Toffeewoffy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2014
- Messages
- 857
I hired a scooter for the first time this year (will be hiring one again for our next holiday in March 2015). Needless to say, despite being a good and experienced driver (cars and motorbikes) I've never driven a scooter before, and they do take some getting used to.
The first bus driver wanted me to park the scooter myself, but after crashing back and forth a couple of times he sent me to sit down and put it in the correct place so he could strap it in.
DD made a very good point about the scooters. Yes, you get loaded before the foot passengers (a health and safety thing), but by the same token, they also let all the foot passengers off before they get you off, so it's swings and roundabouts. We had no bad experiences getting on and off the buses or with other passengers at all. My only bugbear was how long we had to wait for a bus going where we wanted to go - as opposed to loads of buses going every other place coming first. We didn't see an old-style lift bus until our last evening - but even then it wasn't going where we wanted to go so we didn't have to worry about the lift and stuff. We got to go on one of the new bendy buses (as we call them in the UK) one night back to CBR but can't remember where we were returning from.
Our first trip to MK was funny. There were a lot of people waiting at the Martinique stop to go to the park - in fact, a few of them moved out of the white painted rectangle as that's where scooters have to go. I did say to DD that I was worried we wouldn't all get on the bus as there were so many of us. But 3 MK buses came along at once. Obviously the driver started the process of bringing out the ramp (which sometimes took a couple of attempts), and while he was doing this, I actually turned to the people waiting patiently at the bus door and said, "I think you'll find it quicker to get on the next bus." pointing to the next bus at the stop. Everyone went and got on that one, leaving just me and DD on the first bus. I jokingly said to the driver, "As we've got our own personal bus, we don't need to stop and can go straight to Magic Kingdom!" She said, "I can't do that, ma'am", but after pulling into the stops behind the buses which had gone ahead of us a couple of times, she didn't bother stopping again! She didn't turn and follow the resort round but drove straight out and we went straight to MK!
Going back to the long waits we always had for 'our' bus, every time a bus came along and we didn't want it, they always stopped and got out to ask me if we wanted to go on their bus even if I shook my head at them as they slowed down for the stop and, when I said we were waiting to to go X said they would call and get a bus sent over to pick us up.
I will have no problem using the buses again next time - as long as they actually bother turning up!!! Otherwise we'll be driving as I can park right down the front in the disabled section anyway.
The first bus driver wanted me to park the scooter myself, but after crashing back and forth a couple of times he sent me to sit down and put it in the correct place so he could strap it in.
DD made a very good point about the scooters. Yes, you get loaded before the foot passengers (a health and safety thing), but by the same token, they also let all the foot passengers off before they get you off, so it's swings and roundabouts. We had no bad experiences getting on and off the buses or with other passengers at all. My only bugbear was how long we had to wait for a bus going where we wanted to go - as opposed to loads of buses going every other place coming first. We didn't see an old-style lift bus until our last evening - but even then it wasn't going where we wanted to go so we didn't have to worry about the lift and stuff. We got to go on one of the new bendy buses (as we call them in the UK) one night back to CBR but can't remember where we were returning from.
Our first trip to MK was funny. There were a lot of people waiting at the Martinique stop to go to the park - in fact, a few of them moved out of the white painted rectangle as that's where scooters have to go. I did say to DD that I was worried we wouldn't all get on the bus as there were so many of us. But 3 MK buses came along at once. Obviously the driver started the process of bringing out the ramp (which sometimes took a couple of attempts), and while he was doing this, I actually turned to the people waiting patiently at the bus door and said, "I think you'll find it quicker to get on the next bus." pointing to the next bus at the stop. Everyone went and got on that one, leaving just me and DD on the first bus. I jokingly said to the driver, "As we've got our own personal bus, we don't need to stop and can go straight to Magic Kingdom!" She said, "I can't do that, ma'am", but after pulling into the stops behind the buses which had gone ahead of us a couple of times, she didn't bother stopping again! She didn't turn and follow the resort round but drove straight out and we went straight to MK!
Going back to the long waits we always had for 'our' bus, every time a bus came along and we didn't want it, they always stopped and got out to ask me if we wanted to go on their bus even if I shook my head at them as they slowed down for the stop and, when I said we were waiting to to go X said they would call and get a bus sent over to pick us up.
I will have no problem using the buses again next time - as long as they actually bother turning up!!! Otherwise we'll be driving as I can park right down the front in the disabled section anyway.
