Stupid Guest Tricks

If you've talked to me live at all over the course of the last three months, I have gone through a love/hate relationship with the new computer system on the buses. I've settled at somewhere in the middle, but I believe the system is going to drive me out of bus driving and into another department about as soon as I can transfer.

Here are the things I like about the system. It has or will have some redeeming qualities soon. Maintenance will be very nice, as the system will constantly relay information about what the vehicle is doing back to base any time the bus is operating. Small problems can be fixed before anyone would otherwise be able to recognize them, and before they become big problems. It's great that the dispatch will be from one central location so that no bus is tied to any one park. That means that if a bus is running to or from Magic Kingdom and Epcot needs an extra bus, the Magic Kingdom bus can be sent over. It also means that they can move bus usage around throughout the day so that a location is not lacking because all the buses are elsewhere.

If that was all they were going to do with the system, then I would be 100% for it. If they wanted to just have safety spiels automated, I would have no problem there. I even like having music, especially on buses where when I turn on the microphone the music lowers but keeps going so I simply overpower it.

However, the guest experience is where I have the problem, and it is now enough that I want to get into another department rather quickly. With MiMs, Disney has turned all their Bus Driving Cast Members into bus drivers who just happen to work for Disney. It has taken away much of my ability to interact, because now the automated spiel says everything that needs to be said, and people don't listen to that, and if I get on the microphone they now don't listen to me unless I have all the music turned off from the moment they board.

When I am using the system, if I key the microphone too much, or if I key it over the automated announcer, it will lock me out so that my microphone doesn't work. This tells me that I am supposed to just shut up and drive.

For this reason, I don't see myself being a bus driver for Disney for long. I did not come to Florida to be a bus driver who happens to work for Disney. I came to be a Cast Member, in any role I fill. If I wanted to just drive a bus, I would have stayed in Portland and worked for Tri Met or something, or stayed in motor coaches. But I am here because I want to be a Cast Member, and driving buses was my way in.

I have talked to so many people who, after riding my bus, were so pleased that a driver was doing it the way that had brought them so many good memories for so many years. And now, that is all negated by a $12,000,000 system that takes the entertainment completely out of the hands of the driver and puts it into an automated system. I understand that they needed to because they shopped drivers, and so many were not saying a word that it was becoming a liability. But there needs to be an opt-out system for people like me who see the time a guest spends on the bus as a place for an unexpected special moment. In so many cases, that has been taken away. If I use the system as it is designed, I will never be able to do the things I did for the month or two before MiMs came into operation.

You can't accuse me of not giving it a chance; for a while I was one of the ones championing how good it would be once fully implemented. I had put aside my need to cause my guests to enjoy their bus ride, and maybe even be memorable as "that bus driver". I was thinking that there might be a way that I could work with the automated announcer and still make the trip special. But because the announcer takes up so much time going toward parks, giving advice that I was already giving, and because the announcer is very incompatible with my style, it detracts from my ability to entertain. If I let the announcer speak through the safety spiel, nothing I say will be heard unless it is their first bus ride. Because of the system, when I start my schtick, they just talk over me.

In a way, I am very self-centered, and I know it. I feel that the bus ride is not just about getting my guests from point A to point B (SAFELY!), but also about making it enjoyable. No one in their right mind wants to spend time on a city-style bus, even if it does have a purple interior. If I can make them want to not get off the bus, then I win.

This system has taken my guests at Disney World, and made them just Disney's guests. Granted, I know that when they are on my bus they are still Disney's guests, but for the time they are with me, they are my guests first, Disney's second. But the system has taken them away and at times very clearly shows me how I am really not that important, except to guide the bus down the road. Given a choice of being put in contact with guests and not being able to interact, or the Chinese Water Torture for the same length of time, I am not sure which I would choose.

When I used to welcome guests on the bus, they would look me in the eye and often they would smile at being welcomed onto a bus. Now, the moment they hit the end of the queue, they are looking into the bus to decide where they are going to sit or stand. I greet them and they don't even notice.

Had I known it would come to this, I probably would have gone into another field here to start. I hope that this is not the way that all of Disney World is going; I would hate to believe that someday I could be sorry for coming here. But I have hope that that day will never come. I pray it doesn't. If that is the way it is going, they won't need people like me to work there... people who care about the guests.

