Bus Transportation Slow Downs

[drew81]

2 1/2 hours! Wow! I was there in February. I remember waiting for the Pop Century when Studios had closed and the wait was about 30-45 minutes.

 

[MinnieLee]

We stayed at SSR in May and also waited 40 minutes for a bus to MK and then 35 min. to AK. There was a cast member at the bus stop who was writing down the times that the bus pulled in for the various parks and a couple of times they did radio in. A couple of mornings guests were on the phones at the bus stop complaining about about how long the wait was. On morning after a 40 minute wait two busses showed up for MK. When I asked asked the cast member what was going on he really did not give me a straight asnwer. I agree, add extra time!!!

 

[MichWolv]

This kind of stuff is why I always rent a car, even staying on property. For$150/wk for a car, plus a $50 tank of gas, I avoid reliance on Disney buses, give myself the ability to eat off-site (thereby saving the $200 or more if I would like to) for a few meals, and make travelling from resort to resort much quicker and easier.

 

[O'Malley]

We used to ride the busses all the time. The wait times (about 5 years ago) seemed to be 10-15 minutes. Then we saw our first "new bus", the kind with large windows and extra handicap seating. The first thing we noticed was that it seemed like the new busses hold about half the people. :veryconfu

We still see the "old busses" around the parks (the design with the high side windows, 4-headlights up front). Whenever we see the "new" busses, they always seem to be absolutely packed, standing room only. Years ago, we asked a cast member (we were waiting at Epcot for an AK bus), and the cast member said that the new busses hold far less than the old versions, but they can accomodate handicapped people much better. It was at that time that we realized that for every "new style" bus we caught, we ended up waiting 30+ minutes, and always ended up standing. That's when we decided to park/hotel hop with our own car.

About 2 weeks ago, we saw around 100 people waiting for a MK bus at Pop Century, in the blazing 94 degree Florida sun, as we walked into the food court for some veggie calzone. One guest at the end of the line had a large red/white/blue top hat, and I made a comment to my wife that he was very patriotic (Memorial Day). Anyway, we went inside, ate our calzones, used the lobby bathrooms, browsed the gift shop, then left. The line for the MK bus was still about 25 people deep :lookaroun, and yep, there was the guy with the red/white/blue tophat, now about 5 people from the front of the line. It had been about 45 minutes.

The LAST thing we would want to do on our vacation is wait 45 minutes in the boiling hot sun just to catch a bus from our hotel. Long lines should be reserved for rides, not transportation.

But hey, even the worst day at Disney is better than our best day at Universal, but Disney really needs to take care of this situation.

 

[BRER STITCH]

How long before they start selling bus passes to cover the increased cost of fuel???

Airlines and cruise lines are already doing it....

I'm just sayin'.......

:shrug:

 

[RiversideBunny]

If the Disney bus system starts having such long delays that people get frustrated with it, that will defeat the purpose of Magical Express, which is to keep the guests, and their dollars, on Disney proerty.

If the guests begin to get rental cars to avoid long waits for buses then they will get the ability to go off site.
How can you keep them down on the farm once they've been given car keys.

 

[Hakunamatata]

How long before they start selling bus passes to cover the increased cost of fuel???

Airlines and cruise lines are already doing it....

I'm just sayin'.......

:shrug:

Id pay if I didnt have to wait, and I think you would find a number of others out there as well. A two or three dollar surcharge onto the ticket price or room rate would prolly be the way its done though.

 

[Madhatter06]

How can you keep them down on the farm once they've been given car keys.

Too funny! Yeah my friend and I are actually gonna splurge now and stay at POFQ to avoid the potential All Star loop backup. Though hopefully something will improve by january either way.

 

[Mannoroth]

How long before they start selling bus passes to cover the increased cost of fuel???

Airlines and cruise lines are already doing it....

I'm just sayin'.......

:shrug:

Room/Ticket price increase.

 

[xsupaxmanxsfnex]

^I'm sure they increase the bus count for that time of year. But ya this needs to be fixed, maybe they need to speed up the making of the hybrid buses. I bet that would be something that they would be willing to put more money into.

