Minnie Van bad service.

[JimMIA]

More concerning is the car arriving in 20 minutes after being quoted a 4 minute ETA. That pretty much wipes out the advantage over buses.

There are a couple of typical Lyft glitches that could cause that:

• Lyft sometimes has difficulty in pinpointing the rider's correct pickup location. Although your location might be crystal clear to you, the GPS positioning can sometimes be way off. I have not had this at all with Uber, and I have not had it with Lyft with anything except pickup points. But Lyft definitely has some issues with pickups.
  • If that happened, the driver could have been in a "can't get there from here" situation and might have to make a time-consuming correction through no fault of their own.
• Lyft sometimes arbitrarily cancels a driver en route to pickup and gives the ride to a different driver. They call it "re-dispatch." The intent is to provide quicker pickup, but with their pickup point glitch above, it sometimes results in a delay and/or unnecessary passenger cancellations.
  • Drivers hate those arbitrary cancellations -- when Lyft does that to me, I turn their app off for the rest of the shift...sometimes longer.

 

[PoohBear]

We used the Minnie Van service when we were at the Boardwalk in January. It was still fairly new then and we experienced ALOT of glitches. We had cast members take wrong turns, too. Three times cast members couldn't figure out where pickup was at the Magic Kingdom and initially went to TTC. Once we had a cast member who couldn't figure out how to get to the Contemporary. Many of our wait times exceeded 30 minutes but we are fairly patient and were determined to give them a shot. By the end of the trip though, we had to call it quits and use Uber when the Minnie Vans' drivers couldn't navigate Disney Springs. Never did the fare ever get reduced for our long wait times or their mistakes. We are headed back down in December and I was kind of hoping they had worked things out; especially since they have raised the price since then.

 

[JimMIA]

Never did the fare ever get reduced for our long wait times...

Just FYI, the rider doesn't pay for wait times until the driver actually arrives with Lyft, and I believe 2 minutes after the arrival with Uber. And the driver can't fake arrival -- the system won't accept the arrival unless the GPS shows the driver in the correct place.

 

[jdisnut]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

 

[KrazeeK120]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

For us, it’s the need for a harnessed car seat. I trust that the Minnie Van drivers know what they’re doing with installation as they’ve had training. I don’t have the same confidence in other rideshare drivers.

 

[Alesia]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

The only reason I can think of is needing a car seat. Other than that, I agree

 

[JimMIA]

I would do it once, just for the cute factor.

 

[Clare Voince]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

It's not a worse product. I believe the service is far superior. I had no problem with wait times being incorrect when I used it. In some cases, when going to Pioneer Hall or the MK, Minnie Vans have a clear advantage over Uber/Lyft. The cast members I've had were spectacular. One of them did mention that they were expanding their fleet, so it's possible that they have some new drivers getting used to the job.

 

[PoohBear]

Just FYI, the rider doesn't pay for wait times until the driver actually arrives with Lyft, and I believe 2 minutes after the arrival with Uber. And the driver can't fake arrival -- the system won't accept the arrival unless the GPS shows the driver in the correct place.

Yes, I look forward from them switching to the more traditional Lyft model rather than the flat rates we paid for this very reason.

The cast members I've had were spectacular

The cast members are what makes the service, I think. We found them all very kind and enjoyed pleasant conversation with them during our rides. Aside from all of the glitches we experienced, it was a far better experience than when we used Uber. Out of the handful of Uber drivers we used, only one spoke English and it made getting to our destinations difficult if there were unexpected detours or traffic conditions.
I am anxious to give Minnie vans another try when we return.
If it doesn’t work out, it’s great to know Uber and Lyft are there for us to utilize as well.

 

[Best Aunt]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

I can think of two reasons.

1) At the Magic Kingdom, they pick up and drop off in a slot with the Disney hotel buses. You can't get that close with Uber/Lyft; you would have to get dropped off at the Contemporary and walk over, or at Transportation and Ticket Center.

2) They have 2 car seats. The best you can get with Uber is 1 car seat, and that's assuming one of those cars is avaiable. Lyft has no car seats.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We would have loved our Minnie van driver taking a wrong turn just so we could have chatted with her longer. That driver made it worth every penny of the $25+tip. She was amazing. Plus she waited a long time for us to find her in the dark rainstorm at Hoop de doo. I was drenched like I had been in a shower and she didn’t care at all. The heated seat completely dried my back half. If we have extra cash we might consider getting one on the next trip because seriously she was amazing. She talked about her different jobs at Disney her family. It was like having a private tour guide. We were enthralled. We did two lift rides and one was awesome. He was similar in personality to the Minnie van driver and we really enjoyed the ride. The other was poor English speaking and was pretty unsure of how to get to the water park. His gps was definitely necessary. But both rides were cheap and decent. We will probably use Lyft or uber most of the time going to water parks but Take Minnie van to or from Hopp de Doo. Granted now we know where the bus stop is so that will help!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I would do it once, just for the cute factor.

You do realize that inside these vans it's NOT cute. It's ugly, boring and cheap looking.

Just take a photo of one on the outside, that's the "cute factor"

 

[nkereina]

After all of these months, I still cannot fathom a single reason why anybody would choose to use Disney's Minnie Van service over a typical Uber or Lyft. Why give Disney more money for a worse product?

As mentioned, its the car seat factor. I am picturing families who need car seats and also need to get to an early morning ADR at a different resort are finding this service worthwhile.

There are also people out there, some here on the boards, who are still not comfortable with Uber/Lyft. They focus on the horror stories on the news and the different business practices than those of a taxi union. So the skeptics and the uninformed probably would also prefer Minnie Vans over traditional Uber/Lyft.

 

[leahgoogle]

I can think of two reasons.

1) At the Magic Kingdom, they pick up and drop off in a slot with the Disney hotel buses. You can't get that close with Uber/Lyft; you would have to get dropped off at the Contemporary and walk over, or at Transportation and Ticket Center.

2) They have 2 car seats. The best you can get with Uber is 1 car seat, and that's assuming one of those cars is avaiable. Lyft has no car seats.

It was reason #1 above for us. We used a Minnie Van once to get us to Magic Kingdom without going to the Contempoary or TTC. It was awesome! The cast member was great and we had no issues.

Edited to say we had no issues.

 

[ClapYourHands]

It was reason #1 above for us. We used a Minnie Van once to get us to Magic Kingdom without going to the Contempoary or TTC. It was awesome! The cast member was great and we had no issues.

Edited to say we had no issues.

I'm considering doing this on one day of my stay next month. Making rope drop at MK without the agitation of walking from the Contemporary might be worth the extra $$.

 

[leahgoogle]

I'm considering doing this on one day of my stay next month. Making rope drop at MK without the agitation of walking from the Contemporary might be worth the extra $$.

We thought it was well worth the extra money!

 

[hgr681]

Are there car seats available on these?