When I used to do the safety spiel myself, I knew everyone heard it, as they were laughing at the jokes I made. Now, they just talk over the system's safety spiel. Whether they hear it is negligible. It's like the safety announcements on the airlines: No one pays any attention to that dry video they have on United, Continental, American, Delta and the other big airlines. But everyone is waiting in baited breath for that safety announcement on Southwest and Alaska, because they know at least half the time it's going to be the most fun part of the flight.

Again, I wish I could say that the computer system is a waste of money, but with many of the drivers who don't want to acknowledge the existence of their precious cargo, or the ones who just don't want to be friendly, this is a great system. To those drivers, I hope you enjoy what you earned all of us, even those who do care about their guests, like me. But personally, I don't think you guys should be driving for Disney. Go somewhere that you can make more money and don't have to be friendly... I understand Greyhound is hiring, as is a transit company in Denver, and TriMet in Portland. Either way, if you are one of those drivers, please get out of Disney and leave it to those of us who are here because it is Disney and for Walt's guests. Leave it to people like most of us who peruse SGT... and leave it to me. Walt would not have wanted you here anyway, and I think it's sad that someone who is not concerned with their guests can work here. For those to whom this is just a job, please leave. I'd be happy to work seven days a week just to know that those who don't care about the guests are gone, those who earned the automated spiels.

If you've never been on a bus and received a standing ovation from the way you performed to your guests, I guess you won't understand where I am coming from. I have also turned down about $1,500 in tips just in the four months I've been here, with the explanation that I prefer drivers not be able to accept tips because it tends to make people less genuine as they chase that almighty dollar. I am not here for the money; I took a pretty good pay cut to be here. I am here for two reasons, and two reasons only: Disney the guests.

The rest of it be damned. I hate the traffic here in central Florida, but I put up with it to work for Disney. I don't really like a lot of the local culture... violent crime is very high here compared to where I come from, I've been in a very nasty accident that was hit and run, when on vacation my dad was swindled at a camera shop. I'm sure there are other things I haven't thought of. This is not a community in which I would choose to live if Disney wasn't here.

Well, I have said my piece, and it is out there for anyone who visits this site to see. I've been thinking about this post for days now, and I have said what I want to say. If I am taking my employment at the neatest company I've ever worked for in my own hands with this post, so be it; but, God, I hope I am not.

Thank you. I feel much better with that off my chest.

Bryan, I know that we have talked about this at length and I do know how you feel. I as still clinging to the hope that I can make the system work for what is was intended and for what I want out of this job. I'm noticing that a properly working system will let you cut off the automated safety spiel without impacting the PA system. It's the malfunctioning systems (and there are a lot of them) that will do these things that you describe. The systems that reset the audio if you are speaking when it wants to spiel are not systems that are functioning properly. The bigest problem is that most of the hubs don't want to deal with the paperwork involved with the reporting sheets.

What you need to do is work with the system and incorporate it into your spiels. I know that it's not your style but doing this is letting me keep my sanity and it let's me do what I came there to do, interact with the guests. Like at MK after it spiels the BS about your day at MK and you are now enroute to your resort, cut if off and say something like "Folks, I'm going to take over from disembodied Dave right now and give you a complete explaination of our safety rules........."

Make fun of the inaccuracies of the park spiels (Cinderellabration comes to mind), spiel park hours and events with your own personal twist on things like Spectromagic and Wishes.

Management does not want us to completely shut up. If they did, then the spiels would be updated daily with park hours and events. Like you said, it's the drivers that don't do their jobs that have ruined it for the rest of us.

Here is a cliche that sums up this nicely.

When life gives lemons, make lemonaid.

Until Disney hires techs to work on the system who know how it's used and what actually goes on with it (hint to Disney, I want to work on MiM's hardware and have the certs) it's going to have problems.

I was my old self at DTD tonight. Both buses has malfunctioning boxes and I was able to do my act all night. That was fun, the guests had fun and the night flew by.


Hang in there, there are ways to work with it and still have the guest interaction you crave.

It is nice to have a driver point out something interesting or explain things. What if someone has a question and you use the mike or worse. What if the driver had to yell in the mike "Sit down now you brats" or "We are going to crash" but MiMs shuts up the driver.