 

[luckyeye13]

Years ago, we asked a cast member (we were waiting at Epcot for an AK bus), and the cast member said that the new busses hold far less than the old versions, but they can accomodate handicapped people much better.

Actually, the RTS (high-floor bus with steps), the NovaBUS (low-floor bus with curved front), and the Gillig (low-floor bus with flat front and right-sloping floor inside at the rear) all hold around 72 people. Thus, when the bus is full, a Signal 72 is called in. In fact, the counters at the doors (Look for the two little black squares on either side of the doors the next time you ride the bus.) will count up to 72 before prompting the bus driver to verify that the bus is full and input how many Guests were left behind at the bus stop. Now, in terms of seating capacity, it is true that there is a slight reduction on the NovaBUS and Gillig over the RTS. Of course, the buses won't necessarily depart with 72 Guests onboard because the Cast Members (bus drivers, crowd control, or transportation greeters) cannot force someone to board a bus if the Guest does not want to. In that case, the driver would manually mark the bus full and relay the number of Guests left behind. This tends to happen quite often at the end of the day when the first group in line wants to wait until the next bus for a seat, instead of boarding the waiting bus and having to stand.

 

[Fantasia freak]

Id pay if I didnt have to wait, and I think you would find a number of others out there as well. A two or three dollar surcharge onto the ticket price or room rate would prolly be the way its done though.

most resorts pay $2 per room per night to transportation for 3 busses per hour per park. some pay more to get more busses per hour and some pay less because they want fewer busses. the money is part of the room price. so you pay for the busses whether you use them or not.

 

[Fantasia freak]

Actually, the RTS (high-floor bus with steps), the NovaBUS (low-floor bus with curved front), and the Gillig (low-floor bus with flat front and right-sloping floor inside at the rear) all hold around 72 people. Thus, when the bus is full, a Signal 72 is called in. In fact, the counters at the doors (Look for the two little black squares on either side of the doors the next time you ride the bus.) will count up to 72 before prompting the bus driver to verify that the bus is full and input how many Guests were left behind at the bus stop. Now, in terms of seating capacity, it is true that there is a slight reduction on the NovaBUS and Gillig over the RTS. Of course, the buses won't necessarily depart with 72 Guests onboard because the Cast Members (bus drivers, crowd control, or transportation greeters) cannot force someone to board a bus if the Guest does not want to. In that case, the driver would manually mark the bus full and relay the number of Guests left behind. This tends to happen quite often at the end of the day when the first group in line wants to wait until the next bus for a seat, instead of boarding the waiting bus and having to stand.

absolutly right. All busses hold aprox 72 people. but rts's have 42-45 seats depending on the configuration, novas have 35 seats, and Gilligs have only 34 seats. and we are replacing all the old busses with the new Gilligs. So you might wanna get used to standing. cuz in 8-10 years every bus will be a Gillig, so 34 will get to sit, 38 will have to stand or wait for the next one.

 

[Dabeast]

Another advantage to renting...on magic hour mornings, you insure that you'll be there at the line 15 minutes before the park opens(if you get up early enough)..the last few times we relied on a Disney bus to get us there early...we missed the grand opening...part of the fun is being one of the first ones in the park...according to cm's...the buses start 45 minutes before the park opens...but, that doesn't mean they will be at your resort at 7:15am, for an EMH of 8:00am ...learned that the hard way singing "zippe de doo dah" is a great way to start the day at MK...sorry, is that song stuck in your head now??...50 days till Crystal Palace breakfast...start eating at 8:05...fill myself till 8:50...then head to Space Mountain(before the other early risers) for the first ride of the day..I know..little crazy but>>>:hammer: "rent a car, be in control of your vacation"

 

[gusgoose]

I was just at the park last month and definitely noticed the buses were slow and once we got on them they were packed, standing room only almost every trip and this was during a non-peak period.

I actually had a conversation with my friend about how this must be due to rising gas prices, I mean, what can Disney do?

