Rental Car And Disney's Magical Express?

[fromscratchmom]

Hi. We will need a rental car while we are in Florida, even though "most" of our trip will be spent on Disney property. Have any of you gotten a rental car at the airport and driven it to WDW, but also used the DME tags on your luggage and just let them deliver your luggage to you? If so, any comments on how it worked out would be appreciated!

 

[Twende]

The only way DME will take your luggage is if you get on the bus. If you rent a car you can not use ME for your luggage unless someone in your party rides the bus.

Let me explain how we did it. DH and I each had one checked in bag. We traveled with DD and her BF. They each had one piece of checked in luggage. We took the four ME tags and put them on the four pieces of luggage using two tags with DD's name and two tags with her BF's name.

When we arrived at MCO DH and I went to get the rental car and DD and her BF went to the ME bus line. DH and I left the rental garage in the rental car as they arrived outside at the bus stop. We had made arrangements to meet up with them at the gift shop in our resort.

DH and I arrived at the resort first and I got in line to check in. I was just getting our room keys when the ME bus with DD and BF arrived. It worked well for us this way as none of us had to lug the suitcases around and DD did not mind the time alone with her BF.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Magical Express is not a luggage transport service. Luggage handling is just a secondary perk of the GUEST transportation service.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm one of those that just can't be bothered driving from the airport to my resort. If I'm going to need a car while I'm at WDW, then I get one from the CCC or the Dolphin, rather than have it just sitting there. We always take DME now....70 minutes is the time it is taking us to get from the plane to resort checkin.
DME is not set up to transfer just luggage. It is supposed to be for getting guests from the airport to the resorts, their luggage goes as a perk. It's nice not having to lug bags around the airport.

 

[minniebeth]

I'm one of those that just can't be bothered driving from the airport to my resort. If I'm going to need a car while I'm at WDW, then I get one from the CCC or the Dolphin, rather than have it just sitting there. We always take DME now....70 minutes is the time it is taking us to get from the plane to resort checkin.
DME is not set up to transfer just luggage. It is supposed to be for getting guests from the airport to the resorts, their luggage goes as a perk. It's nice not having to lug bags around the airport.

We are thinking of renting a car after we get to our WDW resort, since we won't need a rental for the first few days and loved using ME....
How do you go about renting a car once on property?
The CCC is the Car Care Center? Would you be kind enough to give me some details on this? I think this might be an option for us...
Thanks so much!

 

[mommary]

I have the same question about getting a car once on property.
But is the Magical Express worth it? Or should we just get the car at the airport.
Thanks

 

[kaytieeldr]

The Car Care Center is just off the Magic Kingdom parking lot. Disney buses don't go there, but National/Alamo have a free shuttle that'll pick you up at your Disney resort and take you to the CCC; if you're returning a car while still on vacation, the shuttle will take you back to your hotel. There's also a National/Alamo counter inside the Dolphin (so you can use Disney transportation to get there and/or back).
There are also other major car rental companies that have locations near Disney, e.g. there are a couple of different ones in the Hotel Plaza Boulevard resorts. Don't know about getting there, but if you can find one in the Hilton or the Grosvenor, these are across the street from Downtown Disney.

Yes, Magical Express is worth it, whatever 'it' is

 

[tolookaa5]

Dollar is in the Grosvenor, I am renting from there in a couple weeks.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

We have a Dollar rental in DEc and just had Enterprise pick us up at POFQ last week for a weekend only rental.It was very painless and really didn't waist that much time at all.

Our June trip we did a split 3 gals took ME and we went and got the van. We will now only do ME unless the airport rental is way cheaper then the DTD or CCC locations.