Standing, standing, standing

[KimBean]

You could take up smoking. There are always places to sit in the smoking section and I hear it's a great habit to pick up in your 70s

Seriously though, last trip I was riding ToT solo and told my wife a time to meet me back at the exit. I got off about 15 minutes early and saw all this glorious low wall space to sit on and rest. Made myself comfy, took a survey and prepared to wait. Till suddenly I was overcome with a wall of smoke that looked like the snow storm hitting Buffalo. Turns out all that precious sitting space was part of a large smoking section

HAHA!!! I've done this before. I was like awww a load off.... then waft of smoke. I hate smoke but it was still a hard decision to move.

 

[Stini228]

I wish there were benches in Town Square. The atmosphere is so nice there, especially at night, and there is nowhere to sit other than the few rocking chairs on the porch near the Mickey meet and greet.

 

[JanaDee]

I wish there were benches in Town Square. The atmosphere is so nice there, especially at night, and there is nowhere to sit other than the few rocking chairs on the porch near the Mickey meet and greet.

There used to be benches in Town Square.

 

[aprincessatlast]

WDW and DLR are siblings - DLR is the cool, laid back, west coast brother, WDW is the stingy, east coast banker!

Just kiddin!

That is awesome and so true!

 

[Ametista]

Summer 2013 we were at MK and it was about 95 degrees. I was starting to feel sick and we were desperately trying to find shade and a place to sit but there was nothing....anywhere. I remember walking around the new Fantasyland and thinking it had to be a ploy to make you PAY to sit in air conditioning and eat, but we weren't hungry!!! We left early that day and I blacked out on the way home. I was driving the car. It happened so fast I literally was awake one second and the next thing I knew I heard a loud BANG! as my car hit the median. I woke up and drove back into my lane, thankfully we were almost to Paradise Palms and I pulled in, went in the house, passed out. The car was undamaged because I hit a bunch of evergreen bushes and the curb, which I am sure damaged my rental car underneath somewhere but it wasn't obvious.

Being from Colorado I was pretty clueless about heat stroke/heat "whatever". I had no idea that when I started feeling sick I should have gone to first aid and rested. We are so arid here that the evaporative cooling on your skin usually prevents heat stroke from happening. I am just so lucky that a median blocked me from driving into oncoming traffic.

 

[Diaz]

ChicagoMom
Mouseketeer

Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 124

I've stood on the buses many times with a sleeping child. When it gets hard I remind myself that I'm very blessed to be married to a guy who would never sit when any woman was standing.

Me too.

 

[maxiesmom]

I've stood on the buses many times with a sleeping child. When it gets hard I remind myself that I'm very blessed to be married to a guy who would never sit when any woman was standing.

And you are very blessed to be married to a guy that can stand on a moving bus. Not everyone is so lucky, and some that are quick to judge (not pointing at you) need to remember that.

 

[DakotaRose]

Yesterday evening we wandered across Mariache Cobre (excellent by the way). There were no benches in the area, or in either direction within hearing distance. Sitting on a curb or the ground isn't an option for mom's old knees. Now I'd buy a few $14 margaritas and enjoy the music, but after 9 hours in Epcot, that needs to come with a seat. Instead we went back to the room and had our cocktails with booze I brought from home.

This is my third trip. I don't know the parks as well as many DISers, so no obvious seating became a frustration daily. Especially as we left the parks-- stand for 20 mins waiting for a bus at the end of the day, then stand another half hour on the bus? Come on, Disney. And waiting for the next bus still means standing another 15- 20 minutes. We expect to be fatigued and on our feet, but it's to such an extent that it detracts from the experience. No, we have never been rope drop to close people.

WDW is really something to see, and I'm grateful that we have. But it feels like a whole lot of work -- planning, ADRs, Fastpasses, touring plans, then march, march, march, stand, stand, stand. We are in no hurry to return.

