Navigating the Disney Bus Transportation after Our First Aid Experience

Like I said in my Magic Kingdom Day 2 post, leaving the park, we had me (now with my rollator), one sleeping toddler in a stroller, and the oldest kid in a wheelchair. Navigating the regular line in that situation was going to be near impossible for us, and a transportation cast member had us wait in the line next to the line for our resort because the line for wheelchairs and mobility aids going to our resort had a couple people already waiting. We were going to wait to the side for the first guests in the accessible line to load, and were planning to wait for a second bus. However, busses were taking a while. Another cast member came up to us and said they just radioed in to get more busses to the park quicker, because the line for our hotel was filling up.

I asked if it would be possible to bring the wheelchair and stroller on via the ramp and transfer the kids to seats once we were all safely on the bus. The stroller and the rollator would still be folded, it was just going to be a lot harder to try to get everyone on safely if we couldn’t 1. do a shorter distance transfer for my daughter (who had been feeling lightheaded and a little unsteady since the nosebleed) and 2. find a way to mitigate the fact that my wife had to juggle the bags, the stroller, and the toddler. She said she’d talk to the driver to get it worked out.

They ended up putting us on the first bus. Since we didn’t require tie-downs, the let us on after the two guests who were waiting ahead of us. The cast member let the driver know what was going on, and they assisted us with allowing us to use the ramp to get the seated kids on, and then they took the wheelchair off the bus while we folded up the stroller and my rollator. The cast members here were fantastic.

Once we were settled, the driver allowed the other guests to start boarding. We then got to listen as two very vocal guests spent the entire 20+ minute ride yelling about how unfair it was that our party, who in their view “cut the line”, all had seats while they had to stand with a small child (who was probably about four). Honestly, I understand that everyone had a long day and no one likes standing on that ride back, especially not with a little kid. I’ve done just that dozens of times, when it was still safe for me to do so. I just wish people would have a little more compassion for others’ situations. Please consider that maybe those people that you think are getting “special treatment” may have something going on that you don’t know about. My kids shouldn’t have had to listen to someone yelling for 20 minutes about how much of an inconvenience their family was for holding up the line when they very clearly had a rough night. However, I am very grateful that the vast majority of the other guests on the bus just let it be and didn’t join in.