Disney's free buses leave cabs in lurch

[joel_maxwell]

It's called business... people complain about jobs being scarce. But when jobs are created, they complain that some are just "transferred". It's a fact of life and will continue.

this is true everywhere and it will never go away. if you cant beat'em join'em

maybe he needs to be a driver for Magical Express. just a thought. then he could probably get company discounts (just play along), then his kid wouldnt be asking about soccer time but maybe what time should he be picked up from the parks.

 

[ThreeCircles]

I didn't say the quote was negative. I said the quote was USED in a negative slant within the article.

Oh. I would disagree with that too.

 

[HMGhost13]

hmmmm i'm losing money from cab driving because of disney using buses to trasnport people to WDW instead of people being driven in my cab. sounds like a no brainer to me.

when i was in need of money, I got a second job. when I need MORE money, I quit on job and went full time on the second which 1-was gauranteed money 2-a steady paycheck and 3- was $0.55 MORE when I left in the first place (summary: worked at McDonald's, then McD's and a restauraunt, Then just the restauraunt, then Restauraunt and McD's and now back at McD's.)

basically: If you're losing money go where the money is. plan and simple to me.

And I do find it ironic as how disney was here first and basically STARTED all of this and now everyone's complaining. yeesh!

 

[psuchad]

Oh. I would disagree with that too.

Now kids play nice. I took that quote as negitive as well. She didn't exactly say how wonderful the service was to save money for guests. She simply said it is the "latest Disney initiative designed to get people to spend more time and money on Disney property". I took this as her saying Disney is money hungry.

 

[lborne]

Disney has every right to offer free transportation. How about all the hotels that offer free shuttles? Think of all the poor cab drivers they put out of business. If Disney can affoard it, then let them offer it.

If I still lived in Orlando, (I did for a while), I'd welcome those busses on I-4 as opposed to tons of taxi drivers or tourists in rental cars.

Now if the Taxi Driver Lobby was more powerful, they could get laws enacted to protect their jobs - that would be the American way.... (said with sarcasm, for those who did not see it).

 

[bgraham34]

We I goto Orlando I strictly goto Disney thats it. i dont rent a car. I dont get a taxi to leave the parks. Disney gets my money and thats it.

 

[Nut4Disney]

I'm know that there wouldn't be as many taxi companies and jobs today in O-town if it weren't for WDW. I'm sure they've made a substantial amount of money over the years transporting people to and from WDW.

 

[wannabeBelle]

Now kids play nice. I took that quote as negitive as well. She didn't exactly say how wonderful the service was to save money for guests. She simply said it is the "latest Disney initiative designed to get people to spend more time and money on Disney property". I took this as her saying Disney is money hungry.

I didnt take that as a negative actually. In one of the Travel Channel specials that I have on tape it was said that the idea of building more hotels, more shopping, more dining on Disney property was all for the express purpose of getting more people to the Disney property, getting them to stay there longer and spend more money on items be that dining, park tickets, souveniers etc. After all a great number of people were coming to Florida and Disney was the reason why most of them were coming there!!! Ill see if I can dig up the name of the specific show. In any event it is a smart business move and one of the best things I have seen Disney do in terms of getting people to stick around on property!!! As far as the cab drivers, town car owners etc I feel badly for them but this is the nature of a changing market. Belle

 

[joel_maxwell]

easy solution: if anyone has a problem other than the cabbies that they are losing a lot of money, let them take the cab and support them. im going to take the free ride since im about to go and drop major jack at wdw.

well, lets get down to it..... the ride isnt free since you have basically paid for it somewhere in the package deal.... so im not going to pay for it twice. that is ice cream money :slurp:

 

[nyfrenchy]

My 2 cts: even when DME did not exist, I had never hired a cab to go to WDW because I could rent a car for less than $20 a day (and that's with taxes included!) from Alamo!

 

[Master Yoda]

It is a simple thing....evolve or die. Disney needed to find a way to keep people on their property buying their food, souvenirs etc and DME is a big part of making that happen. The cab and limo companies have been living of Disney for decades and then they are surprised when the gravy finally dries up. I don't want anyone to be out of a job but when your lively hood is based on the actions or in this case inactions of another you are setting yourself up for failure.

 

[Mystic]

I've been back to WDW 3 times since 2001 and the first two times we took the Mears shuttle and the most recent time we took a limo service from the airport. I think Magical Express is a good idea but I don't think I'll be using it on my next trip down next year. After spending almost 3 hours in a plane the last thing I want to deal with is folding myself onto a bus only to stop at 3 hotels before getting to mine. I'll be sticking with the limo service.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Here we go again.....lets blame Disney for providing a superior service to its guests. If it wasnt for Disney, most of these cabbies probably would be flipping burgers somewhere. Get real....if the market moves....you have to move to the market.

 

[Nut4Disney]

I just went 2 weeks ago for the 22nd time and 3rd time this year. I've never taken a cab or shuttle. I guess since I was staying at POR, I could've used DME, but we always rent a car. You can rent a car for $150 a week. I like having the freedom of driving offsite to the grocery store, and driving to Boma to eat instead of taking 2 buses and over an hour to get there. In addition, we like to park at the boardwalk and use the back entrance to Epcot on some nites, it beats the hell out of waiting for buses. As for the cabbies, Master Yoda thinks the same way I do. How many jobs are created in Central Fla. because of Disney, indirectly?

