Everthing you wanted to know about Uber/Lyft at WDW

At the CR drop off - what about going inside side the CR - take the escalator up to the next floor and get onto the monorail to MK ?

It's a really long way to MK.
Stops at TTC, then Poly, then GF, then MK.
But you can by all means.
Gonna take a while to get there.
If you want to take the monorail to MK, get dropped off at GF.
 
Would any Uber or Lyft car have 2 car seats available?Or just the Minnie vans?
Just Minnie Vans.
Lyft have no car seats at all.
Only some Uber have 1 and they'll be identified as Uber + car seat, and Uber is phasing out their program, no longer enrolling new drivers with it.
 
Just Minnie Vans.
Lyft have no car seats at all.
Only some Uber have 1 and they'll be identified as Uber + car seat, and Uber is phasing out their program, no longer enrolling new drivers with it.
Thanks for the quick replay! Fingers crossed I can get the Minnie vans since I have 2 kids 5 and almost 2!
 


Thanks for the quick replay! Fingers crossed I can get the Minnie vans since I have 2 kids 5 and almost 2!
If your 5 yo is big enough for a booster you may consider trying out a Bubblebum portable booster seat. This would allow you to try Uber with car seat and bring the booster for the 5 yo. You can store the booster seat in the stroller easily.
 
I have not read all of these pages but for the last 2 years we have avoided Uber in Disney. We used Uber on one trip 3 times and all 3 were horrible. We had one woman who said she had no GPS and didn’t know where she was going. Another who repeatedly took wrong turns. Aren’t they supposed to know the area where they work?

We have used Minnie Vans ever since. But with the new hike in price, the Minnie Vans have now outpriced themselves for us.

I would like to read some recent experiences with Uber, and safety measures we should take. I do know to check the picture on the app with the driver. We hate the busses and prefer other methods to go everywhere when we are in Disney.

Thank you in advance and I will keep scrolling through all of these pages as well. :flower2:
 


Well first of all, I'm sorry you had those problems two years ago. I'll address those questions later below.

For general safety, here's a link to a post earlier in this thread with general safety information: https://www.disboards.com/threads/e...ber-lyft-at-wdw.3443634/page-92#post-58818798

There are several keys to being sure you have the right car and right driver.
  • Regarding the right car, you can see your Uber approaching in the rider app. There is a short time lag due to the satellite tracking, but you can usually figure out which car is yours quite well using just this one feature.
  • You will also have the vehicle description and tag number (although in Florida, we only have tags on the rear of the car).
  • You will have the driver's real name, and it is important to ask the driver what their name is. Don't ask, "Are you Jim?" because anybody can nod their head. Make them tell you their name.
  • And, as you mentioned -- the photo, which is your best protection.
There are many other safety protections that are not obvious. For one thing, both you and the driver are being continuously -- and separately -- tracked through the driver's app and your rider app. That tracking is constant for the driver, and continues for you for several minutes after you get out of the car.

With Uber, you can also share real-time tracking of all your rides with trusted friends or family. That is part of a new suite of safety features built into the rider app, so be sure you are using the latest update.

Another part of that suite of features is the ability to call 911 directly from the rider app. If you use that feature, your exact location is pinpointed from the GPS, rather than the normal location system using cell tower locations. Obviously the GPS is MUCH more accurate; cell tower locations can be several miles off.

Uber is also now monitoring vehicles which are idle for a period of time, and contacting the parties to be sure everything is OK.

The problems you mentioned above with lost drivers are not safety issues, but they are still important.

Specifically, the woman who told you she had no GPS was lying. If she was using the Uber driver's app (and she would have to be if you ordered the ride and got in the correct car), the navigation is built into the app. Stop and think about it -- if she had no GPS, how did she find you in the first place?

WDW can be a confusing place to drive, especially for new drivers, so it doesn't surprise me that someone made a wrong turn. I make at least one wrong turn on every WDW visit!

And it can also be confusing trying to get back on track because with many of the WDW roads there literally is "no way to get there from here!" There are places where you are forced to take a winding route to get to a particular location, so some of those deviations may actually have been the correct way to go (or the ONLY way to go).

That said, any time you have a ride where the driver seems to be taking a circuitous route, you should check the route and fare afterwards. Most of the time, because of upfront pricing, your fare actually should not change from what you were quoted.

If you have any questions, message Uber Support via your rider app and ask them to review the route to be sure you were correctly charged. They're very good about making adjustments.

And finally, don't give up on MinnieVan. With their new pricing model, some fares will be more -- sometimes MUCH more. However, for shorter trips some fares will be less than $25. So if you like MV, check their price and see what it really is for the ride you are getting ready to take. Uber/Lyft will usually be somewhat less, but MV may not be too bad either.
 
