Sorry to hijack, but hate creating a new thread for a similar/follow up question. We are in a similar situation -- arriving the evening before our reservation (reservation starts on 8/15, we get in around 6pm on 8/14 to MCO). We're staying at a hotel near the airport, and plan to use the hotel shuttle to get us back to MCO the next morning to take DME. What I was hoping to avoid was having to lug everyone's check-in bags (there are 11 of us going). If I put the DME tags on the checked bags that we don't need until the next afternoon, will DME take them upon arrival even though my reservation (and my DME transportation) won't happen until the next morning?
I've had members of our party do something similar before, but without having DME take the bags -- some members had much cheaper flights the night before so they flew in that night, but they took all their bags to/from the hotel with them and then with them on the DME the next morning when they met up with the rest of us.