Not like my guests or I wanted to go anywhere anyway.
Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 5:16 am
I am about to tell you of two situations that happened tonight. They are going to sound very similar, but they were hours apart.
First, some background info that will help you understand the situation. The bus load zones at most of the parks are very precisely made, so that you pull up to a line to load, and if you don't go too far over it you won't hit the red "STOP THAT RUNAWAY BUS!" posts or the bus in the LZ ahead of you. However, if the bus ahead of you is not close enough to the sidewalk in LZ 6-10 at MK, you are blocked in. by a combination of the bus ahead of you and the curb to your left, again designed so that if all the buses enter their LZ's properly, there is never a problem.
Situation 1: I broke the driver going into LZ 9, got my bus mirrors and seat set to my preferences, had my guests board, and shut the door. As I was putting the bus into gear and activated my left turn signal, another bus whipped around me into LZ10, with her back end about four feet from the sidewalk and way back from the stop line, so that even buses going straight by had a difficult time getting around her. I pulled out, and knew pretty quickly there was no going around her. I was hoping she would see me trying to exit my LZ and move up before loading/unloading, but no dice. Okay, I thought, I'll just wait a moment while she unloads. She's sat there, all doors open for about five minutes, when I saw her wheelchair ramp pop out, and a scooter come careening out of the bus. At this point, my passengers, many of whom were standing, were grumbling, wondering when we're going to move. I told them she's putting her ramp up, it shouldn't be long now. Of course, little did I realize she was going to open her front door and wait another six minutes to make sure she got everyone in the park who might want to go to Coronado Springs. Now, my passengers were starting to get downright rabid, wanting me to back up, which I never do unless I am the middle bus or outside bus in the three-bus stack they sometimes do at LZ 18 for Pop Century. At nine minutes into the wait, another driver offered to spot me back, which I refuse because it's just too dangerous with the way guests will dart out of the load zones. He understood, so he went up and talked to her, and finally she departed. At eleven minutes into the wait, that after about seven minutes of me getting the bus ready to go, doing my walk-around, signing in, getting the MiMs set, testing the sound volumes, etc. With her, they had waited almost twenty minutes to go. That is unacceptable. Bad show.
Later that night, I was given a Pop Century run out of LZ 18 (remember how I told you we sometimes stack buses there?). I had crammed my bus full (you couldn't fit another person on my bus), put it in gear, released the brake and was turning out of the zone when the SAME driver that had blocked me in before came careening up to my left and stopped to load more passengers for Pop Century, stacked in my way. I had to wait five minutes while she got the bus about half-loaded, waited some more. Then I finally decided she was staying and had some empty seats, so I opened my door to let some people from my bus go over to hers. As I was opening my door and some guests were walking up to her bus, she shut her door, smartly backed up (I didn't say intelligently), pulled out and left. I let my people back on (who were in front of my bus going to hers when she did this), and was finally able to pull out with my packed bus, right behind her.
What makes this scary is how I was doing the speed limit and she disappeared on World Drive, so that when I arrived at Pop Century she was already on her way back to the security gate. She gained a good five minutes on me in the time it took me to get to PC, again with me doing the speed limit, on a 20-minute trip. You do the math. I wouldn't have said anything, except that one of my passengers did. If my guests notice, then I think I have the right to comment at that point.
I was talking to one of the drivers who I trust other than Cranbiz, and he told me of his experiences, and that she was new. He was telling me how he had passed her because she was doing about 15 on World Drive, appearing to be as happy as could be, grinning from ear to ear, head in the clouds.
After the final rush, we all go over to Westgate to wait for the clock. I had to pass her on my way to clock out, and when I saw her service pin for at least a year, didn't care to stick around in her presence to see what pin it was.
This is someone who does NOT belong in buses, much less a Disney bus. She obviously doesn't understand how her actions affect others on the road. I question if she even knows what is going on around her. One thing about buses: you can tell from a great distance what is going on; they are pretty easy to read. If people are in line and suddenly stop approaching, it's probably because the bus there is about to depart. If you are driving a bus, you need to think of the bus as an extension of your body: You need to know where everything is at all times, bumper to bumper, as well as exactly where it is going to go for any action you take. When you are too far from the curb in an already tight situation, especially in a place like the MK bus depot, you create nothing but havoc for many, many people.
The first time, I was able to shrug it off as her not realizing, but she would learn. The second time, I was a bit frosted.
If you want to be oblivious to the world around you, that's fine with me. However, make sure you don't get a job where your customers' and coworkers' lives, as well as those of thousands of others per day, depend on you paying attention. It's common sense.
