>When we were in Walt Disney World last week, it was different for us. Normally, we either drive down or when we do fly, we rent a car. I like to have the ability to go where I want, when I want. This trip, we drove down with friends in an RV. It was great, we had a wonderful time, but until late in the week, we didn’t take the RV because of parking options and we were at the mercy of the Buses. Now, the Walt Disney World Transportation system is wonderful. With just the buses alone Disney has the 3rd largest transportation system in Florida. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the bus, boat and Monorail Cast Members that have to deal with thousands of people daily. I can’t imagine the stress to do these jobs. And except for a bad day here or there, you normally get a very pleasant person taking you where you want to go.

With all that said. If you don’t have a car, and you are staying at one of the Resorts that are not on water, you have to wait for the bus. Most of the bus runs are pretty well timed. They come around to each Resort about every 20 minutes; which for this size operation is awesome, because Walt Disney World is about 47 Square Miles. But even with their excellent system, you still end up waiting for the buses and spending a good amount of time on them, when you don’t have a car. This leads me to today’s Unknown Magic. Not the Buses themselves, but the people you get to meet and talk to on the Bus.

Whenever we go somewhere, we always end up talking to someone. Whenever we finish the conversation and are walking away, my son has a habit of saying, “We always seem to meet really nice people.” To which my usual response is, “Well, we’re pretty nice ourselves, right?” Meaning that what you give you get back. We have found that if you are pleasant with others when you are waiting for a bus or standing on a crowded bus you can usual find someone that has something in common with you (besides being tired and wanting to be where they are going.) and will talk with you. This can lead to a Magical Experience that you wouldn’t think you would have.

One of the Trips we took last week was from the Magic Kingdom back to our Resort. We had just gotten out of a downpour and were wet tired and cold. As we were standing on the Bus riding back in the dark, we caught the sight of the young man’s hat next to us. It was a Yankees cap. This was the Day that George Steinbrenner died. I overhead them saying they were in the park for 15 hours that day. Even though they were Commandos, I asked if they had heard about Steinbrenner’s passing. From there we had a very nice conversation for the next 20 minutes about the Parks, Baseball, and New York Sports in general. There were even a couple of young ladies that were Cowboy’s fans that joined in the conversation a couple of times.
A day later, we met a nice family, also commandos, from outside Atlanta. They were on their way to Downtown Disney for lunch and we got to talking about his job (he worked for AT&T) and Disney and their communications system. His daughter was writing in a journal when we were starting off on the bus and my wife asked about her writing. We were told she writes in a journal everywhere they go and tells about everything they did. Very neat to see an 11 year old doing that. As teachers, my wife and I found that a Magical Experience, one that she is going to share with her fourth graders this coming year.

A few days later it was the young family from Oregon sharing the bus with us. He was a teacher also and we got to talking about the testing and kids and teaching in general. Their kids were young, maybe 7 and 5. It was a nice way to spend a bus ride back to the Resort.

When you are on the Buses, talking to someone helps the time pass a little quicker and can lead to Magical Experiences, because you can learn about different things that happen in the parks or maybe even something special that is going to happen while you are there. Or you may just find out something that you think is really neat.

So, now you know, even if you have to wait and take the bus, there is an Unknown Magic waiting for you; the other passengers. Talking to some of them can lead to a Magical Experience, so say hello.