This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Bowen, a 51-year-old Walt Disney World bus driver and Disney content creator behind the YouTube channel “Incognito Mouse.” It has been edited for length and clarity.
Most of my adult life, I worked in the church. I went to university and Bible school to become a minister. I went into this line of work thinking it would make someone else happy, and didn’t really think about what would make me happy.
At one point, I ended up working at a smaller church that could not pay a full-time salary, so to support myself, I got a part-time job as a school bus driver.
In 2017, I took a vacation to Florida and visited Disney World. I remember sitting there on the last day of my vacation, in the beautiful, warm sun, by the pool, with palm trees beside me, and dreading going back to the stormy weather in New Jersey.
I felt I had to make some kind of change, or I was going to sentence myself to a miserable life.
I realized I could work as a bus driver for Disney
I first visited Disney World in 2013. I had thought it was strange — a bunch of adults, no kids, going to Disney. Yet, even on that first trip, I thought, man, what could I do to work here? There’s no Disney church.
By the second time I went in 2017, I had followed Disney a lot more and saw it wasn’t just for children. Now, as a school bus driver, I thought, “Oh, they do have bus drivers, and that is a legitimate career. I could actually do that.”
I love Disney, and my ex-wife did, too. As huge Disney fans, we thought, why not go live in the most magical place on Earth and work there?
In 2020, at 44, I first moved to Florida
I was living out of state when I applied to be a bus driver at Disney. It’s very difficult to get into it. It took several months to get to the interview, and I needed a Florida driver’s license before I could get the offer.
I moved to Florida in January of 2020. After I got my license, I was put on a waiting list until a bus driver position became available. It wasn’t until February 15 that I finally got the call to start the role.
For the first time in my life, I had a really stable job with all the benefits that some smaller churches aren’t necessarily able to give: paid time off, pensions, retirement, things like that.
In particular, I had health insurance for the first time in a long time, and I was really happy.
I was convinced I was going to drive for Disney for the rest of my life and retire there. But in May 2022, I chose to leave after experiencing a difficult separation and divorce. I remember when I was leaving, I got the offboarding email, and it was the most gut-wrenching feeling that I had ever had.
I moved to Oregon, but I always wanted to move back
I decided to move to Oregon. I drove a city bus and things like that, but I wasn’t happy.
During that time, I met another woman, now my wife, who was a big Disney fan like me. I rebranded my YouTube channel from church content to Disney around 2019, and started posting about being a Disney cast member in 2020. We met through the YouTube channel and decided to move to Florida together in 2025.
As before, I had to wait almost a year for a job opening at Disney. In the meantime, I worked for a different company contracted to drive the buses for Universal Studios.
Finally, in April 2026, at 50, I returned to Disney as a bus driver.
It’s not seen as the most prestigious job, but I love it
For me, being a Disney bus driver is wonderful, but I feel like it’s not the most prestigious job. Often, when people ride the bus, it’s seen as just a way to get to the park.
However, it has its special moments. Once, there was a little boy visiting with his parents who, as he was getting on the bus, showed me two little toy buses. His mother told me he loved the buses so much and was so excited to show them to me. Little things like this just make my day, seeing people so excited.
I can enjoy all the magic of Disney and go to the park whenever I want. So it’s the best of both worlds.
Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” If you’d have told me that I was going to do something like this several years ago, I would have said, ” There’s no way — it’s not possible. I’m too old. I don’t have the finances. I don’t know what I would do.”
But life is too short. If you are not happy or you want to do something else, you have to make it happen.
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