Can we take Magical Express the day after plane lands?

[rachel09985]

We are contemplating leaving the night before and landing one night earlier then checking into an airport hotel later at night. Can we take the shuttle back in the morning and then hop on Magical Express even though we wouldn't have technically landed that day?

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yes you can.

 

[dudspizza]

We have done it.

Made a airport hotel reservation. Collected our bags and took the free shuttle to the hotel. The next morning took the shuttle back to MCO and got on DME. We made our DME reservation for that day since it was our check in date at WDW. We gave them a flight coming in that day to not confuse DME. The shuttle from the hotel even dropped us right at DME.

I suggest the Marriott hotels. We stayed at Residence Inn just north of the airport for around $80.

Duds

 

[OKW Lover]

The only ME restriction is that it must be within the days you are staying at a WDW hotel. Disney does not care what day your plane actually arrives (or departs) only that you are going from the airport to WDW.

Having said that, its easier for their system if you give them a flight number, arrival time that's around when you expect to be ready to go.

 

[dudspizza]

I will add that I have also done it on the opposite end of a trip as well. We had 2 days in a condo off-site at the end of our trip. I gave DME a flight time for the day of departure so they scheduled me to go back to MCO when I wanted to. I then picked up a rental car, drove back to POR to pick up the family and off we went to the timeshare.

As stated above, you are entitled to use DME for 1 trip to WDW and 1 trip back to MCO as long as it is within your stay dates.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I'll just add that Disney's Magical Express is based on your WDW resort reservation, not on how or when you arrive at the airport. You can reserve inbound DME for your resort check-in date or for after your resort check-in date (such as one family member is coming in a few days after the first family member(s).

You can't reserve DME for BEFORE your resort check-in date, even if it's the day you fly in. For example, someone who flies in Saturday, plans to spend Saturday night at the non-Disney WDW Swan & Dolphin, and then move to a Disney resort on Sunday cannot reserve DME for Saturday.

 

[rachel09985]

Thank you for the advice everyone.

 

[quirty30]

We did this in March. Got in around 11PM and walked over to the airport Hyatt, crashed, and got a good night's sleep. Woke up, showered and walked downstairs to catch DME to VWL. It was a breeze. We let Disney know about this in advance and our flight info on the DME voucher was blank. We had no issues at all.

 

[Queenscoroots]

Thank you all for the great information! I've had the same question, so have been searching the forums to see if anyone had some info. Should have known it would be here!

BTW, we did a similar thing in 2008. We arrived the day before our Wilderness Lodge 'package' started. Instead of staying at an airport hotel though, we stayed the first night at ASM. Disney took care of transporting our bags from ASM to WL the next day - we just took the Disney internal bus.

Thanks again. Great info on this board!

 

[iluveeyore]

Thanks for posting this - just to clarify for my situation - I am landing at MCO and renting a car - got an excellent rate but only if I return car to MCO, and only for a week - we are at Disney for 12 days - am I able to return the car to MCO halfway through our stay and take ME back to our resort since we didn't use it on arrival???

 

[goofy4tink]

Thanks for posting this - just to clarify for my situation - I am landing at MCO and renting a car - got an excellent rate but only if I return car to MCO, and only for a week - we are at Disney for 12 days - am I able to return the car to MCO halfway through our stay and take ME back to our resort since we didn't use it on arrival???

Shouldn't be an issue.