Originally posted by Fantasia Boi
We do have a few RTS busses with weak airbags on one side, thus causing the bus to lean when fully loaded and/or on a curve. Us drivers will write it up, but when maintenance checks it out, all is fine, because the bus is empty. But we won't get into my issues with maintenance.
I'm curious what time of day this was. My first thought is that it was before 11am, because of the close proximity of a Manager. From 8am-11am, we use MOD - Magic On Demand. Busses "Float" out of the All Stars. They are all parked between Sports and Music, and are dispatched from that location by a Coordinator. (Hence why a manager is often found hanging out there) Typically the busses are dispatched to go to one All Star and pick up there, and then head directly to the theme park.
It could be that the bus was told to go to Music... but went to Movies instead. At that point, obviously, the line will get pretty long at Music for the Studios. During the morning, there is a Cast Member at each one of the All Stars... they have a radio, and can call the coordinator dispatching the busses to let them know of any special situations, large groups, or whatnot. They also record each bus as it comes in, the time it comes in, and if they filled up and left people waiting. What probably happened is that the cast member called the coordinator, told them, "Hey, we've got a big crowd here, there hasn't been a bus in awhile."
At this point, the manager would try and call the bus that was originally dispatched. They might have not had the radio volume turned up, might have been busy, or had a broken radio. When the manager couldnt get a hold of the bus, she would have driven over to Music herself to see the crowd, and to do some "Guest Service Recovery"... also, the coordinator would have probably dispatched the next 2 busses he got into Music for the Studios.
After 11am... Most locations will revert to set routes. For example, the Studios will have 3-4 busses running the All Stars. It's a 40 minute run, so typically, a bus should come every 10-15 minutes, depending on how well spaced out they are.
Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney are a bit different. Both locations are trying out a new form of dispatching called Flexible Independant Dispatching System, FIDS, or commonly called "Flex Dispatching." The way Flex works is a bus will pull into the Magic Kingdom, and the driver will be given a time out, and a route. The driver then goes and picks up at the MK for that route.
We'll use Caribbean Beach for example. With the old count sheets and fixed routes, CBR was on a 42 minute run. So if I was driving CBR, and my first time out was 15:00... I'd do the run... I'd probably get back around 15:34, and then I'd sit at the MK until my dispatch time of 15:42. Most of the times in, I'd be 5-10 minutes early, and thus, I'd sit for 5-10 minutes. In addition... if for some obscure reason, I become 5-10 late... now, those guests are waiting 5-10 minutes more for me each run.
With the new Flex Dispatch, I'll pull into the MK at 14:57... get dispatched to do the 15:00 CBR. I pick up, and head to the resort. I get back to the MK at 15:34. Now, instead of sitting around, they give me the 15:37 All Star Sports run. So, I load and go.
This new system provides a better utilization of our busses over Fixed Routes. Instead of having them just sit and wait at the load zones, we keep them moving. Over the span of a few hours, each bus has now done one or two additional runs. This increases our capacity, and lowers the guest wait times. We also don't have to worry about a bus being late. Because of the Flex Dispatching, 95% of the busses are returning early, or on time. The few busses that run a little bit late due to the use of the ADA Lift or Ramp, are dispatched off to new locations, and once again are on time.
, the monorails are just so for lack of a better word MAGICAL ! 
