in many posts, DME is run by Mears, buses are driven by Mears drivers. They don't seem to have the same 'regard' for Disney proceedures as regular CMs. But, they are contracted by Disney, so representing Disney, and need to adhere to Disney policy! If this happens at the first or second of four stops, then who knows if there are plenty of seats. That's just not fair to those who are scheduled to be on that bus.
 
They said "As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you)"", which indicates he knows that it's leaving the resort.

Yes, Sam knew - which is why he made his comment. However, FCDub was referring to the post by lovin'fl (who made the suggestion of waiting for the next bus).

I am sure their option would have been for you to wait for next ME bus which would have likely sucked half an hour or more out of your day. I have noticed they aim to fill the ME buses up as full as possible. Used to get on and go with just a handful of others and now you sit and wait for bus to fill and then stop at three or four resorts.
 


This is most likely a case of
1. There were stops that were missed in the previous run, so the driver put them on your bus
Or
2. Guests wanted to board an earlier bus, and the driver allowed it.
I'd add:
3. Guests who arrived late and missed their designated bus.
 
It will be interesting to see how Disney responds to your complaint. Please keep us posted!
 
We had an overfull bus on our April trip. The empty bus pulled up and the driver checked everyone's vouchers, he even said no to 2 families who tried to get on when they were scheduled for the next bus and told a family who had missed thew last to get a cab. The bus was still 4 seats short and then the driver checked all the vouchers in his hand again. He got a cab for the 4 people who didn't have seats and we were on our way. I wonder if maybe they overfill sometimes thinking that people will grab a cab or an Uber instead.
 


we were allowed to board an earlier bus on our previous trip in April of this year....HOWEVER, CBR was the last stop for the bus AND the driver made sure everyone who was supposed to be on the bus was before even allowing us on the bus and taking our luggage. He went on the bus and counted all the passengers then came out and told us it was safe to board. I too am guessing your driver let people on that should not have been on that particular bus to MCO.
 
Contact Disney. I do not advocate suing Disney every time somebody gets the sniffles, but this is not safe at all. This could result in a true legal suit should the worst happen. Nobody is required to wear a seat belt, but it should be available to them for sure. They know who they are picking up and dropping off. It is part of the ME process. You definitely need to let them know so that they can ensure this does not happen again. Either they need not pick people up early or they need to send another bus.
 
I would quietly stay on the bus to avoid delays and problems that could make me miss my plane.

But I would not just let things go by quietly.

* Upon arrival at the airport I would accept my bags from down under as usual, thank the driver, but give no tip.

* After getting home I would write Disney briefly describing what happened as a minor complaint and requesting somewhere on the order of $100. in compensation. The purpose is to make heads upstairs roll.

(In my mind, $100. of complimentary admission is eight days.)

* While it is an infraction for a Magical Express driver to take standees, he might have let this one slip by rather than untangle your bags from under the bus.
 
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Especially since sitting on the floor of a bus is a choice an individual makes.

It was a choice, not necessary what I'd deem the best one for many. Lots of people, not necessarily the elderly or HC, would have a difficult time getting back up off the floor after a commando week in WDW!

Have stood on plenty of buses as transport to work, have never seen a driver permit a person to sit on the floor.

Perhaps they roll differently in Florida.:confused3 Did a quick google and see that is the preferred way to transport school children if not enough seats.:eek:

What is throwing me is you'd think there would be safety laws in place, federal or state, that prohibit more than the Maxiumum stated # of people on any bus.

I'd certainly inquire of WDW for an explanation if i were the OP.
 
OP here. Sorry for the delayed response. I seem to have picked up "the crud" from my travels and it's knocked me totally out of commission. (At least I know I didn't pick it up from the bus floor - ha! I had the start of it before that.)

I did write Disney (from the airport) -

We opted to take the bus primarily because we were in such a state of shock that we didn't know what else TO do. All I had in the back of my mind is "If you miss the bus, you're SOL and Disney won't put you on the next one." Rationally, in hindsight, obviously they would have accommodated us somehow - but in the moment, when your choices are "sit on floor" or "miss last flight of the night" things get a little murkier.

Luggage under the bus had nothing to do with it. I had all of my carry ons with me... you know, on the floor. ;)

As far as compensation - honestly, all I want is to know "next steps" if this happens again. I'll be on DME again within weeks and I'd like some recourse. I don't think $100 (equivalent to less than a one day ticket) would make heads roll, nor is there a monetary price that can be put on this sort of gaffe. Fastpasses won't fix it, this isn't a "time in park" issue, kwim? (Certainly a lawsuit hasn't even crossed my mind - this is a "risk" item in which nothing bad happened, just want to make sure it doesn't happen again!)

Safety is supposed to be one of Disney's "keys," followed by efficiency, but I fear the two have been flipped recently. Of course, statistically speaking, I was probably safer on that bus than in a passenger vehicle... but that doesn't make it okay.
 
Safety is supposed to be one of Disney's "keys," followed by efficiency, but I fear the two have been flipped recently. Of course, statistically speaking, I was probably safer on that bus than in a passenger vehicle... but that doesn't make it okay.
Remember, the service is operated by Mears, not Disney.

Certainly, you are right to bring it to Disney's attention, as it's provided on their behalf, but it was Mears' scheduling and a Mears driver, not a Disney cm), that had you sitting on the floor. Disney may or may not be aware that it's going on.
 
When I got off the bus, I asked the driver whether to contact Disney or Mears regarding the lack of seats. He said "both, actually," and I'll be contacting Mears today as well (their contact form wouldn't load on mobile.)

That said, Disney contracts for the service and it's their name on the bus, so I really object to the notion that they shouldn't be held responsible. If they contracted with "Joe's toilet cleaning" and the bathrooms are disgusting... it's still Disney who's responsible. If they put their name on the service and promote it as part of their vacation package, they don't get to duck out of accountability just because they've contracted out to someone else.
 
When I got off the bus, I asked the driver whether to contact Disney or Mears regarding the lack of seats. He said "both, actually," and I'll be contacting Mears today as well (their contact form wouldn't load on mobile.)

That said, Disney contracts for the service and it's their name on the bus, so I really object to the notion that they shouldn't be held responsible. If they contracted with "Joe's toilet cleaning" and the bathrooms are disgusting... it's still Disney who's responsible. If they put their name on the service and promote it as part of their vacation package, they don't get to duck out of accountability just because they've contracted out to someone else.
No argument here as to Disney's responsibility. Just saying that as to Disney putting cost saving over safety, that the incident was caused by Mears' operating procedures, not Disney's. I doubt that Disney has a direct say into how many buses Mears schedules and which Guests Mears' drivers allow on the bus.
 
IDK. We used to ride busses that had extra seats. Now we ride busses that are overfull. If those are Mears operating procedures, then perhaps Disney should look at their contract and see what's changed.
 
Remember, the service is operated by Mears, not Disney.

Certainly, you are right to bring it to Disney's attention, as it's provided on their behalf, but it was Mears' scheduling and a Mears driver, not a Disney cm), that had you sitting on the floor. Disney may or may not be aware that it's going on.
Disney is still ultimately responsible.
 

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