What has happened to Transportation?

[miste]

This is just a quick comment regarding the so called "wonderful" Disney transportation. Don't be disillusioned. I just got back from Disney World (July 2-8 0f 2003) and I have never experienced such horrible transportation. Has anyone else had this problem, or is it the curse of transportation for me?? We waited an hour EACH time that we needed to go anywhere. I felt like we were spending our vacation at the bus stop.

On top of that we purchased the Romantic package and missed our carriage ride due to to the long wait at Fort Wilderness for the busses.

What has happened at Disney, why are they slipping?? I know it didnt' used to be that way. Especially on a holiday week!

Comments anyone??

Miste

 

[safetymom]

Hopefully they will move this thread to transportation so you will get more opinions.

Whenever I had to use the WDW transportation we never waited longer than 30 mins.

More details would be helpful. At what times of the day did you encounter problems, what parks, etc??

 

[cinmell]

I'm not a fan of the bus transportation system at Disney but thankfully I've never had to wait an hour for a bus. What resort did you stay at? Did you have more trouble with the buses leaving the resort, going back to the resort or both?

 

[>>^..^<<]

Originally posted by miste

Especially on a holiday week!

Maybe that explains it ~

I had great transportation during my non-holiday vacation of 10 days ~ not one wait longer that 10 minutes except for back to the resort after Fantasmic.

>>^..^<<

 

[goofy4tink]

I've never had a long wait either. A few times, if we left a park at closing, it might have taken 20 minutes or so to get a bus, but I wasn't unhappy about it. I know that we've come to expect a lot from Disney. I can't imagine how hard it must be to get all those people to where they want to be in a timely manner, without having buses running with just a few folks on board. Is it perfect? No way. But I still think it's better than driving myself around. I actually plan an extra 30 minutes in my figuring, just in case the bus is running behind. That way I can relax. Sorry to hear that your experience wasn't so great.

 

[CarolA]

I was there July 4th and the few times I used the transporatation it seemed fine to me. I think I waited about 20 minutes for the bus to AK but when I left the park there was a bus waiting so... it averaged out. I took the bus to Pleasure Island too and don't know how long I waited but it was not long.

 

[flmagic]

Making once a month trips this summer, my recent take would be average.

I have not noticed a slip, however, numerous opportunities for improvement exist.

 

[FloridaCat]

We were there 7/7-10 and had no problem with buses. It was the boat back to the resort after MK closing. I thought that could have been handled better, 45 minute wait.

 

[seashoreCM]

I have had my peeved moments but I currently give the WDW bus system an excellent rating.

To me it is reasonable for Disney to refund the cost of events missed because of unusual bus delays.

As far as 45 minute waits for boats go, I am from Boston and although I have not been to that event recently , there is no way that all the people who came by subway will be on homebound trains within an hour after the fourth of July concert and fireworks ends.

My gut feeling had been that waits for boats are much worse than waits for buses during peak times but I will hold back judgment until this November when I will be there to try them out.

Disney tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[minniecarousel]

We were in WDW 7/13 - 7/17 and only had one lousy experience with Disney busses. For early morning at AK, there were people waiting for the busses for over an hour. We had only been waiting for about 10 minutes at the Beach Club when the folks at the hotel said that they were calling Transportation for busses. They didn't specify what the problem was but said they were calling cabs and would reimburse us for the cab fare. We quickly took them up on the offer! (we stay at the Epcot resorts because of the ease of getting to both the Studios & Epcot by boat or walking.)

 

[jtbdas]

We stayed 6/28-7/6 and experienced great service. Our only issue was how crowded the route for BWI was, but the busses and drivers were all in check and very helpful. We have stayed all over the world and have had very minimal issues. Unfortunately there will be those occassions that happen. Routing and transportation of people is not as easy at it may look. Having many years in the transportation business, the hardest factor to overcome is people.

 

[CindyKansas]

We were at WDW June 25 thru July 11th and when we rode the bus I thought we got around great. Especially with it being a Holiday. We stayed at the Yacht Club then switched over to BWI and yes at some points the bus was full, but never had long waits.

 

[sue Z]

I have had no complaints when using the buses and other modes of transportatioon in WDW!!

I have found everyone to be helpful!!!

You never know when you are going to run into someone you know!! No I didn't find Tyler even though I was looking I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time!! But my dad did find a WDW bus Driver he knew from up here in the New England area that used to work for a bus company up here! excuse the pun -Its a Small World!!

Being someone who had grown up around buses and has riden buses all her life I don't get upset if the bus is late or doesn't show up as you never know what might have happened the bus could have broken down or there was traffic.

One of my biggest pet Peeves with the public bus riding people is expecting the bus to be at a given bus stop at its correct time and when it doesn't show up they immediatley what an explanation!! as to where it is. In the cities there are many reasons for this such as traffic conditons, drivers who "bang in" bus mans term for calling in and not having drivers to replace thembus that break down ! Then when the next scheduled bus comes in the person asks the next driver what happened to the last bus. how is he supposed to know if this driver is just starting out for his work or has been on the road. Granted all buses have radios but not all drivers keep them on

i have seen this at WDW too but not as of late!!

sorry sbout the long posT!!