Disney's Magical Express -- Luggage Tag Info

[skps]

Hi Kim. This is the process for the people. When you get off the plane, you will take the tram to the main terminal. Then, go Side B, then to the lowest level, level 1 (you arrived on level 3, baggage claim is on level 2)..this is where the car rental companies and other ground transportation companies are located. You will to to the DME checkin counter, hand over your booklet which the CM will stamp (the vouchers). You will then be directed to the appropriate bus line for your particular resort. When you bus comes, you will then board. It's incredibly easy.
How long will it take?? Well, my average time, from deplaning to resort checkin line, has been about 65-70 mins..usually a shorter time than that but I had one time that it took me 85 mins to get to POP (very unusual situation). You may make up to 4 stops, but most routes have 3 stops.[/QUOTE]

Thank you!!!

 

[BobWerner]

As an aside, the night before you leave you'll get an envelop on your door that gives you the time you'll need to board DME for the return trip to the airport. It's normally about four hours before you leave. Resort checkin can take a long time, so be prepared to stand in line. There's also new requirements on bags and such.
Enjoy your trip and have fun.

 

[goofy4tink]

As an aside, the night before you leave you'll get an envelop on your door that gives you the time you'll need to board DME for the return trip to the airport. It's normally about four hours before you leave. Resort checkin can take a long time, so be prepared to stand in line. There's also new requirements on bags and such.
Enjoy your trip and have fun.

It's more like 3 hrs, 4 hrs for international flights. If you get to RAC early in the morning, the lines aren't too bad. I've never had to wait more than 10 mins but I get there by 7 am!

 

[toledo13]

What are the participating airlines for DME? I'm going to be flying Southwest- do they participate??

 

[Poohbear67]

What are the participating airlines for DME? I'm going to be flying Southwest- do they participate??

No you would have to pick up your own luggage and take it. Sorry I learned this the hard way myself in Dec.07

Airtran, Cont., Delta off the top of my head.

 

[goofy4tink]

Participating airlines are..Airtran, Alaska, American,Continental, Delta, Jetblue, Northwest, United. At least that's what I think they are.

 

[goofy4tink]

What are the participating airlines for DME? I'm going to be flying Southwest- do they participate??

It's really not that big a deal to fly SW. You still get all the benefits of DME when you arrive at MCO and head to your resort. Then, you still get to ride the bus back to the airport. You just can't check your luggage through at your resort...that's the only difference. And believe me, with all the luggage issues we're seeing with the various airlines, that may not be such a bad thing...to have to bring your luggage with you to the airport. It will just be stowed underneath your bus. It's not a deal breaker for us.

 

[Poohbear67]

It's really not that big a deal to fly SW. You still get all the benefits of DME when you arrive at MCO and head to your resort. Then, you still get to ride the bus back to the airport. You just can't check your luggage through at your resort...that's the only difference. And believe me, with all the luggage issues we're seeing with the various airlines, that may not be such a bad thing...to have to bring your luggage with you to the airport. It will just be stowed underneath your bus. It's not a deal breaker for us.

yes I should have posted this also! so sorry. It really isn't a big deal jus the hassle of getting your luagge yourself is all but everything else is included.

 

[CleveRocks]

No you would have to pick up your own luggage and take it. Sorry I learned this the hard way myself in Dec.07

Well, you're HALF right.

When you arrive in Orlando, everyone on every airline gets the full DME treatment, INCLUDING the automatic luggage delivery. If you somehow learned the hard way that you had to get your own luggage at baggage claim when you landed in Orlando, then you really didn't learn anything at all!

It is only on the way home that airline matters.

When you land in Orlando, you get the baggage delivery (as long as you placed a DME luggage tag on each piece of luggage back at home).

 

[Poohbear67]

Well, you're HALF right.

When you arrive in Orlando, everyone on every airline gets the full DME treatment, INCLUDING the automatic luggage delivery. If you somehow learned the hard way that you had to get your own luggage at baggage claim when you landed in Orlando, then you really didn't learn anything at all!

It is only on the way home that airline matters.

When you land in Orlando, you get the baggage delivery (as long as you placed a DME luggage tag on each piece of luggage back at home).

That doesn't happen with SW you have to pick it up yourself. We went to the DME desk and they told us that we had to go get our luggage ourselfs and take it to the buses. Unless they have changed this since Dec. 07 that is what DME is telling everyone at ORLANDO!

