what is going on with disney busses???????

[tigger53]

my daughter and i just returned from a very magical stay in the kingdom where we enjoyed ourselves very much. that is except for the bus transports to the parks. one day we waited for the animal kingdom/ blizzard beach bus at our resort, por, which we boarded with some other blizzard beach goers only to be told when we arrived at the animal kingdom that we had to get off and take a bus heading for pop centery. we then asked three busses heading to pop centery if they would be stopping at blizzard beach , every answer was no. very frustrating. we explained to each driver that our orginal driver told us that the pop centry bus was the final leg on the journey. my question is then, why did the first bus that pulled into por resort have the sign on that said he was in fact going to blizzard beach??????? we spent the next hour and a half trying to get to blizzard beach, again very frustrating when we're there to relax. then the next day we went to typhoon lagoon and spent some time there. we waited 40 mins. for a bus to arrive that said it was going to port orleans. we got as far as the french quarter when the driver asked if we were heading to the riverside, which is the usual next stop for a bus heading to port orleans unless it specifies its only going to one or the other, we said yes and he said we had to get off and take a bus to the magic kingdom but to ask first if it was going by way of por. very, very frustrating. we waited for three busses and no luck. we tried to take the boat transport but for some reason it was going to be delayed for an undertermined amount of time. we had dinner ressies and time was ticking. since my daughter has asthma and it was very hot and humid our only choice was to take a cab one resort over because disney busses have no clue as to where they're suppossed to be. i did complain to the bus time keeper at our por stop and she said she had never heard of this happening before and i made mention of it to the castmembers working the check in area. all in all our trip was very nice but my daughter and i have fears of getting on a disney bus and wondering where we'll end up being stranded.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Ack. I will be sure to carry some taxi money on me, just in case.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Just wanted to add, sorry for all of your difficulties. There should be direct buses from each resort, to each park, no exceptions. You should not have to transfer at resorts or parks.

 

[jayandstacey]

At first I wanted to pick holes where YOU were wrong - but you weren't.

So here's what I suspect is happening. I've noticed two things about the bus system:
1. It is generally good but sometimes dicey
2. It seemed to be getting slowly "dicier" with time.

Our last trip was Jan 09.

So what's going on now?
I bet that Disney is running the busses 'leaner' and that means that occasionally one or maybe two families will get 'bumped'. Before, I doubt they'd ever do that. But the common element to your situation was that you were alone (as a family) going to a destination when you got bumped.

I bet Disney has some fairly sophisticated software and an "air traffic controller" that is orchestrating the busses, monitoring capacity and demand. And when a bus only has one family on it going to one place, that bus may get repositioned to another route to serve more customers.

Busses make no additional money and cost a FORTUNE (gas, maintenance and salaries) to run. I bet Disney would give its left arm to be out of the bus business. So now in tough times they are probably running fewer busses and trying to 'cover' with faster changes to meet demand. Put another way, they've decided to hose a family here and there.

If we were going tomorrow and using the busses, I'd take my two kids and split them between my wife and I, and sit apart. Basically, make us into two families that would be inconvenienced. It might help; it couldn't hurt.

I'm sorry that part didn't serve you. I also think Disney is in a no-win situation with the busses.

They ought to consider making people pay for them as an upgrade to the ticket - ie, hoppers/busses/no expiration options. That way people that don't need them won't casually use them (unless they charge a one-time ride to their room key or credit card), while those who will are going to pay something to do so.

 

[nicknamy1996]

Sorry you had such a bad experince. Sounds like an ad to rent a car! Especially for longer trips, or trips w/ hopping, or trips with resort dining. On a 7 day trip you could potentially wait for a bus/ride a bus 20 to 40 times... maybe more?

If you consider 1 day you want to have a nice dinner at a resort. You could potentially....

Wait for a bus to a park,
Wait for a bus back to the resort (to rest/get ready)
Wait for a bus to a park.... so you can
Wait for a bus to the resort w/ the restaurant, then
Wait for a bus back to a park, so you can
Wait for a bus back to your resort.

And that doesn't consider hopping, or if you want to head back to a park after dinner. Or after a mid-day break.

So if you take a bus 30 times and each time take you 10 minutes of waiting and 10 minutes of travel time. You are talking about potentially spending 600 minutes traveling. Now driving each of those trips may still take you (lets say 8) minutes so take of 240 minutes and you are still adding 360 minutes of 'travel/wait' time to your trip.

Just something to consider... now I'm cheap as they come (as least that's what everyone tells me) but I would much rather spend 150 bucks to rent a car than to deal with that. ESPECIALLY if you have strollers and/or bags to carry. You can leave those in your trunk each night instead of lugging them from the bus to the hotel room each night.

 

[darby01_2007]

I bet Disney has some fairly sophisticated software and an "air traffic controller" that is orchestrating the busses, monitoring capacity and demand. And when a bus only has one family on it going to one place, that bus may get repositioned to another route to serve more customers.

This is true

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I am sorry to read about all the bus problems you had and no one should have to go through all of that.

 

[jayandstacey]

This is true

Hi Ryan

Can you say if that has changed over time? In other words, if the rule used to be that the bus would not be repositioned unless empty, or until it got to the end of the line (the last stop)?

Repositioning in the middle of the line, with a paid customer aboard, would cause some real problems in any other pay-to-ride system

 

[vicki_c]

OP - that is awful! I'm so glad we don't rely on buses when we go - we always have a car and only use the buses rarely.

