Monorail problems, July 5 & 6

[Poohs Pal]

I totally understand your concern about the TTC problem. A couple of years ago my DD and neice got off at the TTC at night to walk over to the polynesian, we were staying in Hawaii. They got turned around(first time at the poly) and it took them some time to find our building and they felt pretty frustrated, I feel bad for your son. I do agree with the previous poster that disney could'nt know that a problem would occur the next day with the monorail car not wanting to run. The people rioting on the boat dock wasn't disney's fault so much as people being inconsiderate of each other and not being patient. Why people have to act this way is something i'll never understand. Susan

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by Stepharoonie!
She originally wrote that he took a bus from the park to the TTC. I've never seen a bus run from Main Street to the TTC before.

However, if he really did get directed to take a bus back to the Poly, they would have known there was bus service to the Poly the following day if the monorail was out of order.

You're not getting it, are you?

He took the bus from the MK because the monorail wasn't running.

The next morning IT WAS RUNNING. We got on it and rode to the GF. Then had to get off.

Then when we left the MK we were told it was running again. And we waited. And waited. And then finally it came but only went as far as the CR. To get back to the PR we had the choice of staying on and looping back to the MK, the GF, and finally the PR, or getting off and taking a cab. Which is what we decided to do, as it was crawling along at about 3mph. When we were IN THE CAB we saw busses marked for the GF and PR pulling out of the MK bus area.

NO ONE TOLD US THAT BUSSES WERE RUNNING. That's my complaint!!! NO ONE TOLD ANYONE ANYTHING!! THey left guests stranded all over the place, and gave no communication on options.

Anne

 

[Stepharoonie!]

Originally posted by ducklite
You're not getting it, are you?

He took the bus from the MK because the monorail wasn't running.

THAT'S what I was talking about....good gosh, I have personally never heard of a bus from MAIN STREET to THE TICKET AND TRANSPORTATION CENTER. Only BOATS and MONORAILS are what I've heard of. If they ran a bus from Main Street to the TTC that's news to me. It appears that Tyler pointed that out, so thank you very much. Sheesh.

 

[justhat]

We were staying at the GF June 7-13 and I think it was the night of the 8th, we were eating in Narcoosee's and noticed that a monorail was stopped between the GF and MK. There was a very bad thunderstorm so we assumed that had caused a power outage since the monorail remained in the one spot for probably about 30 minutes. If finally moved, but they were running very slow after that. We were in one of the turret rooms facing the monorail so we saw that they remained slower than normal for awhile after our dinner was over too.

About walking from the TTC alone. I was 15 when my family stayed at the Poly and I walked with a friend from the boat dock at the Poly to the TTC and yes, it can be a little confusing. But if your son was confused whe he got off at the TTC, he could have asked the bus driver for assistance. I'm sorry it happened, but if he's able to go to e-night alone, he should be able to find his way to his room alone too.

 

[Bojangles]

Originally posted by justhat
he could have asked the bus driver for assistance. I'm sorry it happened, but if he's able to go to e-night alone, he should be able to find his way to his room alone too.

I agree. Why didn't you send him with a cell phone or something just in case of emergencies?

 

[poohandwendy]

NO ONE TOLD US THAT BUSSES WERE RUNNING. That's my complaint!!! NO ONE TOLD ANYONE ANYTHING!! THey left guests stranded all over the place, and gave no communication on options.

Just for future reference, the main desks at all of the resorts (concierge desk, if applicable) are constantly manned and the CMs are trained to answer questions, and if they cannot help you, they will direct you to someone who can.

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by justhat
I'm sorry it happened, but if he's able to go to e-night alone, he should be able to find his way to his room alone too.

And had he been taken directly from the MK to the Polynesian, it wouldn't have been a problem. He wasn't. I allowed him to go to e-night because we were staying at a hotel with direct service from teh MK to the resort. WDW ended up not giving him that. Which is the issue. They should have offered a direct bus from the MK to the Polynesian. For a bus driver to drop a kid (or ANY guest for that matter) off at the TTC at 2:15 am and tell them to walk from there to the Polynesian is ridiculous.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by Bojangles
I agree. Why didn't you send him with a cell phone or something just in case of emergencies?