 

[goofy4tink]

That doesn't happen with SW you have to pick it up yourself. We went to the DME desk and they told us that we had to go get our luggage ourselfs and take it to the buses. Unless they have changed this since Dec. 07 that is what DME is telling everyone at ORLANDO!

I'm sorry but that's just not true. If you have put your yellow luggage tags on your checked bags, you are good to go....the bags will be pulled as they come off the plane. It doesn't matter one whit which airline you are arriving on. The only reason it matters on the way home is that each airline has to decide if they want to 'provide' that added perk of using RAC (remote airline checkin)..it really has nothing whatsoever to do with DME. It just seems that way...I sometimes wish Disney wouldn't tie the two services together. It just adds to the confusion.

I have flown SW into MCO, using my yellow luggage tags on my checked luggage. I did not go to baggage claim (good thing since there would not be any bags for me to get), I went right to the DME checkin desk and then on to my resort. My bags showed up in my room later on..don't know when because I was at the parks, enjoying myself.

 

[CleveRocks]

That doesn't happen with SW you have to pick it up yourself. We went to the DME desk and they told us that we had to go get our luggage ourselfs and take it to the buses. Unless they have changed this since Dec. 07 that is what DME is telling everyone at ORLANDO!

Trust me, they told you very very bad information.

The way I described it is the way it's been since Day One on May 5, 2005. Seriously, you were very badly misinformed.

I kinda get the feeling that you never put the special yellow DME tags on the bags. Because if the tags were on the bags, then the bags would never have made it to baggage claim for you to get yourself in the first place.

 

[Poohbear67]

I'm sorry but that's just not true. If you have put your yellow luggage tags on your checked bags, you are good to go....the bags will be pulled as they come off the plane. It doesn't matter one whit which airline you are arriving on. The only reason it matters on the way home is that each airline has to decide if they want to 'provide' that added perk of using RAC (remote airline checkin)..it really has nothing whatsoever to do with DME. It just seems that way...I sometimes wish Disney wouldn't tie the two services together. It just adds to the confusion.

I have flown SW into MCO, using my yellow luggage tags on my checked luggage. I did not go to baggage claim (good thing since there would not be any bags for me to get), I went right to the DME checkin desk and then on to my resort. My bags showed up in my room later on..don't know when because I was at the parks, enjoying myself.

Well that is what had happen to us and bascially I feel like you are calling us a liar and I don't appreciate that at all. I don't lie and all I was trying to do was help a fellow Dis person out with some info (and yes WE HAD OUR TAGS ON OUR BAGS). I questioned the same thing due to the fact the SW was on the list and the Staff member told me that they are on the list but do not do anything with the luggage at this time or something to that effect. She told us that we would have to go get our luggae and take it to the buses ourselves and then take it to our rooms.

Yes our luggage was there when we left the desk so in fact if we would have done what you are suggesting then we wouldn't have had any clothes they would have been at the airport. Again I am not trying to be rude or nasty I am just stating the experience "WE" went through and what "WE WERE TOLD" and when I asked my fellow Dis Friends who also fly SW if they have had anything like that happend to them and they all agreeded. In Fact one of my Dis Friends is a good friend of an agent at SW.

 

[Poohbear67]

Trust me, they told you very very bad information.

The way I described it is the way it's been since Day One on May 5, 2005. Seriously, you were very badly misinformed.

I kinda get the feeling that you never put the special yellow DME tags on the bags. Because if the tags were on the bags, then the bags would never have made it to baggage claim for you to get yourself in the first place.

The tags were on the bags and were still on the bags when we picked them up at baggae claim and we were told by the CM that SW was on the list but not on the List so if they were going to be on the list why not do all of it, I asked (just so you know, I am going over everything that happened w/ my fiance) the CM and she said I don't understand it either is what Mike thinks she said. So we just did what she told us too and went and got our luggage and went on our way.

I love that Mouse so much I just don't care anymore I just wanted to help someone out and sorry if you all didn't have the experience I had or other friends of mine had with SW but you are the lucky ones it seems. I hope next time I fly SW it will work out like that. I will take the infor you and the Mod have given me and ASK many questions to the Airline when I book to make sure.

if they don't do this then I will fly Airtran which is closer to me but a bit more to fly so its worth it so I don't have to lug my luggage around.

Next Trip My Bachelorette Party in Sept. Yeah.

 

[CleveRocks]

The tags were on the bags and were still on the bags when we picked them up at baggae claim and we were told by the CM that SW was on the list but not on the List so if they were going to be on the list why not do all of it, I asked (just so you know, I am going over everything that happened w/ my fiance) the CM and she said I don't understand it either is what Mike thinks she said. So we just did what she told us too and went and got our luggage and went on our way.

