I wanted to put a little coda on the recent Bomb Scare that hit the Walt Disney World bus transportation system. As mentioned in the updated version of my previous coverage, the item was determined to be non-hazardous. Since then the sheriff department has said that it appeared to be a transponder of the sort that would be used to track the movements of the bus.
It seems likely this was a benign use of a GPS tracker or similar device probably put on the bus by some Disney group in the past that was just unfamiliar to the crew that was working on the buses in the maintenance shop that day. I’d rather not discuss the less benign possibilities as to why someone not-affiliated with Disney would want to track the movements of a bus. Your mind can fill in the blanks on its own.
Disney reacted in a timely matter, erred on the side of safety for its guests and cast members (although the drivers sitting in idling buses waiting for their inspection had to be nervous), and managed to get everything back up to full operation by later that night while providing alternatives for those who needed them. They also avoided another nasty public relations hit. So I’ll give them a B+ on the report card.
What I would like to see from Disney is some vision when it comes to the transportation options at the resort. I think it’s hopeless to dream that they’ll ever expand the monorail system unless the costs can be brought down on that. The two most likely options seem to be adding a light rail line or two or some form of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system such as the Podcar or Skytran.
I like the PRT option personally. A Podcar system is being installed at Heathrow Airport which has similar requirements as a Disney resort. The Skytran is a different implementation of the PRT vision. The company claims you can build 19 miles of Skytran for every mile of Light Rail. That’s good because the purpose of Skytran is destination to destination personal transport with no other stops in between.
I wouldn’t have brought this up at all today, but I saw a video where the inventor of Skytran mentions that he has a project going in in Florida? Could that be at Walt Disney World maybe? A guy can dream, I guess.
John,
What, in your opinion, could’ve they done differently (or in addition) to what they did to get that B+ up to an A+?
So, did you give the, a B+ because they didn’t have an efficient back up plan for the busses, other than cabs? Seems fair, if so.
I like the Skytran look. It’s got that futuristic feel to it that would work well for Disney. I’m not holding my breath on their “Florida project” being at Disney though. But, it would be nice.
I would say lack of back up plan is one, and that original call came at 3pm, but it was sometime after 5pm when they shut down the bus system until they could be inspected. But I haven’t gotten an official timeline, so that may be off a bit.
I have to dissagree with your times mentioned here. I was at the Disney POP Century Resort standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus to downtown Disney when a cast member informed us that there would be no more buses for at least two hours, this was at 3:10pm, then at 3:15 I asked the same cast member what the status was and he said that a suspicious item was found on a bus that was in for maintenance and that all 275 buses were being sent through a dog sniffing and hands on inspection. He then said it would be quite a while before the buses would be back on schedule. I went to the concierge and immediatly requested 4 taxi’s as our party of 15 had reservations at Wolfgang Puks. The resort paid for the Taxi’s and within 20 minutes we were on our way. If you ask me it was handled profeesionally in every aspect and thank you Disney for being on your toes and making sure that your guests were safe. We left Down town Disney at approximatly 11:00pm and the bus’s seemed to be back in full swing.
A quick coda on the Disney World Bus Bomb Scare – http://is.gd/3sKjr – Device was a transponder used for tracking – who put it there?
For more on Personal Rapid Transit in California (Orange County: http://www.prtstrategies.com. Please note our treatment for Anaheim.
You can learn more about PRT at http://www.prtconsulting.com
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Thanks for filling us in on the times. That was one of the missing pieces.
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