Complimentary Transportation Bus ever discontinued?

Worldlover71

Well-Known Member
Does anyone remember the old Transportation Ticket? If you weren't staying on site, you could buy this pass for a nominal fee that allowed you use of all the transportation systems. This was back when they used to (sporadically) check resort IDs before boarding a bus. I remember once being denied entry by a driver because I didn't have a resort ID. The next bus driver didn't even ask.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering, with all the budget cuts within the park and services. Could it be possible for Disney to discontinued their bus services from resorts to parks? If I were to look at the graph's this would save so much money for the parks. I could see Disney selling this as:

You can take Uber's, there are endless Drive share app's nowadays!
Buses doesn't fit the needs of a COVID world.
You pay a ticket price to use the transportation bus. Like Lighting Lane, the Bus Ticket's could be a flat fee for daily entry to the park. Such as $15 per guest, daily.

Prior to 2020 and 2021, I would never thought this or consider it a possibility, but honestly, I wouldn't be surpised if Disney does make this decision.

Also, what are some awful ways Disney could do to make extra money? How about we pay a fee to enter a souvenir shop? This is a joke btw.
I would not be surprised If there is a long term plan to phase out the busses and expand the Skyliner.
Perhaps limit the bus routes in some way.

I would not be surprised if someday the busses were stopped “In response to guest demand” 🙁

I know a lot of folks say it will never happen, but I put nothing past TWDC to do such a cost cutting measure.

It they do, there’s gonna be a lot more cars running all over property.

As it is, there’s gonna be more traffic due to the loss of magical express. I know Mears is offering the same service at the guests cost, but some folks will elect to use a rent a car.
 

Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member
I would not be surprised If there is a long term plan to phase out the busses and expand the Skyliner.
Perhaps limit the bus routes in some way.

I would not be surprised if someday the busses were stopped “In response to guest demand” 🙁

I know a lot of folks say it will never happen, but I put nothing past TWDC to do such a cost cutting measure.

It they do, there’s gonna be a lot more cars running all over property.

As it is, there’s gonna be more traffic due to the loss of magical express. I know Mears is offering the same service at the guests cost, but some folks will elect to use a rent a car.
If they ever stopped using buses they would have to double or possibly triple the size of the parking lots at the resorts and parks.
 

Bugz

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering, with all the budget cuts within the park and services. Could it be possible for Disney to discontinued their bus services from resorts to parks? If I were to look at the graph's this would save so much money for the parks. I could see Disney selling this as:

You can take Uber's, there are endless Drive share app's nowadays!
Buses doesn't fit the needs of a COVID world.
You pay a ticket price to use the transportation bus. Like Lighting Lane, the Bus Ticket's could be a flat fee for daily entry to the park. Such as $15 per guest, daily.

Prior to 2020 and 2021, I would never thought this or consider it a possibility, but honestly, I wouldn't be surpised if Disney does make this decision.

Also, what are some awful ways Disney could do to make extra money? How about we pay a fee to enter a souvenir shop? This is a joke btw.
Lets hop it doesn't happen
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering, with all the budget cuts within the park and services. Could it be possible for Disney to discontinued their bus services from resorts to parks? If I were to look at the graph's this would save so much money for the parks. I could see Disney selling this as:

You can take Uber's, there are endless Drive share app's nowadays!
Buses doesn't fit the needs of a COVID world.
You pay a ticket price to use the transportation bus. Like Lighting Lane, the Bus Ticket's could be a flat fee for daily entry to the park. Such as $15 per guest, daily.

Prior to 2020 and 2021, I would never thought this or consider it a possibility, but honestly, I wouldn't be surpised if Disney does make this decision.

Also, what are some awful ways Disney could do to make extra money? How about we pay a fee to enter a souvenir shop? This is a joke btw.
Have you been to Europe?. Some cities have public pay toilets.
 

Dabeast

Member
I would not be surprised If there is a long term plan to phase out the busses and expand the Skyliner.
Perhaps limit the bus routes in some way.

I would not be surprised if someday the busses were stopped “In response to guest demand” 🙁

I know a lot of folks say it will never happen, but I put nothing past TWDC to do such a cost cutting measure.

It they do, there’s gonna be a lot more cars running all over property.

