Chartered Magic: Disney’s Bus Driver Shortage Leads to Third-Party Solutions

    As tourists continue to flood into the Central Florida area, Disney is facing a bus driver shortage that is forcing them to turn to a less magical solution – charter buses over character buses.

    Back in July 2019, Disney began rolling out new Sensational Six character wraps for their buses. It was a way to immerse guests into the magic as Mickey or Minnie showed up to whisk you off to your theme park of choice for the day.

    In the months to follow, more characters wraps would appear as Disney spread the magic across their fleet of buses. From figment to Groot, Dumbo to Pua, guests would often encounter magical moments throughout their Disney vacation as they saw characters and scenes from their favorite Disney movies (and even theme park attractions) pull up to their resort.

    Not only did these buses come with fun new characters, but they also kicked off a series of interior refreshes that brought more comfortable seating and even USB charging. Eventually, Wi-Fi would be added to the buses.

    Taking the earlier thought of characters adding a dash of magic to Disney transportation options, we also saw a multitude of Disney characters added to the Disney Skyliner gondola system when it debuted in September 2019. It was clear that Disney wanted their transportation options to immerse guests in the Disney vacation, and to be more than just a bus or gondola.

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    Now, with crowds and capacity increasing at Walt Disney World, Disney is working hard to find enough employees to meet the demand that they have created. While we’ve seen huge hiring sprees that have recently resulted in the largest ever “Traditions” class of over 200 new Cast Members, one area where Disney is still struggling to find help is bus drivers. Look no further than just about any bus lane for evidence of the shortage – charter buses.

    Disney has been turning to charter buses for some time now, but their reliance on charters looks like it’ll ramp up into the summer season. While charter buses used to be limited to value and some moderate resorts, we’ve started to see their widespread use at deluxe resorts as well. It seems like Disney has plenty of buses, but a severe shortage in drivers.

    As we look towards the summer, there is going to be an increased need in the utilization of charter buses if Disney is unable to hire enough bus drivers. With the rumor of fireworks returning at some theme parks ahead of the October 1, 2021 50th Anniversary of the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney would seemingly be less concerned about physical distancing space within their theme parks, and more concerned about moving tens of thousands of guests out of the theme parks within the 30 minutes or so following the conclusion of a fireworks show. The solution will very likely be more charter buses.

    With physical distancing limits still in place across Disney’s various transportation options, we’d have to see those policies relaxed if Disney is going to efficiently move guests out of a theme park in higher numbers than they currently are faced with.

    At this time, Disney is utilizing charter buses on rolling contracts. It’s unlikely to be a permanent solution, but it’s also unclear when Disney might get back to exclusively using their own buses to get guests back to their Disney-owned hotels.

    As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!

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    2 COMMENTS

    1. Aside from the pandemic reducing staff, many Disney drivers won’t stay on due to the pay. I’ve spoke with a couple of drivers the ones that stay have retired from driving and do this for fun. But the rest get trained and leave due to the pay $15/hr) . They can make as much as $3-5 more driving for the municipality. Disney may need to up their wages to keep people.

    2. If they’re having bus driver shortages then a big solution would be to bring the Epcot monorail back.

    Comments are closed.

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