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We had one woman who said she had no GPS and didn’t know where she was going. Another who repeatedly took wrong turns. Aren’t they supposed to know the area where they work?
JimMIA already provided professional-experience, but now time for my consumer reaction :D
There is NO way that woman driver didn't have a GPS. No way.

Regarding the many wrong turns: well, not necessarily. Probably unusual in the AD A area, but often drivers start from a distance. Example, there's an active thread where the poster is considering Über/Lyft from and to the Tampa airport. Tampa drivers may not be familiar with the LBV area, but want to make some money locally before the long (potentially fareless) return ride.
 
JimMIA already provided professional-experience, but now time for my consumer reaction :D
There is NO way that woman driver didn't have a GPS. No way.

Regarding the many wrong turns: well, not necessarily. Probably unusual in the AD A area, but often drivers start from a distance. Example, there's an active thread where the poster is considering Über/Lyft from and to the Tampa airport. Tampa drivers may not be familiar with the LBV area, but want to make some money locally before the long (potentially fareless) return ride.
Exactly. She had a cell phone, she had a GPS/Map. And she had to have a cell phone, it's required to use the Driver app. And there isn't a phone out there without a map on it. At least not one that can also run the Uber app.
 
Exactly. She had a cell phone, she had a GPS/Map. And she had to have a cell phone, it's required to use the Driver app. And there isn't a phone out there without a map on it. At least not one that can also run the Uber app.
The Uber and Lyft driver apps both have integrated navigation built into the app. Nobody has a driver app without navigation; there is no such thing.

Drivers may elect to use either Google Maps or Waze instead of the default company navigation, but nobody is without navigation. Whether they are capable of following it is another question, but everybody's got it.
 
Thank you for the quick replies! My only experience with Uber was Disney.

I read back through a couple pages and everyone seems half and half. I believe we will try again in January. It’s so nice not to drive once we arrive!
 
Thank you for the quick replies! My only experience with Uber was Disney.

I read back through a couple pages and everyone seems half and half. I believe we will try again in January. It’s so nice not to drive once we arrive!
This is sort of just how it is.
You have so many drivers, and every one is totally different, so every ride is totally different from another. One of the trade-offs you accept when choose to do rideshare, and the key here, and pay less for it, over a traditional taxi and now Minnie Van is your ride may be less than perfect. There is even some risk of this with a traditional taxi but I find in general it's a bit lower risk because you more or less have a standard company provided vehicle so you know what you are getting in that regard. When it comes to drivers, I find the risk is about the same. Minnie Van is the most consistent of them all, both car and driver, and the most expensive. Likely not a coincidence either.
So, with rideshare, there's a lot of great and a bit of so-so drivers. The bad ones rarely last long at all, due to the rating systems in place.
While it's no consolation to you, what you encountered before is like being struck by lightning twice, just not common at all. 1 poor trip, yeah. Every one? No.
 
I just used Uber for the first time in several months, and one of the new updates I like is that it tells you how many rides the driver has completed. So its a good gauge of the driver's star rating. For instance, last week I had a driver rated 4.6 but had completed over 5000 trips. Just like a product on Amazon, I know that's a good, experienced Uber driver. If he had a 4.6 but had completed only 20 trips, then its clear some people took issue with him. So I think seeing that helped me feel more comfortable as well.
 
If he had a 4.6 but had completed only 20 trips, then its clear some people took issue with him. So I think seeing that helped me feel more comfortable as well.
Actually, just the opposite is true.

If a driver had 20 trips, probably half of those riders didn't rate them at all. Of the remaining 10 rides which were rated, if 9 of them were 5 stars and only ONE was a 1 star -- the driver would have a 4.6. And it would take them a lot of rides to dig themselves out of that hole -- that's just the way numbers work.

That's why Uber doesn't pay any attention to driver ratings until we get 100 rated rides. One or two riders can really trash a new drivers rating. And I've gotten 1-star ratings from riders who tried to put six people in an X ride (max is 4, and XL is twice the price here), and another rider who I would not stop in the middle of US 1 to pick up and made him walk about 20 feet to a safe pickup spot.

OTOH, if I saw a driver with 5,000 rides and a 4.6 (and I have), I would be expecting a less than satisfactory ride -- which is exactly what I got from an experienced driver in SFO with a 4.62 rating. I gave him 5 stars just because he's working full-time to support his family and I didn't want to hurt him. But he had richly earned his 4.62 rating.
 
Actually, just the opposite is true.

If a driver had 20 trips, probably half of those riders didn't rate them at all. Of the remaining 10 rides which were rated, if 9 of them were 5 stars and only ONE was a 1 star -- the driver would have a 4.6. And it would take them a lot of rides to dig themselves out of that hole -- that's just the way numbers work.

