New Express Transportation: $19/day or $29/week-SERVICE ENDING AUGUST 23RD 2017

[AngiTN]

As the information is coming out, it seems it's something you have to purchase at in park kiosks.

Or at Guest Services

I've never seen buses that go from one Park to another before.

They have and have had for a long time. They are all clearly marked right there on the bus signs.
Don't feel bad though, it amazes me the number of people who think they don't have park to park buses. Only because they are listed right there on the bus stop signs. So they aren't really hidden.

I seem to be in the minority here, but this irks me. You should not have to pay extra for efficient transportation between the parks. When you buy a park hopper (or an AP I guess), you are paying a premium to go from park to park. The travel can be time consuming and Disney could do some things to fix the problem (like having more frequent buses for example). Instead they are charging people for a work around for something that surely they could improve if they chose to.

The bus to go park to park isn't really the problem this fixes. They aren't that bad really, just like any other bus. We find them excellent all in all. Perfect, no. But honestly, can they be perfect? No. No they can't. But they are hard to be better than they are now.
The big pluses for this are
avoiding security lines and turnstile lines
avoiding walking out to bus stops
That is what I'd pay for. The actual transportation itself holds no value as they have very good transportation in place

 

[AngiTN]

I'm talking about screenings at a park you hop to.

I have no issue with people skipping screening at the second or third park of the day. But it is a definite advantage of this upsell that you (I suspect) would be going from one security area to another, and not need to be screened the subsequent park(s).

Unless people are acquiring a weapon while in the park what purpose does screening someone who already is in a park have? Is there an increase risk I'm missing? Or is that not what you are saying? If that is not what you are saying is a problem, what is the problem you are seeing?

 

[hsmamato2]

I hate this idea,like I hate the paid ferry boat service idea (not the pleasure boats) I firmly believe that the onsite hotels are severely overpriced. The one benefit is they are onsite,and free (and supposedly good) transport. (with the monorail in bad shape, that is shaky ground IMHO) Now diverting more effort to the 'pay extra for better' services just means that what's left is even more sub-par. Disney is putting it's efforts into the WRONG areas,if it's looking to keep average tourists returning to spend their money. Onsite privileges don't mean much when they are no better than off site for a LOT less money. I think people like me will take this to mean that yes, we can still visit WDW, but I won;t bother staying onsite if one of the few 'perks' left disappears,even slowly. (we know it will be slow) I will stay offsite, and rent a car. It's just easier. If I can't rely on buses,etc as part of the package deal(and if the service declines as a result of the 'good' routes,etc saved for the 'pay extra' customers) then I see no reason to continue paying extra for onsite. You know what's easier than a 'pay extra' bus ride at Disney? renting a car at the airport and driving where we want to go, including offsite restaurant and shopping.

 

[disneyseniors]

Just read through all the pages, and this subject was only touched on once. So, here goes.....There are a lot of people who have park hoppers (and it is required now with the dining plan?), anyway it is very popular. We always get park hoppers for the convenience. There are also a lot of people who are "mobility challenged". I don't mean exclusively using ECV or WC's, but who have a very difficult time walking from the bus stop, parking area, to the entrance of each park. These are always a long way away, especially Epcot. My husband had back surgery recently with nerve damage, and he is going to use a cane and rent an ECV at each park, and he is one of those who would benefit from this. However, we will not be using it as we would miss the experience of the "show" of the entrance to the parks. This would be lost arriving in a back area.
My point is: I can see this being very popular with mobility challenged people, families with small children, or people who just don't want to wait in lines, as well as EVC users. I wonder if this will backfire on Disney, and become very overcrowded? Would people who paid for this get upset with the amount of ECV people who will use this? Do they think it is exclusive to only those not disabled? (of course it wouldn't be). For the low price of this offer, I think ALOT of people will opt to use this, possibly making it overcrowded?? Don't know, but we will see when we go in February.

 

[yulilin3]

Unless people are acquiring a weapon while in the park what purpose does screening someone who already is in a park have? Is there an increase risk I'm missing? Or is that not what you are saying? If that is not what you are saying is a problem, what is the problem you are seeing?

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by this.
This is why I love Universal. You get screened prior to Citywalk and then can go to Citywalk and to both parks without additional screenings. Of course they are all build next to each other. But this would be the same concept. You get screened, there are no stores inside that sell weapons so why the need to do it again

 

[AngiTN]

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by this.
This is why I love Universal. You get screened prior to Citywalk and then can go to Citywalk and to both parks without additional screenings. Of course they are all build next to each other. But this would be the same concept. You get screened, there are no stores inside that sell weapons so why the need to do it again

DL has the same process in place. If I remember correctly, I read where they are now included DTD in the screening, like City Walk set up. Prior (on our trip) it was just before you went to the plaza between the parks. WDW clearly can't go that route as there is no one main entrance (or 2) points.

