The Unexpected Thing People Pay a “Premium” to Be Able to Do in Disney World

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What do you think Disney World is the BEST at doing? Creating Mickey-shaped foods? Creating rides that’ll blow your mind? Providing tourists with an immersive experience?

Monorail in EPCOT

In your eyes, there might be quite a few things that Disney World is the very BEST at, but now we’ve got one more you might want to add to the list — and it might not be something you expect.

Not long ago, Chuck Marohn, the founder and president of Strong Towns, welcomed back Jason Slaughter, the producer of Not Just Bikes, to the Strong Towns podcast.

Strong Towns is a nonprofit advocacy organization that “analyzes the failures of the post-war North American development pattern while giving citizens the knowledge and tools to start making our places better today.” Not Just Bikes is a YouTube channel that discusses urban planning and walkable cities. So what does Disney have to do with this?

Transportation

Well, in a recent podcast, these two hosts touched on a number of topics involving what America gets wrong when building transit.

At one point in the podcast, the hosts discussed where the best middle-class transit is located in the U.S. In terms of middle-class transit, Marohn defined that as transportation that the typical or above-typical median income family “would gladly ride and feel joyous and happy doing it.”

The answer Chuck Marohn proposes? It’s a place you might not expect…Disney World.

Bus transportation at Disney World

Marohn pointed out that one key thing is that Disney has a variety of transportation options available — boats, monorails, buses, and more. Another key thing is that these transportation options have a relatively high frequency, reliability, and drop you off right at the door.

Marohn explained, “People who would, in normal circumstances absolutely despise and fight against and devalue the types of investments that deliver that, pay…insane amounts of money to go and live for a week in Wonderland…where they can go from a high-density living place with mixed-use development, get on a bus, go to a shopping area, get on a bus, go to a recreation area, and they do it with ease, and they pay a premium to be able to do it.”

Disney Skyliner

Marohn noted that could be, in part, the result of humans being force-fed a diet of auto-oriented type of design.

Slaughter responded by noting that when it comes to transit discourse for North America, people often make the assumption that because a type of transit doesn’t work where they live, that type of transit just doesn’t work.

He also noted that there’s sometimes a mentality that public transportation can work in certain other places (like Europe) but not in the U.S. or other places. This encapsulates the idea of “that is there, and this is here” — essentially that things can’t exist in both places. Slaughter noted that in real cities it often comes down to choices that have been made to make things “car-centric” or where good transit and good land use not coming together.

Friendship Boat

Things in Disney World may feel very unique when compared to the public transit in your town. Some transportation, like the monorail, wasn’t an afterthought (as it can be in some other places) — it was a critical component of the initial design. And while things like the Skyliner were in fact added later on, they may connect you to places in a fun way that you don’t feel like public transit elsewhere does.

Plus, there’s the key fact that it is all being run by Disney. While monorails can get stuck and the Skyliner can have its issues, there is a sense of safety and security that many associate with the Disney Company and everything it touches. Hopping on a Disney bus that is driven by a friendly Cast Member and full of fellow tourists on their way around the Most Magical Place on Earth might be something you don’t think twice about.

Disney Bus

But, despite its many benefits, Disney transportation isn’t perfect. Closures can cause BIG backups, huge lines can form for transportation early in the morning or after big events like fireworks shows, and storms can shut down whole forms of transportation.

Just because Disney transportation can be efficient, comfortable, safe, and convenient doesn’t mean it always is. Just ask the people who have gotten stuck on the Skyliner for hours.

Credit: Olivia Crowe

What do you think? Does Disney World truly succeed when it comes to transportation? Is Disney transportation better or worse than the transportation you have in your town? Is this all a result of guests being essentially funneled into a place where they may feel like they have to use Disney transportation? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

There really is a lot to think about here when it comes to transportation in general and how you may view Disney transportation as compared to that in your own city.

You can hear the full podcast by checking out the video below.

To learn more about ALL of Disney World’s forms of transportation, click here. You can also click here to read about unexpected problems you might have when on the Skyliner in Disney World, or you can click here to learn about the Disney transportation problem you’re not thinking of (and how to fix it).

Stay tuned for more Disney news.

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What are your thoughts on Disney transportation? Tell us in the comments!

The post The Unexpected Thing People Pay a “Premium” to Be Able to Do in Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.

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