He had a cell phone on him. What was that going to do? He did make it back. I'm sure if he had become completely lost, he would have called. But then again, the point is that they should have provided appropriate transportation--door-to-door from the MK to the Polynesian. Had that happened I wouldn't have cared if it was via boat, bus, monorail, or even a surrey bike.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by poohandwendy
Just for future reference, the main desks at all of the resorts (concierge desk, if applicable) are constantly manned and the CMs are trained to answer questions, and if they cannot help you, they will direct you to someone who can.

OK. That's wonderful and so helpful when one is standing at the MK and can't get back to their resort, and the only CM at the monorail station doesn't offer the busses as a solution...we were told wait for a monorail or take a boat. DH walked down as one boat came in and docked next to another already out of service to ask when a boat would be coming. The boat CM told him the boat was being taken out of service but another would be along in fifteen minutes. No one offered a bus, the security people passed the buck to the monorail person who had no additional info to offer. So yes, while asking at guest services at the resort would have been a lovely idea, I was stranded at the MK and unable to get there.

And BTW, we stopped at the concierge desk when we did finally get back to our resort. They had less information about the situation than we did, including not being aware that busses were running.

Anne

 

[Lexxiefern]

Anne, so sorry you had to deal with this on your vacation. That is the last thing you need when you are trying to relax and have a good time.

Also, regardless of your son's age, he should not have been dropped at the TTC and be expected to walk back to the Poly. No one should. I would have been very upset if that happened to me, never mind my child.

 

[treehugger]

Anne,
I can definately see your point. We have been to the Poly many times and entering the resort from the TTC at night is confusing to anyone. I would not want to do it alone. I get what you're saying about him being okay returning from the MK, he was familiar with the route from the GCH to your longhouse. Sorry, there should have been provisions made to drop guests off directly at the Poly. I give him alot of credit, I probably would've ended up at the GF.

 

[wdwdvcdad]

Probably pool hoppers overloading the monorail & gumming up the works......

 

[Emmaline Lola]

Why is ducklite being so rude to the other posters in her responses?

It seems these posters are interested in your situation, and sympathize with you, but you continue to berate them in your responses.

Just my 2 cents, it bothered me, and I needed to say something.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Emmaline Lola

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by Emmaline Lola
Why is ducklite being so rude to the other posters in her responses?

It seems these posters are interested in your situation, and sympathize with you, but you continue to berate them in your responses.

Just my 2 cents, it bothered me, and I needed to say something.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Emmaline Lola

Excuse me?

Stepharoonie attacked me by imlying I was lying about bus service from the MK to the TTC. Had it been her daughter I think she'd be equally upset.

Justthat implied I shouldn't have let my son go to e-night unescorted...he would have been fine had WDW provided the transportation they advertise. Would it have been OK if he had been a teenage GIRL left at the TTC in the middle of the night?

Bojangles implied that I sent him off with no way of getting help. Not the case. He has a cell phone. he asked how to get back and was told to take a bus to the TTC, which he did. The bus driver then told him to wlak to the Polynesian. I'm sure Bojangles would have been pleased to walk, alone, in the dark, from the TTC to the PR. NOT.

PoohandWendy put in a snide remark that I could have asked the concierge for help--great when I'm stranded at the MK. Duh.

Some of these people have made it their mission to thinly veil personal attacks against me for quite some time. This is exactly what's going on here.

Anne

 

[ScarlettO]

Originally posted by ducklite
He has a cell phone.

Anne

Uh....if this had happened to my son, he would have called me or his Dad on the Cell, no matter what the hour.(???) But I really don't believe it is a Cast Member's problem to look at each guest and try to judge from their looks if they are mature enough to walk to their resort late at night.

