Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
DVC membership card? If you can get one get me one Ive been waiting for a replacement for 18 months, full of promises they just cant deliver.
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Something needs to change with bus transportation at Saratoga Springs because of DTD
- Thread starter dcibrando
- Start date
DVC membership card? If you can get one get me one Ive been waiting for a replacement for 18 months, full of promises they just cant deliver.
mrerk
Premium Member
We left our cards at home one trip and needed it to buy our AP's. They were able to print us new ones at the Preview Center at SSR.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Super , Ill try there this time.
All of the DVC resorts are host to cash guests as well so a DVC member ID is useless.
As for changes to DTD transportation, Disney has been making MORE of an effort to get people down there to shop early in the day. Last trip we got a coupon for 20 or 25% off any purchase at World of Disney made before noon. I can't see them making it any more difficult for resort guests to get to DTD and shop.
flavious27
Well-Known Member
Have them show their resort card.
What I mean is that any buses leaving dtd before noon go directly to the ttc instead of any parks or hotels. No one is going to have breakfast at dtd before going to the parks, nor are people going to go shopping at the world of disney store at 10 am then go to the MK at 11 am.
Todd L
Well-Known Member
While some people CANT give up there seat for reasons unknown to me I still think the average person on a Disney Bus can give up a seat to a mother with a small child or anyone else whos having a hard time...I would never assume that everyone not giving up a seat is being a jerk BUT certainly some of them are!!
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
That was confusing...if you use the quote button it is much more obvious which words belong to you and which words are attributed to others. :wave:
As others have pointed out, bus usage is not limited to resort guests only. Park tickets grant guests unlimited use of WDW transportation. Many well-meaning guests make use of the buses to dine, shop or just browse around a hotel in hopes of staying there someday. Disney would never sacrifice that revenue.
DTD buses do not go to theme parks at ANY time of day. That's the major cause of this problem, and probably the one area in which Disney could make changes. Since they don't run buses from DTD to the parks, guests are walking over to Saratoga Springs to get from their free DTD parking lot to MK, Epcot, etc.
And yes, many people do go to DTD in the morning. Like I said, Disney has been giving out coupons for discounted purchases at WoD (and other stores) made before noon. I went down there last fall during a trip and WoD was so busy that I walked out without buying anything. Didn't want to wait in the checkout lines that were 15-20 people deep just to save $2.
I'm sure some of them are, but again be careful in your judgements.
Personally I despise buses and this is one of the primary reasons. Without fail, every time we ride on a full bus (usually near closing time) there is always at least one group speaking in an intentionally loud voice about how nobody was "polite" enough to give up a seat. And then there are the other times where an outright confrontation occurs. Ooooh....fun!
Like I said, I've given up my seat more times than I can count. But I cannot ignore the fact that every one of those people standing on the bus had a CHOICE...two choices, really. They could have either chosen to wait for the next bus to arrive or they could have left the park a few minutes earlier than they did.
DVCOwner said:
Not as long as Disney still sells tickets at park gates.
Todd L
Well-Known Member
yeah..I did..wonder where that went wrong??
CaptainWinter
Active Member
This is a little bit of a tangent, but here goes...
Last June we were staying at the Hilton across the street from DTD, and we grabbed a ride to DTD, via SSR, on Disney buses to get from MK to our hotel. So, I guess we're part of the problem the OP brought up.
But we had a reason: we had learned over the course of several days that the bus to the Hilton (shared with many other hotels) was very crowded and sometimes much more infrequent than it claimed to be. (One bus that was supposed to depart every 30 mins had a 70 minute gap one day, while we waited in the the sun.) Anyhow, it was a late MK night after fireworks, our 3yo daughter was dragging, it was very hot, our bus was not in sight; it occurred to me that if we could get ourselves to DTD instead, we could simply cross the street to the Hilton.
So, we hopped on a large, clean, full but not stuffed bus to SSR, immediately caught a connecting bus to DTD, and I carried my sleeping daughter across the street and home. No harm, no foul, since we had park tickets (see the quote).
