Resort Bus Service Cutbacks

Esmeralda · Post by **Esmeralda** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 12:50 pm

If they're going to reduce service, I wish they would put the buses on an actual schedule. Then we can know when to expect their arrival and plan ahead.

Of course expanding the monorail is my favorite idea!

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 1:24 pm

With all that spare land lying around I wonder if anyone at Disney is looking at Biodiesel

http://www.allegrobiodiesel.com/index.php

Even if they could only achieve 500 gallons an acre it would cut the fuel bill.
I like the Monorail option though

Perhaps the electricity required for the monorail could be produced by a diesel generator run on Biodiesel

SWHorn · Post by **SWHorn** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 1:50 pm

Esmeralda wrote:If they're going to reduce service, I wish they would put the buses on an actual schedule. Then we can know when to expect their arrival and plan ahead.

No kidding! I'd much rather get that last go of Pirates in than wait 30 minutes in the empty bus queue because I just missed the bus.

metsofny · Post by **metsofny** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 2:04 pm

Dispatchers is a great idea. sometimes the lines are uneven. maybe this could end up helping?

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 10:25 pm

Joe90 wrote:With all that spare land lying around I wonder if anyone at Disney is looking at Biodiesel

If they make it out of waste products (there's certainly a lot of fry grease around the World), that'd be cool, but growing crops to fuel buses is counterproductive.

I know this is asking a lot of a company that won't even discuss tomorrow in Tomorrowland or the future in Future World, but they could really do some interesting stuff here if they actually cared. They could make it a real attraction too, like the original plans for EPCOT.

I'd love to see an algae bioreactor or a giant solar plant powering electric buses (or a friggin' monorail!). Although, I suppose I am in the extreme minority here.

It'd at least be good PR, but I don't think Disney cares much about that these days either.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Jun Tue 10, 2008 11:20 pm

rmorton50 wrote:If you watch Walt's original introduction of the EPCOT idea, he mentions how the peoplemover would take people from their homes to their work, to their recreation, etc. Each group of persons would have their own "pod" to take them to thier specific destination. Wouldn't it be a big leap into the future to have a peoplemover system?

I would love to see them do that, though the cynic in me's immediate thought is that if people were traveling 'unsupervised' in peoplemover cars, vandalism would be rampant and increase the operating costs tremendously if they wanted to keep good show (which they don't always these days, so perhaps that wouldn't be an issue...). On the other hand, they manage to monitor the actual peoplemover pretty well via the infrared cameras. Maybe they could do the same on a larger scale. It'd be awesome if they could pull it off (and, y'know, chose to do so).

Expanding the monorail would be and excellent step forward, I think, especially when you consider some of the hotel areas could have a central 'depot' instead of one stop per hotel, if they wanted to go that way to make it a bit cheaper. (Thinking of the ones around Crescent Lake... the two Port Orleanses... stuff like that). I'm not sure I can imagine them ever doing it now, though. Which is depressing.

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Jun Wed 11, 2008 4:24 am

Captain Schnemo wrote:
I'd love to see an algae bioreactor or a giant solar plant powering electric buses (or a friggin' monorail!). Although, I suppose I am in the extreme minority here.

10 years ago you may have been in an extreem minority.
Nowadays you may be in danger of joining the majority

You are right. This is the sort of stuff Epcot was dreamed up for.

kcarts · Post by **kcarts** » Jun Wed 11, 2008 11:39 am

[quote="Esmeralda"]If they're going to reduce service, I wish they would put the buses on an actual schedule. Then we can know when to expect their arrival and plan ahead.

Of course expanding the monorail is my favorite idea![/quote]

I believe they actually on schedule now.

jozel27 · Post by **jozel27** » Jun Wed 11, 2008 2:16 pm

I think that is smart, if you have a particular time that the resorts aren't as busy, then cutting back is smart, but if they are cutting back at peak times, then that would just suck. It is already more expensive and way more busy at those times so cutting back then would p*** alot of people off.

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Jun Wed 11, 2008 11:58 pm

A PeopleMover system would be awesome in some of the more ridiculously spread out resorts (Coronado Springs and especially Caribbean Beach come to mind), although it would sort of blow the theming.

Or not, I guess, if they made the Coronado one look like a steam train or the CBR one look like...I dunno, a whole bunch of flamingos or something. It would be even more awesome if they installed new stuff to look at as you ride, even if it's just cool foliage or birds or something.

I still think they should install an elevated mover that snakes through World Showcase, riding through the Mexican pyramid and such.

None of this would actually save any power, though, which I suppose was the point of this thread. Oops.

spodie · Post by **spodie** » Jun Mon 16, 2008 8:07 am

I just got back from WDW and they have definatetly cut back on busses and it really sucks. We stayed at the Boardwalk and all of the Epcot resorts are pretty much all assigned the same bus at each park (AK is the worst offender of this), which makes the rides pretty uncomfortable at the end of a long day. And if there is a bus schedule, all of the parks are on completely different schedules and/or Disney is doing a really good job at hiding it. The only thing I heard about a schedule was "busses leave every 20 minutes." I waited anywhere from 10-40 minutes for a bus.

Croaker · Post by **Croaker** » Jun Mon 16, 2008 3:05 pm

Another reason why renting a car is sweet!

Post by **horizons1** » Jun Mon 16, 2008 7:17 pm

Captain Schnemo wrote:I wonder how high gas prices have to go (or, more accurately, how low the US dollar has to sink) before extended monorail service starts to look more reasonable.

Now that is a positive spin on a dire situation!

Lion Sleeps Tonight · Post by **Lion Sleeps Tonight** » Jun Mon 16, 2008 8:23 pm

That would really be a bummer if they cut back on buses. If anything, they need more buses, especially now that it's the summer, and gas prices are through the roof.

I've heard people waiting up to an hour for a bus. But then there are a lot of factors that could make buses delayed such as wheelchair loading, traffic on the road, number of people (buses will skip a stop if it's already full).

I think a set schedule would be nice, but I also think just keeping a steady stream of buses would work efficiently as well.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Jun Mon 16, 2008 8:48 pm

A set schedule would be nice but during the College Program, a set schedule always had problems too with the bus drivers taking long extended breaks, and just rushing to get to their destination in time for the next stop.

And I agree with you Lion that they defnitely need more busses as more people would rather rely on taking the bus then waste gas if they want too.