CleveRocks
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster worshipper
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
Since you have 3 rooms, I assume you have 3 reservation numbers. Each room has a separate reservation.
A DME tag has all kinds of information pre-printed onto it, such as your name, the "master" name on the reservation (if that is you, then your name is on there twice), your reservation number, another long number, the name of your resort, a 2-letter code inside a Mickey-head, and a few barcodes. It is the barcode that is the real work-horse here.
Each tag's barcode is scanned. The barcode is, essentially, your reservation number. When the barcode is scanned, it gives DME (and eventually your resort) access to your reservation information ... that's how they know which bags to put into which rooms.
Disney says to expect them to arrive in your room about 3 hours after you yourself arrive at your resort.
No.
DME luggage is separated from the rest of the luggage pretty much right after it's unloaded from the aircraft. DME-tagged bags are brought to a Disney luggage sorting facility on the grounds of the airport. From there, they are loaded onto DME luggage delivery trucks. In other words, luggage handled by DME (upon arrival in Orlando) never goes near a DME bus.
The bags are scanned 5 separate times between aircraft and inside of your resort room, and the delivery trucks are tracked by GPS ... in other words, Disney knows where your bags are at all times. It's a pretty cool-sounding hi-tich system.
Well, if you land at 11 a.m., you can reasonably expect to be at our reosrt by 12 or 12:30 p.m. That means you can reasonably expect your checked luggage to be brought to your room by 3 or 3:30 p.m.
You specifically do not have to wait for your bags. They will be brought to the inside of your room whether you are in there or not.
Also, keep in mind that because you are arriving several hours before check-in time, there is a chance your rooms won't even be ready yet. In that case, if you waited to get your own luggage, you'd just have Bell Services store it for you, anyway, know what I mean? If your room isn't ready and you have all your luggage, would you wait around the resort for a few hours for the purpose of unpacking your bags? Probably not.
I know that the luggage handling provided by DME is new and strange to you, but it's just same stuff different day for Disney. They've been doing it for over 2 years now, serving probably about 4.2 MILLION guests by now (about 480 days times an average of 5,000 guests per day). There are no widespread problems. I mean, any system can't be absolutely perfect, but like I said, there are no widespread problems.
If you do choose to get your own bags, DON'T put the yellow DME tags on your bags. If you put those tags on your bags, then those bags won't be at baggage claim for you to get them. Kepp in mind that if you go to baggage claim and wait for your bags, you quite probably will delay yourself getting to your resort, as you quite probably missed the next available bus for your resort (don't worry, the buses run continually, so it's not like there won't be another one in 20 or 30 minutes or whatever).
You'll do what you feel most comfortable doing. Hopefully, with all the info you've received on this thread (and others), you can make an informed decision that you are the most comfortable with.
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I'm flying United, so that means, when i get to the airpot, there's no need for me to do anything except check-in? My bags will be taken from the bus back to the plane? That kicks butt. If I'm understanding wrong, please correct me! That's really great though if that's correct!! 
