The shuttle "service"

[BlackjackGabbiani]

Oh the problems with this one.

First, day 0 had problems of its own. I asked when I checked in at the Quality Inn when the shuttle would get there. They had no idea. None at all. They couldn't even reliably say if it would be there at all. They had no schedule and no contact information. So me and my roommate called the Hilton to possibly reach someone. During this time, we were also checking Twitter and Facebook for updates--the Twitter account had only slacked comments that had nothing to do with what people were asking them. While we waited for answers, hours passed. We legitimately could have walked to the Hilton in the time it took to get any answers--seven hours! And then we found out that there weren't any shuttles that night. Given the line lengths during con days, surely it would have occurred to people to have at least a limited schedule!
We got to the con site, but only by relying on others that we came across by accident.

And we had to do that a LOT. The next two days we had to rely on others to drive us there because the shuttle was so unreliable.

And what made it so unreliable? Well, first off, the schedules given to the hotels had no actual times. The only time it listed was the time the first one would leave Jantzen Beach. Only one stop out of many! Not even a general time FRAME given for anything else! Anyone expecting the shuttle at any point would be standing out there and waiting by pure guesswork. That's no way to treat congoers or anyone.

The buses were touted as being ecological, but kept their enormous engines running even when stopped. When picking up from the Hilton at the end of the night, they were stopped for about fifteen minutes, and at no point lived up to their name.

They also had no handicapped access. When I brought this up to a driver, she said that the company had brought up to the con that they could provide ones that did but were told that the con DIDN'T NEED THEM. Now, that's pretty low, not to mention a huge middle finger to everyone with limited mobility (temporary or permanent, both of which were in droves at the con).

So in short--unreliable, wasteful, and jerkish. Please for the love of pete think of what we need next year.

[DarkStar]

It looks like the shuttle schedule was posted on the website: https://www.kumoricon.org/location - Service was available starting on Friday (Day 1).



Shuttle Information
Shuttles will be available for the overflow hotels. Presented by ecoShuttle.


Shuttle route:


Red Lion Jantzen Beach
Homewood Suites
SpringHill Suites
Comfort Inn & Suites
Hilton Vancouver Washington
Red Lion at the Quay
Holiday Inn Express
Quality Inn & Suites
Red Lion at the Quay


Friday - Sunday
9:00 AM – First run begins
11:00 AM – Second run begins
1:00 PM – Third run begins
– Break –
6:00 PM – First return route begins (at Hilton)
7:00 PM - 2:00 AM – Bus will make continuous loop with the final bus leaving the Hilton Vancouver Washington at 2:00 AM


Monday
9:00 AM – First run begins
11:00 AM – Second run begins
1:00 PM – First return route begins (at Hilton)
3:00 PM – Second return route begins (at Hilton)
5:00 PM – Last return route begins (at Hilton)

[BlackjackGabbiani]

That's not a schedule. A schedule would give at least a time frame for arrival at each stop. As it is, it forces us to wildly guess when it will reach us. Knowing the order is meaningless without an ETA. People were gathered in the lobby for an hour waiting for it to show, because it could be any time.

[Redneck-Chan]

Does make me wish I had the cash to buy a retired short school bus and get a CDL for people transport.   

[Kleptostopheles]

I stayed at the Comfort Inn & Suites and I too did not see any shuttle "services". Cosplayers waited two hours outside/ in the lobby waiting for the shuttle. It never came obviously. My room buddies even asked about the shuttle services and gave them the descriptions of each of the transportation vehicles (The Kcon staff gave us different vehicles to look for EVERY time we asked. Short white bus, blue van, eco shuttle, etc. None of them showed up.)


In short, I am very disappointed, and wish this can be handled better.
Along with the so called KCON DISCOUNT for the hotels. At Comfort Inn & Suites the discount did not exist and yet Kcon had it advertised on their locations tab that the discount was available there. My frustration level is through the roof with how many issues there were with the hotel and having the false impression of a shuttle coming to get you when you are wearing a heavy cosplay.


/Rant over ish.


I am just super angry with how everything was handled. 

[Blue Leader]

I don't think I've ever had decent shuttle service at a convention... ever. I'm not even sure why conventions bother, it's always such a mess. Buses never show up on time, no one ever knows when a buss is supposed to arrive, half the time no one even knows where the buses are supposed to arrive...

I remember one convention I went to the shuttle service was a complete disaster-- and it was a big convention, much bigger than Kumoricon, so there was no reason for it to be such a mess-- but on the first day a bus was supposed to arrive at one end of the convention center... And it did, but it was late and no one really knew what time it was going to arrive. The next day the location of the bus was changed to a different location but no one was told, so attendees waiting for the bus went to the original location, waited for quite a while with no bus in sight, and most of the people who worked at the convention had no idea... Finally one person who worked there was found and told us that the bus station was moved. Of course, the bus was still late, it was always late...

Another time I took a shuttle to Disney World, and getting there was fine, but on the way back to the hotel... it was a disaster. The bus was on time to pick us up but it was late leaving. Extremely late. In fact, all of the passengers ended up sitting on the bus for two hours before it even left the Disney World parking lot. Why? Because the driver was waiting for another passenger: the underprivileged jerk of a child of the shuttle company boss and the kid's annoying friends who thought it would be just fine to make everyone wait as long as they wanted. I couldn't blame the bus driver, he was just as frustrated as everyone else but I'm sure was fearing for his job if he left the boss' son behind, but there was no excuse for it. Another shuttle bus should have been sent out.

And that's just a couple times I've had shuttle problems. I don't rely on them anymore... Now I either try to get a hotel that's within walking distance of the convention center or I take a taxi. A taxi ain't cheap but at least I don't have to deal with the headache of a shuttle bus... And sometimes I've been able to find someone else to go with me and we split the bill. I'll usually just walk up to someone at a shuttle stop and ask them if they want to take a taxi with me to the convention. Usually people are more than happy to take one as long as the bill is split.

[JaegerDarkness]

Does make me wish I had the cash to buy a retired short school bus and get a CDL for people transport.   

Make it a Bluebird Minibird, and I'll love you FOREVER!!!!!! I love Ikimono Gakari.