Yacht/Beach Club/ Disney Bus System almost caused a brawl

[CraigInPA]

Almost every business I know of in Florida is suffering because they are understaffed. People are not applying to positions that pay them less than the current unemployment. I suspect this is the reason. A lot of restaurants in my area are closed one day a week because of this. Just my guess that there are not enough drivers.

Recent studies have shown, at least in my area, that those underpaid restaurant and hourly employees have found employment at Amazon warehouses, Uber, Lyft, and elsewhere, for higher wages. As an employer myself, I have trouble filling positions for grass cutting at $12 an hour. Those young guys who I used to hire to cut the baseball fields are increasingly going to work for Amazon at $19 an hour to start. I don't fault them for doing so.

 

[CarolynFH]

I have no issue with the free parking at Disney Springs, but they should have MB, App,or Key readers, on the busses to the resorts. If you are not staying on property there is no reason for you to be on a free bus to a resort. If city busses can have pass scanners the WDW busses can too. Seriously they make you prove you are staying at YC/BC/BCV to use the pool, this is not much harder. This would end the issue completely.

Even people staying offsite can have ADRs or want to shop at the resorts. Disney wants to make it easy for them to get there from the parks or from DS.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Disney needs to get their ___ together and stop using covid is an excuse for treating guests like dirt. We are at universal for the first time right now and WOW, WOW, WOW, Universal knows how to run theme parks. It is night and day. One bus leaves and another bus comes, no wait. Everything is exceptionally clean. Prices are lower than Disney. Employees happier and much more well adjusted than your average Disney employee (sorry, just true). Almost no electric carts— or whatever those things are that you see all over Disney, generally with miserable, angry people riding around in them. Haven’t seen one of those electric carts at our resort period. Not one. Pure bliss. No guests pushing in line or angry like at wdw. No guests faking disabilities to jump the line. No guests arguing with CMs about how they should be in the fastpass line even without a fastpass. Either you have a max pass or you don’t, and Universal guests seem to get that. No entitlement at Universal. No fake woke baloney either. Really makes me wish we had not bought so many dvc points. Might be time to rethink it all.

 

[The Jackal]

Just stay at SSR, a short walk and your back at resort. When the boats are running again the options are endless to SSR.

 

[jdkdorn]

Even people staying offsite can have ADRs or want to shop at the resorts. Disney wants to make it easy for them to get there from the parks or from DS.

That is actually incorrect, Disney states on the website that the busses are only for resort guests and select good neighbor hotels...they do not want them on the busses, also do not want to pay money to fix the issue

Special Travel Options for Resort Guests
Save time and money—and the hassle of driving and parking—with these fun transportation options.
Guests at select Disney Resort hotels can travel to and from all 4 theme parks and more—by bus, boat or monorail—wherever your imagination leads you!

 

[HashberryOTG]

Guests at select Disney Resort hotels can travel to and from all 4 theme parks and more—by bus, boat or monorail—wherever your imagination leads you!

Because the hotels ARE more than just rooms, and have all of that food, shopping, etc., I would argue those eating and shopping are also guests at the hotel. They're just not overnight guests.

 

[CarolynFH]

Because the hotels ARE more than just rooms, and have all of that food, shopping, etc., I would argue those eating and shopping are also guests at the hotel. They're just not overnight guests.

Yes, they are guests of the Walt Disney World Resort in the larger sense - and do not have to be sleeping in one of the WDW hotels to be a guest of the WDW Resort. The quote above does not say that ONLY guests at select Disney Resort hotels can use the buses. It is simply including transportation as a benefit of staying onsite.

WDW FAQs - Transportation

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

That is actually incorrect, Disney states on the website that the busses are only for resort guests and select good neighbor hotels...they do not want them on the busses, also do not want to pay money to fix the issue

Special Travel Options for Resort Guests
Save time and money—and the hassle of driving and parking—with these fun transportation options.
Guests at select Disney Resort hotels can travel to and from all 4 theme parks and more—by bus, boat or monorail—wherever your imagination leads you!

I wish.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Disney needs to get their ___ together and stop using covid is an excuse for treating guests like dirt. We are at universal for the first time right now and WOW, WOW, WOW, Universal knows how to run theme parks. It is night and day. One bus leaves and another bus comes, no wait. Everything is exceptionally clean. Prices are lower than Disney. Employees happier and much more well adjusted than your average Disney employee (sorry, just true). Almost no electric carts— or whatever those things are that you see all over Disney, generally with miserable, angry people riding around in them. Haven’t seen one of those electric carts at our resort period. Not one. Pure bliss. No guests pushing in line or angry like at wdw. No guests faking disabilities to jump the line. No guests arguing with CMs about how they should be in the fastpass line even without a fastpass. Either you have a max pass or you don’t, and Universal guests seem to get that. No entitlement at Universal. No fake woke baloney either. Really makes me wish we had not bought so many dvc points. Might be time to rethink it all.

This could be due to the type of rides and attractions at Universal, they tend to have a lot of “thrill” type rides which most people using “electric carts” most likely wouldn’t be attracted to. JMHO...

