New Monitors - Contemporary Bus Stop

[mousehockey37]

Double edged sword because if that poor bus driver isn't within eye shot of the fussy guest when that clock expires!? Look out!

It's still nice having a pretty good idea of when the next bus should be coming in though. There's always going to be that one guy that will put up a fuss.

I liked the monitors (AKL Kidani) because if we saw that we just missed the bus to where we going, we could hop on a bus that was there and connect somewhere else quick. Example, we wanted to go to the MK, well, we just missed the bus, so we got on one heading to EPCOT and took the monorail. For DHS and EPCOT this works too, if you're going to one or the other, you can hop on whichever bus is there, get to one and take a boat to the other.

 

[TubaGeek]

Do the wait times automatically update based on their location and traffic, like a GPS app?

 

[mousehockey37]

Do the wait times automatically update based on their location and traffic, like a GPS app?

Yes. From my experiences, if they get stuck in traffic, it will add time back on.

It's just about as close to "real time" waits as you're going to get.

 

[StringBeanDream]

Photo!

 

[ToTBellHop]

It's still nice having a pretty good idea of when the next bus should be coming in though. There's always going to be that one guy that will put up a fuss.

I liked the monitors (AKL Kidani) because if we saw that we just missed the bus to where we going, we could hop on a bus that was there and connect somewhere else quick. Example, we wanted to go to the MK, well, we just missed the bus, so we got on one heading to EPCOT and took the monorail. For DHS and EPCOT this works too, if you're going to one or the other, you can hop on whichever bus is there, get to one and take a boat to the other.

That strategy almost never saves time, but you do spend less time standing around at your resort if that's your thing. There is no way taking a bus to Epcot, then monorail to TTC, then monorail to MK is faster than waiting for the next bus.

 

[mousehockey37]

That strategy almost never saves time, but you do spend less time standing around at your resort if that's your thing. There is no way taking a bus to Epcot, then monorail to TTC, then monorail to MK is faster than waiting for the next bus.

To each their own. We got to see more of everything, and like you said, we weren't just sitting in a bus port at the resort. Again, time wasn't a factor for us, so it was actually something fun to do. If you're on a commando schedule to the second, then watching that monitor might be for you!

 

[bethymouse]

Yep. GF definitely has them, but they also had a CM there to answer any questions and such if necessary. My Mom was in an ecv, and he contacted the bus coming so he was ready to go for her when he got to the stop ( we were going to DHS).

 

[bhg469]

It's still nice having a pretty good idea of when the next bus should be coming in though. There's always going to be that one guy that will put up a fuss.

I liked the monitors (AKL Kidani) because if we saw that we just missed the bus to where we going, we could hop on a bus that was there and connect somewhere else quick. Example, we wanted to go to the MK, well, we just missed the bus, so we got on one heading to EPCOT and took the monorail. For DHS and EPCOT this works too, if you're going to one or the other, you can hop on whichever bus is there, get to one and take a boat to the other.

I havent had the fortune of useing these yet but they would have definitely been nicer before FP+ with our strategy of go wherever the next bus takes us. That is usually what we would do for the first few days of our trip.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Why is it taking so long to roll these out?

You think seven years is a long time?

Because so do I....

 

[PhotoDave219]

Photo!

Thanks for posting this!

It's been a long time coming.

 

[Mukta]

GF and AKL have had them for quite some time. When will these roll out to the other deluxes?

 

[matt9112]

looks good.hopefully going property wide wont take much time since test is over.

i can only imagine the mosh pit at the A0A bus stop (rolling)

 

[flynnibus]

Surprised they put the times up and not just how many minutes till it shows up

That's what the metro systems I use do... It's what people gauge by anyways. How soon will it be here?

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Surprised they put the times up and not just how many minutes till it shows up

That's what the metro systems I use do... It's what people gauge by anyways. How soon will it be here?

Agree. It's a minor quibble certainly, but it is odd that they give the estimated arrival time rather than an estimated wait time. It is much easier to see "10 min" rather than "11:15" and have to figure out the time difference.

 

[halltd]

I'm surprised this isn't part of the MDE app. In Gainesville the regional bus system has an app that gives you the estimated time left before the next two buses come to every stop (like, 2 and 10 minutes). It's all based on a map, and those times come up based on which stop you click on. Part of the map is also a real-time GPS location of each route. It was the best thing ever when needing to take buses all around town for school. When I visited Disney while at school, I was always annoyed we had a better tracking system in Gainesville.

The app is called TransLoc in case you're interested in checking it out.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I'm surprised this isn't part of the MDE app. In Gainesville the regional bus system has an app that gives you the estimated time left before the next two buses come to every stop (like, 2 and 10 minutes). It's all based on a map, and those times come up based on which stop you click on. Part of the map is also a real-time GPS location of each route. It was the best thing ever when needing to take buses all around town for school. When I visited Disney while at school, I was always annoyed we had a better tracking system in Gainesville.

The app is called TransLoc in case you're interested in checking it out.

Well Disney has changed their bus dispatch system and that supposedly has to do with taking a bus wait time part coming to MDE

 

[GrumpyFan]

We just returned from a 6 day stay at GF and expereinced this in action. First, they're not always accurate, however, the times will adjust accordingly if the bus is delayed. One night we were on our way to Downtown Disney and had just missed a bus pulling off. The monitor indicated that the next was 20 minutes away, so we decided to go back inside. But, no sooner than we walked into the lobby, we saw another bus for Downtown Disney.
Second, we spoke with a CM who was standing at the stop one day and asked why they weren't at each resort, his response was that it's up to the resort if they want to put them in. If true, I would guess the resort would have to pay for the installation and maybe even some kind of fee for the service, but that's just specullation on my part.

 

[Rteetz]

I hope these get implemented across the resort. I bet the amount of complaints will go down and the need for CM's alerting how much time for the next bus will be a budget reduction strategy.

When I was there in January at POR they were testing bus times through MDE. They said eventually they hope it will be rolled out to all guests on there so I don't know what happened to that.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Well Disney has changed their bus dispatch system and that supposedly has to do with taking a bus wait time part coming to MDE

Is this something different than the whole "Magic in Motion" initiative a few years back?

Just trying to wrap my head around why Disney Transport is seemingly having issues with implementing things in a reasonable amount of time. And why they are re-doing the bus dispatch system when I thought they had already done that in the late 00's.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Is this something different than the whole "Magic in Motion" initiative a few years back?

Just trying to wrap my head around why Disney Transport is seemingly having issues with implementing things in a reasonable amount of time. And why they are re-doing the bus dispatch system when I thought they had already done that in the late 00's.

I'm not sure what "Magic in Motion" was... I just remember there being a big deal made about transportation upgrades happening in 07/08 (maybe earlier, @wdwmagic might remember, else dig thru the news page) wherein Monitors and when your bus was supposed to come being part of it..... yet it never seemed to come about.

Why? Because of the MDE app. Thats why.