theOCdisney
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
We just returned from a wonderful inaugural trip as owners. I will post a full trip report later today, but I wanted to warn about road construction that caused us major delays. I gleaned so much valuable info from these boards, that I wanted to give back to those of you leaving soon.
Buena Vista Drive is completely closed (both directions) at the 536 underpass. This is a major artery of WDW and oh my, did it cause problems for the bus drivers. I asked about the shutdown and received different answers. One person said that they were redoing the overpass and it would be closed for quite some time and someone else said that they were just fixing the road and it would open soon. (Very vague!) The closure began on Monday, 9/10.
It appeared that the bus drivers did not receive adequate instructions in how to get around the road closure. On Monday morning (the first day of the closure) we had a car and drove on highway 536. Near the entrance to WDW there was a Disney bus that had obviously made a wrong turn and ended up outside the park. He had tried to make a U-turn to return and was stuck in the grass on the median. There was quite a crowd of Disney employees standing around the bus scratching their heads.
The back end of the bus was buried deep into the grass. Monday night the traffic was horrendous trying to get from the Yacht Club to Downtown Disney. It took us 1 hour!
The next day, Tues. we were going home. We scheduled the Disney Magical Express for 11:00. The bus didn't arrive until 11:15. The driver was very harried and explained he was late because of the road closure. He turned right out of Saratoga Springs and went past the bus stop at Downtown Disney. He was in the left turn lane at Buena Vista Dr. to leave WDW. For some reason he chose to go right (out of the left turn lane) and we passed DTD. He came to the road closure and turned right at Bonnet Creek Pkwy. Because of the traffic it took 20 minutes to get to this point! We ended up at the intersection of Disney Vacation Club Way (where if you turn right you pass Old Key West and go to SSR). I'm not sure why he did not go left out of SSR if he was going to end up at this point anyway!
He then proceed past the detour left turn! He drove past Port Orleans Resort and then realized his mistake. So then he came to a turn-about and literally pulled out infront of an oncoming bus and car 
He attempted the turn as if he were driving a small compact car. My daughter and I had a perfect view of how close the oncoming traffic was to us as he could not make the U-turn and had to back-up. There was a collective gasp from the passengers on the bus as he pulled out. My jaw was on my chest at how irresponsibly he was driving!!
It ended up taking 45 minutes to get out of WDW property!!!
Up until this point we had been so impressed at the ease and convenience of using Disney transportation. It seems that as long as there is nothing unusual it moves very effieciently, but if there is something out of the ordinary, the drivers don't know what to do. I'm sure the bus drivers were very frustrated, but hello, don't put lives in danger.
We really had a great time, but I had to vent this and didn't want to include it in my trip report. We decided the Disney Magical Express ride was the real E-ticket ride!
Lisa
Buena Vista Drive is completely closed (both directions) at the 536 underpass. This is a major artery of WDW and oh my, did it cause problems for the bus drivers. I asked about the shutdown and received different answers. One person said that they were redoing the overpass and it would be closed for quite some time and someone else said that they were just fixing the road and it would open soon. (Very vague!) The closure began on Monday, 9/10.
It appeared that the bus drivers did not receive adequate instructions in how to get around the road closure. On Monday morning (the first day of the closure) we had a car and drove on highway 536. Near the entrance to WDW there was a Disney bus that had obviously made a wrong turn and ended up outside the park. He had tried to make a U-turn to return and was stuck in the grass on the median. There was quite a crowd of Disney employees standing around the bus scratching their heads.
The back end of the bus was buried deep into the grass. Monday night the traffic was horrendous trying to get from the Yacht Club to Downtown Disney. It took us 1 hour! The next day, Tues. we were going home. We scheduled the Disney Magical Express for 11:00. The bus didn't arrive until 11:15. The driver was very harried and explained he was late because of the road closure. He turned right out of Saratoga Springs and went past the bus stop at Downtown Disney. He was in the left turn lane at Buena Vista Dr. to leave WDW. For some reason he chose to go right (out of the left turn lane) and we passed DTD. He came to the road closure and turned right at Bonnet Creek Pkwy. Because of the traffic it took 20 minutes to get to this point! We ended up at the intersection of Disney Vacation Club Way (where if you turn right you pass Old Key West and go to SSR). I'm not sure why he did not go left out of SSR if he was going to end up at this point anyway!
He then proceed past the detour left turn! He drove past Port Orleans Resort and then realized his mistake. So then he came to a turn-about and literally pulled out infront of an oncoming bus and car He attempted the turn as if he were driving a small compact car. My daughter and I had a perfect view of how close the oncoming traffic was to us as he could not make the U-turn and had to back-up. There was a collective gasp from the passengers on the bus as he pulled out. My jaw was on my chest at how irresponsibly he was driving!! It ended up taking 45 minutes to get out of WDW property!!!Up until this point we had been so impressed at the ease and convenience of using Disney transportation. It seems that as long as there is nothing unusual it moves very effieciently, but if there is something out of the ordinary, the drivers don't know what to do. I'm sure the bus drivers were very frustrated, but hello, don't put lives in danger.
We really had a great time, but I had to vent this and didn't want to include it in my trip report. We decided the Disney Magical Express ride was the real E-ticket ride!
Lisa
