As I said I would much earlier in this thread, I used this service about 2 to 3 weeks ago, on Saturday Dec. 10, for a jam-packed park hopper day.
This was about day 3 of the service for the record, since it started the 8th if I remember correctly, so keep that in mind.
Here's my report of the service, beginning to end:
I arrived at Magic Kingdom about 45 minutes to 1/2 hour before the park opened. I went up to a ticket window at the TTC to purchase this and had no trouble at all. The girl at the ticket window knew exactly what it was, and circled the pickup/drop-off point for me on a map of Magic Kingdom (although I already knew where it was from prior research).
I then took the ferryboat to Magic Kingdom to watch the opening ceremony. Now here's my first little side-story about the service, which will be more relevant later: I asked an employee out front of Magic Kingdom if she could verify the service didn't start until 10am. She didn't have a clue what I was talking about, and thought I was asking her about the standard busses. When I clarified I wasn't, she called another guy over to ask him about it. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about either, and frankly had more questions for ME about it, haha. They finally called a third girl over (each employee seemingly higher ranking than the last), she knew what I was talking about, but wasn't certain when it started or ended and directed me to guest services. Because I had a few minutes to kill before the Opening Ceremony, I took her up on the suggestion and went and asked Guest Services. The girl at that window didn't have a clue either. She asked her supervisor, who finally verified that busses ran from 10am until the last park closed (Which I knew all along from my internet research, I was just looking for some verbal confirmation.) For the record, that's 5 employees before someone could answer my question.
About 8am, after the opening ceremony, I then proceeded straight to Epcot since I was trying to make it there before they opened. Never even went inside Magic Kingdom. It was still well before 10am so I just used regular Disney transport. Monorailed back to the TTC, then took a bus from the TTC to Epcot.
Spent the morning at Epcot. At about 2 I started to ready myself to leave the park, looking to make the 2:30 Express Bus to Hollywood Studios, as my Tower of Terror fastpass window ended at 2:55. I soon found I didn't know where the pickup point was. The girl at the TTC earlier that day only ever told me where pickup was at Magic Kingdom. I knew it was near Spaceship Earth at Epcot from prior online research, but didn't know exactly where. I went inside the photopass gift shop nearby to ask directions. A male and female employee both addressed my question. The female employee hadn't heard of the service at all. The male employee told me he'd heard the service was coming, but that it hadn't begun yet. I informed him it began on the 8th and I'd already purchased it for the day, at which point he immediately apologized for giving me incorrect information. That said, neither had a clue where the pickup/dropoff was. The guy left and told me he was going to try to find more info and would return shortly. It was pushing 2:30 at this point, so I informed the girl if I was going to make my bus, I really needed to find it NOW, so I couldn't wait on him and was going to go look for the pickup point. She apologized once again and I left. I flagged down one of the flannel-vest "tour guide" looking employees outside who happened to be passing by, assuming he might be more in-the-know and asked him. He thankful WAS more in-the-know, and directed me straight to the pickup point (which as it happens was directly on the opposite side of Spaceship Earth from where I started.)
I got to the pickup point short of breath at 2:30 on the dot-ish. Give or take. Informed them I wanted to go to Hollywood Studios. They said the bus was arriving shortly. I said great and took a seat.
About 2 minutes later one of the employees walked over to me looking sheepish and said the bus had just left and the next one wouldn't be there until 3 (1/2 hour from that point). They seemed... braced to anticipate my frustration, having erroneously told me just prior it would be there shortly. I leveled with the guy at that point and told him I was rather upset by the news that I'd missed the bus, as I should have had ample time to make it, but hardly any employees I talked to all day were up to speed on this service and it was a chore finding someone JUST to DIRECT me to the pickup point. Furthermore I was now guaranteed to miss my ToT Fastpass window. He understood my frustration completely and offered to rectify it with a flex fastpass. He scanned my magic band with his ipad. Not only did he extend my existing ToT fastpass to an all-day window, but he added an additional flex fastpass I could use on virtually any ride at all 3 parks, save Frozen Ever After, or fireworks shows (as he explained it). This did a lot to calm my frustration, and I was grateful.
Thankfully, at the Epcot pickup point, they had pamphlets that marked the pickup/dropoff points at all four parks. This would have been a very helpful item for the girl at the TTC to have given me at the beginning of the day, before I ran into trouble, and I hope they're handing them out there by now. Anyway, Bus arrived shortly before 3. Got to Studios shortly after 3. Spent a few hours there. Rode Tower of Terror using afformentioned fastpass. Saved the flex pass for Magic Kingdom (or so I thought...)
Took the Express Bus from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom around 8:20-8:30 pm. Wanted to get there before 10pm to catch Wishes. Got to Magic Kingdom and went to check new fastpasses at the kiosk near Buzz Lightyear. To my surprise, I still had an all day Tower of Terror fastpass. Turns out ToT used my flex fastpass... rather than the (more logical) Tower of Terror fastpass. *Facepalm* Talked to the nearest employee. She understood the problem, but couldn't do anything. Left me in the hands of another girl who didn't have an ipad, and also couldn't fix the problem on my account in the "digital" sense, but offered to write me a paper fastpass to rectify the problem. This wasn't a flex, and required me to make my ride choice there and then, rather than on the fly, which bugged me, but I said, "Minetrain" and moved on with my life. She wrote me a paper fastpass for Minetrain, which I used later in the evening.
At a couple points during the day, the Express bus employees asked me how I found the service (they seemed eager for feedback)... I told them the service itself was fine, and about what I expected it to be, but employee awareness of it was very lacking and no one seemed to have a clue about it.
All in all of the 8 employees I spoke to in total that day NOT including the one who sold me the ticket, or the ones who actually worked at the pickup/dropoff points... only 2 knew about the service and were able to answer my questions, wheras 6 were mostly or completely clueless and uninformed. A few even giving me false information. I missed a bus, arguably, because no one could tell me where the pickup point at Epcot was. BUT... hiccups and headaches aside... they seemed very accomidating and eager to rectify any problems and frustrations as I ran into them.
The service itself was about what I expected it to be. Bus rides were brief. Probably about 10-15 minutes. Got me in and out of parks very quickly, which I enjoyed. Was also neat seeing some backstage areas (even if there wasn't much to see in them).
ALL that said... it was a new service... so I was anticipating I might run into problems. When I did run into problems, employees did all the could to help and make things right, so ultimately I can't complain. The gripes above aren't for the sake of griping, just to give a point by point account of my day. I assume employee awareness will get better, if it hasn't already. I assume they'll learn to make sure people are informed of the pickup/dropoff areas, if they aren't already. All in all it worked out well and I'd do it again (especially now that I know exactly where that danged Epcot pickup is, lol).
