?about magical express pick up?

[dislover8943]

We went to cbr last year and loved everything about it except 1 thing.... The magical express pick up when we were going home. My husband called and ended up having to wait 2 hours after what they said for them to pick up our bags. So my question is what is the best way to go about having the bags picked up? Because we like to spend that morning at the pool. Thanks for any help

 

[WsPrincess]

We actually took them to the bell desk to check it in with the airline. Bell service came up to help us take them down and then I checked them in. I think you can make an appointment the night before so you don't have to wait.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We went to cbr last year and loved everything about it except 1 thing.... The magical express pick up when we were going home. My husband called and ended up having to wait 2 hours after what they said for them to pick up our bags. So my question is what is the best way to go about having the bags picked up? Because we like to spend that morning at the pool. Thanks for any help

CBR has airline check in, so you just need to bring your luggage down there and they will take care of it for you.

 

[dislover8943]

Yeah our problem was that we had to wait for the bell service to pick them up and bring them to the custom house because I don't think you can bring luggage on the internal bus. So I should just call the night before and they'll give me a time?

 

[maxiesmom]

I think you are a little confused. Magical Express only handles your bags if you are taking them on the bus with you. The are not the ones who come to your room and help you with your bags, that is bell services. And they can't give you a scheduled time, only an estimate.

Honestly it is usually easier to handle the bags yourself. Otherwise there may be a bit of a wait for bell services to show up and help you. They won't guarantee a set time though.

 

[TaraPA]

I'm a little confused - are you saying you had to wait for Bell Services (not affiliated with ME) to get your bags out of the room when you checked out, or that ME forgot your bags & you had to wait for someone to get them to the airport? ME and Bell Services are separate. If your airline particiapes you could have gotten the bags to RAC that morning & not seen them again until you got to your home airport. If you were handling your bags yourself, and taking them on ME with you, then Bell Services would store them for you until you board the ME bus.

I'm not sure why the wait was so long, I've never waited more than 15 min. any any Disney resort for Bell Services to come get our bags once I called down!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Yeah our problem was that we had to wait for the bell service to pick them up and bring them to the custom house because I don't think you can bring luggage on the internal bus. So I should just call the night before and they'll give me a time?

Oh...we brought our luggage to Custom House ourselves...

 

[dis_guy]

Yeah, these big resorts can be a pain for getting your luggage over to check out. What we always do at CBR is request a building closer to the Customs House. That way when we arrive and depart we simply walk with our luggage to/from the front desk at CH. Mind you we pack a little less than many, have full-sized kids that can handle their own stuff and our one non-negotiable rule is that every case has to have top quality wheels to handle longer walks to and from the room. The ones with inline type rollers are very good for this.

Don't even ask me about the time we saw a young couple with two babies and one of those resort luggage carts piled to the top! I counted eight cases of various types plus all the playpen/play stuff, etc.....!

 

[dislover8943]

Yeah I guess my ? Is more about the bell service then. At cbr it is a really long walk to get to the custom house. Especially with 3 kids and all of our belongings. So I was wondering about the process of getting bell service to bring the bags to the custom house in order to get them on the magical express. Thanks for the help

 

[goofy4tink]

Okay...still confused. Are you looking to get your bags to the RAC counter, to check them and get boarding passes issued? Or, are you just trying to get your bags to the DME bus area so that you can take the bags with you, on your DME bus, for return to MCO??? Do you want Bell SErvices (actually Luggage Assistence at the moderates) to get the bags, and take them back to the storage area and store them for you until you pick them up to go back to MCO on DME bus??

I would just schlep them myself. I find that the moderate and value resorts have a less speedy system for baggage handling..not surprising, these resorts are huge.

I can't give you a good answer since I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish. If we use Bell Services to get our bags, we are on our way out. Otherwise, we tend to bring our bags to the front of the resort ourselves.

