Monorails, buses, boats and chaos

[Florida_is_hot]

When I was at WDW two weeks ago I tried the bus one day from the Pop Century then .... used only my car.

The Magic Kingdom was opening 9am, so I thought 8am be early enough, no way.
More ESPN buses came and went than Magic Kingdom buses, final a 8:35 the first Magic Kingdom bus showed and of course there was no way everybody get on it.

We arrived got into the Magic Kingdom at 9:30am

Leaving it was the same drill Pop Century parking spot was the farthest walk and it took 45 minutes and two buses to cram everybody on.

Car everyday after.

The Magic Kingdom you have to cross Bay Lake, but I find it better than the buses.

Want to go Downtown Disney Planet Hollywood or AMC it is a 5 minute drive.

 

[psukardi]

Is there a place to view the bus schedules online?

 

[Master Yoda]

Is there a place to view the bus schedules online?

For the Disney buses there really is not a schedule past starting an least an hour before the park opens and continuing until at least an hour after park close with buses arriving about every 20 minutes. For SoG All Ears has the closest thing you could call a schedule.

What transportation is available at SoG?
SoG has two bus schedules. Bus loading and unloading is located on the lower level below the lobby. There is an elevator to the Bus Stop located outside the lobby in the Port Cochere.
Shades of Green room key is required to ride these buses.
Check upon arrival for the Extra Magic Hour bus scheule.

Bus A
* Departs Shades of Green every 15 minutes starting at 0800.
* Departs the Ticket Transportation Center every 15 minutes
* On this route you will get to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot (Via monorail), and to the Downtown Disney Resort area via bus from space 26 which runs every half hour until 2300.
* Drop off locations for Downtown Disney are either at the Wyndham Palace Resort or the Hilton Resort.
* The last bus will depart the Ticket Transportation Center 2 hours and 15 minutes after the Magic Kingdom closes.

Bus B
* Departs Shades of Green every half hour starting at 0800 to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and Disney's Hollywood Studios.
* Departs Animal Kingdom 15 minutes and 45 minutes after each hour (Space #7)
* Departs Blizzard Beach 30 minutes after the hour and at the top of the hour (Space #1)
* Departs Disney's Hollywood Studios 45 minutes and 15 minutes after the hour (Space #6).
* The last bus for Animal Kingdom and the Studios will be 2 hours and 15 minutes after each park closes. The last bus for Blizzard Beach will be 2 hours after the park closes.

 

[psukardi]

For the Disney buses there really is not a schedule past starting an least an hour before the park opens and continuing until at least an hour after park close with buses arriving about every 20 minutes.

Thanks! Seems that makes things a bit dicey for people doing the Keys to The Kingdom Tour. It starts promptly at 8:30 and you're required to be there at least 15 minutes early. But the park doesn't open until 9AM so the first bus wouldn't arrive until 8AM....

 

[Master Yoda]

Thanks! Seems that makes things a bit dicey for people doing the Keys to The Kingdom Tour. It starts promptly at 8:30 and you're required to be there at least 15 minutes early. But the park doesn't open until 9AM so the first bus wouldn't arrive until 8AM....

They tend to run earlier then they publish, but when it comes to something like a Keys tour I would just hop a cab and remove all doubt.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

I guess I have never experienced any trouble w/ Disney transportation, so I can't complain!

Same here Beth, I guess it could also be the time of year we travel though. Oddly enough, MK isn't as busy as Epcot is during the week in October. Plus, staying at a monorail resort gives us several modes of transportation to choose from. If it's extremely busy at the monorail station, we just walk to TTC and have never had a problem.

 

[ddrongowski]

Two Words:
Rental Car

You just listed a million reason why 150 bucks for a weeks worth of car rental is worth EVERY PENNY.

I WILL 2ND THIS!!!!! We alway get a rental car.

 

[ddrongowski]

Not to mention having to pay to park at the Parks/TTC. SOG guests don't get the same privilege when it comes to parking as the Disney Resort guests do. We are on property, but not good enough to get free parking lol! So, rental car wouldn't have even worked. The biggest problem with the buses was that the SOG bus only ran like an hour or so after park close. Sometimes it took a whole hour to get out of the park and fight the crowds to get disney transport of some type back to the ttc to get the SOG bus before you were stranded for the night. This is was OP was talking about.

Not that it would be fun, but at least the walk to SOG from the TTC would be very possible. Just head thru the Poly resort, cross the road, and then walk down Magnolia Palm Dr. Check it out on google earth.

 

[rkelly42]

We always have a rental car when we go, just for the fact that it is easier to get around wdw and if we need to leave the property we do not need to rely on a cab. Also I fully expect that if we go to wdw during a busy time of year that we will run into problems with trying to exit the parks.

