New Bus enhancements in April

[Epcot82Guy]

I like this idea. I would hazard to guess that the bus drivers will have control over this to some extent, so if you have a "Walter" or similar driver, you would be able to turn it off and share with the guests. The nice thing is that bus drivers who don't want to do this will be "covered" and the guests will have something else to listen to. So, I think it is a win-win.

 

[ucanfly]

I think the bus spiel is a great idea! Im pretty sure the majority of us love the monorail spiel so I think in time we'll soon be seeing the bus spiel in a few wdw member's signatures. Also, the music could be an excellent addition depending what they play. I'm assuming it will be radio disney (which isn't really my cup of tea) but if they play park music it would be a great way to get you even more reved up to hit the parks.

 

[OmegaKnight]

Now if they could upgrade the monorail trains, we will be all set.

 

[uklad79]

It'd be cool if the bus stops were like the one that Bill Gates showed off at the Microsoft Keynote this week. Have a plasma display with a map of the area and using the GPS in the bus, the map could display the location of the bus for that particular stop and it's estimated arrival time. Now that'd be nifty!:slurp:

Don't they already do this on the Downtown Orlando Lymmo route? It's not something new.

 

[dvitali]

I wonder if they can add video to the bus also like they do for the Magical Express? That way each buses will it own individual spiel about the park the Guest will be going to with update about the park hours and events that week.

 

[bob0012]

I'm sure the bus drivers will be able to over ride the speils and background music, they have to be able to to make annoucments about being stuck in traffic and or resolve a complaint about the music being to loud.

What I'm wondering is will the park music you hear be the music from the park your going to, or just a generic mix for all buses?

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

Several years ago on a late night trip back to one of the All-Stars from the Magic Kingdom, we had a bus driver (and I didn't get his name unfortunately) that sang songs and told us stories. He was the GREATEST bus driver I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with in WDW or anywhere else. He sang, "Zip A Dee Doo Dah", "It's A Small World", and "The Wheels on the Bus..." He was an AWESOME CM and everyone on the bus ended up smiling and singing along....except for the exhausted 4 year old across the aisle from me

I always figured with the lack of mastery of the English Language by the bus drivers slowly increasing that it was a matter of time before Disney would give us automated spiels and music. A sign of the times....

 

[ArielBelle]

Several years ago on a late night trip back to one of the All-Stars from the Magic Kingdom, we had a bus driver (and I didn't get his name unfortunately) that sang songs and told us stories. He was the GREATEST bus driver I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with in WDW or anywhere else. He sang, "Zip A Dee Doo Dah", "It's A Small World", and "The Wheels on the Bus..." He was an AWESOME CM and everyone on the bus ended up smiling and singing along....except for the exhausted 4 year old across the aisle from me

I always figured with the lack of mastery of the English Language by the bus drivers slowly increasing that it was a matter of time before Disney would give us automated spiels and music. A sign of the times....

My sister and I had him back in October and loved him also!! I can't remember his name, maybe my sister will. He was amazing. Along with the songs he had a wealth of Disney Trivia in his head and was just amazing..very entertaining and helped me from falling asleep in the dark bus!!

 

[Thelazer]

Lets just hope they keep the volume down and allow the drives to mute them and provide there own speils if they so choose.

 

[cmatt]

wonder if they will add a direct link to typhoon lagoon from blizard beach, and visa verca :-s

 

[eroyee]

:wave: We had a wonderful bus driver from POP to MK one day in December. He had the whole bus singing christmas carols. Even the people that looked like they would "never" be caught doing that!! Everyone was smiling and happy when we arrived at MK. His name was Richard and he was an older man. thank you to him for a magical trip.!!:sohappy:

 

[Master Yoda]

I'll be glad to see the changes. Service on the buses has been on a steady decline over the last few years. Hopefully this will turn that downward slide around.

 

[ears2you]

what happened to the days when the bus drivers would talk? i remember them telling the riders about the parks.. now they just sit there..

yea they used to tell jokes and random facts about the parks that no one really cared to know but it was fun!!

 

[Clark Griswold]

I'm fired up for the new bus enhancements especially the new spiels that will be in the buses; although after park closing, I think the bus should remain as quiet as possible!!

