I don’t pay much attention to buses of any size, shape or color. They just don’t light up my brain like a good heavy duty vocational truck or OTR tractor trailer. My preferences change when I find myself visiting Walt Disney World every few years. Suddenly I enjoy looking at buses. I enjoy riding buses. I enjoy filming buses. When in Disney do as the Disneyians do. Now we’ve seen Disney bus footage on this site before so I decided to do something a little different this time around.
The transportation system at the Walt Disney World Resort is massive and varied with passenger options including bus, monorail, and boat. During my most recent stay I attempted to film a little bit of everything with footage from the four theme parks and many of the larger hotels. Some of the modes are designed for the most efficient movement of large groups like the bus. The most common of transport options, the Disney Transport buses run from every Disney Resort (over 30 properties) to all four theme parks, two water parks and one massive entertainment district now know as Disney Springs. During the start of my trip I had the crazy idea to film every model and paint scheme the buses come in. I quickly became overwhelmed and or lazy and ended up settling for what drove my stop. Below you see the older Disney Transport paint scheme but buses also come in an all white paint job with simulated red fenders or a newer grayish color with red stripes. There are even articulated buses of which I never got around to catching. Gotta leave something for a return trip right?
Before leaving for my vacation I had already begun to mentally picture one of my “white whale” vehicles, the elusive Disney Transportation Engineering service trucks. I’m not sure why this truck was hard for me to find on previous trips as I saw it at least half a dozen times during my stay this time.
Sadly I didn’t see a single Nova RTS bus anywhere, not hiding behind the scenes or way off in a back parking lot used as crew rest stop, gone, all gone. Secretly I knew the last time I was on property would be the last time I would ever glimpse these ancient relics but a part of me didn’t want to let go. They were they first buses encountered during a few of my first trips to Walt Disney World. I’m sorry to see them go but you can’t live in the past so here is the new generation.
I know Minnesota has the tag line of The Land of a 1000 Lakes but I’m pretty sure Florida has just as many if not more. Many are man made products to help with flood control and run off while others were constructed for the aesthetic qualities. The Seven Seas Lagoon is one such body of water and borders the entrance to the Magic Kingdom theme park. Several of Disney’s larger and more expensive hotels are also situated on the shore of this lake making water transport a viable and quick option of travel. Boats of various sizes and shapes can been see daily on the lagoon from massive steam powered paddle boats carrying hundreds of visitors in one trip to the many smaller resort connected water taxis. Here we see one of the smaller boats that typically run between hotels such as the Wilderness Lodge, the Contemporary, and the Grand Floridian.
Larger boats run between other resorts on other bodies of water and canals. A few are seen below. The low and long boat seen in the gallery below has thrusters that allow it turn on a dime. It’s almost a ride in itself!
Monorail! It’s not just for North Haverbrook anymore! Perhaps of all the Disney Transport choices the monorail is the most iconic and popular of all. Gliding as softly as a cloud monorails offer service to all the hotels around the Seven Seas Lagoon along with the themes parks of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The views offered by the Epcot monorails are some of the best you will find as the train actually enters the parks and makes a loop before arriving at the station.
Anyone who has ever traveled on the monorail will be familiar with this Spanish phrase. Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas. When you hear it you know you’ve arrived. It even comes on a t-shirt which I bought, washed, and promptly shrank to a size no longer wearable by a human adult.
Now the video, all 9+ minutes of it. As a rule I tend to avoid making long videos for YouTube as the attention span of the modern world simply isn’t there so let me drop some highlights to keep you interested. As expected there is plenty of bus footage and while some of it is boring to non bus folks keep an eye out for some unique shots. I particularly like the night time pan of the massive Magic Kingdom bus stops from the 14th floor of the nearby Bay Lake tower. I mentioned before that the monorail provides service to many hotels, one of which it drives right through, keep an eye out for that one. Amphicars were a quirky design of the 1960’s that tried to combine a car and boat into magic vehicle. They sold in small batches for a number of years before fading into obscurity. Disney now has a small fleet of these boats providing cruises around one of their lakes. From what I saw each boat has been restored to pristine condition. You’ll also see still shots of more unique rides like the Animal Kingdom Safari trucks and an authentic steam train. It might seem like a lot because it is! That’s what you get at Disney, you can’t see it all in one trip. Believe it or not I didn’t grab any video the parking lot trams, paddle wheelers or articulated buses. Like I said before, gotta leave something for Volume II 😉