Who did you piss off so much as to be stuck with MiMs.

as a guest to WDW every year, i can say that many times on the bus ride to and fromthe parks/resorts, we've had many drivers who were fun and entertaining. i remember one bus driver who was quite funny. as you say, the prerecorded spiel becomes part of the background and in some ways similar to background music. it's there you know it and you really don't pay much attention. the excitement every morning going to the parks is increased when you have a bus driver who is pleasant and friendly and chats it up w/the passengers. but on the other hand one must realize that the driver does need to pay attention to the road and traffic.
i always make it a point to thank the driver upon exiting the bus. and to all the CM and CM/drivers, thank you for putting up w/many SG and still come out smiling at those who aren't SG. you guys are terrific and help make disney what it is.

Churchy,

It's the drivers that did not do their jobs that "stuck" us with MiM's.

The goals of the system are to minimize down time by using the maintenance reporting capabilities, prevent "bus bunching" (a group of buses at the same stop going to the same destinantion at the same time) and to utilize the fleet more effectivly. The intent of the onboard audio is to enhance the guest experience.

The problem with the onboard audio is that there is inconsistant audio level settings on an individual bus basis and the spiels can be unreliable at this time. Some of the buses will reset the automated spiel volumes to minimum if the driver talks over it, some will do this if the driver is talking when the system wishes to spiel and some just have a mind of their own. As I stated to a posted on Board X, there is a lot of teething pains due to the complexity of the system and the evirorment at WDW in general. Due to the layout of WDW and how the routes are managed, this system needed a lot of customization and it seems to "overload" when there are many buses in the same proximity. I use Port Orleans as an example. At any given time there can be 5 or more buses running the PO routes at the same time. By foot, PO is a large resort, by air it is not. This means the system is downloading the appropriate info to each bus and I believe that some of the issues are bandwidth issues. The system transfers data via wireless lan or thru Nextel modems.

Other issues are with some of the drivers themselves. Because the system can track a bus (due to the Automatic Vehicle Locator) some drivers are doing their best to cause the system to fail so that in their minds they can continue with the "status quo".

Big Wallaby is not one of those drivers and he is frustrated with what's going on. He can't interact with the guests in a way that he is used to because of the teething problems (you just don't know if the particular bus will let you talk without affecting something else). Because of this, his experience with the guests and MiM's in general has been less than positive. Hopefully he can hang in there, he is too good of a driver and a person to lose to another department (I for one, don't wish to see a wallaby in maroon shorts). I am clinging to my belief that the MiM's team can pull it all together and make it work right and still let me do my thing.

Wallaby-

Many years ago I was in a position where a very high level manager had set up a policy which adversely impacted my position. I had done a long report on the aftermath of a major operation; my direct supervisor told me it was not being released from our office "for your protection". Of course he knew me well enough that he also told me to be careful who I sent copies to. I sent a copy to this high-level manager.

I happened to see him at the Corporate Christmas Party and he called me aside. He commented that I had been the first person in many years to bring his attention to his having goofed up; he told me too many middle managers felt it was their job to protect him from bad news and appreciated what I had written.

What you may want to do is take your post into a word processor, possibly do minor edits, and send it as a letter to the person who is overall charge of all bus operations on WDW. Just make sure you stress that you are willing to work with the system, but that as it is the quality of the Guest Experience is being lowered as concerns your activities and that of a lot of other drivers because of what a few drivers don't do.

High level management people are almost always willing to listen to something which is well thought out and not a diatribe.

Stick with it until at least September, then I will find you, sit/stand near the front and let you spiel to just me! The bus drivers can make an already good day at the parks even better (esp. on your last day when you know there is no more Disney fun tomorrow...) or make a bad day perk up. When I pass through the WDW gate and step out of the car (or on this future trip, the bus), I expect (although I know it's not always the case) to be flooded with Disney goodness from all CM's. I've learned new trivia from bus drivers and they've also helped fudge a bit to get us into a water park. TL was closing due to capacity, call came over just as the bus was ready to board from WL. The driver looked at us, it was obvious where we were heading and said "just tell them you were already on the bus and you'll be fine", we got there and there were no problems getting in. If it wasn't for that driver, we'd have turned around to change and visit one of the other parks.

So Wallaby, keep your chin up, remember it's just software and it can be changed, especially if guest comments roll in (and they will from this SG!)