 

[Brian Noble]

We tend to arrange our trips to make it a little easier on ourselves. We take the theme parks in shorter bursts. We won't visit even a favorite standby with a "too-long" line, instead looking for a "lesser" alternative with a shorter wait. We rent a car to minimize the waiting-for- and standing-on-a-bus moments. We schedule a few extra sit-down meals so that the food comes to us, rather than having to hunt-and-gather.

This all costs a little more, and we get "less done", but we also have a lot more fun this way, so it is well worth it.

 

[SirDuff]

I've stood on the buses many times with a sleeping child. When it gets hard I remind myself that I'm very blessed to be married to a guy who would never sit when any woman was standing.

When I'm on a bus, I remind myself that I'm married to a guy who (along with me) cares about his family enough to do what is needed to make sure our needs are met, without assuming others will do it for us.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I've stood on the buses many times with a sleeping child. When it gets hard I remind myself that I'm very blessed to be married to a guy who would never sit when any woman was standing.

That's nice of him, but the last thing I would expect or demand is for anyone to offer me a seat on a bus because I am female. Don't think I'd accept it on those terms but I would just say no thank you. I have seen women on the subway freak out when they think a guy is offering them a seat just because they are female.

Yesterday evening we wandered across Mariache Cobre (excellent by the way). There were no benches in the area, or in either direction within hearing distance. Sitting on a curb or the ground isn't an option for mom's old knees. Now I'd buy a few $14 margaritas and enjoy the music, but after 9 hours in Epcot, that needs to come with a seat. Instead we went back to the room and had our cocktails with booze I brought from home.

There used to be benches in the UK pavilion where you could sit and watch the World Showcase Players. Those were removed (so were the Players but that is another story). I believe all bench seating inside the pavilions themselves has been removed except for the back courtyard in UK. You can still find benches along the lagoon side and some between the pavilions.

 

[AngiTN]

Summer 2013 we were at MK and it was about 95 degrees. I was starting to feel sick and we were desperately trying to find shade and a place to sit but there was nothing....anywhere.

But there is a great place to sit in the shade right by the Tea Cups ride. DH and I have sat there and watched the crowds often, cooling off and resting. It's not a bench but it's a large planter with a wall perfect height for sitting. I think there are a lot more places to sit if you think non-traditional (and that doesn't mean the ground)

 

[Ametista]

But there is a great place to sit in the shade right by the Tea Cups ride. DH and I have sat there and watched the crowds often, cooling off and resting. It's not a bench but it's a large planter with a wall perfect height for sitting. I think there are a lot more places to sit if you think non-traditional (and that doesn't mean the ground)

Let me rephrase that. Any place where one could have sat in the shade was already occupied by other hot people. And yet there were about 100 places where benches could have been placed. Personally I prefer to sit on planter edges for some reason, especially under a tree.

 

[ttintagel]

Even though I have an invisible disability, I *might* give up my seat on the bus to someone carrying an infant too young to stand. I'm a regular bus commuter at home, so that's just par for the course.

But if your child is old enough to stand, and you've simply decided to keep him out past the point where he can stay awake instead of taking him back to bed at a reasonable hour, that was your decision and I'm keeping my painful body in its seat.

 

[ophelia2002]

I agree with the lack of seating around places to eat and a few more resting spots in the parks would be nice but when it comes to standing in lines for rides, no one does it better than WDW! I've been to many different amusement parks and WDW does a fantastic job of distracting those waiting with fun things to look at, do, listen to, etc. Also, they design the line queues so that waiters are fooled into thinking the line is shorter than it actually is- and I mean fool in a good way!

 

[richkaryn]

Ok, maybe I should have been more specific, but I didn't say JUST for me, I said also elderly couples as well as myself with my 6 year old sleeping child who I may have added is nearly as tall as I am so for me to try to balance him and myself standing it can be a challenge. MY beef is more with the young people that see several parents trying to balance themselves and a childAS WELL AS the elderly who are standing, then not only offer a seat to anyone, but stare at those standing like they're annoyed at them for standing in front of them.....we all can't help that Disney won't move the bus til it's packed beyond capacity, so if you're not going to give up your seat to ANYONE who might need it more, at least have the courteousy to not give them the evil eye for standing in front of you.
Apparently the fact that I also stated that I have, sleeping child in tow, also stood up to let someone who needed the seat more sit down got missed, but hey that seems to be par for the course with this board......people only attack you for parts of your comments and don't pay attention to the whole thing.

