We just got back from WDW (Sept 6th-14th). We had my mom with us and she was using an
ECV, as she usually does down there. We have never had a problem, but this trip transportation was absolutely horrible. We have never, ever had to make a call to complain about anything down there, but this time had to call four times time in the first four days. We then finally gave up. My mom says she is never returning to WDW again.
Multiple times buses would pull up with no
ECVs on them and the bus drivers would say there were too many people waiting and they'd call another bus. That next bus would say the exact same thing. Even on the mornings when we would try to catch the early morning character dining buses and they'd be almost totally empty, they would still try to deny us boarding. One morning, there was no one on the bus, except a family of three that had sat down in the handicapped seating. The driver just leaned out from his seat and said we couldn't board because he had people sitting in the ECV seats and couldn't ask them to move. The family overheard him and said 'no problem, they didn't mind moving'. He then acted very put out at them. At both AK and DTD an empty bus pulled up and we were told we would have to wait for another bus, due to there were too many people waiting in line. In both instances a second empty bus quickly pulled up and parked on the other side of the first bus. In both instances we were told we couldn't get on those buses either, because the bus drivers had parked in the wrong area and opened their doors for the other guests. By this time, at AK there were three ECVs and a wheelchair, all complaining that two completely empty buses had pulled up and no ECV had been loaded onto either bus. We ate at Cape May one night. We then caught the bus to DTD, planning to catch the bus or boat back to our resort (PORS). When the bus pulled up he had maybe 6-8 people on it. He opened the door, and rather rudely said, "you don't plan on putting that thing on here do you?" We were shocked and angry at his attitude and told him we most certainly did plan on putting the ECV on there and considering he had plenty of room, if he had a problem with it, we wanted his name. I then walked toward the back of the bus with my camera to take a picture of the bus number. He quickly changed his tune and became very nice. However, the bus then went to the BW, where he simply told another ECV family that he didn't have room for them. This was not true. We were the only ECV on the bus, and while a couple was sitting in the other ECV area, the driver did not ask them to move and there were still quite a few empty seats on the bus. At PORS two early mornings in a row, we had buses pull up, with no ECVs and empty seats on the bus, and the drivers wouldn't even ask the people sitting in the ECV seats to move to another empty seats. They would simply let everybody else on and then tell us to catch the next bus. At the AK bus stop, we got to talking to two other families (not related--simply waiting with us), who said this stuff had been going on all week with them also. Bus drivers simply did not want to deal with putting ECV and wheelchairs onto the buses. They too had been calling transportation and complaining. One night at DTD, we were the first ECV there, but sat through three different bus drivers telling us, there were too many people waiting for them to load an ECV. When the fourth bus finally pulled up, I was waiting at the door and told him that if he didn't put my mom on that bus that Disney was going to have a lawsuit. I'm normally fairly easy going, but we had been waiting at that stop for 1 hour and 30 minutes at that point, watching everyone who had gotten there after us get on those empty buses, while driver after driver told us to catch the next bus. The night of the
MNSSHP, it took us over 90 minutes to get on a bus at the main stop at PORS and even then we had to bully our way on, as the third bus driver again told us to wait for another bus. Excuse me, there were empty seats, and he had no ECVs. The final straw was Saturday morning. We were waiting for a bus to MK. When the bus pulled up, the driver opened the back door, (supposedly to let us on). As the doors opened and before the driver could lower the lift, people started swarming in the back door, stepping over my mom who had backed her ECV up to the door. This had happened a couple of times before, but the bus driver got onto the people and made them get back off and enter through the front door. However, this bus driver just laughed, came back, and said the bus was now too full to load the ECV and there was nothing he could do. I reminded him that other than ECVs and their parties, that no one was supposed to even enter the bus through the back door, so how about he do what the other drivers had been doing and make those people get back off and load through the front door like they were supposed to. His response was that since the bus was now full, don't worry, another bus would be along soon, and we could get on it. I immediately asked for his name, went to the back of the bus, snapped a picture of the bus number, and got on the phone one last time asking for a transportation manager. I spoke with three separate managers. Transportation never did improve and even Sunday we were again told to wait for the next bus by a driver whose bus had no ECVs on it. We were told by several good bus drivers, that there had apparently been alot of complaints by ECV parties lately and they were trying to catch the drivers who were doing it, but they have alot of new bus drivers right now. The night we were late for the MNSSHP, I told the bus driver that if the bus had ECVs on it and didn't have empty seats I could understand us not being able to get on, but since there were empty seats and no ECVs, then wasn't the bus considered full for this stop and he said no, there was just too many people waiting for him to put us on and the ECV would take up three seats that were needed by others. I let him know I was reporting him and he simply said 'go ahead, WDW will support my decision". I then took his picture and a picture of the back of the bus. I called transportation and the person could tell I was furious and said he was sending two more buses immediately and we would be put on the first one and a supervisor would meet us at MK. Sure enough two MK buses pulled in right behind each other and we were put on immediately. When we got to MK, one of the managers met us as we were getting off the bus. We told him what had been happening and he told us they were aware, but they needed the names of the drivers, the bus numbers, the stop, and the time. He assured us the drivers doing it were being reprimanded when they were caught. While we were talking, the bus driver saw us and walked over with a very cocky attitude. I told the supervisor he was the driver who refused to allow ECVs on the bus, then loaded everybody else. He admitted it right in front of the supervisor. The supervisor told him he would talk to him later. The driver said he was getting off and asked if the supervisor wanted him to stay. The supervisor snapped at him, no, that he'd talk to him the next day.
Sorry for rambling, but I have just never seen the bus drivers act like they did this last week. I bet 60%-65% of the time, the drivers just refused to put an ECV on, even though they had room.
Again, my poor mom is insisting she will never go back to WDW.
Disney's to wonderful for her to be upset for long. She'll
