Dme....luggage only.....don't want to ride the bus!!!!!

[AngiTN]

Last trip, my DME tag fell off of my luggage at some point between LAX and MCO. I was already in the DME bus when I got a call from Frontier Airlines saying they had my bag at their baggage office in the airport. I told them it should of been sent to ASMu and they just said ok and hung up. When I got to ASMu they had a CM call up DME at the airport (took awhile for them to figure out who to call) and they confirmed that Frontier had brought my bag over to them. After breakfast at Ohana and a few hours at the parks, we came back to find all our luggage delivered including my bag which had a handmade sign that said “Disney bag” taped on it.

Kind of wonder if I’d be out of luck had I not actually taken DME.

Shouldn't have been. They could have still located the bag and gotten it to you.
As folks have posted elsewhere, the baggage portion is handled by a different company than the busses are. I'm surprised Frontier didn't know what to do already. I know the other airlines do, as I witnessed it myself one night when our flight was delayed and I had to go claim my bag even though it had a yellow tag on it. I knew I needed to do it, but lots of other guests don't so there were lots of bags destined for Disney. The airlines baggage claim offices gather up all the bags heading to Disney (yellow tagged bags that show up on the belt but never get claimed) and sit them aside where someone from Bags Inc comes and gets them. I'm surprised Frontier didn't just do that with your bag, leaving it for Bags Inc to pick up next time they came around for Disney tagged bags.
Bags Inc delivers without any acknowledgement as to who took ME, or didn't.

 

[clippers6]

Shouldn't have been. They could have still located the bag and gotten it to you.
As folks have posted elsewhere, the baggage portion is handled by a different company than the busses are. I'm surprised Frontier didn't know what to do already. I know the other airlines do, as I witnessed it myself one night when our flight was delayed and I had to go claim my bag even though it had a yellow tag on it. I knew I needed to do it, but lots of other guests don't so there were lots of bags destined for Disney. The airlines baggage claim offices gather up all the bags heading to Disney (yellow tagged bags that show up on the belt but never get claimed) and sit them aside where someone from Bags Inc comes and gets them. I'm surprised Frontier didn't just do that with your bag, leaving it for Bags Inc to pick up next time they came around for Disney tagged bags.
Bags Inc delivers without any acknowledgement as to who took ME, or didn't.

I thought they handled it OK, although whoever called could have done a better job explaining what they were going to do. Since my yellow tag had fallen off, for all they knew I could have still been wandering around the airport. But if they weren’t able to get a hold of me my bag would probably have been sitting in their office all day.

 

[AngiTN]

I thought they handled it OK, although whoever called could have done a better job explaining what they were going to do. Since my yellow tag had fallen off, for all they knew I could have still been wandering around the airport. But if they weren’t able to get a hold of me my bag would probably have been sitting in their office all day.

Thankfully those yellow tags don't fall off all that often, though you never know what the belts and machines can do to them, that's for sure. I was surprised that once they knew it was a Disney bag, they didn't know how to get it to the Bags Inc employees. Sounds like someone took it down to the DME desk, which would work but is an extra step. Or surprised they didn't just hold the bag till the Bags people came by to get the other Disney tagged bags. The baggage employees told me that Disney tagged bags get through every so often so it's not all that unusually.

 

[LMO429]

Just got home this evening....This is the 3rd time we tagged our bags and did not take the bus. zero issues bags were in our room when we got to our room at 4pm

 

[seashoreCM]

Just got home this evening....This is the 3rd time we tagged our bags and did not take the bus. zero issues bags were in our room when we got to our room at 4pm

The Magical Express baggage handlers do not proactively interact with anyone at the DME welcoming area.

A question regarding your having or not having ridden the DME bus could possibly arise only after you began an interaction with DME at a later hour, say, to locate a bag that did not arrive in your room.

 

[apulk]

Just got home this evening....This is the 3rd time we tagged our bags and did not take the bus. zero issues bags were in our room when we got to our room at 4pm

Was looking to rent a van for a May, 2018 trip and was planning to pick up at the Car Care Center later the day of arrival....BUT, surprisingly, the rental is $50 less to pick up at the airport -- but with 8 people traveling was afraid the stuff won't fit in the rental. LOVED seeing your post since I was thinking the same thing....if the bag tag is on there.....why would it matter that we got on the bus or not???? Disney or Mears just picks up the bags right?

Don't want to break the rules but feeling like it would save us $50 + a fair amount of time with a direct ride to the hotel.

