Seriously DME?

[goofy4tink]

Well, not so happy with DME at the moment. I have always tagged my bags with the luggage tags and had my bags delivered in a timely fashion. Not so much today. My dd and I drove to MCO, so had our bags with us. However, dd's friend did tag her bag. I figured it would be fine....as usual, since itasnt even 6pm when we got to MCO. Nope. Here we sit, waiting! Her flight arrived at 5:10. We got to the DME area, and of course, Pop came up as our resort. Nope, supposed to be POR. Same reservation number, but it never got changed with DME. So, had to stand there while they figured it out. Then they ask about bags....did we cross out Pop, and put in POR. No, I was told not to by someone else! The CM 's answer? 'Oh, I'm so sorry you got bad information', then went off to make sure the correct resort was listed. After 15 mins we were finally sent to the bus area. We arrived at POR around 7:15ish. Went to our room, with the bags we had.. Figured we would head to BLT to watch Wishes and the DME bag wold be there. Returned around 11:15....no bag! Dd's friend called.....they said it was in 'transit'. That was at 11:25. I called them again around 12:15....they told me the bag hadn't even been loaded onto the truck, at MCO, until 7:45! I told the CM I talked to that we had arrived at the resort around 7ish....she said it didn't matter! And that they would get the bagvtonus as soon as itvgotvto them!!

So now, we're just sorting here, waiting. Dd's friend really thought it would be fine if she didn't put what she needed in her carry on bag....it's always worked out fine!! She's feeling awful, about keeping us up, and is feeling miserable because there's stuff she needs in order to gevo bed. Yes, she should have put the stuff in her carryon bag. But this is just ridiculous. It was put on a truck at 7:45.

Evidently, it has gone to Pop and sat there. Now it's here, and hopefully on its way to the room!

Moral of the story? Cross out the old name, write in the new resort.....ignore what some may say. And pack that carryon bag for the first day!!

 

[kaytieeldr]

So now, we're just sorting here, waiting. Dd's friend really thought it would be fine if she didn't put what she needed in her carry on bag....it's always worked out fine!!

Not excusing DME at all - but shouldn't your (formerly one-off) experience with the carry on full of shoes serve as an ongoing reminder to everyone who knows you that three hours doesn't always mean three hours?

 

[OKW Lover]

Obviously DME didn't know who they were dealing with Diane.

Seriously, keep telling folks about the need to have one day's worth of clothes, etc in your carryon anytime you travel anywhere. The surprising thing in this case (at least to me) was that it was DME rather than the airline that caused the delay.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

That's the frustrating thing about the luggage service...you never know when it's going to fail you. That's why I just prefer to get our bags ourselves.

 

[DebbieB]

A friend of mine was there at the end of February. She was staying at BLT the first 3 nights and the AKV the last night. Her bag tag had both resorts. When it didn't show up at BLT, she started calling. They could not locate it. She even asked if it went to AKV, they said no. They were blaming Southwest. Showed up at BLT 2 days later. Guess where it was? AKV. They did give her $150 to purchase clothes after the first night.

When I was at BWV in October, my flight landed around 11:30am, I checked into BWV around 12:45pm. My room was not ready. I never got a text saying it was ready so I went back to the front desk around 3:45pm and surprise - it was ready. My luggage had not shown up when I left for dinner at 5:30. It was there when I returned to the room around 9:00. I'm going again in December, I plan to just pickup my luggage and take it to the bus. It isn't worth the hassle.

 

[charmed59]

When the luggage service works as advertised it is really awesome. When it doesn't it is much more trouble than dealing with the luggage yourself. I don't have any idea what percentage of the luggage goes awry. Perhaps if they published numbers like the airlines do (X% within 4 hours, Y% same day, Z% missing overnight or more) it would let customers make a more informed choice.

I presume of those with luggage missing overnight that most of those are the airlines missing a connection with the luggage.

 

[Thumper1066]

DME was the most unmagical part of our vacation last Sept. Our plane arrived on time 11:00 on a Saturday. We had made arrangments and jumped through all the hoops I had even requested more luggage tags. ( As a birthday present to me. We flew 1st class and had 3 bags free. Which we needed with costumes for MNSSHP.) We even got dressed up like I did in the 60's and 70's when flying. Back to the not magical. The line was backed up past the elevators. We couldn't even see the lady checking in for almost an hour. Then we waited over 2 1/2 hours after we checked in at their little podium to get a bus. Excuse me why did we have to include the exact flight number and arrival time if they obviously don't schedule more buses. I heard the company which sub contracted the DME was canned and another company won the bid. HURAH

 

[bumbershoot]

I heard the company which sub contracted the DME was canned and another company won the bid.

As far as I know it was and is still Mears...

The line was backed up past the elevators. We couldn't even see the lady checking in for almost an hour. Then we waited over 2 1/2 hours after we checked in at their little podium to get a bus.

That's completely bizarre.

Though to another thing you said, you aren't scheduled on any certain bus on your way to WDW. You could decide to eat lunch, you could meet old friends at the airport, you could get caught shopping at the Disney or Universal or Crocs store...and you could still get on a bus. So they don't schedule them *for* you on your way to WDW.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

The line was backed up past the elevators. We couldn't even see the lady checking in for almost an hour. Then we waited over 2 1/2 hours after we checked in at their little podium to get a bus.

