Subsonic Radio

Anyone else catch the announcement about a new express transportation option at WDW? It seems WDW is realizing that Uber and Lyft are making a profit by ferrying people and are looking to cut into that business for themselves. Interesting, but I'm not sure I would utilize it enough to make it worth the price. Also curious to see if the $24 multiple day option would be for a length of stay. We generally stay about a week so that makes the service pretty reasonable if it would help cut security lines and stay out of the bus queues. Which also leads to the question, how busy would these optional buses have to get before they would have to add more vehicles so the wait wasn't too long? And will the transportation options include accommodations for wheelchairs and ECVs? The service is scheduled to start 12/7 but so far I couldn't find anything on the official WDW site.

http://www.kennythepirate.com/2016/12/0 ... for-a-fee/

Interesting. Well, on the up side, they've found a use for the WOL pavillion..... bus stop extraordinaire?

I, personally, wouldn't use it. I think Uber or Lyft would be useful if the bus lines were really long, or I wanted to get to the park from a strange location. But it seems to me one could board a bus from Disney Springs to the Contemporary and then walk to the park, or walk to the monorail to Epcot, and avoid the long bus lines and having to pay for any kind of express shuttle or private car.

The times that I can see Uber or Lyft being useful is at the end of a very tiring day when lines for buses back to resorts might be long, and the announcement doesn't mention anything about being able to take the shuttle service back to one of the hotels. Or did I miss something?

Looks like it is just park to park for the initial roll-out. The article did say something about service to the resorts being a possibility depending on how well it goes.

Would it actually do anything for security checks? Even when you fly on a private jet they make you do TSA stuff, so they could have something. Otherwise it could really be a softpoint, like they had with DTD.

Not sure it has a huge benefit other than between AK and DHS, MK and Epcot both have monorails (yes, you have to change but still not that bad) but provided the math is $24 for a multi day and not 24/day (which is kind of weird that it costs more than a single day) and the wait isn't terrible it isn't bad. But as it is too cheap I suspect it will be too popular and be just as bad as normal.

Wizzard419 wrote:Would it actually do anything for security checks? Even when you fly on a private jet they make you do TSA stuff, so they could have something. Otherwise it could really be a softpoint, like they had with DTD.

Not sure it has a huge benefit other than between AK and DHS, MK and Epcot both have monorails (yes, you have to change but still not that bad) but provided the math is $24 for a multi day and not 24/day (which is kind of weird that it costs more than a single day) and the wait isn't terrible it isn't bad. But as it is too cheap I suspect it will be too popular and be just as bad as normal.

The article mentioned that you wouldn't have to go through security at the next park. Yeah, the pricing structure seems odd. And I can see it becoming popular and then not really a good deal, unless they add more vans/buses. I will be interested to see if there is anything else about it when it launches on 12/7

Yeah, if they had one that went from your resort to the parks that would actually be better (even if they were charging more). Other than people trying to go to/from AK and water parks (if those are on the list), everything else has a decent connection but if I could avoid the tuberculars in the regular buses that would be a selling point.

Just saw some photos of the flyers for the service. Service is available from 10 am - park close. And the multi-day pass for $24/guest covers 7 consecutive days.

Part of me thinks that is way too cheap, but as it is only between the parks (does it also include DTD and water parks?) it may be an ok price. At the same time I suspect many will buy the package when booking, get there, realize (even though it was fully disclosed) that it is not from the hotels and get angry about it.

Anyone else catch that this program will be ending 8/23/17? That experiment didn't last long. I wonder if it wasn't very cost effective?
They certainly seem to have invested in the new Minnie Van Service, sort of like an Uber, but exclusively for use around the WDW Resort property. The one article I saw said the ride is $20 one way, but for up to 6 guests, 4 in the accessible vehicles. The article mentioned that currently the service is only available to guests staying at the BoardWalk Resort and Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, but it is intended to roll out resort wide. I know one vlog post I saw showed a ton of vans all in a row right before the service was launched.

Possibly or they cannibalized themselves doing this. Similar to the cabanas at MK, it tries to fill a need that is theoretically already addressed. At the same time, it sends a pretty terrible message when you actively encourage guests to not get a rental car by offering free transit to and from the airport, hype your transit system on the property then try to sell them another service. The guest sees it as either the transit system being so bad the company decided not to fix it or they are trying to squeeze extra out of customers for no real benefit.

Wizzard419 wrote:Possibly or they cannibalized themselves doing this. Similar to the cabanas at MK, it tries to fill a need that is theoretically already addressed. At the same time, it sends a pretty terrible message when you actively encourage guests to not get a rental car by offering free transit to and from the airport, hype your transit system on the property then try to sell them another service. The guest sees it as either the transit system being so bad the company decided not to fix it or they are trying to squeeze extra out of customers for no real benefit.

Well, there is a benefit though in that you can go directly where you want on property without having a rental car. At the moment, you are limited a bit by how you go between resorts and the parks. Plus if you have an early morning tour as I did, the buses aren't running yet, forcing you to either have a car, or hire a taxi.

Wizzard419 wrote:Even when you fly on a private jet they make you do TSA stuff

Actually, they do not. TSA would only be involved if your private jet is utilizing a commercial terminal. Otherwise only Customs is needed for transborder flights.