 

[siskaren]

Was looking to rent a van for a May, 2018 trip and was planning to pick up at the Car Care Center later the day of arrival....BUT, surprisingly, the rental is $50 less to pick up at the airport -- but with 8 people traveling was afraid the stuff won't fit in the rental. LOVED seeing your post since I was thinking the same thing....if the bag tag is on there.....why would it matter that we got on the bus or not???? Disney or Mears just picks up the bags right?

Don't want to break the rules but feeling like it would save us $50 + a fair amount of time with a direct ride to the hotel.

Well, the whole point of this thread is that there doesn't appear to be a problem if you have Disney transport your luggage even if you don't ride the bus. The issue though, is that DME isn't technically a luggage delivery service, it's a transfer service with luggage delivery as a perk. In your case though, why not have everyone but you ride the bus, and just you go pick up the car - it doesn't take 8 people to pick up the car, does it?

 

[charmed59]

But why have anyone ride the bus if you are picking up a van and it is faster than the bus? It sounds like the luggage goes whether or not you ride the bus.

The bus is definitely convenient if there is no rental car in the mix. But if a rental vehicle needs to be picked up it seems weird to have someone pick up the van, drive to the hotel, and then wait for everyone coming on the bus when they could all be riding in the van together. If they are all in the van they could head directly to a park.

 

[apulk]

But why have anyone ride the bus if you are picking up a van and it is faster than the bus? It sounds like the luggage goes whether or not you ride the bus.

The bus is definitely convenient if there is no rental car in the mix. But if a rental vehicle needs to be picked up it seems weird to have someone pick up the van, drive to the hotel, and then wait for everyone coming on the bus when they could all be riding in the van together. If they are all in the van they could head directly to a park.

Agreed....a previous poster did suggest that to me (just me picking up the rental) -- can't see convincing my family that I'll be riding in the Suburban and getting to the hotel 30 mins before them while they take the bus.....

We've taken the ME many times and it's been very nice but for us at least -- the nicest feature isn't the ride -- it's not having to deal with the luggage for 6-8 people and not needing to rent a vehicle big enough for 6-8 people PLUS 8-10 bags. If I can know that my ME tagged bags will show up at the room in a few hours and I can get to the parks sooner (to spend $$$) -- seems like a win/win for everyone.

 

[vbmom40]

I read some place that they had issues with Frontier Airlines getting the luggage to the right spot to go to the resorts is this correct. Also do they pickup car seats if we ride the bus?

 

[vbmom40]

I too was going to rent from the car care center but it would be over 200.00 more than at the airport.

 

[goofy4tink]

But why have anyone ride the bus if you are picking up a van and it is faster than the bus? It sounds like the luggage goes whether or not you ride the bus.

The bus is definitely convenient if there is no rental car in the mix. But if a rental vehicle needs to be picked up it seems weird to have someone pick up the van, drive to the hotel, and then wait for everyone coming on the bus when they could all be riding in the van together. If they are all in the van they could head directly to a park.

Agreed....a previous poster did suggest that to me (just me picking up the rental) -- can't see convincing my family that I'll be riding in the Suburban and getting to the hotel 30 mins before them while they take the bus.....

We've taken the ME many times and it's been very nice but for us at least -- the nicest feature isn't the ride -- it's not having to deal with the luggage for 6-8 people and not needing to rent a vehicle big enough for 6-8 people PLUS 8-10 bags. If I can know that my ME tagged bags will show up at the room in a few hours and I can get to the parks sooner (to spend $$$) -- seems like a win/win for everyone.

Why? Because that's not how the service is set up. Yes, you can get away with it at this time. But....if Disney were to change their system (and they could do it easily) to track who is riding the bus, and who isn't, and then transport those bags only for those guests who have ridden the bus, those that decided renting a car but sending their bags with DME would have an issue! Will that happen? Who knows. I kind of wish it would. As it is, our bags aren't being scanned very much...there is a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps is Disney changed to allowing only bus riding guests getting their bags transported, it might not take so long to get our bags....there would be fewer bags to handle.

 

[seashoreCM]

Looks to me like having the airport staff match up bags automagically delivered to the rooms with guests actually riding the Magical Express buses to Disney is an added step that would increase costs. So that was never done.

By summarily sending off the bags to the resorts as the bags arrive at the DME bag processing area, less airport storage and sorting is needed.

I suspect that DME went to larger baggage trucks leaving the airport for the resorts less often. If your bag just missed a truck then the expected time to get to your room from the point of view behind the scenes would of course be greater.

There is another disadvantage with matching bags coming off the plane with guests boarding the DME bus. You might stop off at the airport food court or, heaven forbid, get caught in a long line of guests at the welcoming area and that might cause your bags could miss the next truck.

