FROM: Why Did Disney DO That?!? Published As Necessary

The Disney Bus Shuffle

When I hear the word 'shuffle', I think boards and Bears (as in Chicago), but Lee Beatens thinks buses. And when Lee Beatens gets to thinking about Disney buses, he gets to ranting, as he does here, with a story of a long, long, long bus ride.

- Lee Beatens, May 22, 2011

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Let me tell you a story.

A few years ago, my wife and I were at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. We were having a great time, and so decided to cap things off by staying until park close to view the fireworks over Cinderella Castle.

We stood among the masses and thoroughly enjoyed the noisy display! We oohed and aahed in all of the appropriate places, and clapped when it was over.

With Jiminy Cricket's 'Good Night!' ringing in our ears, we headed for the exit. And that's when the evening took a turn for the worse.

Closing Time Crowds: Bad!

We were heading to the exit along with thousands of others!

Now what can you do if this happens to you? Well, you can try what we did: dally and visit the shops along Main Street, hoping that the crowds would thin and that the Disney buses would whisk away the bulk of the herding humanity in front of us.

Actually, don't bother trying this, because it doesn't work.

Once outside the turnstiles, we ran smack dab into the backend of a stalled crowd. It took far too long to make it to the bus shelters where there were no longer any defined lines, but instead, just thousands of cranky park guests jockeying for the best positions.

And why was this happening?

Locked-in Logistics: Worse!

We were staying at a Value resort and so, it seemed, were most of the other unhappy grumps.

And why was this the problem?

Disney seems to assign the same amount of buses to each resort, meaning that a bus will cycle to and from a Value resort about every 20 minutes. And another bus will cycle to the Wilderness Lodge about every 20 minutes. And so on.

Have you guessed the problem?

The Value resort buses are packed, while the Wilderness Lodge bus leaves with, wait for it... 3 people on it!

Why does Disney DO that?!?

During the normal course of the day, this even distribution of buses works well enough. Not great. But well enough. But when a park is emptying thousands of guests at the same time, a slight adjustment to this strategy might be in order!

Our magical day ended with a 2-hour trip back to our resort. While the Wilderness Lodge guests had their usual 20 to 30 minute uncrowded, leisurely, comfortable trip back.

Now this may have been an exception, and I would like to mention that the poor Cast Members who had to organize the mayhem did a superb job! Kudos to you, people! And after about an hour of this torture, extra buses were added to the value routes.

But still. Disney: You can do better.

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