Well this was our lst experience using the ME. I usually book a van since we stay at the Swan or Dolphin but this time we were staying at the Disney resorts. We booked through American Airlines and never got our luggage tags but they included a letter with our travel documents. We arrived at the A terminal. They said to cross over to the B terminal with 2 options. Bring your luggage or have them get your luggage. We decided on option 2, have them get your luggage. Well after a who knows how long hike, (note: if you have any mobility issues this is a long, long walk. I couldnt even imagine doing it with luggage. Well dh went to the ME desk and they asked us where our luggage was? What we chose option 2. They said we were suppose to bring our luggage with us to the desk,(this was not indicated on our letter). They said they would get our luggage and bring it to the hotel etc. etc. So we board the ME bus. O.K. Gerardo was our driver and the bus contained about 50 to 100 lemon tree air freshners. I thought I was going to throw up. Later in the week they told us to call them since we had no luggage tags and were switching hotels. We had the disney people call them and wrote down the info etc. Dh called them back and they said they had no record of us etc. At this point we just decided to get a taxi back to the airport. Next time we will skip the ME and get another source of transportation. The straw that broke the camels back was when they told us they wouldnt even drop us off at the southwest curb side check in. The magical expresss was definetely not magical for us and it seemed like more of a nightmare. This trip was only dh and I.
I'm sorry you had an unpleasant experience.
But as with everything else related to travel, a little homework would have helped. You expected some things that were never promised as part of DME. Had you known what to do, things would have gone more smoothly. Had you known what to expect, you would not be disappointed when unrealistic expectations were not met.
For example, DME never told you they drop people off at individual airlines, let alone drop them off at the same level as curbside check-in. You are indignant that they didn't provide you a service, yet it's a service they've never ever provided. You could have known that.
In addition, it seems that you misquoted a CM. Since there is no such things as luggage tags for the trip back to the airport, there's no way a DME CM would have told you to call them later in the week because you didn't have luggage tags. NO ONE has luggage tags for the way home. As an experienced DISer, you could have known that, too.
Now, the lemon air fresheners making you feel sick ... you have a valid complaint there. I don't remember reading about ultra-lemony buses in the DME FAQ.
But seriously, all the other stuff was stuff you could have known to expect. It is not Disney's fault that you expected some services that they simply don't provide.
I know this wasn't you, but I recall a post from a year or 2 ago from someone who was hopping mad at Disney because their luggage wasn't automatically taken from their room to be supposedly later retrieved at their home airport. The person assumed that since DME automatically delivers luggage to a room that they must also automatically pick it up from rooms. The person went on and on about what a nightmare that was.
And by the way, I'm not talking from the cheap seats. I was one of the first people to use DME 3 years ago. There was no one who'd already used it and posted about it yet. I read what I could, and called DME directly and asked some questions. I knew exactly what to expect (and what NOT to expect) and was totally satisfied. Had I expected a short walk in the airport, or had I expected they would drop me off at Spirit Airlines curbside check-in, I might have described the experience as a nightmare, too. And also, I didn't receive my DME tags/paperwork until about 12 hours before my trip; we were fully prepared to do without, and knew the procedure to do so because I called a few times and asked.