As to Disney's sophisticated automated bus routing software, I understand that they started to implement it, but it's not really been in full operation (this is going back at least a year). If you look at the bus stops, you will see a white van -- all the buses drive by it and I believe that van gives them the information on where they are going next - I've seen this at the MK specifically a number of times. Now that I've said that, I don't remember the infrequent buses we took to MK at Christmas stopping at the van window, but maybe I just don't remember or they don't all stop or something. Anyway, this is what I've heard - they've never fully put it into use because it wasn't working well, and they're doing at least some of it manually. Take that for what it's worth, please, no facts to back it up!

 

[rsimon]

So what's going on now?
I bet that Disney is running the busses 'leaner' and that means that occasionally one or maybe two families will get 'bumped'. Before, I doubt they'd ever do that. But the common element to your situation was that you were alone (as a family) going to a destination when you got bumped.

I bet Disney has some fairly sophisticated software and an "air traffic controller" that is orchestrating the busses, monitoring capacity and demand. And when a bus only has one family on it going to one place, that bus may get repositioned to another route to serve more customers.

Busses make no additional money and cost a FORTUNE (gas, maintenance and salaries) to run. I bet Disney would give its left arm to be out of the bus business. So now in tough times they are probably running fewer busses and trying to 'cover' with faster changes to meet demand. Put another way, they've decided to hose a family here and there.

Here's some information you may not be aware of. Mears actually runs the bus system for Disney (this includes Magical Express) so it isn't actually Disney running the busses.

We were at Disney when they were re-fitting all the busses with the new computer/gps system and have been back since. Before they brought the system online, the buesses had a set route unless they got notification via radio to change. So the same busses ran the same route until notified otherwise. This made the busses pretty consistent, but didn't account for heavy loads at certain parks.

When the new system came online, they were then able to change bus routes on demand as the "controllers" see fit. To my understanding (talking with bus drivers and managers) the system is online and they use it completely. The problem is now a busy park can kill all transportation to the park you want to go to if it doesn't have much traffic.

After waiting several times well over 45 minutes for a bus (we avoid the busy parks), we have resorted to rental cars and are much happier. Mears is a poorly run monopoly in Orlando and I believe they have really missed the mark.

 

[JoMarie]

Many people have mentioned calling car service. Is there a specific number to call? Is it Disney car service or just a local car service? If there's one most people use, does anyone have that number?

 

[Robo]

Here's some information you may not be aware of. Mears actually runs the bus system for Disney (this includes Magical Express) so it isn't actually Disney running the busses.

Hmmmmmmm.

 

[Uncleromulus]

I seem to recall this came up once before and someone indicated Mears does NOT run the Disney bus system..???

 

[cap'njack.]

This is one part of the WDW experience that really bothers me...I'm used to DLRP where you can easily walk from all the Hotels to the parks and easily hop parks with literally a 5 minute walk.

The sheer thought of waiting around for vast parts of the day at WDW is really putting me off of going

 

[Robo]

This is one part of the WDW experience that really bothers me...I'm used to DLRP where you can easily walk from all the Hotels to the parks and easily hop parks with literally a 5 minute walk.

The sheer thought of waiting around for vast parts of the day at WDW is really putting me off of going

We have been visiting WDW for literally years and years and years.

We go everywhere, do everything, park hop, Hoop De Doo, shop, visit all the resorts, etc.

Except for two trips, years ago when we rented a car, we now only use WDW transportation.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Here's some information you may not be aware of. Mears actually runs the bus system for Disney (this includes Magical Express) so it isn't actually Disney running the busses.

No, Mears does not run the bus system for Disney. Disney runs/manages the inter-resort bus system and hires its own drivers. Disney does contract with Mears for Magical Express, but Disney still runs that - Mears provides the buses and drivers.

 

[kaytieeldr]

It's too late for the OP, but future Guests experiencing similar problems should talk to a supervisor/manager at their own resort - yes, even if the problem doesn't happen there.

Note as much information as possible, because either they will want it, or a Transportation Manager will contact you, or both - location, time, bus number, driver name.

This does not sound like 'typical' procedure, and it's surely not good service. Whether it is or not, Disney needs to know Guests aren't happy.

 

[skater]

I hope this isn't a new normal. That would be the deal breaker in our regular disney vacations. Transportation is a huge part of what makes it so much fun.

 

[dogodisney]

I hope this isn't a new normal. That would be the deal breaker in our regular disney vacations. Transportation is a huge part of what makes it so much fun.

I agree. It can make the whole experience a little more magical.
It also gives us a chance to chat with other guests that we may not otherwise get to meet.

 

[make.it.blue]

I hope this isn't a new normal. That would be the deal breaker in our regular disney vacations. Transportation is a huge part of what makes it so much fun.

Agreed. We do drive down, but we like to park the car and leave the 'real world' during our vacation so we use Disney transportation.

We had some minor problems on our last trip (December) with buses pulling into a stop showing a sign for one destination, but they were actually going to another (e.g., one bus at DTD said 'Animal Kingdom Lodge,' but it was going to Sarasota Springs). We thought it shouldn't be that hard for the driver to change the sign appropriately. Not a really big deal, but still irritating, especially as a couple of the drivers weren't very courteous.

If all else fails, we can drive, but it takes away from the magic