"Howdy Campers!!!!"

 

[brertigger]

In December, I noticed on a lot of the buses they had installed a LED message ticker sign. A few of them were powered up and showed the date and time. I'm sure eventually they'll probably use them to show more information (like park hours, etc.)

 

[Dukeblue1016]

TOO BAD

One of my favorite moments about Disney Bus is when after a tiring day running around the parks, you would just sit there among exhausted and therefore very quiet adults and kids, lights turned off, watching the darken resort landskape, with the easy talk muttering of the driver keeping you from falling aseep. It was like bathing in a unforgetable feeling of content and doziness And even when he wouldn't speak, the feeling was irresistible.

I'll miss that if background music, and especially spiels, come and ruin it.

Was not the best parf of the day, but sure enjoyed by a lot of people. (judging by the number of guests calling "lights !" whenever a driver would take too long to turn them off )

Couldn't agree more... I LOVE the peaceful ride back at night when everyone else is exhausted and just relaxing... most kids are even sleeping... its nice

 

[disneykid23]

I'm sure the bus drivers will be able to over ride the speils and background music, they have to be able to to make annoucments about being stuck in traffic and or resolve a complaint about the music being to loud.

What I'm wondering is will the park music you hear be the music from the park your going to, or just a generic mix for all buses?

The drivers wont be able to turn the music or speils "off" but they do have a volume control to turn it down or up. The Musis played on the buses is park music and will change depending on the route and were the bus is on the property. The system uses magnetic pucks in the pavement and then the bus passes over a certain puck the music changes and or a speil comes on.

 

[bob0012]

The drivers wont be able to turn the music or speils "off" but they do have a volume control to turn it down or up. The Musis played on the buses is park music and will change depending on the route and were the bus is on the property. The system uses magnetic pucks in the pavement and then the bus passes over a certain puck the music changes and or a speil comes on.

Makes sense to use the pucks, but what happens when a bus going to studios passes it, do the riders get the "we're now passing the studios" speil?

And if they can turn the volume down, then they can make it go away. Plus if they hit their mic, I'm sure it'll over ride the speil, much like the monorail.

 

[ToTBellHop]

The drivers wont be able to turn the music or speils "off" but they do have a volume control to turn it down or up. The Musis played on the buses is park music and will change depending on the route and were the bus is on the property. The system uses magnetic pucks in the pavement and then the bus passes over a certain puck the music changes and or a speil comes on.

isn't it a bit repetitious to use the pucks and GPS? The pucks make more sense on parade routes which have one lane and maintenance can be completed at night as necessary. It's a bit tougher on 6-lane highways whereas you can easily send a bus back to the garage to perform maintenance on a GPS unit. If they were going to install pucks, we would be seeing construction on all of the roadways of WDW right now...and GPS is far more precise, anyway. You can easily set a range of latitude and longitude locations for MGM music, for example, as opposed to installing pucks on every road surface within that range.

And there must be a way to override the audio, as in the case of an emergency.

 

[disneykid23]

isn't it a bit repetitious to use the pucks and GPS? The pucks make more sense on parade routes which have one lane and maintenance can be completed at night as necessary. It's a bit tougher on 6-lane highways whereas you can easily send a bus back to the garage to perform maintenance on a GPS unit. If they were going to install pucks, we would be seeing construction on all of the roadways of WDW right now...and GPS is far more precise, anyway. You can easily set a range of latitude and longitude locations for MGM music, for example, as opposed to installing pucks on every road surface within that range.

And there must be a way to override the audio, as in the case of an emergency.

The Pucks have already been put in the ground. For exmaple if driving to MK tollbooth and you are in the right 2 lanes you will see 2 patched holes were drilled into the ground and put them in (These are the easest to see). The buses are only permited to go a certain route and stay in certain lanes depending on were the bus is going. The GPS is only for tracking to make sure the buses are on the right route and to see were the buses are on property and to make sure the bus drivers are doing there job and gong the speed limit.

Ever wonder why DTD buses take so long? its because the drivers down there will only go sometimes 35 in a 50 or 45 zone. They try to only do 2 runs each shift so about every 3 hours.