Minnie vans causing slow down in bus transit?

[Spencer Wright]

I am visiting wdw again in late August, I believe for the 7th time and cannot wait. We are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which relies entirely on bus service. I am concerned with these new Minnie vans that bus service will become restrained, in order to encourage its use.

Anyone experience this so far or does this concern seem totally unfounded?

I love wdw but am concerned it may be becoming either too complicated or too expensive a place to visit. I certainly hope this is not the case.

 

[Capang]

I'm pretty sure these vans were put in place to compete with taxis and uber. I don't think it will take away the bus service in any way.

 

[wilkeliza]

No concern from me over the vans. They made them because some people want them and there was enough to push the use naturally with out having to cut back on buses.

There were times before the vans that we experienced crazy long waits for buses but that was just during normal operations. At the parks was fine never had a super long wait but some how getting to the parks mid day sometimes we had 40+ minute waits so just abide by the suggested 90 minutes and you'll be fine.

 

[Spencer Wright]

I appreciate the feedback! Animal Kingdom Lodge usually has great bus service.

 

[FCDub]

As another poster said, these are direct competition with Uber/Lyft. Seems Disney wasn't fond of someone else making a buck on their property and decided to jump in the game.

 

[wilkeliza]

I appreciate the feedback! Animal Kingdom Lodge usually has great bus service.

It was actually AKL where we had the longest waits in the past year. It could just be that we are unlucky but I know the Dreams Unlimited team also covered slow bus service there during their training week.

 

[LilyWDW]

It was actually AKL where we had the longest waits in the past year. It could just be that we are unlucky but I know the Dreams Unlimited team also covered slow bus service there during their training week.

AKL is the one place where I have had multiple instances of bad bus service.

 

[loves to dive]

I have had bad bus service everywhere and I've had good bus service everywhere, I don't think the vans are going to change that.

 

[Kaytie]

Totally unfounded. Disney has at least 300 buses, not all of which are on the road at the same time, roof course. A bus that can accommodate more than 50 people per trip would need at least eight vans for the same trip. This assumes each party consists of six peephole.

It just wouldn't make financial sense. The Minnie Vans are primarily targeted to, for example, guests who've never taken a taxi; guests who want to get between two points when WDW doesn't provide direct transportation; guests already using file-sharing services; guests in a hurry...

 

[mousehockey37]

As another poster said, these are direct competition with Uber/Lyft. Seems Disney wasn't fond of someone else making a buck on their property and decided to jump in the game.

You order the minnie vans through the Lyft app. So I don't think Lyft is direct competition.

 

[Spencer Wright]

AKL is the one place where I have had multiple instances of bad bus service.

It does have relatively slow bus service. As other people have stated, there's a pretty good balance of good and bad bus service everywhere. AKL is pretty good at night when the parks close, however heading back out after an afternoon at the pool can result in slow service.

 

[Shanti]

AKL is pretty good at night when the parks close, however heading back out after an afternoon at the pool can result in slow service.

That is true at every resort. They run fewer buses during non-peak travel times of the day. We stayed at AKL in April and had great bus service.

 

[Allison]

Unfounded.

 

[writerguyfl]

Totally unfounded. Disney has at least 300 buses, not all of which are on the road at the same time, roof course. A bus that can accommodate more than 50 people per trip would need at least eight vans for the same trip. This assumes each party consists of six peephole.

I love it when people use math to back up an opinion. (I'm a geek like that!)