Transportation
One of Disney’s greatest strengths lies in its extensive transportation network. Every park is connected to each resort by at least one, and often two, means of free, simple transportation. When families journey to Disney, they don’t go to wait for a bus for hours, and Disney World knows that. That is why Disney operates its own fleet of buses. These buses run about every 15-20 minutes (Birnbaum 57) with separate routes for each of the parks. In addition to the bus service, there are multiple other transportation options including boats and the monorail. Multiple methods of transit to the various parks serves to ease congestion in the system and takes some of the monotony out of traveling (things are always more interesting when you get to choose).
With the bar set so high, any hiccups in the system tend to cause frustration, and in some cases an uproar. Take, for example, my return from Blizzard Beach. I was headed back to the hotel a bit early because I was tired (I’m turning into an old man early, I know), and when I reached the bus stop there was a sizable crowd. I stood toward the outskirts and began the wait, thinking with all the people there the bus should be coming sometime in the near future. Ten minutes passed with no bus. It was then that I started hearing the conversation of a very outspoken woman. She was complaining, saying this was getting ridiculous, and while it had been a surprisingly long time I was content to sit and wait it out. She, on the other hand, would have none of it. She was loud, impatient, and rather rude really, and while she had been there a lot longer than I, I found it hard to find any sympathy. A couple more minutes went by, and she decided to take matters into her own hands. She walked to the stop next to us and began harassing the driver in an impressively forceful voice that carried over to our stop.
“Where’s our bus? We’ve been waiting here for 30 minutes. This is ridiculous. I’m not paying all this money to wait at a bus stop all day. Can’t you just do something about it?” She finished with guttural an “Ugh!” and stormed back to our stop. While I found this all very amusing, I also felt a pang of sympathy for the driver. It wasn’t his fault our bus hadn’t shown up, but he was taking the brunt of the backlash, and it wasn’t even his route. About five minutes after her show concluded, two buses rolled up to our stop. I suppose the squeaky wheel really does get the grease, but it’s a shame when the squeak comes from someone so abrasive (not my first choice of words, but we’ll keep the paper PG).