But then, if everyone had common sense, we wouldn't have a need for SGT.com. Much as I love coming here, right now I can't help but think how nice that would be.
First, some background info that will help you understand the situation. The bus load zones at most of the parks are very precisely made, so that you pull up to a line to load, and if you don't go too far over it you won't hit the red "STOP THAT RUNAWAY BUS!" posts or the bus in the LZ ahead of you. However, if the bus ahead of you is not close enough to the sidewalk in LZ 6-10 at MK, you are blocked in. by a combination of the bus ahead of you and the curb to your left, again designed so that if all the buses enter their LZ's properly, there is never a problem.
Situation 1: I broke the driver going into LZ 9, got my bus mirrors and seat set to my preferences, had my guests board, and shut the door. As I was putting the bus into gear and activated my left turn signal, another bus whipped around me into LZ10, with her back end about four feet from the sidewalk and way back from the stop line, so that even buses going straight by had a difficult time getting around her. I pulled out, and knew pretty quickly there was no going around her. I was hoping she would see me trying to exit my LZ and move up before loading/unloading, but no dice. Okay, I thought, I'll just wait a moment while she unloads. She's sat there, all doors open for about five minutes, when I saw her wheelchair ramp pop out, and a scooter come careening out of the bus. At this point, my passengers, many of whom were standing, were grumbling, wondering when we're going to move. I told them she's putting her ramp up, it shouldn't be long now. Of course, little did I realize she was going to open her front door and wait another six minutes to make sure she got everyone in the park who might want to go to Coronado Springs. Now, my passengers were starting to get downright rabid, wanting me to back up, which I never do unless I am the middle bus or outside bus in the three-bus stack they sometimes do at LZ 18 for Pop Century. At nine minutes into the wait, another driver offered to spot me back, which I refuse because it's just too dangerous with the way guests will dart out of the load zones. He understood, so he went up and talked to her, and finally she departed. At eleven minutes into the wait, that after about seven minutes of me getting the bus ready to go, doing my walk-around, signing in, getting the MiMs set, testing the sound volumes, etc. With her, they had waited almost twenty minutes to go. That is unacceptable. Bad show.
Later that night, I was given a Pop Century run out of LZ 18 (remember how I told you we sometimes stack buses there?). I had crammed my bus full (you couldn't fit another person on my bus), put it in gear, released the brake and was turning out of the zone when the SAME driver that had blocked me in before came careening up to my left and stopped to load more passengers for Pop Century, stacked in my way. I had to wait five minutes while she got the bus about half-loaded, waited some more. Then I finally decided she was staying and had some empty seats, so I opened my door to let some people from my bus go over to hers. As I was opening my door and some guests were walking up to her bus, she shut her door, smartly backed up (I didn't say intelligently), pulled out and left. I let my people back on (who were in front of my bus going to hers when she did this), and was finally able to pull out with my packed bus, right behind her.
What makes this scary is how I was doing the speed limit and she disappeared on World Drive, so that when I arrived at Pop Century she was already on her way back to the security gate. She gained a good five minutes on me in the time it took me to get to PC, again with me doing the speed limit, on a 20-minute trip. You do the math. I wouldn't have said anything, except that one of my passengers did. If my guests notice, then I think I have the right to comment at that point.
I was talking to one of the drivers who I trust other than Cranbiz, and he told me of his experiences, and that she was new. He was telling me how he had passed her because she was doing about 15 on World Drive, appearing to be as happy as could be, grinning from ear to ear, head in the clouds.
After the final rush, we all go over to Westgate to wait for the clock. I had to pass her on my way to clock out, and when I saw her service pin for at least a year, didn't care to stick around in her presence to see what pin it was.
This is someone who does NOT belong in buses, much less a Disney bus. She obviously doesn't understand how her actions affect others on the road. I question if she even knows what is going on around her. One thing about buses: you can tell from a great distance what is going on; they are pretty easy to read. If people are in line and suddenly stop approaching, it's probably because the bus there is about to depart. If you are driving a bus, you need to think of the bus as an extension of your body: You need to know where everything is at all times, bumper to bumper, as well as exactly where it is going to go for any action you take. When you are too far from the curb in an already tight situation, especially in a place like the MK bus depot, you create nothing but havoc for many, many people.
The first time, I was able to shrug it off as her not realizing, but she would learn. The second time, I was a bit frosted.
If you want to be oblivious to the world around you, that's fine with me. However, make sure you don't get a job where your customers' and coworkers' lives, as well as those of thousands of others per day, depend on you paying attention. It's common sense.
But then, if everyone had common sense, we wouldn't have a need for SGT.com. Much as I love coming here, right now I can't help but think how nice that would be.