As it is, there’s gonna be more traffic due to the loss of magical express. I know Mears is offering the same service at the guests cost, but some folks will elect to use a rent a car.
You can’t completely eliminate buses with a Skyliner. They stop in severe weather and they use buses when that happens. Almost every day in the rainy season, if there is lightning.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
You can’t completely eliminate buses with a Skyliner. They stop in severe weather and they use buses when that happens. Almost every day in the rainy season, if there is lightning.
Elimination of the busses world be terrible and counterintuitive in my mind, I am just saying I would not be surprised if TWDC did just that. Just look what they have taken away from their guests over time.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I don't ever see Transporation ditching bus services, but I CAN foresee a time in the future when WDW starts charging Guests staying at their Resorts for the service.

Like back in the day....when you wanted to use any form of WDW Transporation, you had to buy a seperate ticket.
A low fee, but still, a fee.
With the millions of Guests who use the buses every year even a modest fee for a 'Bus Card' would add more money into Mickey's till.
Can totally see that happening in the future.

They have now pretty much charged for every other once included service....this is the next target I'm sure....
Captive audiences under the pixie dust spell will pay up regardless.

-
 

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering, with all the budget cuts within the park and services. Could it be possible for Disney to discontinued their bus services from resorts to parks? If I were to look at the graph's this would save so much money for the parks. I could see Disney selling this as:

You can take Uber's, there are endless Drive share app's nowadays!
Buses doesn't fit the needs of a COVID world.
You pay a ticket price to use the transportation bus. Like Lighting Lane, the Bus Ticket's could be a flat fee for daily entry to the park. Such as $15 per guest, daily.

Prior to 2020 and 2021, I would never thought this or consider it a possibility, but honestly, I wouldn't be surpised if Disney does make this decision.

Also, what are some awful ways Disney could do to make extra money? How about we pay a fee to enter a souvenir shop? This is a joke btw.
For me that is the only perk left that keeps me staying at a WDW resort. If they do that I would stay of site and take Uber to the parks.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
I don't ever see Transporation ditching bus services, but I CAN foresee a time in the future when WDW starts charging Guests staying at their Resorts for the service.

Like back in the day....when you wanted to use any form of WDW Transporation, you had to buy a seperate ticket.
A low fee, but still, a fee.
With the millions of Guests who use the buses every year even a modest fee for a 'Bus Card' would add more money into Mickey's till.
Can totally see that happening in the future.

They have now pretty much charged for every other once included service....this is the next target I'm sure....
Captive audiences under the pixie dust spell will pay up regardless.

-
This is an excellent point and this convinces me they will not get rid of the bus service, they will simply begin to charge for it.
 

Raxel7851

Well-Known Member
I remember a time when you boarded a bus, you had to show the driver your resort ID card. I don’t remember having to purchase a separate transportation ticket. Maybe I did, but I just don’t remember.
 

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering, with all the budget cuts within the park and services. Could it be possible for Disney to discontinued their bus services from resorts to parks? If I were to look at the graph's this would save so much money for the parks. I could see Disney selling this as:

You can take Uber's, there are endless Drive share app's nowadays!
Buses doesn't fit the needs of a COVID world.
You pay a ticket price to use the transportation bus. Like Lighting Lane, the Bus Ticket's could be a flat fee for daily entry to the park. Such as $15 per guest, daily.

Prior to 2020 and 2021, I would never thought this or consider it a possibility, but honestly, I wouldn't be surpised if Disney does make this decision.

Also, what are some awful ways Disney could do to make extra money? How about we pay a fee to enter a souvenir shop? This is a joke btw.
That would be a ridiculous amount of Ubers.
Post Edit: I want to add to this, @LadyBlue have you ever lived in a major city? There simply aren't enough cabs, ubers or whatever to cover the amount of people that would need transportation. In WDW a large percentage of people are trying to get to the park at opening hours, think there are enough drivers at that time to cover the amount of people who need transportation? Would be curious to see how the Uber prices would spike around 7:45 to 8:45 AM for a 9AM opening time.
 
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jonnyc

Well-Known Member
Eliminate? Never...

Reduced? Sure - would be a lot easier for Disney to simply reduce the frequency and hours of buses if they had to trim their expenses. Plus they can always roll cost increases to the resorts.

