Bus Transportation Slow Downs

[WDWmom64055]

What about Magical Express have the waits increased from the airport to the world?

Our bus was on time, but it wasn't a ME bus! We almost missed it because we were sitting at the resort bay for ME. It was a Disney Cruise bus and the driver pulled up to the curb next to the luggage drop-off! How I was supposed to guess that it was our bus is beyond me.

We only made it because I heard him ask a family sitting by the luggage folks if they needed the 1:45 ME. I yelled down that we did. He scolded me for almost missing the bus. At that point I figured there was no use having a duel of wits with an unarmed man, and just sat down for the ride.

I should add, our flight was at 4:35. The ME time I was given was 1:45. After our stop they still had to go to Sports and Coronado Springs. We made it fine, but next time I will tell them I want to know their schedule and I'll pick the time so I can leave a bigger buffer!

Had we missed the bus they would have seen the side of me that people describe as "a little abrasive". A sandblaster is a little abrasive...they would have been happy to hand carry me to the airport to get rid of me had we missed that bus!

 

[shakes20]

It was only a matter of time before this happened. Things are only going to get worse with oil going up to almost 140.00 a barrel today. Life is really going to change in this country if the tree hugging Dems don't let us start drilling for our own oil.

Perhaps if those money grubbing Repulicans who are in the back pocket of the oil companies had done more to fund alternate fuels, we would have never been in this situation in the first place.

Sorry, I don't mean to turn this into a political debate, but there is enough blame to go around for everyone...

 

[unkadug]

It was only a matter of time before this happened. Things are only going to get worse with oil going up to almost 140.00 a barrel today. Life is really going to change in this country if the tree hugging Dems don't let us start drilling for our own oil.

Perhaps if those money grubbing Repulicans who are in the back pocket of the oil companies had done more to fund alternate fuels, we would have never been in this situation in the first place.

Sorry, I don't mean to turn this into a political debate, but there is enough blame to go around for everyone...

Wow ... name calling, political discussion

Won't be long now. :shrug:

 

[dcaffey]

I have to say that after just finishing eleven days on property we had the exact opposite experience and actually commented several times that we had little to no wait time a bus.

I have to agree that many people seem to become frustrated if a bus doesn't arrive in under ten minutes.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

This sucks! I just don't think there's any excuse for it. I am really getting upset at some of the stuff Disney is doing. Cutting down on the buses, jacking up the stroller prices, it's ridiculious!

I agree... Look at what we pay to stay at the disney resorts alone!! I won't ever be able to stay at a deluxe resort like I've always wanted to because the prices are so outrageous!! $3000 to stay at the Poly for 5 nights w/o DDP...thats just rediculous. I don't know how some people do it. And now their raising prices on other things that are just unnecessary. :fork:

 

[Hakunamatata]

I have to agree that many people seem to become frustrated if a bus doesn't arrive in under ten minutes.

Tonight after our Fireworks Cruise at the MK, we ended up getting a taxi from the Contemporary because the one bus to DTD that came during the 35 minutes we were there was standing room only before we were able to board because it had come from the Poly first.

If I had the opportunity to experience a wait of less than ten minutes, I would probably tip the driver.........

 

[brucie]

I hope none of this is true we are going in Sept and have always been happy with the bus service at PoP. I hope it's still up to par!

 

[BenS]

Hmm, when I go in August we'll be staying at All-Star Movies, which is the last stop for the All-Star buses. I wonder if this'll make it worth it to walk over to the Music stop.

 

[luckyeye13]

Hmm, when I go in August we'll be staying at All-Star Movies, which is the last stop for the All-Star buses. I wonder if this'll make it worth it to walk over to the Music stop.

It depends on your destination and the time of day. Sometimes each All-Start resort will have its own bus, sometimes Sports and Music will share and Movies will be separate, and sometimes all three will be combined on one bus. It doesn't even so much depend on the time of year as I worked a bus crowd and traffic control shift last August in the late afternoon at Movies and was able to get on another bus to take me there after I accidentally got off at Music. All of the buses at that point were servicing all three of the resorts. In September, however, my best friend and I used the Disney buses to get between Downtown Disney and Animal Kingdom (We weren't cheap, since as Cast Members, we would be able to park for free. It was because she had to work at Downtown Disney later that evening.) and the bus that we hopped on to at Sports at around noon went straight to Animal Kingdom without stopping at Music or Movies.