 

[P00H1010]

Yeah I guess my ? Is more about the bell service then. At cbr it is a really long walk to get to the custom house. Especially with 3 kids and all of our belongings. So I was wondering about the process of getting bell service to bring the bags to the custom house in order to get them on the magical express. Thanks for the help

In our experience at CBR the day before our departure we had gotten a ME "packet" on our door knob explaining the leaving procedures. We called that day and made an appointment for bell services to get us in the morning. Around that time the next morning, give or take a couple minutes there was a knock on the door. Bell services took us and our luggage over to the custom house. We did our room check out and then did our airline check in for our checked luggage. We left our carry on luggage with bell services as we wanted to go to the parks for a while. Upon arriving back at CBR after going to the parks we got our luggage that bell services were holding for us and got onto the ME bus. We have not had a problem with anything at all, maybe your problem was a fluke .

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

In our experience at CBR the day before our departure we had gotten a ME "packet" on our door knob explaining the leaving procedures. We called that day and made an appointment for bell services to get us in the morning. Around that time the next morning, give or take a couple minutes there was a knock on the door. Bell services took us and our luggage over to the custom house. We did our room check out and then did our airline check in for our checked luggage. We left our carry on luggage with bell services as we wanted to go to the parks for a while. Upon arriving back at CBR after going to the parks we got our luggage that bell services were holding for us and got onto the ME bus. We have not had a problem with anything at all, maybe your problem was a fluke .

This was exactly my experience at CBR as well. They came and took us and our bags to the Custom House early in the morning so that we could get everything done and still make it to our 8:05 ADR at Crystal Palace. I can't believe you had to wait 2 hours!!! That's crazy!

 

[dislover8943]

In our experience at CBR the day before our departure we had gotten a ME "packet" on our door knob explaining the leaving procedures. We called that day and made an appointment for bell services to get us in the morning. Around that time the next morning, give or take a couple minutes there was a knock on the door. Bell services took us and our luggage over to the custom house. We did our room check out and then did our airline check in for our checked luggage. We left our carry on luggage with bell services as we wanted to go to the parks for a while. Upon arriving back at CBR after going to the parks we got our luggage that bell services were holding for us and got onto the ME bus. We have not had a problem with anything at all, maybe your problem was a fluke .

Thank you for clarifying that for me. I understand now. It was definitely irratating having to wait 2 hours. Another group in Jamaica was waiting as well. If it wasn't so many bags and such a far walk we would have definitely walked our bags to the custom house. The cm/ bellman said they were runing behind. It's great to hear that's not the norm. Thank you for the responses

 

[dislover8943]

This was exactly my experience at CBR as well. They came and took us and our bags to the Custom House early in the morning so that we could get everything done and still make it to our 8:05 ADR at Crystal Palace. I can't believe you had to wait 2 hours!!! That's crazy!

I'm hoping that will be our experience this year! it was crazy! We kept calling and they would say 10 min and then not come. That continued for two hours. It was nuts! That's why I was curious what I did wrong I guess it was a fluke.

 

[dislover8943]

Okay...still confused. Are you looking to get your bags to the RAC counter, to check them and get boarding passes issued? Or, are you just trying to get your bags to the DME bus area so that you can take the bags with you, on your DME bus, for return to MCO??? Do you want Bell SErvices (actually Luggage Assistence at the moderates) to get the bags, and take them back to the storage area and store them for you until you pick them up to go back to MCO on DME bus??

I would just schlep them myself. I find that the moderate and value resorts have a less speedy system for baggage handling..not surprising, these resorts are huge.

I can't give you a good answer since I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish. If we use Bell Services to get our bags, we are on our way out. Otherwise, we tend to bring our bags to the front of the resort ourselves.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm asking. Basically I want to get my luggage to wherever it needs to be so it can magically travel and end up at our airport at home. Without me have to do it. So whatever that is.

 

[Missytara]

You need to reserve bell services early; do not wait until you are ready to leave. They can be very busy, Especially Saturdays and Sundays.

