Are Minnie Vans available for all resorts yet?

[Farro]

If not - which ones have them?

 

[lindsayjs]

Please bless mods and values with minnie vans!

 

[yulilin3]

When we checked into AoA on Saturday there was one parked there but I never found out if the service was available or just randomly parked there

 

[xlsm]

I've been hoping and hoping these would be rolled out in time for October. I've resigned myself to a plain ol' uber to switch from our arrival night at Pop to the rest of the week at the Poly. I joked that I could bring white paper polka dots to tape onto whatever I end up having to take

 

[Farro]

So the Polynesian doesn't have them?

Who the heck has them?

 

[anomamatt]

When I was there in late august the drivers (I asked all 5 when we used he service) said it would be a long time before all resorts had access to them. Because they were already over capacity. And they have a lot of 2018 Traverses on order but the spec changed (exterior design) and so the exterior wrap has to be redesigned, etc.

I said I hope poly has it by my Christmas trip and th drivers said it was unlikely. Though they thought poly and GF would be next. Take that for whatever it's worth...

 

[anomamatt]

So the Polynesian doesn't have them?

Who the heck has them?

Boardwalk, Beach and yacht club. AKL and WL.

 

[Farro]

Boardwalk, Beach and yacht club. AKL and WL.

Well that's not fair. Boardwalk, Beach and Yacht Club can share and then we can send the others over to Polynesian.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We took two Minnie Van's during our visit to WL during the last week of August and our drivers both said the service would eventually be rolled out to all resorts but gave no timeframe. They will definitely need to increase capacity with their fleet and staff. There were times we would have liked to take one, but they simply weren't available. We ended up in regular Lyft cars on those occasions.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We too used them about 4 times when we were there in August - they were a dream. I have to say I don't like leaving any of the parks at closing and having to wait forever for buses. One time we were leaving HS and there were lines everywhere - we had waited 20 minutes and it would have been at least another 30 minutes for us to get out of there. I would have taken anything to get out of the heat - we called a Minnie Van and when it came, the air conditioning was blasting and it was wonderful and so excited to have AC. We liked that the drivers are CMs - they were each so wonderful and friendly. I loved it.

 

[anomamatt]

We took two Minnie Van's during our visit to WL during the last week of August and our drivers both said the service would eventually be rolled out to all resorts but gave no timeframe. They will definitely need to increase capacity with their fleet and staff. There were times we would have liked to take one, but they simply weren't available. We ended up in regular Lyft cars on those occasions.

We had his problem too. The drivers said adding AKL and WL made the demand skyrocket. We never waited less than 10 mins. Sometimes more than 20. And a lot of refreshing the app to even request a car. It's a great service but they need many many more cars before they can add resorts.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

And a lot of refreshing the app to even request a car. It's a great service but they need many many more cars before they can add resorts.

I haven't even thought about using this service yet. Is the app you need part of MDE, or is it a separate app?

 

[BK2014]

I wonder how many of these vehicles they will need to meet demand at all resorts? Especially if there is high demand at park open and close to avoid waiting for buses. I wonder if it will eventually have a negative impact on traffic around WDW. But at $20/ride, if it is profitable enough, maybe they create express lanes or routes for these vehicles. Just speculation on my part.

 

[anomamatt]

I haven't even thought about using this service yet. Is the app you need part of MDE, or is it a separate app?

It uses the Lyft app. If you are staying at one of the resorts that offers Minnie Vans, you will get a pop up giving you an activation code to enter into the Lyft app. Or you can have the resort concierge activate it.

 

[Gus V.]

I'm also hoping they are available at the Poly in early December...we will see

 

[kimieko]

We are staying at The Boardwalk in November and are planning on using this a couple fo time.

 

[SG131]

As someone mentioned on another thread a few weeks ago, technically you do not have to be staying at those resorts to use minnie van. You just have to go to the bell desk at a participating resort and ask them to text you an activation code. As of two weeks ago that worked.

However, no matter where you are staying I wouldn't use minnie van without a backup. As mentioned above, they are way over capacity so finding a ride can be tough. We successfully used minnie van 2/4 times we tried. The other times a van could not be found.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

We are staying at The Boardwalk in November and are planning on using this a couple fo time.

Yup, staying at Yacht Club in November and hope to use the service to get to/from MK.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

We had his problem too. The drivers said adding AKL and WL made the demand skyrocket. We never waited less than 10 mins. Sometimes more than 20. And a lot of refreshing the app to even request a car. It's a great service but they need many many more cars before they can add resorts.

What time of day and where were you going to/from? I've seen others say it worked great for them and that they had almost no wait, but I imagine that once more people become aware of this service they'll take advantage of it. I'm perfectly ok using Uber/Lyft instead of Minnie Vans - less expensive and will get you to the same place, except for MK which is a bit tricky if not using Disney transportation.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

What time of day and where were you going to/from? I've seen others say it worked great for them and that they had almost no wait, but I imagine that once more people become aware of this service they'll take advantage of it. I'm perfectly ok using Uber/Lyft instead of Minnie Vans - less expensive and will get you to the same place, except for MK which is a bit tricky if not using Disney transportation.

We were able to get a Minnie Van from Boardwalk to WL around 10 pm on a Wednesday night in late August (this was after EP had closed and we strolled over to BWI for ice cream and games). We were also able to get one around 4 pm from WL to Poly on a Saturday. We were not able to get one after AK had closed on a Thursday evening. That evening, it wasn't as if there was a long wait time for one. The Minnie Van wasn't even showing on the app. So, in essence, there is really no way to "game" this to guarantee one will be available. It's luck of the draw. As I mentioned, we ended up taking regular Lyft cars the two times we couldn't get Minnie Vans, but, honestly, the drivers are so hit-or-miss. Our first driver was incredibly professional. Our second driver had barely ever driven on WDW property. I'm really hoping they increase capacity for the Minnie Vans because I personally would rather pay the higher price and have a trained CM driving us around in a Disney-insured vehicle!