Child car seat question

[thebeesknees]

Yep, just gate check the carseat. We have 2 kids (1 was a lap baby, the other two were in harnessed high-backed booster seats) and we gate check all the car seats and the stroller when we travel. That way, I know it's not going to get lost with my other baggage, and I will have it as soon as I land.

 

[burnsoc]

Actually you can not use DME for your luggage only without someone riding the bus.

When you land you have to check with the DME desk and tell them how many bags you have and then they stamp and check your confirmation and you get in the line for your resort. They then again when boarding the buses check the confirmation pages. If you or someone in your party is not on one of the buses, they do not put your luggage in the system for delivery to your resort.

In short you no ride, you no luggage delivered.

Everything I've read says that if you already have your vouchers, you don't have to check in at the DME desk. Since you guys informed me of the rules I will have to change my rental car plans. Quick question, Why is it okay to give your luggage and get your boarding passes from the resort and not ride the bus on the way back to the airport?

 

[nexttrip4us]

We've travelled with up to four car seats before--harnessed seats and boosters. As long as our kids were in harnessed seats, they sat in them on the plane...with the boosters we would pack them in car seat bags and check them through as baggage...we flew Air Tran this past fall and they did not charge us for checking the car seat bag(s).

I wouldn't trust a rented seat...I'm super paranoid about car seats so I'd much rather deal with bringing them.

Good luck!

 

[burnsoc]

This was a posted sticky on the transportation board. It was written by a moderator.

"Guidelines regarding DME and luggage only...

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Okay...here's the deal. We get a ton of posts regarding this issue. If a guest calls Disney and asks if they can tag their bags but not ride the bus, Disney will tell them no, someone has to ride the bus. That is Disney's official stand if a guest calls and asks about it.
In all reality, if a guest tags their checked bags, but does not ride the DME bus to the resort, their bags will, in all probability, still get to their resort. Disney has a contract with MCO that states all DME tagged bags will be transported to WDW resorts.

Now....the only issue you may run into is this....
You tagged 3 bags. You get to your resort, using a towncar or rental car. You do not checkin at the DME welcome counter. You get to your resort, get checked in, and then head off to a park. You return to your room, many hours later, assuming your bags will be there, waiting, in your room. But, you find only 2 bags in your room! So, you call Bell Services and start the search. The airlines have a window in which you should be submitting a claim for missing/misdirected bags....this window may have passed by the time you realize you have missing bags. Of course, WDW/DME may have just sent your missing bag to the wrong resort.

So...long story short....Disney tells you that you have to ride the bus to get your luggage delivered. Disney will move all yellow, DME tagged bags, from MCO to WDW resorts...whether or not you are on a DME bus.

As long as you are aware of what 'could' happen, do what you wish. We have not seen reports of missing baggage here. It just doesn't happen very often...at least we aren't hearing of it happening.

There is no need for debate...this is how it works, plain and simple. "
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My original plan was to ride the DME and then rent a car from the Car Care Center. I guess I will do that and just shorten my rental dates. It's $200 less if I rent from MCO. However, it is as I suspected, there is NO way Disney loads your luggage after they've checked that you board a bus. That would be way too costly for them.

 

[peemagg]

Something I have heard people do was one person get the car and drive that back to the resort and the rest ride the bus, or one rides the bus and the rest in the car. That is an option too.

 

[nexttrip4us]

Hmm...in 2008 when we went, we did use DME for our bags and we did NOT ride the DME bus (we had rented a car, but didn't want to deal with getting the luggage) and it worked out perfectly...I'll have to check before we do that again since it sounds like the policy is different now??

 

[nexttrip4us]

Sorry--didn't see the last post. I see now what was up...we'll just have to see how we want to do it next time...

Thanks for the info!

 

[NJR]

Everything I've read says that if you already have your vouchers, you don't have to check in at the DME desk. Since you guys informed me of the rules I will have to change my rental car plans. Quick question, Why is it okay to give your luggage and get your boarding passes from the resort and not ride the bus on the way back to the airport?

Because when you get your boarding passes and check your luggage at the resort, that is part of "Remote Airline Check-in" (RAC), not DME; outbound, DME is simply a ride back to the airport. This is also why your bags arrive in your room when you fly SW into Orlando, but you cannot check in and leave your bags when you fly SW out of Orlando (although I hear that program is starting to expand through the value resorts and hopefully soon to all the resorts).