We also experienced a DME line backed to past the elevators once, though after we checked in we **only** had to wait another hour for the bus. It was insane, and not even during a particularly busy time (October). I almost think that DME runs better during busy periods...the best DME experiences we've had have been on summer trips, and the worst at lower crowd times. Though now that I think about it...during our summer visits we flew in on Thursdays instead of Saturdays. Our biggest problems have been with Saturday arrivals.

/lightbulb moment

 

[Thumper1066]

As far as I know it was and is still Mears...



That's completely bizarre.

Though to another thing you said, you aren't scheduled on any certain bus on your way to WDW. You could decide to eat lunch, you could meet old friends at the airport, you could get caught shopping at the Disney or Universal or Crocs store...and you could still get on a bus. So they don't schedule them *for* you on your way to WDW.

 

[Thumper1066]

But they know they have this many bodies to move and the whole experience put a bad taste in mine and about 500-600 other people right off the bat. The wait was longer than our flight complete with TSA check in. It doesn't make any business sense to me. I reasonably expected about 2 hours gate to hotel. I felt really sorry for all of the foreign travelers toting tots and pre-teens who had just got off marathon plane rides. They had probably been up and on the move for over 24 hours and fighting jet lag to boot. In their efforts to attract foreign visitors Disney promises a no hassle, no need to rent a car experience that just didn't come close to "Magical". Our economy needs a boost from foreign tourists. Goodness knows our own family has pumped money into their economy over the years.

 

[cranbiz]

The bus service part of DME is Mears, the baggage handling part is now Bags, Inc (again) instead of Aircraft Service International Group.

 

[bumbershoot]

The bus service part of DME is Mears, the baggage handling part is now Bags, Inc (again) instead of Aircraft Service International Group.

Thumper wasn't talking about bag handling, though.


I don't get into lines like that, LOL. I likely would have sent DH ahead to see if it was actually the line, to see if it's possible to find out what's going on and why, while I stood in line (or vice versa), and if it was the line and no one can tell me "why" and if I had seen the actual bus lines horribly long, we would have gone straight over to National. But we generally have a free day with National sitting around, so that's super easy for me to say and do. Not everyone is in that situation.

Craziness!

 

[disneyfantotheend]

We have never had any trouble with DME. Never had any lines of more than a few people either. Guess it is the time of year we travel. We are pretty relaxed our first day and never have any real plans, so even if we did no biggy. Once I did have a delay with our luggage, but it arrived eventually,. Thinking the next morning. Luckily we had what we needed in other bags that did arrive.

 

[nalajms]

But they know they have this many bodies to move .

I agree, they should have done something, put more people at checkin, and routed more buses. Luckily we haven't run into this issue...yet. But we have waited for almost an hour in line, after check in and going to our correct lane. Then waited another hour after getting on the bus. It was a slow night and they were trying to fill up the bus. We had maybe half a bus, stopping at 3 other resorts before we got off.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Thumper wasn't talking about bag handling, though.

goofy4tink was, though - in the post that started this thread.

 

[JanaDee]

But they know they have this many bodies to move and the whole experience put a bad taste in mine and about 500-600 other people right off the bat. The wait was longer than our flight complete with TSA check in. It doesn't make any business sense to me. I reasonably expected about 2 hours gate to hotel. I felt really sorry for all of the foreign travelers toting tots and pre-teens who had just got off marathon plane rides. They had probably been up and on the move for over 24 hours and fighting jet lag to boot. In their efforts to attract foreign visitors Disney promises a no hassle, no need to rent a car experience that just didn't come close to "Magical". Our economy needs a boost from foreign tourists. Goodness knows our own family has pumped money into their economy over the years.

If you arrive on a Saturday, expect long delays. That goes for traveling anywhere. Saturday is the "normal" travel/arrival day for almost any tourist spot in the world.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

I heard the company which sub contracted the DME was canned and another company won the bid.

The bag handling service was sent out for bids. As of June 1st Bags, inc is taking over that portion from ASIG (Aircraft Service International Group). Bus driving is still handled by Mears.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...near-orlando-international-20150325-post.html

 

[OKW Lover]

I heard the company which sub contracted the DME was canned and another company won the bid. HURAH

DME recently changed the company that handles the bags. The other company didn't so much get "canned" as they simply lost the bid to the new company. Interestingly enough, the new company indicated that it would hire just about all of the workers from the old company. The bus service is still run by Mears.

 

[lylone]

In the past few years we haven't had good luck with DME. We used the bag service a few times and got our luggage late. One time it was about 6 hours late. So, we started getting our own bags or doing carryons. Once we went to the DME area after arriving at MCO and it was backed up like crazy. We kept walking and grabbed a taxi. The last trip in November we had no problems when we got to MCO, but then when it was time to catch the bus at the hotel for the ride back.. it was caos! We were there waiting 30 minutes before our scheduled time of 8AM.. and no bus for an hour. Then a bus came and we were told we missed "our" bus and we would have to wait for the next one (I guess it was too full for 2 people). By that time we had about two hours to our flight...so we walked to the taxi area and grabbed a taxi. We were able to then to grab breakfast in the airport before our 11a flight. And we were two adults... imagine if we had small kids!
Moral to the story is.. always have extra cash for a taxi!