Bus spiels?

[happytrees]

I heard this from a trasportation bus driver:

Many (how many?) drivers cannot speak English well, therefore guests are having difficulty tryng to understand them. As a result, Disney Transportation buses will have a prerecorded overhead spiel similar to that of the monorail.

Anybody else heard anything?

 

[RnRJoe6114]

I haven't heard anything, but it might be good for some, because their english is quite hard to understand. But also we'll miss out of the entertainment of some of the good bus drivers that make the bus ride fun.

 

[TTATraveler]

I heard this from a trasportation bus driver:

Many (how many?) drivers cannot speak English well, therefore guests are having difficulty tryng to understand them. As a result, Disney Transportation buses will have a prerecorded overhead spiel similar to that of the monorail.

Anybody else heard anything?

That's not completely a bad idea. Some driver's english speaking skills leave a lot to be desired. I would hope though for some of the experienced old timers around, who speak the entire ride would have the option to overide the prerecorded spiel.

 

[Skippy]

Hm... that would be intersting. I agree it'd probably be good for some of the bus drivers; i remember not being able to understand a few of them. But I certainly hope that the drivers that occasionally tell jokes or even sing songs keep up what they're doing. It makes the day a little more special.

 

[WDWKat26]

Hey i'm all for this. I understand that a lot of the drivers have hard to understand accents, and this is actually a good idea. When I was a guest one time we were on our way back from MK and we were staying at the Yacht Club. The bus driver had such a thick accent he said, "Next stop is the jat cloob." I was like, huh?

 

[Yoop33]

I don;t think it is all on the driver but also on the noise the bus makes. Those huge turbo diesel engines aren't quiet and not too mention you can fit a lot more loud people on a bus then in a monorail car.

 

[pat_naughty05]

By no means am I racist, but my opinion differs slightly. I understand that people from foreign coutries deserve the opportunity to work here in the States, but there are certain jobs that require a person to be to able to speak fluent and coherent english. Like I said, these people need jobs just like everyone else, but maybe their skills could be put to better use elsewhere, as in translating for guests from their respective countries.

 

[BigNormsMom]

Maybe it was just me, but I was terribly disappointed in our drivers this year. Not in their driving ability, that is always a hoot.:lol: Not once, and we were there 8 days, did I hear them say, " look to your left and see...., or on your right is...., . This really saddened me because we had a first timer with us. We were the ones who pointed out the different hotels and beaches and tot and what not, to her. Do they not still give their spiel or did we just happen to get some quiet drivers?:veryconfu

 

[uklad79]

By no means am I racist, but my opinion differs slightly. I understand that people from foreign coutries deserve the opportunity to work here in the States, but there are certain jobs that require a person to be to able to speak fluent and coherent english. Like I said, these people need jobs just like everyone else, but maybe their skills could be put to better use elsewhere, as in translating for guests from their respective countries.

You may as well of said I am not racist but I will make a racist comment anyway! :hammer:
If you ran Disney Transport you would have been fired in 2mins for being racist, bringing the system to a standstill if they removed all people you didn't understand when they spoke, and for getting Disney in some deep legal and media crap.
The main job of these people is drive buses not be tour guides! Do they drive you safely to were you want to be? Yes! so they are doing their job. If they install a automated system it would be better as it would be a clear and standard, that way everyone can understand. Some southern american accents are hard for me to understand but I don't think that Disney should put them all in dish washing jobs because they have an accent I cant understand.

 

[the-reason14]

Maybe it was just me, but I was terribly disappointed in our drivers this year. Not in their driving ability, that is always a hoot.:lol: Not once, and we were there 8 days, did I hear them say, " look to your left and see...., or on your right is...., . This really saddened me because we had a first timer with us. We were the ones who pointed out the different hotels and beaches and tot and what not, to her. Do they not still give their spiel or did we just happen to get some quiet drivers?:veryconfu

Out of all the times Ive been riding the buses(which I started, I believe, like 2003 or 2002) Ive never remember the drivers saying look here or look there. All I remember them saying is, how long it will take to get to the destination, and the park hours/parade times/bus number and stuff when you get to your destination. We did encounter a great bus driver from mk to pop half century on one of our independant trips during the school year. He told us alot of neat trivia things and tidbits and really got the entire bus alive even though it was so late.

 

[OnWithTheShow]

They have actually been looking at a GPS based system that will be able to give detailed spiels and resort information based on the bus's location.