 

[Sugardimples]

The busses are public transit. There is no guarantee that you will have a seat. Actually, it is much more likely that you won't have a seat. It this is an issue for you, you ANY reason, you need to provide your own transportation. This means if you expect to have sleeping children with you, or if you are older and can't stand, or if you have a triple stroller and a bunch of kids to move around and you want them to have seats, or if you don't like waiting for the bus to come, or if you just don't like to be on a crowded bus, you should probably drive to the parks and be guaranteed that you will get a seat. Bus travel is way different than private car travel and most of the people on Disney busses are not accustomed to riding public transportation.

 

[marauder]

Actually there is a guarantee that you will have a seat. You can always wait for the next bus (unless you are getting on at a middle stop or something like that.) If you see you won't have a seat on the bus, you can wait for the next one. Worse case scenario is that two scooters pull up and they take over that section of the bus, but you will still have a seat unless there are so many people that decided to wait for the next bus ahead of you they get all the seats (although I have never seen that happen, usually at max about 10 people give up one bus for the next.)

I have noticed without a fail that the person that always takes the MDE seats that explicitly say "Reserved for people that need special assistance" are people that don't need it, usually one of the four people says, hey this is reserved for people with special needs and one person basically says, "Who cares."

 

[PeterPanic]

Actually there is a guarantee that you will have a seat. You can always wait for the next bus (unless you are getting on at a middle stop or something like that.) If you see you won't have a seat on the bus, you can wait for the next one. Worse case scenario is that two scooters pull up and they take over that section of the bus, but you will still have a seat unless there are so many people that decided to wait for the next bus ahead of you they get all the seats (although I have never seen that happen, usually at max about 10 people give up one bus for the next.)

I have noticed without a fail that the person that always takes the MDE seats that explicitly say "Reserved for people that need special assistance" are people that don't need it, usually one of the four people says, hey this is reserved for people with special needs and one person basically says, "Who cares."

Those seats are located usually in the front of the bus and although they may be reserved for people that need assistance, just like handicapped bathroom stalls are not exclusive, just can be made available. When I drove municipal buses it was my job to tell people that they would have to move because someone with a need, was having to sit there. Yes, I received a great deal of flack for that, but, I didn't care. If no one needed it, I didn't care who sat there, but, if they did I simply asked them to move. When I met with resistance I used to simply say... as the bus driver I reserve the right to insure the safety of others, so if you will not move, neither will the bus.

 

[maxiesmom]

Ok, maybe I should have been more specific, but I didn't say JUST for me, I said also elderly couples as well as myself with my 6 year old sleeping child who I may have added is nearly as tall as I am so for me to try to balance him and myself standing it can be a challenge. MY beef is more with the young people that see several parents trying to balance themselves and a childAS WELL AS the elderly who are standing, then not only offer a seat to anyone, but stare at those standing like they're annoyed at them for standing in front of them.....we all can't help that Disney won't move the bus til it's packed beyond capacity, so if you're not going to give up your seat to ANYONE who might need it more, at least have the courteousy to not give them the evil eye for standing in front of you.
Apparently the fact that I also stated that I have, sleeping child in tow, also stood up to let someone who needed the seat more sit down got missed, but hey that seems to be par for the course with this board......people only attack you for parts of your comments and don't pay attention to the whole thing.

From what I have read, people have said that it is nice to offer up your seat for others if you choose to do so. However, it is not nice to get on a bus expecting someone else will give you a seat. That smacks of entitlement.

And I have to say if I took my mom to the parks and thought for one minute she could stand on a bus when she can't, shame on me! Not shame on everyone else for not seeing to her needs when I didn't bother.

Not one single person is forced to get on a Disney bus. If they can't stand, then they shouldn't get on the bus. Pretty simple.