Simple solution is just cut capacity and make guests wait longer. Then offer some sort of paid premium offer for those who don't want to tolerate the new standard.

I think this is where it will head - it already existed to an extent with the Minnie Vans.

Have you been to Europe?. Some cities have public pay toilets.

I think this is more 'urban planning' to stop homeless people sleeping in them rather than nickel and diming!
 

Greg in TN

Active Member
To Bob, this is just business and, he's looking for the max profit, not legions of "happy fans".
Yep. I've said for a long time that Disney doesn't give a flip about Guest Satisfaction, as long as they can replace each fed-up Disney loyalist, with a rube or newby who will blindly pay whatever they're asked.
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Not legal (inside a business) in the US.

But - Disneyland originally had pay toilets.
Not exactly in all places but have you ever been to some nightclubs and use the bathroom? There is a bathroom attendant cleaning inside and offering you perfume and cologne by the sink counter and a tip jar beside that where customers put a little something to take care of the bathroom host.
 
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Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
I get that Disney has cut back on a lot of things that people liked, but the notion they would get rid of bus transportation is absurd and not really worthy of an entire thread.

They're not going to shift tens of thousands of guests who stay on site into taking Ubers.
 

Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
Yep. I've said for a long time that Disney doesn't give a flip about Guest Satisfaction, as long as they can replace each fed-up Disney loyalist, with a rube or newby who will blindly pay whatever they're asked.

I think Bob cares about "customer satisfaction" in the way that your local grocery store does. Meaning, you go in, buy your milk and bread, stand in line to check out, and leave and don't think much more about it.

With a grocery store:
- it needs to be clean
- you'll tolerate a bit of a line, even if it's annoying at the time
- workers need to be pleasant
- As long as the prices are reasonable, you'll come back.

When you get home you're not thinking, "Wow! That was the best trip to the grocery store EVER!" You're thinking, "Ok.. Time to put away the groceries," and that's about where the experience ends. Next week, you'll repeat it. You basically feel you've been given a fair amount of groceries in exchange for a fair amount of cash and you're OK with it.

Bob sees this the same way for you visiting WDW:
- You travel down and experience the parks and resort
- You hand over a bunch of cash
- You leave happy that you and your family visited WDW

You're just "visiting his store". The problem is that you handed over a wad of cash and you'll likely feel a bit cheated in that you paid more than you thought it was worth. You'll tell others. You may or may not go back depending on your nostalgia level.

I think that last part is what Bob is missing. It's not a grocery store he's running - it's a show. He's treating it like a grocery store, however. Right now it's a "winning formula" because Disney fans are a bit over the top. They complain about the money being asked and then pay for it, anyway. Some will even defend it or welcome the new costs.

I think, long term, Bob's successor is going to have to manage the problem of, "America's Nostalgia Reserves For Disney Are At An All Time Low!" Bob, however, will be seen as some kind of wizard when his "fame" is really based upon those who came before him (thinking more Eisner than Bob #1 here).

Regarding transportation:
To me it seems clear that WDW will not get rid of buses. I don't think there's any chance of that.

I think, given time, you'll be paying to ride the buses and, to your shock, you won't get the nice "subsidized" cost like a major metropolitan area will give you. You'll get what the bean-counters have come up with that it costs to run the busses, with you on it, and make a tidy profit. They'll do what they can to make them run as efficiently as possible but you will be paying to ride the buses. You're already paying to park in the resort lots for staying there. This is just the next logical step.
 

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Eliminate? Never...

Reduced? Sure - would be a lot easier for Disney to simply reduce the frequency and hours of buses if they had to trim their expenses. Plus they can always roll cost increases to the resorts.

Simple solution is just cut capacity and make guests wait longer. Then offer some sort of paid premium offer for those who don't want to tolerate the new standard.
Eliminate? Never...
Pay to ride the bus? Probably. It's just a matter of time...
 

crawale

Well-Known Member
Are the buses still limited seatwise? Do they allow standing? Last visit - June - we waited a long time because of the seat allocation - dirty plastic in between sections and worse going home at the end of a long day when previously buses were filled and exhausted people didn't have to wait forever.
 

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