I love that Mouse so much I just don't care anymore I just wanted to help someone out and sorry if you all didn't have the experience I had or other friends of mine had with SW but you are the lucky ones it seems. I hope next time I fly SW it will work out like that. I will take the infor you and the Mod have given me and ASK many questions to the Airline when I book to make sure.

if they don't do this then I will fly Airtran which is closer to me but a bit more to fly so its worth it so I don't have to lug my luggage around.

Next Trip My Bachelorette Party in Sept. Yeah.

I'm not doubting a word you are reporting, but I am also not doubting that what happened to you was a one-in-a-zillion STRANGE thing.

It seems, from your other posts, that you are not believing experienced and knowledgable people here on the DIS when we try to educate you about what the policies are. It seems you got some dingbat CMs on a really bad day, but please realize that your one bizarre experience does not negate the official policies that can be read in many many places, and that many many of us have experienced first-hand.

For the life of me, I can't fathom how your DME-tagged bags remained at baggage claim.

Here's how it's SUPPOSED to work:

Baggage is off-loaded from airliners. On the behind-the-scenes trip from the belly of the plane to just before the public baggage claim carousel, bags with DME tags are pulled from the luggage stream and are set aside for transport to a Disney baggage facility in a remote hangar at the airport.

This is done for ALL LUGGAGE THAT ARRIVES AT MCO. It is not airline specific. There is no such thing as an airline that does participate or does not participate in this procedure. It happens to all arriving luggage.

There is no mechanism in place for any airline to decide that it will not allow baggage to be transfered to Disney. If it arrives at MCO and has a DME tag, Disney is actually obligated by contract with the Greater Orlando Airport Authority to take custody of it. Like I said, no airline even has the choice about whether to "participate" in this procedure. It just happens.

[The only thing the airlines choose is whether to participate in a service that goes ONE-WAY FROM RESORT TO AIRPORT, ON YOUR TRIP HOME. Airlines must choose to participate in that, and actually must pay for it. But please don't confuse that service with the delivery-on-arrival-at-MCO luggage delivery.]

 

[CleveRocks]

I just wanted to help someone out and sorry if you all didn't have the experience I had or other friends of mine had with SW but you are the lucky ones it seems.

Please trust me on this one ... we all were not "lucky" ... you guys were extremely unlucky. DME has been operating the way I described above for over 3 years now, and for those of us who've been hanging around this board that long, your post is THE FIRST TIME we've ever read any such description. Your describing us experiencing DME the way it is designed as "lucky" implies that it usually does not operate that way. It is more accurate to describe your experience as "unlucky" as that implies a more rare or not-usual experience.

I hope next time I fly SW it will work out like that. I will take the infor you and the Mod have given me and ASK many questions to the Airline when I book to make sure.

It will be a mistake to ask Southwest Airlines about the in-bound luggage handling, because Southwest has nothing to do with it, has no responsibility for it, and thus really knows nothing about it. I'm sure the SWA baggage managers who work in the bowels of MCO know all about it, but no one, and I do mean NO ONE, who works at a SWA call center in Dallas or New Delhi knows anything about how Disney's Magical Express handles baggage at MCO. DME does not exist outside of MCO and the Walt Disney World Resort.

If you call SWA, they will have no bloody clue what you're talking about. They truly have nothing to do with it, as I explained in a post above.

Let me give you a silly example ....

Let's say you have a cousin named Bob who lives central Florida who offered to do you a favor. He offered to pick up your luggage for you when you fly into MCO, to save you the trouble of going to baggage claim and lugging it to your resort. He offered that you can just go right from your plane to a bus, carefree, and that he will get your bags for you and he'll deliver them to your WDW resort for you. As a signal to let him know which bags are yours, he sends you some bright yellow yarn to attach to each of your checked bags. SO you made this arrangement with your cousin Bob. Southwest Airlines has nothing to do with the agreement you have for your cousin Bob to get your bags for you. In the same exact way, Southwest Airlines has nothing to do with the agreement you have with Disney to get your bags for you.

It's exactly the same thing.

You just have to adjust to the idea that your experience was a very very rare and odd experience. You posted your experience with the noble idea to help others out. Yet when others of us here are attempting to help YOU out, you appear distrustful and unaccepting of our collective experiences, our collective knowledge, and our collective desire to help.