After our last annual trip this past Jan/Feb I was thinking I might sell my points. For the first time I DON’T want to add on any more points...It just seemed like WDW had lost some of its magic...Not exactly sure why, just a feeling I had. I’m hoping that on our next trip this coming Jan I feel differently.

 

[mort1331]

Just stay at SSR, a short walk and your back at resort. When the boats are running again the options are endless to SSR.

Shh dont tell everyone

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

This could be due to the type of rides and attractions at Universal, they tend to have a lot of “thrill” type rides which most people using “electric carts” most likely wouldn’t be attracted to. JMHO...

After our last annual trip this past Jan/Feb I was thinking I might sell my points. For the first time I DON’T want to add on any more points...It just seemed like WDW had lost some of its magic...Not exactly sure why, just a feeling I had. I’m hoping that on our next trip this coming Jan I feel differently.

Disney also just seems to attract high maintenance, entitled people. You really notice the difference at universal. Everyone at Disney has special orders for food, and they are always complaining (that’s putting it nicely) at the front desk about totally ridiculous things. Like every single time I am checking in or have a question at the front desk at Disney, the people in front of me are complaining (again, putting it nicely) about something, or asking for special treatment in some way. I’m just over it. And what’s is the deal with the buses at wdw? They really are out of control. Sometimes they are ok, but a lot of the times, the waits are really excessive. We didn’t wait for the bus once at Universal over 5 days. And the bus drivers are a lot happier.

 

[MMSM]

It's the only reason I could think of where sleeping children would be involved. And I've seen people suggest the free parking at Disney Springs and going to a resort to get to the parks (one of the MK area resorts for MK and one of the Epcot area resorts for Epcot and Studios - for AK it would just be to avoid the parking fee) and avoid the parking fee. Disney tried to prevent people parking there to get to the parks by not having busses go to the parks from Springs - but people always figure out loopholes.

It seems like a lot of work to save $25 to park at one of the theme parks.

 

[AliceIn]

Reading this makes me really glad we rented a car before prices shot up and grateful that we don't pay for resort parking with DVC. We did have a car for our last trip, but used the bus when the group split up. We waited 30 minutes to an hour consistently. My teens can deal with the buses if they don't want to hang out with us. Mom and dad will drive.

 

[ForceofWill]

Yet again another perk to driving and even staying off site. I can't imagine saving $25 being worth 2 hours of my time on multiple buses with kids and a stroller. If you're that hard up you probably shouldn't be at Disney.

 

[EYL]

If people are parking for free at DS to take advantage of the free parking and then taking a bus to a resort, the quickest way to fix this is to charge for parking at DS and have a ticket validation system so that people who are actually visiting DS can park there for free. If I remember correctly, Downtown Disney parking at Disneyland has a similar system that they can just copy and paste...

 

[Meglen]

If you're that hard up you probably shouldn't be at Disney.

So many threads could be solved with this sentence.

 

[PlutoFan10]

Speaking as a long time former WDW bus driver, isn't it amazing that the turnover rate isn't even higher than it is considering that situations like these are not rare, even before Covid? If you find yourselves in a similar situation please keep your cool and don't blame the driver.

Thank you for your viewpoint as a former WDW bus driver. I never blame the driver, but, as you said, this has been my experience for YEARS at Beach Club. Long waits then the bus only fits a few from BC after stopping at YC. Do you think the busses are mismanaged? Don’t have enough drivers or busses to send another bus at busy times?

 

[tpskult]

It seems like a lot of work to save $25 to park at one of the theme parks.

I completely agree, that seems like nightmare if you already are driving.

 

[ScubaCat]

Disney also just seems to attract high maintenance, entitled people.

Definitely true. I bet Universal doesn't have a "not touching" button on the touch screens servers use to enter dining orders. Disney also caters to people in a different manner, too. Sometimes it's too much IMO to where it affects the service others receive, but that's just how they choose to run the operation. Obviously it's worked adequately for them thus far.

I think back to before they offered online room checkin. It always took anywhere from 10-30 minutes to check in; usually its 2-4 minutes at any other hotel.

It's all just a totally different set of logistics. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Changes are tricky when there are that many moving parts. Hopefully we're coming to the end of the covid limitations and can at least get back to the previous level of inconvenience

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Disney also just seems to attract high maintenance, entitled people. You really notice the difference at universal. Everyone at Disney has special orders for food, and they are always complaining (that’s putting it nicely) at the front desk about totally ridiculous things. Like every single time I am checking in or have a question at the front desk at Disney, the people in front of me are complaining (again, putting it nicely) about something, or asking for special treatment in some way. I’m just over it. And what’s is the deal with the buses at wdw? They really are out of control. Sometimes they are ok, but a lot of the times, the waits are really excessive. We didn’t wait for the bus once at Universal over 5 days. And the bus drivers are a lot happier.

I think in part it's the prices for the service. It's a lot for a family and that develops certain expectations. And for the prices the Disney charges it probably should be better. They've always been fairly dismal hotel operators. They are not upscale but charge upscale. The values are probably 3 times what similar accommodations are that are non-Disney. IF Disney did better at housekeeping and hotel operations it's possible that there might be less complaints. As ScubaCat mentioned they have been perfectly happy just trucking along at the levels they do.