New Express Transportation: $19/day or $29/week-SERVICE ENDING AUGUST 23RD 2017

[MandyLovesMulan]

I expected it to end... from an accounting perspective, I didn't see how they were making money on this... also worried that they had a cap on the number of tickets they sold (was planning on buying the minute I arrived at hotel). Oh well. I think my plans still work. I assume Epcot has enough stuff to warrant more than 1 day visit? I have 2 MK days and 1.5 days in EP (other .5 in HS).

 

[shoreward]

Here is the response I received to my question last night regarding what other options would be provided to guests upon the suspension of this service:

"Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort.

We appreciate the time you took to contact us regarding your concern. The Express Transportation was a beta program that we were testing for the past few months. The testing of the service concluded that guests who used Express Transportation enjoyed the convenience, but more Guests preferred other forms of transportation. Because of this, we have discontinued the service.

The last day to purchase the service is August 16th, and the last day the service will be operational is the 23rd of August. If you are arriving outside of this time-frame, you will still be able to use the complementary transportation at Walt Disney World®. At this time, there is not another service planned that works the way the Express transportation option works currently."

It will be interesting to see if they send the same "personalized" response to all who contacted them about the service being dropped.

 

[AngiTN]

I think you're a Disney realist and have not thought you're drinking the Kool Aid There's a lot of negativity toward Disney on this board yet people continue to throw money at them. I think you're great at trying to calm that noise. Personally, I enjoy your posts and you've been very helpful to me! So thanks!

I agree with this 100%!

Thank y'all both.

 

[sunflowerblooms]

Just spoke with a CM. She said that they will not be making the service available to those arriving after the 16th even though the buses are still running. Which is a bummer especially with Photopass Day on the 19th. Honestly you would think Disney would still sell same day access until the end of the service. I'll probably ask about same day access once I am there but I am not hopeful. I did ask that she share my feedback with whomever that it would be nice for all of us to have access who will be there while the buses are still running. Doesn't feel like I am asking for the moon and the stars.

 

[AngiTN]

Just spoke with a CM. She said that they will not be making the service available to those arriving after the 16th even though the buses are still running. Which is a bummer especially with Photopass Day on the 19th. Honestly you would think Disney would still sell same day access until the end of the service. I'll probably and ask about same day access once I am there but I am not hopeful. I did ask that she share my feedback with whomever that it would be nice for all of us to have access who will be there while the buses are still running. Doesn't feel like I am asking for the moon and the stars.

I agree. If the buses are already running, and you know darn good and well they will NOT be full, why not sell to whoever else wants to use it? They will not sell enough single day passes to make any difference. We all know that.

 

[shoreward]

Does anyone else recall an older post relaying a conversation that a guest had with a CM (maybe a driver), that there would be a big change coming to Express Transportation? I thought there was a reference to August.

On the other, I could just be dreaming.

Update: This might have been what I remembered:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/n...-page-1-post-1.3563694/page-101#post-57618465

 

[sharonabe]

The testing of the service concluded that guests who used Express Transportation enjoyed the convenience, but more Guests preferred other forms of transportation. Because of this, we have discontinued the service.

Would love to know how they determined this. How many "other forms of transportation" are there? Your own vehicle? Uber? The regular buses? And who did they ask?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I arrive on Thursday. I did plan on using Express Transportation. I have hopped for years. I was aware that weather could shut the service down. But I made my plans with the hope that the service would be available.

I would have done my touring plans and FPs totally different. With 3 days notice there isn't a lot to time to make adjustments. And any FPs I would want to make changes to are not readily available.

So yes this is a huge disappointment for many of us. I would have really appreciated a little more advanced notice from Disney that the service was ending.

I get what you're saying -- this is not enough notice. Of course anyone can be upset about whatever they want to be. I lost it at MK hours be cut DRASTICALLY this summer!! I guess I'm trying to offer some consolation!

You might be aware that weather can shut it down -- we knew that ahead as well. We were surprised at HOW LITTLE bad weather in the area it took for them to shut it down.

No joke: TWICE is DRIZZLED for 3-5min and it was shut down. We wanted to use it 3 times in particular and were only able to use it once. For $120. A HUGE WASTE of money.

This might have just saved people money without losing much, depending on when you're traveling. It is ludicrous in the summer how much it's down. A CM told us "2-4 hours at least per day these days".

 

[yulilin3]

Edited the title to reflect the discontinuation of service

 

[sunflowerblooms]

I get what you're saying -- this is not enough notice. Of course anyone can be upset about whatever they want to be. I lost it at MK hours be cut DRASTICALLY this summer!! I guess I'm trying to offer some consolation!

You might be aware that weather can shut it down -- we knew that ahead as well. We were surprised at HOW LITTLE bad weather in the area it took for them to shut it down.

No joke: TWICE is DRIZZLED for 3-5min and it was shut down. We wanted to use it 3 times in particular and were only able to use it once. For $120. A HUGE WASTE of money.

This might have just saved people money without losing much, depending on when you're traveling. It is ludicrous in the summer how much it's down. A CM told us "2-4 hours at least per day these days".

