Magical Express - no seats?

CarrieR

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Currently sitting on DME to the airport. And by "sitting," I mean crosslegged on the floor near the restroom ... because the bus ran out of seats.

Is this a new norm? Three of us are having a little floor party back here (and I'm pretty much praying we don't crash.) In all of my DME trips, I've never had this happen.
 
I would get some pictures/video. I can't imagine that's a "norm". My guess is the driver let someone on at a previous stop that shouldn't be on the bus. I would email/contact DME, send them the pictures, and let them know what happened. I would suggest if this happens to anyone else, take some quick pictures showing no empty seats, immediately get off the bus, get your luggage, and go to the front desk of your resort and insist they provide safe transportation to MCO.
 
I would get some pictures/video. I can't imagine that's a "norm". My guess is the driver let someone on at a previous stop that shouldn't be on the bus. I would email/contact DME, send them the pictures, and let them know what happened. I would suggest if this happens to anyone else, take some quick pictures showing no empty seats, immediately get off the bus, get your luggage, and go to the front desk of your resort and insist they provide safe transportation to MCO.

Yes, please contact Disney. I fear this happening a lot, but fortunately it never has. However, I've been let on a bus earlier than I was scheduled when I asked "Do you have room for me on this bus?" The bus driver never thought twice about letting me on. I assumed they knew how many seats were being taken, but it doesn't sound like they're keeping track. On other buses, I've seen every seat taken, but fortunately no one had to stand. One time there were about 15 more people than the bus could hold and the bus driver called for another bus. They've got to start keeping better control.
 


I don't have photos of no seats, but I do have photos of the three of us sitting in the rear of the bus.

Thankfully we made it to MCO safely. Drafting an email to Guest Services now.
 
I am sure their option would have been for you to wait for next ME bus which would have likely sucked half an hour or more out of your day. I have noticed they aim to fill the ME buses up as full as possible. Used to get on and go with just a handful of others and now you sit and wait for bus to fill and then stop at three or four resorts.
 


Were there truly no empty seats, or were people being rude and using seats for purses and things like that?

Either way, pretty awful stuff.
 
This was going TO the airport, so it would have meant potentially missing my flight. If it had been from MCO to WDW, I simply would have waited.
Oh, jeez. That's ridiculous. Definitely send that email. Glad we will be driving down our next three trips so I can avoid the crazy packed ME buses, long wait and slow long drive.
 
Truly no empty seats. There were a few preschool-aged kids (not babies) who I suppose could have been lap children, but they were buckled up and zonked out cold - and old enough to be legitimately entitled to seats.
 
Truly no empty seats. There were a few preschool-aged kids (not babies) who I suppose could have been lap children, but they were buckled up and zonked out cold - and old enough to be legitimately entitled to seats.
Disney knows how many folks are getting on and should only book for how many seats they have. I wonder if a family jumped on that was supposed to be on earlier or later ME.
 
I am sure their option would have been for you to wait for next ME bus which would have likely sucked half an hour or more out of your day. I have noticed they aim to fill the ME buses up as full as possible. Used to get on and go with just a handful of others and now you sit and wait for bus to fill and then stop at three or four resorts.
To me, that's not a valid option. As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you), if I couldn't get my travelling party on the bus, I'd insist on Disney providing alternate transportation. I held up my end of the bargain, they need to do theirs.
 
This is most likely a case of
1. There were stops that were missed in the previous run, so the driver put them on your bus
Or
2. Guests wanted to board an earlier bus, and the driver allowed it.

Either scenario is wrong if the bus is even close to capacity.
Let Disney know..they need to hear from every guest that this happens to. To the best of my knowledge, these drivers are not Disney drivers, but Mears drivers. Yes, Disney contracted this service out to Mears, but they are representing Disney, providing a service with the Disney name on it. This shouldn't be allowed to happen.
 
To me, that's not a valid option. As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you), if I couldn't get my travelling party on the bus, I'd insist on Disney providing alternate transportation. I held up my end of the bargain, they need to do theirs.

I think this poster misunderstood that it was a bus TO the airport, not from the airport.
 
When we departed OKW August 1, we arrived at the ME bus stop about 40 minutes before our scheduled departure, mostly because my mother-in-law had already turned in her rented scooter. An older CM working at bell services asked if we wanted to board the ME bus that arrived almost immediately after we got to Hospitality House. We declined; we always find we have tons of time at MCO.

The CM also told us we could get on any ME bus that arrived. We just needed to let him know.

Couple this lax policy with ME drivers that don't even look at the transportation letter -- ours didn't -- and you could run into some of the issues describe above.
 
To me, that's not a valid option. As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you), if I couldn't get my travelling party on the bus, I'd insist on Disney providing alternate transportation. I held up my end of the bargain, they need to do theirs.

I completely agree, I know that Disney has given 'vouchers', or the like, to people to be able to take cabs at Disney's expense for extraordinary circumstances, usually hospital related, so I would assume that they should be able to provide some similar arrangement in this circumstance.
 
This was going TO the airport, so it would have meant potentially missing my flight. If it had been from MCO to WDW, I simply would have waited.

Just say "no" and have Disney staff pay for a taxi for you. That's what I would have done. I would have NEVER, ever, not at all, sat on the floor of a bus, especially when I would be going highway speeds. (greyhound driver daughter here...)

I think this poster misunderstood that it was a bus TO the airport, not from the airport.

They said "As long as I am at the designated pickup area at the designated pick up time (which is 15 minutes BEFORE the time assigned to you)"", which indicates he knows that it's leaving the resort.
 
Twice people that were not supposed to be on the DME that I was on apparently sneaked past the driver and both times the driver had a hissy fit threatening to remove random people because every butt needed a seat. Both times luckily another DME showed up before we left and people volunteered to go on that one. Most likely the people that were not supposed to be on the one I was on to begin with.
If you were on the floor either the driver was not aware of that or that was one messed up driver and I'd complain.
 
The one time that I asked the driver to get on the bus before my scheduled one, he told me "yes, but only because there was a no-show at the previous stop."
 

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