Pop reducing bus service to 1/hour

[Disneylover99]

Thank you. This is what I'm hoping/assuming. Call me naive, but I can't believe Disney would leave us with no regular WDW transportation way to make it to DHS early enough for park open/ROTR BGs.

The problem is, you’ll need to look at opening times carefully. They may suddenly open the skyliner at 6:30am because of a 7am opening at HS and feel that’s adequate to get you there on time, so even the first buses could come every hour or so if this is the case.

Of course we know you’re probably not going to get to HS in time to get a BG if this happens.

 

[yulilin3]

Ive mentioned this on other threads. I called twice to get 2 CM confirmations
This is for all skyliner resorts, pop, AoA, CB and RR
For park openings before skyliner starts service at 7:30 they will have buses running every 20-25 minutes until the skyliner opens. someone reported being on a pop bus to dhs this morning at 5:30
They will also have buses available when the skyliner stops for long periods of time

 

[joelkfla]

someone reported being on as pop buds to dhs this morning at 5:30

I don't understand what you're saying.

 

[NWOhiogal]

Ive mentioned this on other threads. I called twice to get 2 CM confirmations
This is for all skyliner resorts, pop, AoA, CB and RR
For park openings before skyliner starts service at 7:30 they will have buses running every 20-25 minutes until the skyliner opens. someone reported being on as pop buds to dhs this morning at 5:30
They will also have buses available when the skyliner stops for long periods of time

Thanks for the info! I wonder what Disney considers "long periods of time", though? Half an hour? An hour? Fifteen minutes? (probably not.) Will they have busses on standby, ready to roll out, or will the busses be manned, gassed up, and driven over only after Disney has decided to release them? Will the drivers be 'on call' (unlikely, they'd need to be paid and that costs money) or will Disney scramble to find a driver who has the day off and ask him/her if he/she is willing to come in?

I'd be ticked if I was in line for the Skyliner and it went down, and I had to wait another half hour to even hear if Disney was going to break out a bus. And then of course, hiking all the way to the front of the resort to wait with hundreds of other people. I might plan on getting to, say, Epcot at 8 a.m. but it might be closer to 10 a.m. - or later - when I actually get there. That's time you don't get back, and my guess is Disney won't offer any kind of compensation for inconvenienced guests because hey, the transportation is free! (except it's not free, it's why you're suddenly paying $70 a night more to stay at a 'value' resort).

 

[yulilin3]

I don't understand what you're saying.

Bus

 

[NWOhiogal]

I don't understand what you're saying.

I translated it as "Someone reported being on a Pop Century bus to Disney Hollywood Studios at 5:30 a.m."

 

[joelkfla]

There's another thread on this more activity: https://www.disboards.com/threads/pop-reducing-bus-service-to-1-hour.3784964/unread

 

[KayMichigan]

Sounds like a real mess waiting to happen. They're going to be funneling all the traffic for two parks from two resorts to one Skyliner station and everyone from both resorts will be jamming their bus stops for the ONE bus that will be coming along per hour. And if you can't fit on that bus, you'll have to wait an entire hour for the next one. Ugh.

 

[loves to dive]

Wouldn't bother me so much except my son is afraid of heights and claustrophobic and the skyliner has been known to get stuck. Being high in the sky in a little box and stuck, that would not be pretty. Is there a time for that once per hour? I guess if we were staying there we would just have to plan to be at the stop during that time. Wouldn't be a game changer, just a small inconvenience for us.

 

[NWOhiogal]

Well, I imagine if the Skyliner went down they'd dispatch enough busses to handle the traffic, not just one an hour. Still, it would be a mess, and obviously would not be saving Disney any money which is I'm sure what they were planning with the Skyliner - run that and keep the busses in the garage, and the drivers off the payroll.

 

[cherylnj]

There are always drivers and buses on standby, ready to roll, in case the Skyliner or Boats go down.

Thanks for the info! I wonder what Disney considers "long periods of time", though? Half an hour? An hour? Fifteen minutes? (probably not.) Will they have busses on standby, ready to roll out, or will the busses be manned, gassed up, and driven over only after Disney has decided to release them? Will the drivers be 'on call' (unlikely, they'd need to be paid and that costs money) or will Disney scramble to find a driver who has the day off and ask him/her if he/she is willing to come in?

I'd be ticked if I was in line for the Skyliner and it went down, and I had to wait another half hour to even hear if Disney was going to break out a bus. And then of course, hiking all the way to the front of the resort to wait with hundreds of other people. I might plan on getting to, say, Epcot at 8 a.m. but it might be closer to 10 a.m. - or later - when I actually get there. That's time you don't get back, and my guess is Disney won't offer any kind of compensation for inconvenienced guests because hey, the transportation is free! (except it's not free, it's why you're suddenly paying $70 a night more to stay at a 'value' resort).

 

[joelkfla]

Sounds like a real mess waiting to happen. They're going to be funneling all the traffic for two parks from two resorts to one Skyliner station and everyone from both resorts will be jamming their bus stops for the ONE bus that will be coming along per hour. And if you can't fit on that bus, you'll have to wait an entire hour for the next one. Ugh.

