Confused about 2022 MCO to WDW transportation

[cardiacnurse_sk]

Hi all, I am planning my first trip since 2015, and boy is a lot different! I am seeing comments that ME will be ending later this year and will be replaced with....Mears? something else? For those of you who travel more often or are more in the loop, what will you be doing for transport in Jan 2022....taking whatever Mears is doing, or doing something "newfangled" like Uber or Lyft? I am going to need to go from MCO to WDW and then to Port Canaveral the next morning, if that would sway your decision. Thank you!

 

[mitsukoshi samurai]

Rent a car?

 

[Griffin11]

We are planning a trip in January 2022, and we have two kids in carseats (we could manage with one carseat and one booster seat), so we have limited options currently. We'd either be doing a town car or similar from a company that can promise two good carseats, or the new Mears (paid) option, which would presumably be a bus similar to Magical Express.

 

[JayMass]

My understanding is that Mears will be operating transportation from MCO to WDW as a quasi-replacement for DME. I'd worry about the cost of this though in addition to the fact that you are going to have to lug your bags. I'd think that Uber or Lyft would be the better option considering they would take you directly to your destination, there'd be very little wait, and the cost will likely be similar. You could also rent a car or even look at hiring a car. I'd wait for more details to come out. Luckily you have time.

 

[Marionnette]

Prior to DME, we used a town car service to get from MCO -> WDW -> Port Canaveral -> MCO.

 

[BayGirl22]

If my kids were still young enough to need carseats or boosters I'd use the Mears replacement - we don't know the price yet but there will be something. (When we traveled elsewhere with kids we brought carseats and it was fairly simple with a GoGoKidz or similar roller.)

Mine are a bit older so we will most likely use Uber or Lyft. Rideshare is not even "new" anymore and as a frequent business traveler (pre pandemic) its become pretty much the norm. I rarely rent a car because its SO much easier to just get picked up and dropped off.

We don't rent a car at Disney - to us part of the benefit of staying on site is having a public transit option and not having to deal with a car. We stay close to the parks for this reason and its part of the experience. YMMV.
Overall I really disagree with reports that ME not being free means people are "forced" to rent a car. Even pre-ME we took a shuttle, and now there are 100 other options. its not that big of a deal to us.

ETA: In your case where you have 2 stops to make, I'd just use Lyft/Uber. No need to hassle with picking up/dropping a car in different places.

 

[dmband]

We used Mears prior to DME and it was fine.
in fact the only real plus to DME was not needing to collect your bags, which is gone now anyway.
I always thought DME was operating via contract with Mears and it was just Mears anyway??

 

[Marthasor]

We never liked DME and have been using a private car service for years. We use Park Ave. Limo for all of our Orlando transfers. If you post on the Transportation board, you will probably get a lot of good options and ideas for transfers for your trip.

 

[lanejudy]

DCL offers transfers WDW->Port for $39/person each way. That adds up if you have a family. The Mears option MCO->WDW will similarly add up in cost, though exact price hasn’t been announced. If it’s just 2-3 people it may not matter, but a larger party you might want to consider either a rental or limo service.

 

[BayGirl22]

We used Mears prior to DME and it was fine.
in fact the only real plus to DME was not needing to collect your bags, which is gone now anyway.
I always thought DME was operating via contract with Mears and it was just Mears anyway??

Yes, DME was operated by Mears, so likely to be the same service (expected, we don't have the details).
I have heard the baggage transfer was a different vendor that went out of business so that would be gone anyway unless another company brings back that service.

 

[Ensusieasm]

I’ll be using the “new-old” Mears transfer that I used before Disney contracted with Mears to run Magical Express. I used to pay before and will now go back to paying for this transfer from the airport. Fifteen years for free was nice while it lasted, but no big deal for me really.

 

[Lewisc]

The company which handled luggage is still in business.
https://www.bagsinc.com/Pre DME Mears had the reputation of waiting until they had enough pax to fill a bus then taking you on a tour of numerous hotels, on and off site.