Sorry y'all are having so much trouble with the MiMs. From a guest perspective (which feel free to pass on to the powers that be). I have not yet experieinced them but feel from the description that I WILL NOT like them. Re-routing buses when needed is good. Being made aware of problems or potential problems is good. Taking away the humanity of the drivers is not good.

One of my best memories of a LONG ago trip was on the bus when the driver led a sing-a-long. I cant picture a computer getting everyone excited enough to entice a big burly guy to chant "Its a Small World" Plus the general public has been de-sensitized to automated speils and such and tend to tune them out. Good example would be car alarms (honk honk honk) How many people actually even look around to see what car is going off? ANother would be telemarketers that call and sound more like a machine then a human by reading a script. I have even asked those ones "Are you sure you are a human being and not a recording"

I would think if there are problems of the automated speil sometimes over riding what the driver is currently saying that it could be a safety issue in an emergency situation. Exp....The driver is just starting telling everyone not to panic because there is a small fire in the engine when the automated system comes over the top of him to speil about events in the park that day. A human voice is much more soothing in an excitable stituation than that of "Dave"

Maybe Disney needs to do a poll on the guests to see if they enjoy human vs. computer more. I really hope to get one of the wonderful drivers that enjoy being a Disney employee rather then just a piece of meat that steers and accelerates a bus.

Thank you all for the thoughts on this issue. Cranbiz, you have some very good points there.

With regard to the PA system and when it is working properly, having an 8-second delay is a safety issue to me. If you need to warn of something coming up right now and everybody needs to... too late. Also, with the automated announcements, I have it from the MiMs coordinators that it is supposed to not allow you to cut over the announcements. That is a temporary thing that we have, where we can cut out the announcer.

Since I spent last night complaining, let's take this time and see what some solutions are for the driver who is like Cranbiz and me. Please note, in the list below, when I say the word "me", I am referring to people like me.

--Give me more control of the system. Allow me to be able to turn off the audio but keep my microphone on, so that people are not trying to speak over the music and the announcer.

--Put interesting things into the system. For instance, if I am going to Epcot, I talk about the Seas with Nemo and Friends right before we arrive, then I tell the guests that while I hope the enjoyed themselves on my bus, the pleasure was all Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Put a recording of the Nemo seagulls on the system, along with other funny, memorable sounds and quotes from movies and attractions.

--Have a Disney character making the announcements. This idea was given to me by a guest a few days ago, and I think it's brilliant. If it was Mickey, Goofy, Sebastian, Scar, Figment (etc., etc., etc.,) making the announcements, I would be telling everyone to shut up and listen. Right now, I love playing the recording of Walt Disney at Disneyland at the opening ceremonies for people on my bus. Heck, I would love it if there was a way to use the system so I was interacting with characters on the way to parks, so that on the way to Magic Kingdom I'm talking to Mickey, on the way to Epcot I'm talking to Figment (I would never go to any other park), and so on. Imagine what would happen if the character experience could happen before the guests ever get to the park. Now that would be cool! But give me a way to shut it off if I need to as well. But I guess for my thesis of this idea, I give you the idea of Wishes. Would you rather Jimminy Cricket be the MC as he is now, or Disembodied Dave from the monorail and now buses?

If they needed to "test out" the drivers before giving them these abilities with the system, that's fine with me. I'll be first in line to be tested. I understand that you don't want to give all the drivers the ability to cut off the system, as they would just turn it off and not have anything said... and that would be a bad thing. And when I am having a day where I am just not up to par, I will kick back into the system and let it do its thing. I guess my arguement is that I should be given some choice. I hired on before this system went into place, and for a couple months, I was doing what I hired on to do. I was giving people a great time on my bus.

Perhaps they'll turn the system around, and give the drivers the ultimate control (like a PA that works NOW).

I don't know. Maybe I am just turning into an old man before my time. But I really like the old days...even if I didn't live in them for long.

OH HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE! Imagine having your driver getting into a discussion with Scar about how best to defeat your boss and take over the kingdom while on the way to AK. LOL Just think how quiet the buses would be except for that. No annoying teens squeeling or babies fussing cause they want to hear.

BTW...thanks...now ya got those damn seagulls squawking MINE MINE MINE stuck in my brain.