CleveRocks
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster worshipper
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2005
- Messages
- 9,589
Just got back in the wee hours of the morning today (Saturday) from 6 nights at POFQ.
DME worked perfectly, and wonderfully, just like it did the first time I took it.
Saturday, November 4, 2006. I walked off my AirTran flight at 9:53 p.m. It took us exactly 10 minutes to walk to the DME Welcome Center. I got there at 10:03 a.m. The CM in charge of the line told me that only one member of my party was "permitted" into the line, which seemed like an odd comment considering my wife already diverted with our kids across the way to some comfy chairs. Anyway, I got checked in within one minute, and I was walking away from the counter at 10:04 a.m. (there had been one person in line in front of me, and he and I were called by two different CMs at almost the same time).
We walked into our bus queue, which was empty; the sign said this queue was for POFQ, POR and FW. In fact, all of the bus queues were empty. As soon as we reached the front of our little roped-off area, a CM asked us to follow him to our bus. The process of walking from the counter to boarding the bus (including giving some carry-ons to the driver) took 2 minutes. We boarded the bus at 10:06 p.m.
There were exactly 12 people on the bus when we got on. I have no idea how long they had been on the bus. Others got on after us -- I didn't count, but it was no more than about 10 others. We backed up and pulled out of our spot at 10:21 p.m., so we'd waited on the bus for 15 minutes.
We watched the pleasant DVD welcoming us to WDW. It ended precisely at the moment we pulled into POFQ. As I exited the bus (two families exited before I did), it was 10:49 p.m.
Walked off the plane at 9:53 p.m., stepped onto the ground at POFQ at 10:49 p.m. 56 minutes total.
With DME, it took us 56 minutes from walking off the plane to walking into POFQ.
We packed our carry-ons with the idea that we'd have our DME luggage held 'til morning. That was our plan all along, but I guess fatigue and excitement combined to prevent me from requesting our luggage to be held until morning. At 1:16 a.m., our phone rang -- it was Bell Services asking if we wanted our luggage now or later. "Later, please." The DME literature says to allow about 3 hours after your resort arrival for your luggage to arrive. Ours was apparently ready for delivery about 2.5 hours after we arrived.
On the return trip, our bus was scheduled to arrive at 4:40 p.m. on Friday, November 10. It arrived at 4:30 p.m., and my guess is it arrived early because one of the scheduled passengers rode an ECV, and it took time for the driver to load the ECV, etc. There were 26 passengers on the bus, which also meant a lot of luggage for the driver to load -- seemed to be very few of us on participating airlines!
We pulled out of POFQ at 4:55 p.m., and went directly to MCO, no other stops. We had some traffic to content with (Friday rush hour), and once we got to the airport we were held up for about 5 minutes by a small shuttle that was occupying two slots, one of them apparently ours. We got off the bus at 5:39 p.m. We didn't ask, but the driver gave us great directions to the AirTran counter, and we were lucky in that it was quite close. The door nearest us opened right in front of an escalator, and on the other side of the escalator was an elevator. We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor and made a right, and AirTran was the first airline.
I continue to be impressed with how well DME works. I'm 2 for 2, two uses and two excellent experiences.
DME worked perfectly, and wonderfully, just like it did the first time I took it.
Saturday, November 4, 2006. I walked off my AirTran flight at 9:53 p.m. It took us exactly 10 minutes to walk to the DME Welcome Center. I got there at 10:03 a.m. The CM in charge of the line told me that only one member of my party was "permitted" into the line, which seemed like an odd comment considering my wife already diverted with our kids across the way to some comfy chairs. Anyway, I got checked in within one minute, and I was walking away from the counter at 10:04 a.m. (there had been one person in line in front of me, and he and I were called by two different CMs at almost the same time).
We walked into our bus queue, which was empty; the sign said this queue was for POFQ, POR and FW. In fact, all of the bus queues were empty. As soon as we reached the front of our little roped-off area, a CM asked us to follow him to our bus. The process of walking from the counter to boarding the bus (including giving some carry-ons to the driver) took 2 minutes. We boarded the bus at 10:06 p.m.
There were exactly 12 people on the bus when we got on. I have no idea how long they had been on the bus. Others got on after us -- I didn't count, but it was no more than about 10 others. We backed up and pulled out of our spot at 10:21 p.m., so we'd waited on the bus for 15 minutes.
We watched the pleasant DVD welcoming us to WDW. It ended precisely at the moment we pulled into POFQ. As I exited the bus (two families exited before I did), it was 10:49 p.m.
Walked off the plane at 9:53 p.m., stepped onto the ground at POFQ at 10:49 p.m. 56 minutes total.
With DME, it took us 56 minutes from walking off the plane to walking into POFQ.
We packed our carry-ons with the idea that we'd have our DME luggage held 'til morning. That was our plan all along, but I guess fatigue and excitement combined to prevent me from requesting our luggage to be held until morning. At 1:16 a.m., our phone rang -- it was Bell Services asking if we wanted our luggage now or later. "Later, please." The DME literature says to allow about 3 hours after your resort arrival for your luggage to arrive. Ours was apparently ready for delivery about 2.5 hours after we arrived.
On the return trip, our bus was scheduled to arrive at 4:40 p.m. on Friday, November 10. It arrived at 4:30 p.m., and my guess is it arrived early because one of the scheduled passengers rode an ECV, and it took time for the driver to load the ECV, etc. There were 26 passengers on the bus, which also meant a lot of luggage for the driver to load -- seemed to be very few of us on participating airlines!
We pulled out of POFQ at 4:55 p.m., and went directly to MCO, no other stops. We had some traffic to content with (Friday rush hour), and once we got to the airport we were held up for about 5 minutes by a small shuttle that was occupying two slots, one of them apparently ours. We got off the bus at 5:39 p.m. We didn't ask, but the driver gave us great directions to the AirTran counter, and we were lucky in that it was quite close. The door nearest us opened right in front of an escalator, and on the other side of the escalator was an elevator. We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor and made a right, and AirTran was the first airline.
I continue to be impressed with how well DME works. I'm 2 for 2, two uses and two excellent experiences.
, but my experience was that no bugs needed to be worked out, that it was great from the get-go. 
. Well, except from political candidates, but since we're in different states I know Eric had NOTHING to do with that!
