Disney to bring 90 new buses from California to Orlando to improve fleet - Orlando Business Journal
New buses and new character wraps improve Disney's bus fleet. These films and stories will be featured. Disney is bringing in 90 new buses from California to Orlando to improve its fleet. The buses, which take five or six days to cross the country, will travel in clusters, albeit slowly. Disney's Vice President of Transportation Operations, Mark Natter, said this is the first post-Covid mass replacement. The new buses will replace 90 old ones and feature updated wraps featuring fan-favorite characters and stories like Chip ‘n’ Dale, Orange Bird, Figment, 101 Dalmatians, Ratatouille and Zootopia. Each bus has 29 regular seats with no seat belts, accommodating people of all heights and sizes, and each seat is equipped with a USB charging port.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Sarah Kinbar in Business
Ninety new buses are making their way from Livermore, California, to Walt Disney World. They’re not driving all at once, though depending on when they come off the line at Gillig, the manufacturer, they may travel in clusters, albeit slowly.
“They take five or six days to cross the country,” said Disney’s Vice President of Transportation Operations Mark Natter. “They're driving at a pretty conservative speed.”
Guests will notice the new and updated wraps featuring fan-favorite characters and stories like Chip ‘n’ Dale, Orange Bird, Figment, 101 Dalmatians, Ratatouille and Zootopia. Natter said the illustrations were chosen by Disney’s creative team based on what’s currently resonating with guests.
Disney closely tracks the performance of its fleet of 420 buses, said Natter, and replaces them based on age and condition. This is the first post-Covid mass replacement, he said. The new buses will replace 90 old ones.
Disney got a spot in the 2024 production line — it is one customer among many across the United States — for standard 40-foot, low-floor transit buses, said Natter. The themed entertainment company has the buses customized based on “the Disney point of view,” which mainly involves seating configurations.
"In this particular case, we've done something special with regards to guests with disabilities,” said Natter. "We'll be able to transport a maximum of three guests with disabilities versus the buses we currently have, which only can transport two. The spaces work for anything that will require ambulatory assistance, whether it’s a wheelchair, scooter or stroller carrying a child with special needs who wouldn't be able to move out of their stroller for the purposes of transport.”
Each bus has 29 regular seats with no seat belts, accommodating people of all heights and sizes. Each seat is equipped with a USB charging port — a first for Disney buses — and the buses also have Wi-Fi. The buses have internal combustion engines that take diesel fuel. Thirty of the buses are already in use with another 60 on the way.
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