The cabins depart about every 11 seconds, so if you figure 5 per minute x 60 minutes x a conservative 6 Guests per cabin, that's 1,800 Guests per hour, which is equivalent to more than 25.7 busloads per hour, or one bus every 9 minutes for each resort-park combination. That should be enough to handle the load at most times. During heaviest times, they can crowd closer to 8 Guests in a cabin, which potentially increases capacity by 33%.

The real concern, as others have stated, is how they handle Skyliner downtimes.

 

[Disneylover99]

There are always drivers and buses on standby, ready to roll, in case the Skyliner or Boats go down.

I think the concern with the skyliner is what constitutes downtime? I mean, we all know with the boats or skyliner if there is lightning in the vicinity, they go down, but on the skyliner with stops for unknown reasons for 10-30 minutes or so, will they send buses or do people just wait it out.

 

[joelkfla]

There are always drivers and buses on standby, ready to roll, in case the Skyliner or Boats go down.

Not in my experience, although that was 4 years ago. When boats or monorails went down unexpectedly, buses & drivers had to be drawn in from other routes, which sometimes took a half hour to get going, and affected service level on the other routes. Management kept driver schedules at the bare minimum that could get by, and local managers were dinged for having drivers hanging around but not driving.

 

[Magnoliafan]

Sounds like a real mess waiting to happen. They're going to be funneling all the traffic for two parks from two resorts to one Skyliner station and everyone from both resorts will be jamming their bus stops for the ONE bus that will be coming along per hour. And if you can't fit on that bus, you'll have to wait an entire hour for the next one. Ugh.

That’s assuming that there are still loads of people choosing the bus over the Skyliner. Does anyone know what the bus situation has been like on days where the Skyliner was running? Are there enough people getting on every 20-25 minutes to justify the extra buses? I’m honestly curious. I’m planning to stay at Pop in May for the first time since the Skyliner opened and I can’t imagine choosing to take a bus to Epcot or HS unless the Skyliner is down or I’m trying to make rope drop. My least favorite thing about Pop has always been the buses (I hate waiting in a rope line with no overhead cover and vastly prefer the stations at Moderates and Deluxes) and found the Skyliner to be much more convenient when I was park and resort hopping on my last trip.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

As a frequent MK monorail resort guest, some of the discussion above touches on situations we have occasionally dealt with getting to/from Epcot (where the only Disney transport option is monorail) and to/from MK (although the boats are usually an alternative other than in weather).

But we’ve definitely had situations where there is a delay or extended downtime and you end up in that weird / amorphous period between where they shut down one mode of transportation and mobilize bus service as the backup. It is not always pretty, it can be chaotic, and information is sometimes hard to come by. Getting from one mode to the other is usually not close/convenient. It can be a challenge understanding the best course of action as a guest if you’re there right when things are shifting.

Fortunately it is not all that common, but it has happened. I can imagine similar situations/dynamics with the Skyliner and the Skyliner served resorts under this new setup when the Skyliner experiences downtime sufficient enough to mobilize extra bus service.

Not meaning to dismiss any concerns for Pop guests - this is a sudden change for sure.

 

[Disneylover99]

As a frequent MK monorail resort guest, some of the discussion above touches on situations we have occasionally dealt with getting to/from Epcot (where the only Disney transport option is monorail) and to/from MK (although the boats are usually an alternative other than in weather).

But we’ve definitely had situations where there is a delay or extended downtime and you end up in that weird / amorphous period between where they shut down one mode of transportation and mobilize bus service as the backup. It is not always pretty, it can be chaotic, and information is sometimes hard to come by. Getting from one mode to the other is usually not close/convenient. It can be a challenge understanding the best course of action as a guest if you’re there right when things are shifting.

Fortunately it is not all that common, but it has happened. I can imagine similar situations/dynamics with the Skyliner and the Skyliner served resorts under this new setup when the Skyliner experiences downtime sufficient enough to mobilize extra bus service.

Not meaning to dismiss any concerns for Pop guests - this is a sudden change for sure.

I know exactly what you mean.

That’s why I’ve always loved the bus only resorts. There’s no second guessing where you should be. You just wait for the bus. You know one is coming soon.

 

[karly05]

The problem is, you’ll need to look at opening times carefully. They may suddenly open the skyliner at 6:30am because of a 7am opening at HS and feel that’s adequate to get you there on time, so even the first buses could come every hour or so if this is the case.

Of course we know you’re probably not going to get to HS in time to get a BG if this happens.

For whatever it's worth, I have 3 days I can start the day at HS, so hoping I can learn from any failure and try again. (And already bracing for not getting to ride RotR at all.)

 

[brockash]

So apparently starting today, Pop Century is only having busses to Epcot and Hollywood Studios run once an hour, and encouraging people to use the Skyliner instead.

Personally I think it's a bad move because the Skyliner is unreliable, and bad weather and other problems is going to force Pop to scramble to dispatch busses to huge crowds of frustrated, impatient guests who would be furious at wasting time (hours probably) waiting to get to the parks they paid a LOT of money to get to.


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I'm sure this was the plan all along...I know some argued it wasn't likely, but come on what does Disney not do for the bottom line. Personally I'm glad we chose not to stay at one of skyliner resorts for our upcoming trip...for me it's still too unreliable for rope drops etc.

 

[brockash]

I think it's a little too early to say it's a bad move...

Lol...I think that's what many are thinking about the decision... too early.