 

[AngiTN]

Why? Because that's not how the service is set up. Yes, you can get away with it at this time. But....if Disney were to change their system (and they could do it easily) to track who is riding the bus, and who isn't, and then transport those bags only for those guests who have ridden the bus, those that decided renting a car but sending their bags with DME would have an issue! Will that happen? Who knows. I kind of wish it would. As it is, our bags aren't being scanned very much...there is a lot of room for improvement. Perhaps is Disney changed to allowing only bus riding guests getting their bags transported, it might not take so long to get our bags....there would be fewer bags to handle.

Here's the problem with this, and why I think they'll never do it.
You aren't required to board a bus by X time after landing. You can take hours if you want. Not saying that people do mind you, just that they could if they wanted to. Say they want to eat or wait on another family member to arrive on a different flight and all go together. Reasons could be any. They aren't going to store or hold the bags at the airport waiting on everyone to scan through and board ME for some sort of cross check to happen. That would be worse/harder on them than just moving the bags as soon as they arrive.
So yeah, they COULD implement what you indicate but it's simply not feasible unless they also require you to board a specific bus so they'll have a way to check in a timely manner who used ME and who didn't.

 

[goofy4tink]

Here's the problem with this, and why I think they'll never do it.
You aren't required to board a bus by X time after landing. You can take hours if you want. Not saying that people do mind you, just that they could if they wanted to. Say they want to eat or wait on another family member to arrive on a different flight and all go together. Reasons could be any. They aren't going to store or hold the bags at the airport waiting on everyone to scan through and board ME for some sort of cross check to happen. That would be worse/harder on them than just moving the bags as soon as they arrive.
So yeah, they COULD implement what you indicate but it's simply not feasible unless they also require you to board a specific bus so they'll have a way to check in a timely manner who used ME and who didn't.

True. But, they could impose a charge to your room if you didn't ride the bus. That would be very easy to do. That would really discourage people from using DME as a luggage delivery service.
But, in all reality, Disney truly doesn't care. So, guests can feel pretty secure in the fact that they can tag their bags, and expect them at their resort even if they jump in a rental car. At least as secure as those riding the bus are. And I have to say that I'm starting to feel less and less secure about my bags being handled upon arrival by Disney/BAGs! I'm just not sure that the bags are being as well tended as they used to be.

 

[Kevenswife2]

So sorry if this has been answered somewhere in this long thread. I'm dealing with some vertigo and only half understanding what I'm reading.

I signed up for DME several months ago but recently decided to rent a car for a little freedom. I plan on retrieving my luggage when we arrive at MCO, but can I check-in my luggage with Disney luggage services for the trip home? I will be driving the rental back to MCO, but don't want to stand in the long Southwest check-in line before we leave.

 

[AngiTN]

So sorry if this has been answered somewhere in this long thread. I'm dealing with some vertigo and only half understanding what I'm reading.

I signed up for DME several months ago but recently decided to rent a car for a little freedom. I plan on retrieving my luggage when we arrive at MCO, but can I check-in my luggage with Disney luggage services for the trip home? I don't want to stand in the long Southwest check-in line before we leave.

Yes. RAC at the resort is unrelated to ME in any way. The only requirement there is you need 3 hours before your flight, at a minimum. And their hours are 5 A to 12 P (I think, I may be off an hour each way)

 

[siskaren]

So sorry if this has been answered somewhere in this long thread. I'm dealing with some vertigo and only half understanding what I'm reading.

I signed up for DME several months ago but recently decided to rent a car for a little freedom. I plan on retrieving my luggage when we arrive at MCO, but can I check-in my luggage with Disney luggage services for the trip home? I will be driving the rental back to MCO, but don't want to stand in the long Southwest check-in line before we leave.

As AngiTN said, RAC is unrelated to ME - you're just checking in for your flight at your hotel instead of at the airport.

 

[hsmamato2]

Ok..... planning to do both bus and luggae from airport...but if something changes between now and our trip, and I decide not to hop on the bus, do I need to stop at ME checkin at airport anyway? or can I just go about my business without doing that

 

[goofy4tink]

Ok..... planning to do both bus and luggae from airport...but if something changes between now and our trip, and I decide not to hop on the bus, do I need to stop at ME checkin at airport anyway? or can I just go about my business without doing that

There's really no need to let DME know if you're not riding the bus to the resort. I always recommend letting them know if you won't need the bus for the return to MCO though. You could be the only guest they stop for, so rather than have everyone on the bus sitting there, waiting for you to show up, it's nice to tell them not to stop.
But, riding from MCO to the resort? Nope, no really reason to let them know you won't be riding.