 

[joshwill]

is anyone really surprised by this given the price of fuel these days?

im just surprised its taken them this long to scale back.

 

[Brian Noble]

If this has happened, it either happened very recently, or I got extremely lucky. We were at OKW over Memorial Day weekend, and had very good internal bus service the entire weekend---including for some off-time/mid-day trips.

 

[Fantasia freak]

we havent cut back on busses. it's all because of Phase Three of the new system we are using, and the fact that we went from 5 hubs down to 3. A bus from Epcot now has to go to a resort, then to studios or AK, back to the resot, then to Epcot. Since some driver drive slower than others. the new longer runs actually allow drivers that drive the speed limit to catch the slow bus that was dispatched ahead of him. thus the gap forms when the 2nd bus shows up at the same time as the 1st one.

 

[TTATraveler]

we havent cut back on busses. it's all because of Phase Three of the new system we are using, and the fact that we went from 5 hubs down to 3. A bus from Epcot now has to go to a resort, then to studios or AK, back to the resot, then to Epcot. Since some driver drive slower than others. the new longer runs actually allow drivers that drive the speed limit to catch the slow bus that was dispatched ahead of him. thus the gap forms when the 2nd bus shows up at the same time as the 1st one.

This really doesn't sound like an efficient system at all. What was the reasoning behind going from 5 hubs to 3? Since I live here and drive to parks, I don't have to rely on the bus transportation. Occasionally, I would catch a bus from a park to a resort, or AK to Epcot or DHS just so I wouldn't have to move my car. I guess I'll be sticking to my own driving.

I can only imagine the amount of complaints being filed for long waits for buses.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Todays experiences with buses has been much better. We did change resorts today to AKL though. Have not waited more than ten minutes for any bus today in conjunction with AKL.

 

[Pooh_Bear_67]

Wow!

 

[Computer Magic]

Todays experiences with buses has been much better. We did change resorts today to AKL though. Have not waited more than ten minutes for any bus today in conjunction with AKL.

well I do think AKL has one of the best bus service. It only has one stop and a bus is all there is to offer....that could change when the new villas buidling opens

 

[dxwwf3]

Todays experiences with buses has been much better. We did change resorts today to AKL though. Have not waited more than ten minutes for any bus today in conjunction with AKL.

Glad to hear. Hopefully it will be like that in about two weeks

 

[Omnimover]

...its been pretty steady 30-40 minute wait for buses vs the 20-30 that we have seen in the past. I have heard reports from other guests of a couple of hour long waits for the bus...

Man, if things are this slow it's going to be tragic. My next trip I'm headed down with first-timers and we deliberately spent more than we wanted to and upgraded to a moderate level resort just to avoid the transportation log jam that occurs with the value resorts at park opening and closing.

If it stays this bad in October I will be a sad panda, indeed.

 

[RiversideBunny]

July will be the crunch test for the bus system.
Hope it does well.

 

[Fantasia freak]

This really doesn't sound like an efficient system at all. What was the reasoning behind going from 5 hubs to 3? Since I live here and drive to parks, I don't have to rely on the bus transportation. Occasionally, I would catch a bus from a park to a resort, or AK to Epcot or DHS just so I wouldn't have to move my car. I guess I'll be sticking to my own driving.

I can only imagine the amount of complaints being filed for long waits for buses.

The reason for the switch to 3 hubs wa for the implementation of the mims(Magic in Motion) system. AK and Studios drivers used to clock in/out at TTC and ride busses to the hub. the moved down to three so we clock in at TTC, Epcot, or DDT, and are at the hubs. when Phase 3 is fully implemented, it will all be computerized dispatching, up until closing. but right now, we are operating on the first part of Phase three. and due to disney's past problems w/ new systems for the busses crashing in the past, we are running the crashed system so to speak. if the computerized system crashes, we fall back to the current system. we'll run this untill its familiar to everyone, so that in case of a crash, everyone knows what to do. its DRM (disruptive recovery mode). they keep pushing back the date for full implementation due to glitches everytime they update the system. remember when they first started with the boxes, they said it would be Oct 07. now its set for Oct 08. but until it does go fully automated, expect longeer wait times. And yes Disney is getting HUGE numbers of complaints. you would not believe how much Disney was comping guests the first week of phase 3(Feb 17-23). there were 2 1/2 hr waits at MK to get back to the resorts. it was a disaster, but weve gotten better. but nowhere near as good as before phase 3. all i can say is have patience, and hopefully by summers end it'll be fixed. hopefully.