Disney Bus Upgrades

[TheDisneyInquisitor]

This is what Mouseplanet reports (I know it has been mentioned in the past, but I figured I'd mention it again)..........

The Walt Disney World bus system will be getting some aesthetic and technological enhancements. Rolling out across the resort over the next couple of years will be changes to make the waits shorter and the rides more pleasant.

On the aesthetic side, loading areas will be enhanced with new decor and buses will receive new artwork, perhaps including full-bus wraps. Once on board, guests will be entertained by background music and audio/visual entertainment and messages.

On the technological side, GPS tracking systems will be installed on all buses, allowing dispatchers to route buses more efficiently. Dispatchers will no longer have to guess about wait times at bus stops or rely on supervisors to radio in information, as cameras will be installed at all resort and theme park bus stops.

-Michael

[captsmith84]

Excellent. These are very much needed. Though I'm not for expanding the bus system, I know that the current system has many problems, and this should fix the majority. Now, if they can do something about this one bus that we were driving behind on the way out... you see, it was sideways... the right side of the bus was higher than the left side. Something was totally wrong with the kneeling feature or something. lol

[SummerInFL]

This is avery good news. I have always liked the bus system there and doing these things makes it even more enjoyable.

[DLRP_bopazot]

That would be great to see more buses for the All Stars Resort because when the MK close or all the parks you have only one bus for 3 Hotels and it means inside the bus it's really packed .

[3IAlienKid]

I am all for the technological upgrades like GPS & station cameras, as well as the new paint jobs. And anything to reduce wait times is always a welcome change.

But I'm hesitant regarding the "background music and audio/visual entertainment and messages." Something like this has the potential to be used for blatant advertising (like the background music and pre-show slides at AMC Theaters, or the TV monitors blasting commercials for ABC TV shows at the Disney Studio's Commissary). The last thing I want to hear at the end of my WDW day is another media bombardment of "check this out!" When I leave the theme park back to the hotel, my Disney antenna have retracted and the receptors are on low, so any additional media assault at the end of my WDW day is just pure Disney sensory overload and just irritating.

I hope that whatever is planned is not advertising, or if it is please let it be subtle and truly "background."

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

I'm sure the ads are paying for the systems...

They are installing these on some LA city buses, free of charge, for the advertising space!

[TheDisneyInquisitor]

It'll probably be the Top 7 (or something similar to what they show on DME)

[MickeyMania]

Why don't they just have a Bus Channel with TVs tuned to it playing easy listening Disney tunes and showing you the times of fireworks and parades and closings?

It seems to me to be much cheaper to do it that way than to install GPS systems on all the busses.

[TheDisneyInquisitor]

It seems to me to be much cheaper to do it that way than to install GPS systems on all the busses.

The GPS has to do with where the busses go. It has nothing to do with the audio/video element of the upgrades. For example, now they will know where the busses are (curtesy of the GPS system) and where the crowds waiting for the busses are (curtesy of the cameras being installed at the bus stops). This will all help the bus system. For example, in the past, you may have had 100 people waiting at the All Stars stop and yet no bus would come for 20 minutes. However, at the stop right next to it (let's say Coronado Springs), 3 busses may have come in that 20 minute time span even though nobody was at the stop.

-Michael

[TDLFAN]

In other words Mike...WDW is finally bringing WDW's ghetto-style busses up to TDR's Cruiser buses standards??? That's nice.

[captsmith84]

TDLFAN... don't count on them going up to TDL's standards. Both you and I know very well that that ain't gonna happen.

[WDW1974]

Buses are just so ... so ... so ...unmagical.

Of course, I just got off the Las Vegas monorail a few hours ago and saw what can be done when someone is willing to pay!

[MickeyMania]

Of course, I just got off the Las Vegas monorail a few hours ago and saw what can be done when someone is willing to pay!

Yup! It can break down! Repeatedly! I rather like the monorail but even I have to admit that it breaks down and dies constantly and isn't making enough money/ridership to stay up. Some of the problems are by those idiots at Bombardier, who have ignored warning lights, sent a train in the roundhouse into a gate and damaged it's nose, and some operator actually opened the doors on a train while it was in transit with people over a street!

I'm kind of glad that Bombardier turned down Disney's offer to build Mark VII. We've had enough tires and parts falling off the trains and don't need that in DL, thank you! Bring back the old WDW door-slammers, as we used retired Mark IVs until 2002 or so.

That and the private company that owns the thing loopholed themselves as non profit organization in order to receive tax exemptions... I could go on and on. Even the local news here has made "Marge and the Monorail" jokes in the past years.

[Mouse princess]

That's good news. The buses really need and upgrade. And if the GPS system can help eliminate some of the wait time and overcrowding of some of the buses in the busier stops, woohoo!

[TDLFAN]

I rather like the monorail but even I have to admit that it breaks down and dies constantly and isn't making enough money/ridership to stay up.

Not the ones at Tokyo Disney. I am yet to be delayed for traffic, stopped or broken down in one of those monorails, and they are fully automated, unlike WDW's But they do charge a fee to ride those TDR Line monos, which is fine with me, but most Americans suffer from "Cheapalitis" so many would unreasonably object, but I will take the TDR Line monos over WDW's outdated cans on a rail.