 

[Madonna3]

I hate this idea,like I hate the paid ferry boat service idea (not the pleasure boats) I firmly believe that the onsite hotels are severely overpriced. The one benefit is they are onsite,and free (and supposedly good) transport. (with the monorail in bad shape, that is shaky ground IMHO) Now diverting more effort to the 'pay extra for better' services just means that what's left is even more sub-par. Disney is putting it's efforts into the WRONG areas,if it's looking to keep average tourists returning to spend their money. Onsite privileges don't mean much when they are no better than off site for a LOT less money. I think people like me will take this to mean that yes, we can still visit WDW, but I won;t bother staying onsite if one of the few 'perks' left disappears,even slowly. (we know it will be slow) I will stay offsite, and rent a car. It's just easier. If I can't rely on buses,etc as part of the package deal(and if the service declines as a result of the 'good' routes,etc saved for the 'pay extra' customers) then I see no reason to continue paying extra for onsite. You know what's easier than a 'pay extra' bus ride at Disney? renting a car at the airport and driving where we want to go, including offsite restaurant and shopping.

I think you're jumping the gun a bit. This is an added service primarily meant to make transport between parks faster for those who want it. There will still be free resort transportation options, which I think for the most part runs ok.

 

[mom2rtk]

Unless people are acquiring a weapon while in the park what purpose does screening someone who already is in a park have? Is there an increase risk I'm missing? Or is that not what you are saying? If that is not what you are saying is a problem, what is the problem you are seeing?

Did you miss the part where I said I have no issue with people not being screened at the second park? I'm not saying there's an additional security risk. I think it's a PR risk for Disney to appear to be profiting by selling a system to skip the additional screenings. I think you yourself listed it as one of the benefits to this system:

The big pluses for this are
avoiding security lines and turnstile lines
avoiding walking out to bus stops
That is what I'd pay for. The actual transportation itself holds no value as they have very good transportation in place

 

[ArwenMarie]

I think the main question is always how will this affect me? If they don't pull staff or vehicles to run this, then it doesn't affect the regular bus riders. This is unlike the other upcharges this week (Riverboat party, monorail party)

I'm way less annoyed by this than the cabanas in MK. That affects me because I have to look at them and part of the show as it was originally designed is wrecked.

I do think there is a valid point that perhaps improvements in the entire bus system would be something everyone can benefit from.

Well at least now we know how much the transport piece of the VIP Tour is worth in Disney's eyes

 

[AngiTN]

Did you miss the part where I said I have no issue with people not being screened at the second park? I'm not saying there's an additional security risk. I think it's a PR risk for Disney to appear to be profiting by selling a system to skip the additional screenings.

No, I saw that but I can't grasp the PR issue so I thought maybe I was just not understanding something else. We'll leave it at that I don't see the issue you see.

 

[AngiTN]

I think the main question is always how will this affect me? If they don't pull staff or vehicles to run this, then it doesn't affect the regular bus riders. This is unlike the other upcharges this week (Riverboat party, monorail party)

I'm way less annoyed by this than the cabanas in MK. That affects me because I have to look at them and part of the show as it was originally designed is wrecked.

I do think there is a valid point that perhaps improvements in the entire bus system would be something everyone can benefit from.

Well at least now we know how much the transport piece of the VIP Tour is worth in Disney's eyes

In our past 18 months of heavy usage of the buses I can say I have seen huge improvements in them. I still dislike the monorail but the buses are functioning very well. Very, very well. Our waits for them are dropping on every trip. Someone mentioned in a Transportation thread that they have been increasing the number of buses in use. I don't foresee there will be so many of these Express Transportation buses in use that they'll be a significant impact on the regular bus service. Can I be wrong? Yep, often am.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

the time consuming part is not waiting for a bus at the regular bus loop, it's walking to the bus loop and then walking from the other parks bus loop, waiting for security and then waiting to get in.
Buses run approx every 20 minutes, that's not a problem. Yes there are some instances where people have waited more than that but these instances are rare.
And just an FYI, I probably will never use this, but if people are inside MK and want to go to another park, I think this will save them at least 30 minutes on walking/transporting/screening/entering the other park

Waiting more than 20minutes for transportation happens regularly, in our experience.

One problem I see with this new service- as described, is that the new buses only run every 30minutes. So much of what you (and others) are calling a time saver, I see as luck of the draw. I mean if you just miss your bus....you've pretty much just lost the value of this altogether. How many times a day does the average guest hop?

While on average it will probably save time to hop with this service vs. regular transportation, how much it saves is random. You still have to walk to a designated spot. If you are in the World Showcase and want to hop to HS, then walking to the front of Epcot to get to this new bus stop, then waiting for the bus to arrive probably isn't much of a time saver over walking out the International Gateway and directly over to HS.

In my opinion though, they should offer this service without the upcharge. IMO, the value of park hopping has always been questionable, given the amount of time guests lose in transit. The parks didn't suddenly get closer together, and there's ominous potential staffing cutbacks.