 

[slappy magoo]

I can't believe the hypocrisy of some of the people on this board. A couple of Disney voiceover artists die-gentlemen who seem to have had long lives, and I hope they were also happy and successful lives-and people get all Colon-Open Parenthese-y ( ) and say incredibly profound things like: "He will be missed," or "I pray for their families."

But when you hear about people whose livelihood is vanishing, and they're still in the process of figuring out how to survive in this new-to-them economical landscape, you people are essentially telling them to "$h!t or get off the pot right now. Quit-cher bellyaching, I spend enough money at Disney and you expect ME to pay YOU for a service you're offering to render! Go to Hell! Suh-ckas!"

I'm not saying Disney should jettison DME, because it IS a free market, and you can do whatever is legal to enhance your company's bottom line. And I'm not saying you HAVE to feel sorry for these people, but I think some consistency is necessary. If you can feel bad for John Fiedler, who lived to the ripe old age of 80, you can maybe feel bad for a guy who just saw his business shrink by 90 percent and doesn't yet know what he's going to do to support his family. Losing a job is one of the most stressful things that can happen to a person, and if you're driving a bus or a cab or a limo, there aren't many jobs you can just up and get that will pay the same. Some of these people will either have to relocate or take a job that will pay less. I don't know if that's ever happened to anybody on this board, but if it has, you gotta admit, it's rough at first. So if no sympathy can be spared for these guys, maybe some empathy. Think about what it's like to see your income hit that hard that fast and know you gotta do something to change your life but not knowing what yet.

 

[mkt]

personally, I'll be glad if Mears suffers because of this. They provide poor service that isn't punctual and monopolize the Orlando public transportation scene. The only way this could be better was if Disney were to use their own busses/drivers instead of subcontracting Mears

 

[Kadee]

It is a simple thing....evolve or die. Disney needed to find a way to keep people on their property buying their food, souvenirs etc and DME is a big part of making that happen. The cab and limo companies have been living of Disney for decades and then they are surprised when the gravy finally dries up. I don't want anyone to be out of a job but when your lively hood is based on the actions or in this case inactions of another you are setting yourself up for failure.

VERY well put!

 

[ToTBellHop]

While I feel empathy toward the folks that will lose their jobs, I also blame them. If Disney is able to offer a better, faster service for free, compared to what I used to deal with through Mears, taking upwards of 3 hours to get from my plane to my hotel, then I am happy for my company. If the taxi companies cannot adapt to compete with a better company, then there is no need for them in our economy. It is like the airlines that are going under while my airline of choice, JetBlue, continues to increase profits while charging less than the larger carriers. If JetBlue can offer better service (which it does) for cheaper, then I have absolutely no need for other carriers and will not miss them when they are gone. It's part of living in a capitalist society. Getting a job being a taxi driver or something similar ought to be viewed as a low security job (and this incident shows that). If one wants a higher security job, there are plenty of possibilities.

 

[joel_maxwell]

I can't believe the hypocrisy of some of the people on this board. A couple of Disney voiceover artists die-gentlemen who seem to have had long lives, and I hope they were also happy and successful lives-and people get all Colon-Open Parenthese-y ( ) and say incredibly profound things like: "He will be missed," or "I pray for their families."

But when you hear about people whose livelihood is vanishing, and they're still in the process of figuring out how to survive in this new-to-them economical landscape, you people are essentially telling them to "$h!t or get off the pot right now. Quit-cher bellyaching, I spend enough money at Disney and you expect ME to pay YOU for a service you're offering to render! Go to Hell! Suh-ckas!"

I'm not saying Disney should jettison DME, because it IS a free market, and you can do whatever is legal to enhance your company's bottom line. And I'm not saying you HAVE to feel sorry for these people, but I think some consistency is necessary. If you can feel bad for John Fiedler, who lived to the ripe old age of 80, you can maybe feel bad for a guy who just saw his business shrink by 90 percent and doesn't yet know what he's going to do to support his family. Losing a job is one of the most stressful things that can happen to a person, and if you're driving a bus or a cab or a limo, there aren't many jobs you can just up and get that will pay the same. Some of these people will either have to relocate or take a job that will pay less. I don't know if that's ever happened to anybody on this board, but if it has, you gotta admit, it's rough at first. So if no sympathy can be spared for these guys, maybe some empathy. Think about what it's like to see your income hit that hard that fast and know you gotta do something to change your life but not knowing what yet.

wow, ive never seen "suh-ckas" used so eloquently and diverse. grammar genius i tell you.

secondly, so when you say consistency is necessary, is "go to hell" and "suh-ckas" what you were refering to............... wonderful. im glad we have that cleared up. ill let you hold a counciling session for the cabbies that lost their jobs. you seem like you have your head on straight.

oh, when they come for counciling...... tell them to "suh-ckas"

 

[wannabeBelle]

personally, I'll be glad if Mears suffers because of this. They provide poor service that isn't punctual and monopolize the Orlando public transportation scene. The only way this could be better was if Disney were to use their own busses/drivers instead of subcontracting Mears

Hey there MKT, I have already predicted that this will be occuring due to the attitude of some of the Mears Drivers who are the operattors for the DME busses themselves. The lady driver I had on my May trip going to the World was fine, not CM magical, but OK no stupid comments, no put downs of Disney etc. The guy I had on the way back should have his PA system ripped out of the bus. He complained about his pay, Disney, the DME system and just about anything else he could find!!!!! He also made it a point to say that he works for mears not Disney. It was pretty terrible. I predict that Disney will start replacing the people like him with real CM's that can be trained the right way!!! Belle