Originally Posted By gaston lives This always seems to be a sore subject, but let's revisit this. I love the fact that I can get anywhere I want without renting a car, but dang, the transportation is so bad in WDW that thigns need to chagne. 1) If they're going to keep busses as the main source of transportation, why not increase your bus routes and give guests certain time frames when transportation will be available? I hate waiting for a bus to the MK and see 15 busses come by for EPCOT before even ONE comes by for MK. Then, the line to get on the bus is so long that it takes 4 busses to make a dent in that line, causing even more of a bottleneck for other parks. It's not a great system. 2) When Disney expanded the monorail system from MK to EPCOT, it was a great decision. I know it's expensive, but why can't a company like Disney put a wee bit of money into their future and expand the monorails a bit? They could do it like so: Put a route to 4 central areas (aside from the ones they have now). The areas served could be Downtown Disney, Animal Kingdom, MGM, and then another transportation center near the all-star resorts. What this would do is give people an option of taking busses or monorails to their destinations (who woudln't choose monorail?), but it woudl alleviate the bottlenecking at the bus stops. It would mean that people coudl either take busses directly to their spots, or to a spot they could take a monorail. Actually, they should take a monorail to each section of hotels with shuttles to the mono-stations...that woudl probably be best. It's better for the environment, and it makes getting around much more fun. Any ideas?
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I'd agree with a monorail expansion, even if it included having to pay extra for it. Remember when there used to be a "Transportation Charge" included in your park pass? I myself would be willing to pay say, a $10 a day charge to use the monorails (and boats and such) if I was staying at an on-property hotel, and if the monorails actually took me to where I needed to go.
Originally Posted By gaston lives Yes. $10/day would not be bad, and most people would pay it per person. It's just so tough with 2 children when it's standing room only on the busses. A few more options (even if it jsut gets you closer to teh destination) would be welcome. A Monorail expansion would be teh sweet! I know we love to spend time just riding on it, especially my 3.5 year old. The more monorail the better. It would pay for itself very, very quickly.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I love the fact that I can get anywhere I want without renting a car, but dang, the transportation is so bad in WDW that thigns need to chagne.>> I guess that I would have to disagree that things are really that bad. I think the Disney transit system moves huge numbers of people with relatively little trouble. During our recent WDW visit there was only one time in 8 days where we had to wait over 5 -10 minutes for our transportation. << I hate waiting for a bus to the MK and see 15 busses come by for EPCOT before even ONE comes by for MK.>> I think you probably overstated your wait for an MK bus. FIFTEEN Epcot busses came by before one MK bus? Somehow I kind of doubt that. We did have one time where two Downtown Disney busses arrived at our stop before a Magic Kingdom bus arrived. Yes, that can be a little frustrating, but even then I don’t think we waited more than about 15 minutes for our MK bus. <<When Disney expanded the monorail system from MK to EPCOT, it was a great decision. I know it's expensive, but why can't a company like Disney put a wee bit of money into their future and expand the monorails a bit?>> The most recent monorail built in the United States (Las Vegas) cost $88 million per mile to build. If WDW added just five miles of monorail that would be almost half a billion dollars. Source: <a href="http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html" target="_blank">http://www.monorails.org/tMspa ges/HowMuch.html</a> Do you REALLY think that is the best way for Disney to spend its money? I can imagine a lot of things I would rather have Disney do before that. Also, I’m not sure a monorail is always a good answer. You can easily put more busses on the road to handle peak times of the day. It is much more difficult getting an additional monorail on and off the beam. Also, as discussed in a recent thread by TDLFAN about WDW’s monorail, they are certainly not without their problems. If ONE monorail on the system breaks down, every monorail behind it is held up until they get the disabled unit moving again. That is not an ideal way to move large numbers of people as far as I’m concerned. I would like to see Disney acquire new busses that pollute less and are quieter. I would like to see fewer shared busses. When you are staying at a Deluxe resort (Boardwalk) it is NOT OK to have to stop at four other resorts (Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club, Beach Club) before getting to your destination. Disney could also build a transitway where the only traffic allowed on the road would be Disney busses. The University of Minnesota has a road like that between its Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses and it works great, cutting transit time by more than 50%. There is no other traffic to contend with and no stoplights etc. along the way. I think Disney could make some changes to it’s transportation to improve what I think is already a very good product. If I want to dream I could envision a line from Epcot to the Epcot resorts and then on to MGM Studios, but that still leaves one park and many resorts dependant on other modes of transit. I’m sure Disney busses are there to say. I think Disney should concentrate on improving the bus transit, because that it the method that moves the greatest number of people between the greatest number of places.
Originally Posted By FenwayGirl << I hate waiting for a bus to the MK and see 15 busses come by for EPCOT before even ONE comes by for MK.>> When I see this pattern...I jump on the Epcot bus and take the monorail to Transportation center and enjoy the ferry ride to MK. You know what they say...when life gives you lemons...make lemonade
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Making lemonade seems too much of a hassle to me. The idea of a transport system is tomake it easier on those who use it, not more complicated. Simply defeats the purpose to go around to get where you need to go.