 

[CleveRocks]

Well that is what had happen to us and bascially I feel like you are calling us a liar and I don't appreciate that at all. I don't lie

ALthough she hardly needs my help, I feel I must come to goofy4tink's defense here. You misinterpreted what she wrote.

She was NOT calling you a liar. She was NOT saying that what happened to you didn't happen. Based upon my 3+ years around here, I am supremely confident that when she wrote ...

I'm sorry but that's just not true.

... she was NOT referring to your report of your experience. When she wrote "that's just not true" she was referring to your incorrect (but well-intended) blanket statement of "fact" in post # 490 that ...

That doesn't happen with SW you have to pick it up yourself.

I agree with her that your statement quoted immediately above is incorrect. It may be what you were told by a truly delusional CM, but it is absolutely untrue that it's a DME policy that SWA passengers do not receive the automatic luggage delivery from MCO to their WDW resort room.

I realize that it's easy to misinterpret what someone writes. But based on my 3+ years of experience "knowing" goofy4tink, I can assure you from the bottom of my laptop that she was NOT calling you a liar. She was informing you and everyone else that your statements about standard DME procedures were incorrect, but she was not telling you that what happened to you didn't happen to you.

 

[toledo13]

I'm sorry- I'm the one who started this whole thing . So if I'm understanding this right ---

If I put my yellow tag on my luggage before I get to the airport, check in with Southwest, fly to Orlando, get on DME and arrive at POP, the bags will appear in my room in a few hours? And then when I leave, I take the yellow tag off, take my bags with me to the DME, and check in and fly home as normal... right?

 

[Poohbear67]

I'm sorry- I'm the one who started this whole thing . So if I'm understanding this right ---

If I put my yellow tag on my luggage before I get to the airport, check in with Southwest, fly to Orlando, get on DME and arrive at POP, the bags will appear in my room in a few hours? And then when I leave, I take the yellow tag off, take my bags with me to the DME, and check in and fly home as normal... right?

No biggie everyone has different points of view on things and no one is mad (well at least I am not mad at anyone, I can't speak for anyone else) at anyone.

So I would just suggest that you call ahead and talk with SW and make sure that there will be no problems with your luggage God forbid you get there and no luggage shows up I can see it now walking around Disney in the same clothes day in and day out oh my.

Best thing is to have a GREAT FANTASTIC VACATION at HOME (DISNEY)!!

 

[goofy4tink]

Well that is what had happen to us and bascially I feel like you are calling us a liar and I don't appreciate that at all. I don't lie and all I was trying to do was help a fellow Dis person out with some info (and yes WE HAD OUR TAGS ON OUR BAGS). I questioned the same thing due to the fact the SW was on the list and the Staff member told me that they are on the list but do not do anything with the luggage at this time or something to that effect. She told us that we would have to go get our luggae and take it to the buses ourselves and then take it to our rooms.

Yes our luggage was there when we left the desk so in fact if we would have done what you are suggesting then we wouldn't have had any clothes they would have been at the airport. Again I am not trying to be rude or nasty I am just stating the experience "WE" went through and what "WE WERE TOLD" and when I asked my fellow Dis Friends who also fly SW if they have had anything like that happend to them and they all agreeded. In Fact one of my Dis Friends is a good friend of an agent at SW.

Please, I am not doubting you at all. I have heard of others having this exact same situation, and to be honest, it angers me. I hate it when I hear of DME employees (I won't even call those that hand out bad info CM's!!!) giving incorrect info..it's not fair to the guest. There are DME employees, TA's, all sorts of people, giving out incorrect info, when they should have been better trained and been given the right info. Why in God's name would I, a lowly unofficial WDW site moderator, have better info than a DME employee?? That is maddening to me.
Again, I'm sorry you had this happen to you. It is certainly not your fault and I lay no blame at your feet. You were given bad info. I'm sorry you took my post to mean that I disbelieved you..nothing could have been further from the truth.

I'm sorry- I'm the one who started this whole thing . So if I'm understanding this right ---

If I put my yellow tag on my luggage before I get to the airport, check in with Southwest, fly to Orlando, get on DME and arrive at POP, the bags will appear in my room in a few hours? And then when I leave, I take the yellow tag off, take my bags with me to the DME, and check in and fly home as normal... right?

No, you 'started' nothing. It's a good thing when people post with questions because generally speaking, they are not the only ones with that question.
So...yes, you've got it. As long as you are flying home on a participating airline (with RAC) you can check those bags right at your resort. Otherwise, your bags go with you, but underneath your bus, and you check them the 'old-fashioned' way at the airport.