They take ressies no more than 48 hours in advance. I do this every year at POR.

 

[macnodos]

dislover8943 -
Have you considered a car service (towncar) pick-up. The cost is inexpensive, $125 round trip. It is the most efficient way of round trip transfer plus you get a grocery/beverage stop enroute to resort.

 

[maxiesmom]

dislover8943 -
Have you considered a car service (towncar) pick-up. The cost is inexpensive, $125 round trip. It is the most efficient way of round trip transfer plus you get a grocery/beverage stop enroute to resort.

I've used towncars before too, and the only bad thing is having to stop and get your luggage when you arrive at MCO. Well, the only bad thing besides spending another $125 bucks.

And they won't help with the OP getting her bags to the front of the resort on the way home.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm not 100% sure what I'm asking. Basically I want to get my luggage to wherever it needs to be so it can magically travel and end up at our airport at home. Without me have to do it. So whatever that is.

There is no 'magical' luggage transfer when returning home...sad to say. You do have to get your bags to the RAC counter if you are checking the bags at the resort. And you do have to get it there yourself. RAC (remote airline checkin) is just curbside service, but the 'curb' is a looooong way from the terminal. You have to present yourself, with your bags. They will ask for ID, etc. Pretty much like at the airport. The only difference is that most times, one adult can check the entire family in, so that the whole group doesn't have to get up and moving early in the morning.

dislover8943 -
Have you considered a car service (towncar) pick-up. The cost is inexpensive, $125 round trip. It is the most efficient way of round trip transfer plus you get a grocery/beverage stop enroute to resort.

That isn't going to take care of the issue of getting bags to the front of the resort. Even with a car service, you still have to get your bags there..somehow or the other.
Also...many guests will not think that $125 is particularly inexpensive. And, I guess it all depends on what you call efficient. I love tagging my bags, then getting on the DME bus, and having my bags arrive at my resort later on. It routinely takes me about 15 mins longer to take DME than a car service, unless I'm using a car service with carryon bags only.
So...efficiency and inexpensive are relative terms.

 

[CamoMama]

There is no 'magical' luggage transfer when returning home...sad to say. You do have to get your bags to the RAC counter if you are checking the bags at the resort. And you do have to get it there yourself. RAC (remote airline checkin) is just curbside service, but the 'curb' is a looooong way from the terminal. You have to present yourself, with your bags. They will ask for ID, etc. Pretty much like at the airport. The only difference is that most times, one adult can check the entire family in, so that the whole group doesn't have to get up and moving early in the morning.


That isn't going to take care of the issue of getting bags to the front of the resort. Even with a car service, you still have to get your bags there..somehow or the other.
Also...many guests will not think that $125 is particularly inexpensive. And, I guess it all depends on what you call efficient. I love tagging my bags, then getting on the DME bus, and having my bags arrive at my resort later on. It routinely takes me about 15 mins longer to take DME than a car service, unless I'm using a car service with carryon bags only.
So...efficiency and inexpensive are relative terms.

This is not correct. You absolutely can check your bags at the resort and you don't have to get them to the customs house yourself.

As PPs have said, you have to make a reservation with bell services to get your bags and take you to the customs house. There you can check your luggage and not see it again until you get off the plane at your home airport.

When we were there in February we got a ME packet on our door, but it didn't have our departure time, even though we had given them our flight information about 5 times. I called, set up the departure time and set up a time for bell services to pick us and our luggage up from the room. The morning of our departure we were packed and ready to go and waited. And waited. And waited. 30 minutes past our pickup time bell services had still not arrived. I called and they told me that I had not set up a departure time. I explained that I had, but couldn't remember the name of the CM that I spoke to the day before. They got a van out to us within a few minutes and we were able to get squared away, but not without a bit of stress.

So call two days before your departure, then again the day before and get CM names and make sure the times are confirmed.