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by ScarlettO
Uh....if this had happened to my son, he would have called me or his Dad on the Cell, no matter what the hour.(???) But I really don't believe it is a Cast Member's problem to look at each guest and try to judge from their looks if they are mature enough to walk to their resort late at night.

This is true. But bus drivers shouldn't be dropping anyone off at the TTC and telling them to walk to the Polynesian.

When he left the MK, he went to get on the monorail. He was stopped and told it wasn't running, and he'd have to take a bus. He went to the bus stop, and asked a driver which bus to take to get to the Polynesian--keep in mind there is no stop for the monorail resorts at the MK bus stop.

They told him "take that one". He got on and told the driver he needed to get to the Polynesian, and the driver pulled into the TTC. The driver then told him that because he was the only passenger for the Polynesian, to get off and walk over.

This is the problem. That driver should NEVER have said that. The driver should have either called for another bus to pick him up and take him to the Polynesian and told him where to wait for it, or the driver should have taken him there himself.

Anne

 

[poohandwendy]

PoohandWendy put in a snide remark that I could have asked the concierge for help--great when I'm stranded at the MK. Duh.

Um? Cel phone, pay phone? And actually, I mentioned calling concierge AND/OR the Poly main desk. If I would have been you, I would have called Poly concierge/main desk and asked if they could help me and if they couldn't, could they give me the # for the TTC? That way, you would have found out that there were buses running. I would not have waited for someone to notify me. Hopefully, this thread can be helpful to someone else in the future if they run into transportation problems.

 

[justhat]

Thanks, that's how I was feeling too. I am sorry that her son got lost, no one wants that to happen on vacation. But again, if he can go to e-night alone, he needs to be able to get back alone too, and not just provided that he takes the same path as always. 2:15am can be confusing no matter what path you take, especially at the Poly with all those trees. They do have resort maps posted though to help those who are lost, and I'm sure the bus driver would have helped if her son had mentioned he didn't know where he was. Even if he just directed him to the GCH. He could have found his way from there or asked a CM at the front desk. The ttc is very close to the Poly, in fact it's the reason we're headed back there in April--for the location. Guests going to/from Epcot walk from the Poly to the ttc and back all the time to avoid switching monorails. I'm sure if the boy told the driver he didn't know where he was he would have helped, otherwise he probably just assumed he could get back to his room.

And I think the poster who asked about the cell phone had a valid point. He could have called you for help. You said 'what was that going to do for him" but it could have done a lot if he had used it. He could have called to say that he had to take a bus to the ttc and was confused. That would have solved the problem of getting lost. It's always good to check that your child can find his way around the resort very well before you let them out on their own. Like I said, when I was 15 (yes, a teenage girl) I was allowed out alone there, and my first time was at night going from the boat dock to the ttc to get a monorail to Epcot. After that, we always walked to the ttc to get to Epcot to avoid the 2 monorails, which made me very familiar with getting to our room from there. At that age, however, I would never have been allowed to stay out till 2:15am by myself--even though I could easily find my way back to the room.

Maybe and idea for the future would be to send him out with a resort map. That way if anything bizarre happens in the future he'll be better prepared to avoid such a bad experience.

 

[ducklite]

He has no problem getting around the Polynesian. It was getting from the TTC to the Polynesian that was the problem.


He was dropped off there and told to walk to the Polynesian.

That's the problem. Had he been brought to the Polynesian like he should have been, he would have been fine.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by poohandwendy
Um? Cel phone, pay phone? And actually, I mentioned calling concierge AND/OR the Poly main desk. If I would have been you, I would have called Poly concierge/main desk and asked if they could help me and if they couldn't, could they give me the # for the TTC? That way, you would have found out that there were buses running. I would not have waited for someone to notify me. Hopefully, this thread can be helpful to someone else in the future if they run into transportation problems.

I don't carry the phone numbers of the WDW resorts around with me. I doubt many do. We asked two transportation people how to get back to the Polynesian. Both told us to wait for a monorail or a boat. Neither mentioned a bus. We also asked security. They told us to ask the transportation people we had already asked.

Anne