But, if our appointed transportation had been better, we wouldn't have thought of this plan at all. We weren't eager to come up with a crafty transportation scheme, we simply wanted to get home.
I suggest that if Disney improves transportation to DTD, this problem goes away. As a complement, charging for DTD parking, with validation from retailers, as many have suggested above, seems like a reasonable way to mitigate abuse of the system.
flavious27
Well-Known Member
I am talking about specifically the DVC bus stops, anyone taking a bus from those two bus stops will be staying at those resorts.
I bet people do go to DTD in the morning, after they checked out and need their final disney merch fix. I am going to guess that disney is offering those coupons to get people out of there rooms earlier, so housekeeping can turnover rooms faster.
Also, saving $2 is actually costing you $3 or more if you factor in the time you are shopping instead of using your park ticket.
flavious27
Well-Known Member
Doesn't the swan and dolphin use disney transportation buses? I can't understand why the 4 diamond hilton doesn't contract out with disney for transportation.
Validating would be a way to mitigate the problem. Disney could also sell unbundled tickets (without a hotel reservations) with $20 tacked on for every day.
DVCOwner
A Long Time DVC Member
If I understand the problem, it is people parking at DTD so they do not have to pay parking at one of the parks. So with next gen tickets, if they park there and have not purchased and activated thier tickets at one of the parks; they could not get on the bus to go there. So the would have to park somewhere else.
juniorthomas
Well-Known Member
Its a tricky situation that likely wont be fixed in the near future. The bus rides are just one of the less fun parts of being in The World. The only thing that would make it easier on people would be to have more buses, so there's less waiting. But that has some major drawbacks as well.
flavious27
Well-Known Member
The bus rides are the most fun, being on a bus at 1am with 10 other souls and listening to a bus drivers is much more fun than if it is a septa bus and you hope you don't get robbed either on the bus or at your bus stop.
I see what you're getting at but the bottom line is that Disney's current policies allow any resort guest or park ticket holder to use the buses. If they would want to add specific exceptions to those rules ("must show room key to uses buses a ____ locations") it would require a policy change.
I don't mean to sound dismissive but it's really a moot point until Disney shows any interest in addressing the problem. We could come up with dozens of possible solutions but as long as they are willing to turn a blind eye, nothing will change.
You're overthinking it, IMO. Not every resort guest heads out to the theme parks at 9am.
The coupons are designed to get crowds to the shops during an otherwise slow period when CMs would be standing around with little to do. It's no different than the coupons for dining at non-peak meal times.
We don't have nearly enough information to draw conclusions regarding the shopper demographic.
Don't know who ultimately provides the bus service but in the end, the Hilton would get what they pay for. The more frequent buses run, the more it will cost them. It would seem to be within their rights to determine the quality / cost of that transportation.
Problem is people parking at DTD and then walking over to Saratoga Springs to catch a bus. I think they would have trouble mandating a park ticket because many Saratoga Springs guests would not yet have tickets.
I also think Disney will be very careful in its implementation of the Next Gen technology. The ACLU and privacy nuts will be all over whatever decisions they make. If they hear (or even suspect) that Disney is tracking guest movements all the way back to resort hotels, lawyers and the press will have a field day with it.
All of that said, there are workable solutions to the problem. First ones that come to mind are running more buses (with Disney subsidizing a portion of the cost), reinstating bus service between DTD and the parks or some form of parking control at DTD. But until Disney shows a willingness to address the issue, nothing is going to change.
Pioneer Hall
Well-Known Member
I don't even think the problem is as bad at Downtown Disney as it might be at the MK resorts. A lot of people use those resorts to get around as opposed to making a transfer at the TTC. Those buses get even more crowded I think and usually are stopping at 3 resorts. At the end of the day Disney isn't going to restrict people from using the transportation system when those guests will likely be spending money when they get to that final destination. Without question, transportation is factored into the cost of a ticket just as it is for a resort stay. Crowded buses during peak times will always be an inevitability of Disney, no matter what policies are in place.