 

[wdwmagic]

Out of all the times Ive been riding the buses(which I started, I believe, like 2003 or 2002) Ive never remember the drivers saying look here or look there. All I remember them saying is, how long it will take to get to the destination, and the park hours/parade times/bus number and stuff when you get to your destination.

You need to go back much further than 2002 for the times when the drivers did trivia and tour guide type spiels. Up until around 1995 it was pretty common. It was very "Disney" to have those funny, informative bus drivers back then, and its a shame that little extra has bene lost in recent times.

 

[BigNormsMom]

You need to go back much further than 2002 for the times when the drivers did trivia and tour guide type spiels. Up until around 1995 it was pretty common. It was very "Disney" to have those funny, informative bus drivers back then, and its a shame that little extra has bene lost in recent times.

Thanks wdwdisney for your knowledge and ability to remember. I thought it (the trivia) ended around 1995 or 96 but I was not sure. I thought it may have been on an off property bus, as my DH said, but then I realized that we have stayed on property only since 1996 and I remembered hearing it with my family.:lol: So again "thank you for your imput".

 

[Shaman]

Does the normal person even listen to spiels? Let alone an actual person (in this case the bus driver) talking over bus AND bus rider noise?

The whole spiel thing could come about...but I doubt it would be for the reason put forth by the OP...

A person doesn't have to speak perfect English to drive a bus.

 

[Thrawn]

I would venture to say that putting prerecorded spiels on ANYTHING at WDW has far less to do with accents or noise, but with liability. Are you going to say the prerecorded loading spiels on rides are because of the CMs accents?

The monorail spiel is there for safety. That is why it is repeated in spanish. So no one can say "Well, gee, they didn't give any warnings to stand clear of the doors." They could have the monorail driver CMs repeat it over and over, but its easier (and better from a legal standpoint) to play a recording. Same applies for anything that would occur on the busses.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I have a spiel they could use:

Mornings: "On your left you will see a tired, half awake person ready to hit the parks. Have a magical day"

Evenings: "On your left you will see a tired, cranky, sweaty, broke person ready to go to bed. Have a magical evening."

Disney, feel free to use this at no charge...........:lookaroun

 

[happytrees]

I would venture to say that putting prerecorded spiels on ANYTHING at WDW has far less to do with accents or noise, but with liability. Are you going to say the prerecorded loading spiels on rides are because of the CMs accents?

The monorail spiel is there for safety. That is why it is repeated in spanish. So no one can say "Well, gee, they didn't give any warnings to stand clear of the doors." They could have the monorail driver CMs repeat it over and over, but its easier (and better from a legal standpoint) to play a recording. Same applies for anything that would occur on the busses.

You're making sense, Thrawn. I wish I had thought of it myself.

 

[robynchic]

I remember in 2003 there was a bus driver when my (then) boyfriend and my parents came to visit me on my CP that tried to get people involved. He was saying trivia about WDW, and he asked people where we were from. When he got to my parents and boyfriend (I was sitting on my boyfriend's lap--it was the end of the day and my knee was hurting from humidity), they all said Virginia, and I said "Orlando!" He asked me why I'm sitting on a random guy's lap, and I just simply said that I was a CP, and that I'm sitting on my boyfriend's lap. He got a chuckle out of that.
But that was the only time I've ever had an interesting bus driver, unless it's backstage. Going from cast parking to the tunnels in MK, there's a driver that will say "You have now arrived at [cast parking's name], and your gate to temporary freedom."

 

[Connor002]

Eh, we've never had any amazing bus drivers anyway, so I wouldn't know if there will be a great difference. Either way, it would be funny to have the spanish speil on the bus.

 

[Tom]

I too have experienced some foreign-American bus drivers that would be hard to understand when NOT on a CB-style radio. I've also experienced many perfect-English-speaking drivers who just don't understand how to hold a microphone an audible and intelligible distance from their mouth - thus also making their babble useless.

I've had a few drivers that were just plain awesome. They joked, they provided info on the property, parks, show times, history, etc....but they were also mostly old-timers, who still cared.

I have no problem with someone of any nationality driving my bus, but it seems as though this is one area where Disney doesn't have full control, and no standard. Some of them joke and carry on - very entertaining. Some just sit there until it's time to say "Port Orleans Riverside North Depot" - nothing else. Others jam the mic down their throat and carry on about who knows what, and often times are spouting off false facts like you'd hear the uneducated guest say.

I think a combination of a taped spiel, and the addition of interior marquees would be ideal. The marquees could actually tell you what stop, within your resort, is next - similar to the outside marquees telling you where the bus is going. Just my opinion.