That's why Uber doesn't pay any attention to driver ratings until we get 100 rated rides. One or two riders can really trash a new drivers rating. And I've gotten 1-star ratings from riders who tried to put six people in an X ride (max is 4, and XL is twice the price here), and another rider who I would not stop in the middle of US 1 to pick up and made him walk about 20 feet to a safe pickup spot.

OTOH, if I saw a driver with 5,000 rides and a 4.6 (and I have), I would be expecting a less than satisfactory ride -- which is exactly what I got from an experienced driver in SFO with a 4.62 rating. I gave him 5 stars just because he's working full-time to support his family and I didn't want to hurt him. But he had richly earned his 4.62 rating.
But in all honesty, you haven't a clue why the driver has a rating of what they do when they have so few rides. You can make assumptions based on your experience but that means little for another. So really can't say the opposite is true, it's it's certain.

I've yet to have a single driver over 4.7, many with thousands of rides. None of them have been bad (since they put the rating on there like it is now). So I'm not going to assume anything till I take my ride. I prefer not to make assumptions before I even get in the car.
 
But in all honesty, you haven't a clue why the driver has a rating of what they do when they have so few rides.
That was actually my point. The other poster was saying that they would have confidence in a driver with thousands of rides and a 4.6, because obviously they are experienced.

My point was that a driver with more than 500 rides and a rating of 4.6-something is on the verge of getting deactivated -- and with good reason. You really do have to work to get a rating that low.

But a new driver could very easily have a 4.6 and be a perfectly good driver who ran into one obnoxious drunk who was unlucky at the bar and took it out on the driver.

An experienced driver's rating matters. Noob ratings really don't.
I've yet to have a single driver over 4.7, many with thousands of rides.
Oh my! Really? Come to Miami and ride with me, Angi!

Almost 2,000 Uber rides, and I wobble between 4.93 and 4.94. I'd be willing to bet that Joel is in the same ballpark. Most drivers range between about 4.75-4.85. I'm rated higher mostly because I drive a very nice car and I don't accept Pool rides, which are low-ratings magnets. And I am professional in my demeanor.
 
I’ve just had a long detour going to Universal Studios and I’d like some advice. First of all I’m surprised that the driver had completed nearly 2000 trips (4.84 rating) and didn’t know where Universal was, we also had to direct him to the guest drop off when we finally did get there.

When we booked we chose Universal from the suggested options under the search bar as we’ve already used uber a few days ago and got there with no issues. First he exited I4 on exit 75B (from Disney) for universal, but there he diverted from his GPS route and he was retouted a much longer way. He then pulled into the staff area for Universal and we told him it wasn’t the right place. After he checked a few apps several times and pulled over once more to check again, we had to tell him where to go as signs for the park was appearing but he wasn’t looking at them at all. And as mentioned above we had to direct him to the guest drop off as well.

Looking at the drop off location on the map, it shows a location inside the park. Adress shows as 6000 universal blvd. So is it likely the drivers fault or could it be blamed at the app? The trip took 40 mins rather then 15-20 and we were charged nearly $5 more than quoted.
 
Looking at the drop off location on the map, it shows a location inside the park. Adress shows as 6000 universal blvd. So is it likely the drivers fault or could it be blamed at the app?
It's quite possible that it was a navigation glitch, not the driver's fault -- but that is irrelevant.
The trip took 40 mins rather then 15-20 and we were charged nearly $5 more than quoted.
Contact Uber support via your app. If you don't know how to do that, let me know and I'll walk you through it.

It does NOT matter whether the error was the driver's fault or a navigation system problem. It was not YOUR fault...and you shouldn't pay for it.

So contact Uber support and tell them briefly about the difficulties and ask them to review the route. In all probability, they will credit you for the mistake. They are very good about taking care of customers.

The issue of navigation error does occur sometimes, and it's maddening. We get it a LOT with Miami International Airport, and the mistake you noted sounds like the same thing. The nav somehow tries to route the driver to the geographic center of the location. At MIA, that is "Cargo City," which is a restricted area inside the airport where regular vehicle traffic is prohibited. If your destination showed as being inside US, I'm betting it was that same kind of nav error and not the driver's fault.
 
Does anyone’s have any experience of taking an Uber/Lyft towards Tampa from Disney Resorts?

I’m visiting end of October (yaaaaaay!) and need to travel to near the Zephyrhills, Florida area to visit family after my stay at Pop Century ends. I don’t want to hire a car as this is pricy and, living in London as I do, I haven’t driven in over 10 years!!! I can see that the cost of a ride-share would be do-able but is it likely someone will be willing to do that’s drive? Or is it likely they’d cancel on my in preference of shorter, more profitable rides within Disney? I’m planning on messaging the driver to let them know it’ll be long distance as a courtesy as getting dumped by the roadside when they see how far I’m going is a fear. In case someone doesn’t pick me up, would a Taxi take me that far?

Experience and recommendations would be much appreciated!
 

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