Magic On Demand

[Kirby]

Let's see if I understand this right. We are staying at POR over Thanksgiving. If a bus fills up before it goes all the way around the resort, another bus will be dispatched for the rest of the stops. Do I have the gist of it?

 

[seashoreCM]

As far as I know, "Magic on Demand" never worked properly and they have returned to the old method of fixed 20 minute scheduling with extra buses run as directed. What happens in the situation you describe continues to be haphazard, sometimes the next bus will stop first at the stop that was skipped by the previous bus.

As of my last visit (Nov. 01) there were cast members at resort bus stops on an irregular basis during peak times, counting passengers and supposedly they called for extra buses too. During really peak times, there aren't enough buses to satisfy all such requests.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Originally posted by seashoreCM
As far as I know, "Magic on Demand" never worked properly and they have returned to the old method of fixed 20 minute scheduling with extra buses run as directed.

Actually... I can tell you... MOD works great, and it *IS* currently in use, and has been for quite a long time. I'll see if I can explain how it works.

In the morning... Each hub has thier own assigned busses. A hub would be a theme park, such as Animal Kingdom, or Epcot. Now... instead of having these hubs service only thier hub... they service thier area's resorts. So for example, Animal Kingdom busses are staged out of the All-Stars. Epcot busses are staged out of Port Orleans.

Now let's say I'm an Animal Kingdom driver. I get my bus, and report to the All-Star staging area, and get in line. The coordinator (Field 6) handles all the dispatching of Field 6 busses, and Zone 6 busses (Other hub busses servicing Zone 6... I'll get to that in a bit). Now, Field 6 gets a call on his radio from another bus... there's a large crowd at the Movies for the Studios... and the current bus went 72. (Radio code for Full Bus) So I get dispatched to pick up at All Star Movies for the Disney/MGM Studios. So I pick up for the Studios, head over there, and drop off. Once I've dropped off, Zone 4 dispatches me to Caribbean Beach to pick up for Animal Kingdom. Once I've dropped off at AK, I head back to the All-Star staging area.

So, with Magic On Demand... Not only do busses get dispatched by demand... we cross-utilize busses, so that in both inbound and outbound trips... the bus is full.

Another example... I'm an Epcot bus... my "Field 3" area is Port Orleans. So I am staged out of there. I get dispatched to pick up at the South Depot for Animal Kingdom. At the same time, another bus was dispatched for West, North, and East depots, and a third bus was dispatched for French Quarter. We all pick up, and then head over to AK... drop off... and then report to Zone 6, who dispatches us to pick up at each one of the All Stars for our hub (Epcot).


Now, at 11:00am, when the mass influx dies down, we will transition to FIDS... Flexible Independant Dispatching System... or Flex Dispatch as we commonly call it. Flex is a variation of MOD, but uses the basic route system. In the past, each bus had a set route... and each route was a set time length.

So, for example, Caribbean Beach to Magic Kingdom. 3 busses running on a 36 minute route... one bus every 12 minutes. (Note that the busses would alternate which entrance they'd go into). Now say bus number 1 is a really fast driver. He doesn't speed, but he moves quickly, and is running ahead of schedule. Bus number 2... he's average, and right on time. And Bus number 3... he's really slow, and is running behind schedule. So, now you've got all 3 busses coming in within a 10 minute period, and then 20-30 mins without a bus. And if a bus goes down, the wait period also would increase.

With Flex... the route times are all combined onto one master sheet. When a bus comes into the MK, it gets dispatched to the next resort on the list. This way, all the busses are on time, every time. If a bus goes down... it doesnt matter anymore. If you have a slow driver... they're still on time. If you have a fast driver... they're still on time.

It used to be a bus would come in early, and then sit and wait for the dispatch time. Now, with Flex... it's load and go. CBR used to be a 40 minute cycle. Most drivers would do it in 30, and then sit for 10 minutes. Flex takes that 10 minutes, and utilizes it. So now, we increase runs, increase capacity, increase efficiency, and decrease waiting time.

In case you're wondering why we didn't just eliminate the waiting... there are some situations that require extra time... for example, a guest travelling with a wheelchair... or sometimes you just hit every light... so while some drivers would come back early, it's not always possible. And it's still necessary to have dispatch times, in order to maintain frequency stability. Flex solves these problems.

(Note... While MOD is demand based, FIDS is not... FIDS still goes by the route sheet times)

Originally posted by seashoreCM
During really peak times, there aren't enough buses to satisfy all such requests.

We currently have 241 Guest busses, with 24 new low floor busses on order. The only times when we don't have enough busses is during Holiday park Exits. For example, on the 4th of July, we brought 50 charter coaches from Dynamic, Mears, Dream Coach, Conquest, and a few others. We ended up having more busses than we knew what to do with. The only time they were really utilized, is right after the Parade, and Fireworks, when you had a few thousand people exiting all at once.

 

[Trekker]

Tyler

Thanks for the explanation - it is kewl to see Disney trying different things to make the transportation as smooth as possible.

 

[Kirby]

Thanks for explaining it to us.