DMEs low price resulted in large ridership. Precovid Disney made sure the buses were dispatched 15 to 20 minutes even if they were half full. Maybe 3 resorts on a bus.

Mears will only work if they get enough pax to limit waiting at MCO and have a limited number of resorts on each bus.

 

[BayGirl22]

The company which handled luggage is still in business.

Thanks for clarifying. There were a few bloggers/podcasters saying they went out of business about a month ago, but I've heard differing news since. Hopefully that service will get up and running again, to me that's the only reason to take DME instead of just grabbing any kind of car/shuttle service.

 

[cardiacnurse_sk]

If my kids were still young enough to need carseats or boosters I'd use the Mears replacement - we don't know the price yet but there will be something. (When we traveled elsewhere with kids we brought carseats and it was fairly simple with a GoGoKidz or similar roller.)

Mine are a bit older so we will most likely use Uber or Lyft. Rideshare is not even "new" anymore and as a frequent business traveler (pre pandemic) its become pretty much the norm. I rarely rent a car because its SO much easier to just get picked up and dropped off.

We don't rent a car at Disney - to us part of the benefit of staying on site is having a public transit option and not having to deal with a car. We stay close to the parks for this reason and its part of the experience. YMMV.
Overall I really disagree with reports that ME not being free means people are "forced" to rent a car. Even pre-ME we took a shuttle, and now there are 100 other options. its not that big of a deal to us.

ETA: In your case where you have 2 stops to make, I'd just use Lyft/Uber. No need to hassle with picking up/dropping a car in different places.

Thank you! We live in a very rural area where Lyft/Uber are not popular, so I appreciate the feedback - that seems like our best bet!

 

[BayGirl22]

Thank you! We live in a very rural area where Lyft/Uber are not popular, so I appreciate the feedback - that seems like our best bet!

If you haven't used it before you'll want to download the app and set up an account before the trip, so you aren't fumbling with that in the airport. Most travel "influencers" (bloggers, podcasters) will have a discount code that can save you ~$10 on your first trip. Also some credit cards include bonus points for either service so check that too. You'll enter a credit card into the app for payment.

Once you have an account its fairly easy, just select where you are and where you are going and order a ride. Payment is taken care of so there's no fumbling for cash or tip. You can rate the driver and they can rate you. (Great drivers may offer polite service + phone charger, bottled water, ect.) Other than that its similar to a Taxi, but IME better condition vehicles in a lot of cities.

Someone above mentioned a shuttle from WDW to the port, that might be worth considering too.

 

[FCDub]

Once you have an account its fairly easy, just select where you are and where you are going and order a ride. Payment is taken care of so there's no fumbling for cash or tip. You can rate the driver and they can rate you. (Great drivers may offer polite service + phone charger, bottled water, ect.) Other than that its similar to a Taxi, but IME better condition vehicles in a lot of cities.

To clarify, you should still tip your Uber/Lyft driver! You can do so through the app after the ride is finished.

 

[BayGirl22]

To clarify, you should still tip your Uber/Lyft driver! You can do so through the app after the ride is finished.

Yes, for sure! Some of the apps used to include that, but now I think they will all remind you to rate and add a tip.

 

[_19disnA]

Partly depends on the size of your party, since the car services charge per person and the online taxi have a max seating per vehicle. Car seats also take up more space if you need to use them. Renting a car is one option that many people did before there was DME. Mears will be running a 'for fee' service to replace DME (which was free for Disney guests). Various shuttle services operate between MCO and Disney.

 

[DisLiss]

I'd likely go with Mears from MCO to WDW, but then Lyft/Uber to & from anywhere else I'd like to go.

We don't like to have to rent a car either, and now, on top of having to drive around ourselves, which we like to avoid, and the price of the rental, you also get hit with parking fees at the resorts. But mostly I just like letting someone else drive me around when I'm on vacation.

 

[texascutie]

I have a trip planned for February, totally forgot about having to pay to get back and forth to airport now that ME is gone. I ran the numbers through the Mears site a month or so ago and it was expensive. Will have to take that in to consideration for a rental car or not.