Sometimes you just have to feel for the bus drivers!!

[goofy4tink]

So, there we are, dd and I, at the AK, waiting for the WL/GF bus to arrive. It's about 4:15 and hot/steamy. When we get to the line, this older guy scoots in front of us...trying to join his group. Now, he has a stroller, with a child in it. I figured we would end up standing due to the number of people in front of us...no problem. Well....this woman (I think it was the aforementioned man's wife) gets to the bus door and proceeds to try to get her stroller on, with the child in it. Other guests yell that she needs to take the child out and fold the stroller. She doesn't much care and proceeds to continue trying to get the stroller on. The driver told her to take the child out and fold up the stroller. Well...by this time she, and the stroller with child, were on the the bus...so, she stops, right at the front of the bus, to take the child out and fold the stroller up. Well...there's the older gent, right in front of me, still with the kid in the stroller. He gets to about 2 people from the door, the driver, standing out of the bus, says.."Sir, you'll have to remove the child from the stroller and fold it up before getting on the bus. Another guest didn't do that and that's the reason you are all standing here." That guy just grunted and did nothing. He gets to the bus, the driver again tells him what to do. The guy slowly removes the 3 or 4 bags, hanging off the stroller, puts them inside the door of the bus on the floor. He then takes the little boy (about 3 or 4) out of the stroller, takes him on the bus, leaving the stroller there. He hands the child off to someone on the bus, and reaches out, without getting off the bus, to try to get the stroller...of course, it's still not folded up. He gets it, and then brings it on the bus, and then starts folding it. We, again, had to wait while he did that, and then got himself arranged...his wife (the woman with the stroller and child in it) was standing there, trying to rearrange the two strollers on the floor. Those of us boarding behind them had to step over the strollers in order to get to the back of the bus. And would you believe it??? A young woman got up and offered her seat to that older guy!!!

Just boggles my mind. So...hats off to you guys and gals who drive us around all day and night. Hopefully the nice guests make up for those less than wonderful and entitled ones you cart around.

 

[skiingfast]

Someday people like this will realize the rules were the same in the morning, yesterday and will be tomorrrow. Then they will get thier act together.

 

[OhioDisneyDad]

You can't fix stupid!

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I feel for the Drivers. I bet they could tell some wild stories about what they face. Hats off to the drivers!

 

[WeLuvTink!]

You can't fix stupid!

DITTO!

 

[Mindbreak.net]

I do feel for them, and have a lot of respect for the drivers because they always seem to be in a good mood. "Have a magical day!"

 

[dburg30]

Someday people like this will realize the rules were the same in the morning, yesterday and will be tomorrrow. Then they will get thier act together.

No they wont. They may realized the rules are the same, but they will ignore them just the same.

 

[Magicbus]

Just boggles my mind. So...hats off to you guys and gals who drive us around all day and night. Hopefully the nice guests make up for those less than wonderful and entitled ones you cart around.

Thanks for understanding. And yes, 99.99999% of the riders are patent and understand the limitations of public transportation, which BTW is what the WDW Transport System is. Third largest in Florida. I can only speak for myself but, I don't get many of the people that you ran into. In the span of a week, maybe one or two. I wouldn't do it if it was as bad for the bus drivers as most people think it must be. I'm smiling at the begining of the day and smiling at the end of most days.

 

[ice cube]

You can't fix stupid!

Your exactly right.....this is the #1 reason why we always rent a car...I'm on vacation and I can't deal with stupid....I deal with stupid everyday at work and I'll be damned to deal with stupid on vacation.....

...stupid is as stupid does...

 

[Sandi]

I'm smiling at the begining of the day and smiling at the end of most days.

That, along with the "you can't fix stupid" are my favorite quotes of the day. I hope we ride one of your buses when we're there next week!

 

[HelenParr]

Agree with OP, WDW bus drivers do a great job!! I could not be as calm or pleasant as they are for any period of time.

I suspect it's the same for most frequent WDW guests -- you can pretty much guess when there's going to be a glitch (strollers, entering through backdoor, people angry at wheleechairs, people angry because they are on the wrong bus). I'm guessing the bus drivers can see the glitches as they develop even faster than guests based on sheer experience volume.

 

[TDC Nala]

Here's the worst bus ride I ever went on. My mother was with me and she remembers this one too.

Trying to get from WL to Downtown Disney on an evening. We got on the bus from WL with a group who had with them an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair. The driver got his chair strapped down in the bus. The bus proceeded to the Polynesian, and then the Grand Floridian, where the group began to get out.

