Megabus Mayhem
We were on the tail end of our trip to NYC and decided to take it easy because we didn’t want to miss our bus back to Toronto.
We arrived at Penn Station two hours early to make sure we could get a decent seat because my friend gets motion sickness and would not be hard-pressed to survive a trip on the top level of a double-decker bus (and definitely not the danger of death by tunnels with low clearance) if that was our only option but a Megabus employee informed us that the pick-up was changed last minute to E 31st and 9th from 8th (which I found out from another passenger was a lie).
Great, we had just gotten out of the taxi but we were early so we weren’t too worried.
We dragged our luggage to 9th and it looked like people were lining up to get $10 iPads on Boxing Day.
It was insane and no one had any clue what was happening.
There was no organization, there were no signs, people were just waiting with their luggage, getting more annoyed by the minute.
Some people were really angry, some people were hilarious.
We were so glad we were early but I think my friend jinxed us because she said at least we got there before anyone else so we should be able to get seats on the bottom level.
She asked if there was a Toronto line and the guy said the bus didn’t leave until 7:20.
Ahh, yes, we know that because this was printed on our ticket- but that was not the question.
Someone else who was also waiting for the 7:20 Toronto bus asked were to line up and he told her there was no line but to wait “at the back”….
What the hell does that mean?
The lines basically stretched an entire NYC block. Which was the beginning and which was the end and was this consistent with each destination?
About an hour before we were due to leave, a second Toronto line “appeared.” My friend tried to be reasonable and told them to come back to where we had been told to wait but they apparently knew better- even though they had just gotten there.
I knew the game was over. The lack of organization basically meant some people were going to be screwed and Murphy’s Law basically dictated that it would be us- the rule followers that got there early.
And that is exactly what happened. We should have been first but ended up at the back of the line.
At that point I just didn’t want to be on the same level as the couple who were bitchy to my friend. We had come up with them on the bus to NYC and the guy snored the ENTIRE trip.
I am a light sleep at the best of times and the incessant snoring coupled with the fact that the bus driver refused to turn off the lights contributed to about two hours of sleep the entire trip- that took an extra two and a half hours.
This whole voyage part of our trip has been a bit of a fiasco but we both got on the bottom level and we didn’t end up with Snoring Guy.
Of course there was an incident three minutes after the bus left because two couples, who don’t know each other, are sharing the four seats with a table in between. Someone stretched and accidentally brushed someone else’s leg, yelling ensues, the bus stopped and suddenly we were on the Jerry Springer Show.
The moral of this entire experience?
Don’t share table seats with strangers, bring earplugs and sleeping masks on public transit and don’t ride Megabus.
AngryEgg 
On the bright side at least we weren’t going to Philly!