Stupid Guest Tricks

At Epcot you have to go past the taxis to get to many of the buses. Many of the cabbies are gypsies.

last summer on fourth of july at fantasmic at DL i had a guest say to me, tell disneyland to bleep itself, this place is not fun on fourth of july

Big Wallaby wrote:At Epcot you have to go past the taxis to get to many of the buses. Many of the cabbies are gypsies.

How do the gypsy cabs get into the taxi pool at Epcot? Isn't that space only supposed to be for licensed cabs, like Mears? (BTW, Wallaby, since I saw that you're working for Mears, let me say that in my experiences, their vehicles are a pleasure to ride in, particularly compared to Boston cabs.)

Come to think of it, about a year and a half ago my cousin and I got a ride back to OKW and SSR from a random, non-uniformed guy in a Town Car, and the guy gave us his card and didn't have a meter. The card didn't seem to indicate any affiliation with any company at all, much less Mears or any other Orlando transportation companies. Thinking back, it was a gypsy cab.

goofyjoe wrote:How do the gypsy cabs get into the taxi pool at Epcot? Isn't that space only supposed to be for licensed cabs, like Mears? (BTW, Wallaby, since I saw that you're working for Mears, let me say that in my experiences, their vehicles are a pleasure to ride in, particularly compared to Boston cabs.)

Come to think of it, about a year and a half ago my cousin and I got a ride back to OKW and SSR from a random, non-uniformed guy in a Town Car, and the guy gave us his card and didn't have a meter. The card didn't seem to indicate any affiliation with any company at all, much less Mears or any other Orlando transportation companies. Thinking back, it was a gypsy cab.

The Taxi stands at Disney are for Mears cabs only. I believe they might actually be posted for Yellow Cab, one of the many names Mears operate cabs under. IIRC, technically the only time other cab companies can come onto property is when they are dropping off a fare or were called to pick up a fare. Personally, if I ever need a cab in the Orlando/WDW area I would only go with one of the Mears cabs.

xliath wrote:last summer on fourth of july at fantasmic at DL i had a guest say to me, tell disneyland to bleep itself, this place is not fun on fourth of july

I always have told people that ask that unless they don't mind HUGE crowds, they should skip the summer at WDW. Little Wallaby and I do go on the Fourth of July for the fireworks (they are just plain awesome) but we don't really go past Main Street.

Shorty82 wrote:The Taxi stands at Disney are for Mears cabs only. I believe they might actually be posted for Yellow Cab, one of the many names Mears operate cabs under. IIRC, technically the only time other cab companies can come onto property is when they are dropping off a fare or were called to pick up a fare. Personally, if I ever need a cab in the Orlando/WDW area I would only go with one of the Mears cabs.

I am fairly sure it's Checker Cab (the ones that ARE yellow, but not actually checkered. The Yellow Cab cars are not checkered or yellow and I am not sure where the City Cabs go. What a weird system)

The town cars do not have a meter, but they do have a MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) like the Disney buses, except that ours do something that is really useful, like sending important messages to drivers.

xliath wrote:last summer on fourth of july at fantasmic at DL i had a guest say to me, tell disneyland to bleep itself, this place is not fun on fourth of july

what the heck were they expecting? cool weather and light crowds?

Big Wallaby wrote: The town cars do not have a meter, but they do have a MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) like the Disney buses, except that ours do something that is really useful, like sending important messages to drivers.

That's interesting. Definitely a useful feature. I don't think the "cab" I was in even had that. At the end of the day, I think it was just a guy and his car, and I have no idea how he ended up picking up there.

We have rules in Boston that only Boston cab drivers can pick up within city limits unless the customer calls a company from another town to pick him or her up. One time, at rush hour, I got picked up in a Brookline cab in Kenmore (extremely close to the Brookline border) and the driver asked one of us to put his number in the phone so that if he got pulled over, we could say that we called him (and he wouldn't get fined). Another time, at the end of a Red Sox game (when cabs are impossible to come by), I somehow managed to have a Town Car driver take me to South Station for a $10 flat fare so I could make my train home.