In the early days of World Showcase, there were double-decker buses in addition to the two World Showcase Friendships to take guests around the World Showcase loop.
These buses stopped at all ten World Showcase nations (Norway was added after the retirement of the bus service) on the 1.3 mile World Showcase loop. The buses traveled a little faster than a normal walking pace. Disney did not want buses zipping through the walkways of the World Showcase and potentially running over guests.
As attendance at Walt Disney World and EPCOT grew, it became more and more difficult for these buses to navigate the wide walkways of the World Showcase. The walkways were getting more congested with people who slowed the buses down even further. As a result, the buses were retired though their retirement date is unknown.
The buses make rare appearances transporting Disney characters throughout both Future World and the World Showcase.
Does anybody remember these buses going through the World Showcase. I vaguely remember them on a trip to Walt Disney World and EPCOT in the mid-80’s. If you do remember, please share your experiences on the buses with us.
Thanks for reading!
dadfordisney 
Hi, I operated these buses as part of my WDW College program in Spring 1994. They only made four stops and Noraway was stop number 1 if you went clockwise around the Lagoon, so the country certainly existed while these were up and running. Stop 2 was between Italy/American Adventure, stop 3 between Morocco/France, final stop was just past Canada. They were shut down some time between 1995 and 1999. Allegedly, a bus rolled over a guest’s foot during the Spring Break crowds and that lead to there demise. A full time CM, who used to work on them with me, relayed this story to me when I visited in 2000. Most of the full timers assigned to the buses were moved to the Friendship boats.
I figured some type of accident involving a guest led to their demise. Thanks for the info!
Kim…Can you direct me to someone who might know where I can buy one of these from Disney direct? Thank you
Alison, it’s my understanding that they were sold off years ago
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/whatever-happened-to-the-old-epcot-center-omnibus-lets-see.871981/
Thanks for getting back to me! 😉
I actually witnessed one in an accident in June 1996. The brakes failed and ran into a crowd gathered around some World Showcase performers. A boy who was on his father’s shoulders was injured, but not severely.
Scary stuff.