We decided to take the money we would have on the express bus and put it toward Minnie Vans. I am in a walking cast and riding a scooter for this trip so anything to make getting from park to park a little but easier is very much welcome. It does sound like from your experience that planning around using a Minnie Van will at least give us the ability to travel between parks quickly and without a lot of hassle and avoid the worry about the bus not running (I knew about the weather related bus issues and did have wiggle room built in). Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Much appreciated.

 

[AngiTN]

We decided to take the money we would have on the express bus and put it toward Minnie Vans. I am in a walking cast and riding a scooter for this trip so anything to make getting from park to park a little but easier is very much welcome. It does sound like from your experience that planning around using a Minnie Van will at least give us the ability to travel between parks quickly and without a lot of hassle and avoid the worry about the bus not running (I knew about the weather related bus issues and did have wiggle room built in). Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Much appreciated.

Do you have a small child in a car seat? If not, consider Uber/Lyft. It will be cheaper and you'll give money to local people instead of Disney. This is what I'm going to do. Some of our hops we can make do with regular buses. But for those where we can't, we'll grab Uber/Lyft. In the end we'll probably spend about the same and instead of giving the money to Disney, we'll be giving it to someone local to the area instead. But we don't need the car seat option of the Minnie Van.

 

[sunflowerblooms]

Do you have a small child in a car seat? If not, consider Uber/Lyft. It will be cheaper and you'll give money to local people instead of Disney. This is what I'm going to do. Some of our hops we can make do with regular buses. But for those where we can't, we'll grab Uber/Lyft. In the end we'll probably spend about the same and instead of giving the money to Disney, we'll be giving it to someone local to the area instead. But we don't need the car seat option of the Minnie Van.

No small child but I need an that can fit the scooter. I am totally with you on the money going to someone local. I am already a Lyft user so I am more than happy to use the Lyft service when I am down there. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[FastPasser.]

TWICE is DRIZZLED for 3-5min and it was shut down.

It doesn't have to be raining at all, and it has nothing to do with the buses, it's all about the CM's safety. When the alert is issued CMs are required to seek cover from lightening if it's within a certain distance.

 

[FastPasser.]

I'm all for pumping money into the local economy, but I just wanted to point out that the vast majority of CMs at WDW are locals and that the Minnie Van service is a collaborative effort between Disney and Lyft. I don't know if they are or not, but it's possible that the Minnie Van drivers are 3rd party CMs.

 

[Lesley Wake]

I totally agree. For what it's worth, I wrote Disney with my disappointment (anger) that a successful vacation at WDW requires 180 and then 60 days planning ahead of time (which I am fine with), but then they make changes that directly impact our plans with a few days notice (for my August trip). I made plans based on this being available, so I need to now change my plans (going to have to cancel Early Morning Magic on 8/27 so I can make our FOP FPs -- we've done EMM 3x, but never FOP so that wins out). One could argue I should not have made plans reliant on any disney service, but if Disney wants people using these services, they need to plan their use ahead of time. Anyway, I'm sure they won't care nor will it make a difference, but it made me feel better to send the email.

EDIT - I just got a response. I emailed WDW.Guest.Communications@disneyworld.com and their response was "we believe another department within our company can best assist you". I've never emailed a complaint to WDW, but seems like guest communications would have been the right place.

At least you got a response, well a sort of response.

Edited to add: So I decided to call. Current wait time due to heavy call volume is 30 minutes.


Edited again. Just got the exact same response as @anomamatt

Same response here too about forwarding to another department. Waiting to get an actual response now.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We decided to take the money we would have on the express bus and put it toward Minnie Vans. I am in a walking cast and riding a scooter for this trip so anything to make getting from park to park a little but easier is very much welcome. It does sound like from your experience that planning around using a Minnie Van will at least give us the ability to travel between parks quickly and without a lot of hassle and avoid the worry about the bus not running (I knew about the weather related bus issues and did have wiggle room built in). Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Much appreciated.

I think that is a great way to look at it!

Actually, I should say that the service cost us $132 to ride once... we had to take a cab to make it to Frozen dessert party in time when the bus wasn't running due to the 3min of drizzle. :-/

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

It doesn't have to be raining at all, and it has nothing to do with the buses, it's all about the CM's safety. When the alert is issued CMs are required to seek cover from lightening if it's within a certain distance.

Absolutely -- I understand. Still was totally unreliable for us -- not something that could be counted on, especially in the summer.

 

[yulilin3]

I'm all for pumping money into the local economy, but I just wanted to point out that the vast majority of CMs at WDW are locals and that the Minnie Van service is a collaborative effort between Disney and Lyft. I don't know if they are or not, but it's possible that the Minnie Van drivers are 3rd party CMs.

not sure who is actually benefiting but I did see a family tip a Minnie Van driver and they accepted it. Not that that makes any difference

 

[FastPasser.]

Still was totally unreliable for us -- not something that could be counted on, especially in the summer.

Perfectly valid logic, especially this summer.

 

[shoreward]

What happens to the Express drivers, who are Disney employees?