I have one suggestion for saving gas: they seriously can't just create one central bus stop location for all the boardwalk area resorts? I swear when we boarded the bus to go to Magic Kingdom or Animal Parks, we spent half the bus trip traveling around right up to the front of each boardwalk area resort.

 

[O'Malley]

Probably due to fuel costs, but we also noticed that the Epcot trams are not in service until the parking lots gets pretty full. Seems like the first 20-30 rows have to be parked before they fire up a tram. We remember 10-15 years ago, there were always 2 trams running at Epcot, even during our frequent off-season (mid-October) visits, back when the World Showcase opened at 9:00 am with the rest of the park, and everything in Future World stayed open until 9:00 pm.

It's much easier (and less stressful) to drive your own car now rather than waiting around for busses. For the extra $$ spent on your fuel doing the parking lot shuffle (park-hopping), you'll save an hour or two everyday by not having to wait for busses at a park or hotel. And as someone pointed out earlier, you're ticket ain't free. If you figure in how much park time you're losing by having to wait around for 1-2 hours a day for a bus to take you to another park (or back to your hotel, park return later), it's probably costing you about $10-$15 a day just waiting around at bus depots.

Seems like Disney is focusing so much on the super high profit margin vacation clubs/villas, that they're losing touch with the regular paying guests.

 

[DisneyCane]

Probably due to fuel costs, but we also noticed that the Epcot trams are not in service until the parking lots gets pretty full. Seems like the first 20-30 rows have to be parked before they fire up a tram. We remember 10-15 years ago, there were always 2 trams running at Epcot, even during our frequent off-season (mid-October) visits, back when the World Showcase opened at 9:00 am with the rest of the park, and everything in Future World stayed open until 9:00 pm.

It's much easier (and less stressful) to drive your own car now rather than waiting around for busses. For the extra $$ spent on your fuel doing the parking lot shuffle (park-hopping), you'll save an hour or two everyday by not having to wait for busses at a park or hotel. And as someone pointed out earlier, you're ticket ain't free. If you figure in how much park time you're losing by having to wait around for 1-2 hours a day for a bus to take you to another park (or back to your hotel, park return later), it's probably costing you about $10-$15 a day just waiting around at bus depots.

Seems like Disney is focusing so much on the super high profit margin vacation clubs/villas, that they're losing touch with the regular paying guests.

Honestly, I don't know why anybody (other than the elderly) would need a tram at Epcot. Even the furthest lot isn't that far (when they aren't using the off to the side lots). On the lots that line up with the entrance, it is about the same distance from the last row to the entrance plaza as it is from the entrance plaza to the World Showcase.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Last night leaving Dak Emh the line for the Allstar resorts was backed up almost all the way around the curve back to the sign. This was probably a ten or fifteen bus backup. When a bus finally showed up, you could hear the applause and cheers accross the loading area.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

If the Disney bus system starts having such long delays that people get frustrated with it, that will defeat the purpose of Magical Express, which is to keep the guests, and their dollars, on Disney proerty.

If the guests begin to get rental cars to avoid long waits for buses then they will get the ability to go off site.
How can you keep them down on the farm once they've been given car keys.

You make some very good points!

 

[cblodg]

Just an FYI for anyone headed to WDW soon. You will want to add a little more time in your planning to get from resorts to parks, or resorts to resorts. This is purely rumor, however, I have heard this from a few different people (Disney resort staff, transporation people, etc) that due to fuel costs, Disney Transportation has cut back on the number of buses running. We are staying at SSR and 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, especially if you are trying to get on at the last stop in the resort (the bus has a better chance of being full and driving by the last stop).

Guest relations has been fielding a very large number of complaints and tonight coming back from Epcot they had a transportation manager manning the Saratoga bus stop at Epcot.

Just a heads up for those that like to plan down to the minute, give yourself some extra time in those plans.

Yeah, we were there in April (stayed at OKW) and there were some times when the buses seemed few and far between. And those that were there were really packed to the hilt, I mean yellow line. Most of the signs still say that buses run approx. every 20. Now some of the signs say 20-30 min.