Originally Posted By FenwayGirl You are right...I just try to make things as pleasant for myself and my family while we vacation. We try to be flexible and not stress the unexpected...
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom As much as I would love to see Disney expand its monorail system at WDW. I personally think this would be financially irresponcible. Disney has a very good network and transportation system going with the buses. Money would be best spent elsewhere, freshen up rides. Increase pay for Cast Members, etc. Last week I was staying at the AKL and we were able to get anywhere on property in 15 minutes or less by bus. We also had a car with us which was handy for trip to DTD for Ghirodelli chocolate.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>As much as I would love to see Disney expand its monorail system at WDW. I personally think this would be financially irresponcible.<< I get you on that but those monorails are falling apart, and they will need to be replaced sooner or later. The bus system may be efficient but it's so ghetto... They need to be more cutting edge.
Originally Posted By gaston lives I'm glad to see that your trip was better than mine! I was not exaggerating on that 15-1 ratio at the All-STar resorts. It happened twice while we were there Dec. 31-Jan. 7. Maybe a mroe rigid schedule would be better.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros "The most recent monorail built in the United States (Las Vegas) cost $88 million per mile to build." They also had to route the whole thing through an existing city in order to make it between the buildings and to places where a convenient station could be located. In WDW, there is enough open space that I would be willing to bet that I would be a lot cheaper. The Vegas Monorail is almost entirely above (not next to) the streets, with very carefully placed support beams for it track. In WDW, they could just clear a little more land next to the existing roads and build it there. Sure there would be some water table issues to deal with, but there would be enough flexibility that I believe they could do it for less than the Vegas system.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> You can easily put more busses on the road to handle peak times of the day. << I hat busses.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn If they're going to be buses, I still think they should make a signal Central Bus Terminal next to World Drive, just west of EPCOT Center. If you want to go from anywhere to anywhere, you catch a bus to the central terminal, and board another bus going to your destination. That would greatly reduce the number of bus stops at each location, and increase the frequency of buses.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost No you can't easily put extra buses on for peak times. First of all you don't know how many you need. Second, in case you didn't notice these buses are operated by people, people have lives and they are not always available when the need arises. You cannot staff for the worst case scenario because it would be to costly.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< First of all you don't know how many you need. >>> I would think the patterns would be rather predictable, using average patterns along with the inputs of the current day's occupancy rate at each resort, and monitoring the turnstile activity at each park. <<< Second, in case you didn't notice these buses are operated by people, people have lives and they are not always available when the need arises. You cannot staff for the worst case scenario because it would be to costly. >>> I'm quite observant, and I actually had noticed that there are people driving the buses. I don't know about Florida, but in many states the minimum shift for an hourly worker is 4 hours. It would seem that they could have extra drivers come on shift just in the evenings to cover crunch situations. Also, there's the possibility of overlapping longer shifts to cover peak demand, as long as the peak isn't at the very end of the night. I know it's a bit more complicated than how I describe it above, but I'd wager that there are solutions to these problems rather than just accepting the status quo because the "buses are operated by people." More specifically, with the earnings targets that WDW operates on these days, it's almost certain that the buses are staffed the same way that custodial and guest control are: at the minimum level possible that provides just enough service so that that department doesn't percolate up to being a big problem on the guest satisfaction surveys.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Since the new Magic Express service has taken many mini-van shuttles off the WDW roads ,I wish they would use a shuttle van at their resorts during these peak times. For some reason the DVC vans always irritate me for that reason. Also whenever I see cast members being transported on the golf carts...
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<You can easily put more busses on the road to handle peak times of the day>> Do we know for a fact that they don't do this already?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<"The most recent monorail built in the United States (Las Vegas) cost $88 million per mile to build.">> <<<They also had to route the whole thing through an existing city in order to make it between the buildings and to places where a convenient station could be located. In WDW, there is enough open space that I would be willing to bet that I would be a lot cheaper. The Vegas Monorail is almost entirely above (not next to) the streets, with very carefully placed support beams for it track. In WDW, they could just clear a little more land next to the existing roads and build it there. Sure there would be some water table issues to deal with, but there would be enough flexibility that I believe they could do it for less than the Vegas system.>>> I'm not sure I think it would cost less. While it would seem to be easier to built in an open field, I think the foundations would need more work than in Vegas, where the ground is already more-or-less stable, since it's been carrying roadway and what-have-you already.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Do we know for a fact that they don't do this already? >>> I would guess that it's almost certain that they already do. The issue is that if people are reporting problems during crunch times, then perhaps it's not enough to handle demand.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 Why buses?? I’m sure Disney could come up with a ground transportation system that is a little less mundane. Buses just seem to be the cheap approach. If they won’t spend the millions necessary to expand the monorail system, they could at least invest a fraction of that to come up with a ground transportation system that is a little more unique and inspiring than just ordinary city buses. Heck, they could even still be busses underneath that are “themed†to look like something else – just as long as I don’t look at the thing and think “city bus with Mickey on itâ€.
