Met up with my college friend and her family last night at MK. Massive storm rolled in right after Wishes. Lightning hit the monorail, shutting down both lines. In addition, too stormy for the boat launches, only the ferry was running. I needed to get back to the Grand, the only way to do that was by bus.
I walk toward the bus depot--again, not just rain, but heavy lightning in the area, masses of people fleeing--the only crowd control is two college program kids saying "Ferry to the right, buses to the left." There's no signage on the board for any monorail hotel--when I asked at the window, apparently the three parties behind me all had the same question. The bus depot itself was a mob scene. No CMs that I could see. No switchbacks. No discernable lines. Just a mass of people, pushing and shoving (and parties with ECVs trying to make their way back out like salmon swimming upstream because apparently they went the wrong way to try to get on a bus--again, no crowd control whatsoever). One bus sat at least 5 minutes after being completely filled. In the 15 minutes I stayed there, I didn't see a single monorail resort bus pull up. People were yelling and cursing at the driver to move along and get another bus in there.
I ended up calling a friend who lives behind MK to come give me a ride from the Contemporary. A lot of seasoned guests seemingly had the same idea, because the Contemproary bus lot was jammed, too. Full buses were pulling up and not letting any of the crowd on. Other guests were just grabbing taxis.
Completely unacceptable for any legal "host." Just a complete failure on the part of transportation and customer service management. I will say this. Forget Avatar, forget Cars, the #1 priority needs to be a parking garage within walking distance of MK. Walt's plan of having to be transported to the park may have worked in the 70s, but post-9/11, with modern crowds, it's a stupid anachronism.