Long security lines = more people buying this service. Disney saves $ by laying off security staff, while charging guests more for this service. Meanwhile, they don't have to hire more transportation staff, they just shift their existing staff to the new routes.

If they are going to do this, it should be free to everyone with hopping, not an additional fee.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

On quick lunch break, so didn't read entire post..

I really hope for an on-site guest option for AP holders - else I'm really ticked off that I'd have to pay $15 per day for my upcoming on-site trip during which I am using a still-valid AP.
please, please, please have an on-site guest option - maybe purchase at check-in?

 

[Ladyfish77]

I think it's a PR risk for Disney to appear to be profiting by selling a system to skip the additional screenings.

How is this assumption any different than TSA PreCheck? People pay an extra fee for expedited screening at airports, and this offer has the benefit of not repeating security screenings.

 

[AngiTN]

One problem I see with this new service- as described, is that the new buses only run every 30minutes. So much of what you (and others) are calling a time saver, I see as luck of the draw. I mean if you just miss your bus....you've pretty much just lost the value of this altogether. How many times a day does the average guest hop?

I'm wondering if this will be on a schedule, like on the hour and the half hour. That way, it won't be luck of a draw, you'll know what time to get to the pick up point based on your schedule and needs.

 

[Phatscott25]

In our past 18 months of heavy usage of the buses I can say I have seen huge improvements in them. I still dislike the monorail but the buses are functioning very well. Very, very well. Our waits for them are dropping on every trip. Someone mentioned in a Transportation thread that they have been increasing the number of buses in use. I don't foresee there will be so many of these Express Transportation buses in use that they'll be a significant impact on the regular bus service. Can I be wrong? Yep, often am.

When I was there this past September, I didn't realize that you couldn't take a bus from DS to a park considering after 4PM they run buses from any park to DS. Luckily I was going to MK so I just took the contemporary bus. Anyway, in conversation with the driver of the nearly empty bus about it he mentioned that they have 400 buses currently and at the time they just recently added the service to DS from parks after 4PM. He also said they they were in the process of purchasing 100 additional buses at $1 million each (seemed kind of high but the guy seemed very knowledgeable about operations) that they were going to add to the fleet to add routes and further improve the bus system overall.

Between that and you're observations about improved service lately I'd agree that they are improving the experience for those who don't wish to pay for premium offerings.

 

[yulilin3]

Waiting more than 20minutes for transportation happens regularly, in our experience.

One problem I see with this new service- as described, is that the new buses only run every 30minutes. So much of what you (and others) are calling a time saver, I see as luck of the draw. I mean if you just miss your bus....you've pretty much just lost the value of this altogether. How many times a day does the average guest hop?

While on average it will probably save time to hop with this service vs. regular transportation, how much it saves is random. You still have to walk to a designated spot. If you are in the World Showcase and want to hop to HS, then walking to the front of Epcot to get to this new bus stop, then waiting for the bus to arrive probably isn't much of a time saver over walking out the International Gateway and directly over to HS.

In my opinion though, they should offer this service without the upcharge. IMO, the value of park hopping has always been questionable, given the amount of time guests lose in transit. The parks didn't suddenly get closer together, and there's ominous potential staffing cutbacks.

Long security lines = more people buying this service. Disney saves $ by laying off security staff, while charging guests more for this service. Meanwhile, they don't have to hire more transportation staff, they just shift their existing staff to the new routes.

If they are going to do this, it should be free to everyone with hopping, not an additional fee.

but we still don't know enough about it
Maybe they will use the VIP vans
Maybe it'll run on the hour and half hour, so people know when the bus/van is leaving and don't have to waste time
I use disney buses about one a week and this year I have waited for a bus more than 20 minutes maybe 2 times
I don't think they will fire security staff, and if you look at Disney casting, bus driver is one of the occupations that they hire for, year round

 

[brockash]

I agree, this will benefit everyone visiting
Less people at the regular, front of the park security screenings
Less people at the regular bus loops for the parks
Less people entering through the front entrance to the parks
I think it's a win/win
I doubt it'll be available to ap holders without addditional cost, but let's see

While yes, there would be less ppl., this is Disney and the chances that they're not going to cut the number of bus runs is pretty low. I'm sure this is not going to be a benefit to the regular guest who's not paying for the new transportation.

 

[brockash]

IMO, there is no way Disney is going to add additional buses or personnel to staff this. Sorry I'm so cynical, but Disney's current policies support my theory.

Couldn't agree more. While, sure that'd be great and I'd love to think that it's not going to negatively impact the regular transportation, Disney has proven to be over and over in the last 5 years or so that that is just not their style. I get it, they're a business, but we have to remember that.

 

[yulilin3]

While yes, there would be less ppl., this is Disney and the chances that they're not going to cut the number of bus runs is pretty low. I'm sure this is not going to be a benefit to the regular guest who's not paying for the new transportation.

I'm going to respectfully disagree until we hear reports of bus transportation being behind on a daily basis.