 

[mouse_luv]

Not that it would be fun, but at least the walk to SOG from the TTC would be very possible. Just head thru the Poly resort, cross the road, and then walk down Magnolia Palm Dr. Check it out on google earth.

Okay, first of all the thread wasnt intended for a bashing of SOG and people who stay there. There is a definate problem with the Disney transportation system as far as getting mass numbers of people where they need to be and when, I have visited over 20 plus times in the past and NEVER had this problem even when staying at SOG.

Secondly, people who have never visited SOG and can't stay there and don't know how it really is need to stop running their mouths about my vacation and how I did things. Were you with me? Do you truly know what I did? For the most part we walked to the TTC from Shades or took the monorail from the Poly. BUT that's not something recommended by staff of SOG when they tell you first hand not to do it at NIGHT because of large venomous snakes and gators that WILL be in your path. they even suggested that while on SOG property that we use the inside corridors to access the pools and the sports bar due to Snakes and Gators.

Yes, it was our choice to stay at SOG and deal with their bus schedule, and we did. But honestly, Disney needs to repair their transportation system to the way it was, it wasnt broken it was WORKING. Even an extra hour of monorail service won't kill them.

And I'm tired of hearing about a rental car. Even with discounts, for the week it would have been about 300$ for us to rent a car that would sit b/c unlike other onsite Disney hotel guests we have to pay 5$/a day to park at our hotel, then the 14$ a day park fees to park at the TTC or the other parks. So, please stop judging people if you don't know what they went through.

*Let me also state that this wasn't supposed to be a BUSY time of the year. It was considered low 4-6 crowd levels. But thanks to unexpected conventions. It was more like walking around in 6-8 levels. It's not like I planned going Christmas or New Years when it's people out the wazoo. I know better.

 

[mousehockey37]

Ok everyone, time out!

Let's go back to my original post.

I mentioned about some things that I saw. Sure, I stayed at SOG and dealt with their schedule, but DGF and I weren't the only ones on the move to catch buses. There were people that were running for buses to DHS, etc after the mass chaos of exiting the parks and dealing with certain modes of transport being shut down (ie no bus from Epcot/Monorails closed during EMH at MK).

This thread IS NOT and WILL NOT turn into a rental car thread. If you travel by rental car, that's great for you. There's a lot of us who can't afford that and we will work with what transport is there. Obviously, there are alot of people in the same boat as I am.

If it's a matter of maintenance on the monorails, then I understand why they shut them down, but there are how many monorails in the fleet vs how many on the lines at any given time? I know it can be a lengthy process to swap out trains, but there's a solution to a problem. If you need to maintain one, pull it and put another in its place!

As I have stated several times, this whole transport thing wasn't a super huge problem. There just seems to be room for improvement. It just seems logical that if you are going to have EMH at either Epcot or MK that the monorails could remain running to help alleviate crowd congestion at the Ferry dock or bus station.

So, dear friends, let us not go on about rental cars, let's guide the talk back to how Disney can work to smooth out the mass chaos of closing, all while not having cattle chutes to the ferry dock or up to the monorail, etc.

So no ones really said anything about the strollers on the buses!!!! THAT was indeed a problem. That's something everyone on here can go at it about. That held up guests because people didn't think ahead about small children (infant age), shopping and oh yeah, how are we gonna get this all back to our resort, but then we'll just fight with the bus driver to be the "special case" so that we can take up a spot designated for someone with a legitmate disability in a wheelchair as well as lose 3 seats for everyone else because the driver had to raise the seats.

Let's talk about that and how the drivers should have the backbone to tell those guests that you either fold up the stroller or you start walking.

 

[psukardi]

While you address the issue of swapping out the trains on the rail - what about actual rail inspection and upkeep? That's probably taking up a chunk of time as well

 

[Rasvar]

They tend to run earlier then they publish, but when it comes to something like a Keys tour I would just hop a cab and remove all doubt.

You can also check with the front desk at the resort. Sometimes there can be arrangements made ahead of time for special transportation for an item like this if you talk to them by early afternoon of the day before.

 

[Rasvar]

Ok everyone, time out!

Let's go back to my original post.

I mentioned about some things that I saw. Sure, I stayed at SOG and dealt with their schedule, but DGF and I weren't the only ones on the move to catch buses. There were people that were running for buses to DHS, etc after the mass chaos of exiting the parks and dealing with certain modes of transport being shut down (ie no bus from Epcot/Monorails closed during EMH at MK).

This thread IS NOT and WILL NOT turn into a rental car thread. If you travel by rental car, that's great for you. There's a lot of us who can't afford that and we will work with what transport is there. Obviously, there are alot of people in the same boat as I am.