The bus driver got up and went to the back to unstrap the wheelchair. A woman with the group told the driver "Aren't you going back to the Wilderness Lodge? He needs to go back to the Wilderness Lodge." They didn't look like they were discussing anything while traveling as to whether or not they were going to have to change plans to send Grandpa back to the WL (he in fact never even said a word) so my guess is that they brought him on the bus just for the ride, believing the driver would just take him back to WL after the rest of the group got off the bus at GF, except for one person who stayed the gentleman with the wheelchair.

So, the bus driver announced that he was going to have to drive back to the Wilderness Lodge before getting underway to Downtown Disney. Once he got there, the wheelchair had to be unstrapped and taken off the bus. I'm still not sure why the group decided to bring the guy along just for the bus ride. They had to know it was a Downtown Disney bus, so their immediate intention appeared to be just to have him ride the bus on its route through DTD all the way back to WL, without realizing how the dispatch system worked and that the bus would not necessarily be returning to WL after stopping at DTD.

That ride to Downtown Disney took about an hour and a half.

 

[tjmw2727]

ITA, we always say hello, and thank you to the bus drivers

The stroller thing bugs me too, we haven't traveled with a stroller in many years but I like to people watch. I notice two extremes in stroller users while waiting in the bus line.

Those who have everything already packed up in a backpack and the child unbuckled ready be taken out (hop out) of the stroller and are ready to fold when the bus pulls up. They know who takes what, mom takes kids and backpack dad takes stroller.

Those who have everything loose in the baskets, bags hanging everywhere, kid straped in wth snacks on the tray etc. wondering why they can't fold the stroler with all that suff onboard. Then its a scramble, I can't carry everything while little jane wanders off

Its especially mind boggling when your standing in the bus queue at a park and you can see your resort bus coming from far away. Lots of folks in line will announce "here comes our bus" yet 5 minutes later some folks will have done nothing to prepare to get on the bus.

I have also seen way to many people try and board by the back door despite the driver announcements and warning signs on the bus itself. Please wait -- the driver can't see that door well and may close the door on you.

 

[Disneycouple99]

Here is what happen about 2 weeks ago. We were on the monorail at Epcot heading to TTC. Lighting had struck the line and they shut down the monorail. So a fully loaded monorail and another load waiting to get on are told to go the the last bus stop at Epcot for the TTC. So a huge line has formed and only one bus arrives. The bus driver had to loaded a wheel chair which was no big issue. The issue came from a guy four rows deep in the line that wanted the bus driver to put his stroller under the bus. He was informed nicely that the buses don't do that. The same guy proceeded to cut in line with the stroller. People yelled that there was a line and he even answered he knew but continued to go under ropes to get to the bus. After arriving at the bus, he took the stroller on unfolded and started to yell and curse at the bus driver that it needs to be unfolded. After the stroller got folded, me and my wife had the good fortune to stand by this guy while he was sitting in a seat and grumbled all the way to the TTC. When the bus stoped, he pushed his way out before the people standing could clear the aisle. This guy apparantly had more imporant things to do then the rest of the bus.

Thank you bus drivers for all you put up with.

 

[goofy4tink]

Here is what happen about 2 weeks ago. We were on the monorail at Epcot heading to TTC. Lighting had struck the line and they shut down the monorail. So a fully loaded monorail and another load waiting to get on are told to go the the last bus stop at Epcot for the TTC. So a huge line has formed and only one bus arrives. The bus driver had to loaded a wheel chair which was no big issue. The issue came from a guy four rows deep in the line that wanted the bus driver to put his stroller under the bus. He was informed nicely that the buses don't do that. The same guy proceeded to cut in line with the stroller. People yelled that there was a line and he even answered he knew but continued to go under ropes to get to the bus. After arriving at the bus, he took the stroller on unfolded and started to yell and curse at the bus driver that it needs to be unfolded. After the stroller got folded, me and my wife had the good fortune to stand by this guy while he was sitting in a seat and grumbled all the way to the TTC. When the bus stoped, he pushed his way out before the people standing could clear the aisle. This guy apparantly had more imporant things to do then the rest of the bus.

Thank you bus drivers for all you put up with.

That didn't happen on Sunday, Aug 1 did it??? We had a nasty experience with the monorail being shut down that day as well. It was about 6ish by the time we got to the platform to find it closed. Have been wondering what the story was.

