Originally posted by SusanAnne
I would have to agree, a few years ago we would have several busdrivers, each trip down, talk to us, tell us interesting info on WDW, make funny jokes, they made it more interesting, however the past few years (this year included) it seems like they more unhappy in their jobs, in fact quite complaining about all of the things that were taken away from them by Disney. Sad but true.
LOL, the average Disney bus driver who works a 6 hour shift will typically be on a bus for 3 to 4 hours (usually split by a 30 min break) most of the time, an 8.5 hr shift maybe 6 (split by an hour break), and a 10.5 hour shift maybe 7 to 8 hours ( split up by a 45 min lunch and half hour break).
The other down time during the shift is just standing around waiting for someone to assign you a bus or waiting on the bus you were assigned.
Here is a typical night shift at Pleasure Island.
You report to the Ticket Center at 6:30 pm. The bus that takes you to PI departs there at 6:35. It tends to be a 15 to 20 min trip when it is busy.
You arrive at PI and walk across the parking lot to the coordinators office only to find out that all the people who came in at 6pm still haven’t been assigned a bus.
You go sit down back stage for a little while until the 10 X 8 or so room clears out. It’s probably 7:15 by now. You go back and are assigned a bus which won’t be in for another 30 minutes so you go sit down again.
The bus you are waiting on gets hung up somewhere and is running behind so it now won’t be in until 8 pm.
AT 8 pm you are on your bus and are going to the Magic Kingdom Resorts which can take about 45 mins to an hour round trip.
You get back to PI about 10 mins until 9 and you are now going to all 3 all stars which also takes about 45 to 50 mins.
You get back to PI at about 9:40. It’s now time for you to go on break due to scheduling restraints and the fact that you have been at work a little over three hours. Of course you sit at PI for another 10 mins because the guy who is taking your bus is still in the restroom. The time is now 9:50 and you are walking up to check in with the coordinator before heading to the break room. It’s now 9:55.
You take your 1 hour break which usually includes a few extra minutes to travel to the break room. You now return at 11 pm.
The coordinator assigns u a bus due in at 11:30 and tells you that you will be the 2 am bus for the Old Key west resort. So between 11:30 and 1:30 you make runs here or there. In most cases you arrive back at PI for your 2 am run about 1:15. You don’t have time to go anywhere so you go park for the next 35 minutes or so until you have to pull in for that 2 am Old Key West. It’s now 2 am and there are no guests for Old Key West. About 2:20 your bus is parked and by 2:25 or 2:30 you are watching TV until you can clock out at 3.
As you can see in that scenario you drive about 4 hours including your trip back to TTC to park at the end of the night.
Unfortunately, I am not making any of this up.