If it's a matter of maintenance on the monorails, then I understand why they shut them down, but there are how many monorails in the fleet vs how many on the lines at any given time? I know it can be a lengthy process to swap out trains, but there's a solution to a problem. If you need to maintain one, pull it and put another in its place!

As I have stated several times, this whole transport thing wasn't a super huge problem. There just seems to be room for improvement. It just seems logical that if you are going to have EMH at either Epcot or MK that the monorails could remain running to help alleviate crowd congestion at the Ferry dock or bus station.

So, dear friends, let us not go on about rental cars, let's guide the talk back to how Disney can work to smooth out the mass chaos of closing, all while not having cattle chutes to the ferry dock or up to the monorail, etc.

So no ones really said anything about the strollers on the buses!!!! THAT was indeed a problem. That's something everyone on here can go at it about. That held up guests because people didn't think ahead about small children (infant age), shopping and oh yeah, how are we gonna get this all back to our resort, but then we'll just fight with the bus driver to be the "special case" so that we can take up a spot designated for someone with a legitmate disability in a wheelchair as well as lose 3 seats for everyone else because the driver had to raise the seats.

Let's talk about that and how the drivers should have the backbone to tell those guests that you either fold up the stroller or you start walking.

if the driver had continued the argument with the backbone you discussed, the situation may have very well taken even longer and you would have missed your bus. The problem appears to have been more with the guest and not the driver. I suspect the driver actually gave in to avoid an even longer delay or having to call a supervisor over to deal with the situation that would have also caused the delay. So it was really a lose-lose situation because the of the guest and not the driver.

 

[mousehockey37]

if the driver had continued the argument with the backbone you discussed, the situation may have very well taken even longer and you would have missed your bus. The problem appears to have been more with the guest and not the driver. I suspect the driver actually gave in to avoid an even longer delay or having to call a supervisor over to deal with the situation that would have also caused the delay. So it was really a lose-lose situation because the of the guest and not the driver.

Well, ultimately the driver could have just said "no" and referenced the sign. If they needed a supervisor, call for one, tell them where they are and travel on.

 

[ddrongowski]

SNIP
So no ones really said anything about the strollers on the buses!!!! THAT was indeed a problem. That's something everyone on here can go at it about. That held up guests because people didn't think ahead about small children (infant age), shopping and oh yeah, how are we gonna get this all back to our resort, but then we'll just fight with the bus driver to be the "special case" so that we can take up a spot designated for someone with a legitmate disability in a wheelchair as well as lose 3 seats for everyone else because the driver had to raise the seats.

snip

Give the drivers tazers and those who don't follow the rules get zapped! Just kidding. Maybe Disney could have special busses for people that don't want to fold up the strollers. That or when someone does this, the driver opens a different door and everyone else loads up until the bus is to full for the trouble maker to get on. Then they have to wait for the next bus.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Well, ultimately the driver could have just said "no" and referenced the sign. If they needed a supervisor, call for one, tell them where they are and travel on.

I know it might be a hassle for those on that particular bus, but the more that they give into bullying from self involved people, the more it happens. It's kinda like that old saying..."sure, it's a lot of fun til someone gets hurt".

The driver has a responsibility to all the people riding the bus, not just the loudest. I'm sure that in a high volume situation the supervisors are not very far away. In my driving career, I have stood toe to toe with many people that thought that it should be just the way they wanted it. Even had a major blowout with my boss, when he suggested that I break safety procedures to "make a customer happy". No, no, no!! Not going to happen. It is my career, my license and me that I have to live with the rest of my life. No one has the power to take that control away from me. By allowing those idiots to get their own way, he also made his fellow drivers job a whole bunch harder. "Well, the other drivers let me do it", is a common battle cry.

My job was to get a group of people (human beings) from point A to point B, SAFELY! Those that feel that, geez, it's such a short trip, and they are going to hang onto it, have never witnessed a bus collision and seen everything flying about in the inside. In my public transit career, I have had to investigate many bus accidents. We had cameras on all the buses and we had to review the footage. Believe me, it's not always a pretty sight.

If all it means is a few minutes sitting in one spot, believe me the alternative quite often is not an option that you want to take.

 

[alissafalco]

The official reason for not running the monorails for EMH had to do with maintenance. When you had a 2:00-3:00 AM park closing the trains were not getting back to the station until 4:00-5:00 AM only to have to be back on the track an hour or two later and that simply was not enough time to keep the trains in good working order. While I do not have official numbers, the reduction in the number of "the monorail is broken" threads appears to have gone down considerably since this change.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/monorails-buses-boats-and-chaos.846381/#post-5101679

Yes, that makes sense, but now that EMH hours have been cut they should have enough time to stay open for them and do proper maintenance.