We had a driver this morning..WL to DHS..who was an absolute hoot,. His name was Lenny. So if any of our board bus drivers know Lenny, tell him we truly appreciated his perkiness this morning. Really hysterical.

 

[Disneycouple99]

That didn't happen on Sunday, Aug 1 did it??? We had a nasty experience with the monorail being shut down that day as well. It was about 6ish by the time we got to the platform to find it closed. Have been wondering what the story was.

We had a driver this morning..WL to DHS..who was an absolute hoot,. His name was Lenny. So if any of our board bus drivers know Lenny, tell him we truly appreciated his perkiness this morning. Really hysterical.

Yes it was. Lighting took out a section of track and it shut the whole system down.

 

[Alexander]

This post just reminds me why we don't use WDW Transportation. It has NOTHING to do with the transportation or drivers, and EVERYTHING to do with the morons who use it!

We had an "interesting" ride one time at Fort Wilderness. We decided to park in the front lot while attending the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, so we had to take the internal shuttle to get to Pioneer Hall. There was a family on there with 4kids no older than 5 and a baby. The mother and father proceeded to scream and argue with one another on the whole ride while their quartet ran all over the bus jumping on seats and crawling on the floor. If I didn't see them get on together, I wouldn't have even known the children belonged to them, that is how much they were ignored.

I wish, that the bus drivers could be more firm with guests. I know they are trying to be as cheerful as possible, and understand that people are on vacation, and of course people would file a complaint (likely looking for something free) but oh how I wish they could be more firm in enforcing rules.

 

[Magicbus]

We had a driver this morning..WL to DHS..who was an absolute hoot,. His name was Lenny. So if any of our board bus drivers know Lenny, tell him we truly appreciated his perkiness this morning. Really hysterical.

Yes, I do know Lenny. What a character. He's that way all the time. I've never seen him down. I'll pass along your comments.

 

[grimley1968]

Yes, I do know Lenny. What a character. He's that way all the time. I've never seen him down. I'll pass along your comments.

Maybe I had Lenny, or maybe it was someone else, but I had a bus driver once who played those pre-recorded sound files in an incongruous, but funny way. I think he even played a sound file from the monorail spiel at one time. During one part of the trip on World Drive, while doing probably 35-40 MPH, he played the sound file that instructed people how to get off the buses. Before anyone claims this was unsafe, I saw the driver looking around the bus to make sure people were getting the jokes and not actually trying to get off. When the bus did finally stop, and people were lined up trying to step out of the bus at the stop, he played the sound file that told people to stay in their seats or hold the rails. Everyone riding that bus had a great time for that trip.

I have to agree, though, the worst bus rides always seem to involve bad behavior by fellow guests with an entitlement attitude (or just plain ignorant).

The worst trip I ever had on a bus at WDW was several years ago, when cell phones were somewhat rarer than they are now, and more of a status symbol for certain types of people. At the end of a long, hot day at one of the parks, we had to wait for 2 or 3 buses before we could board ours for WL (this was right at closing). We finally got on, and were lucky enough that everyone riding actually got a seat. But this guy sat down in the back of the bus and proceeded to initiate a phone call that was 100% about business. It was the type of phone call I wouldn't even want to discuss in a place of business, unless it was in a sound proof office, away from customers, etc. He was apparently some kind of contractor or subcontractor, because he was arguing with the person on the other end whether they should take an upcoming job, and he was quite loud. I don't hear well normally, yet I could hear every word the guy said all the way from near the front of the bus. He was tossing around money figures all over the conversation, such as "If you go in with me on this, we're both gonna clear six figures, each of us!", and also how much they'd have to pay their workers for the job. It was extremely awkward for others on the bus to have to listen to this kind of conversation.

I think the bus also went to GF after WL, and I had hoped the guy would continue on to GF after we got off at WL, but no. He got off at WL, and we STILL had to listen to the jerk rant about how rich he was going to be all the way to the elevators.

That guy was like school in summer: no class.

Can you imagine what a typical bus driver has to listen to on a daily basis from people who yell into their cell phones?

 

[2DisPrincesses]

Your exactly right.....this is the #1 reason why we always rent a car...I'm on vacation and I can't deal with stupid....I deal with stupid everyday at work and I'll be damned to deal with stupid on vacation.....

...stupid is as stupid does...

My DH's sentiments EXACTLY... he insists we rent a car every trip too!!!