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

[goofy4tink]

Ok, I finally gave it a shot. I put the yellow DME tag on my checked bag, but rented a car. I was really curious as to what my experience would be. I was staying at POFQ. Arrived at the resort around 12:30ish. I didn't expect my bag at that point. However, when I returned to my room around 4:30, I thought the bag would be there. Nope. Gave them a little more time. Went back out. When I returned around 8ish, no bag. I called Bell Services, who said the bag had been delivered. Ah, no, no bag guys. They said they would look into it. They called me back, about 30 mins later, saying that their records showed it as delivered, was I sure it wasn't in the room? Guys, come on, the room isn't that big, I think I would notice a large red suitcase!!! About 30 mins later there is a knock on the door, Bell Services, but no bag in hand. The guy asks if my bag is blue. No, it's red, with red/white polka dot tape on the handle! 'Ahhhh, just a minute', and he knocks on the door next to me, no one is there, he opens the door, and there is my bag!!! He says the evidently no one scanned the door when it was delivered...if you open the door, there is a barcode between the hinges!!! He scanned it, my bag now is where it should be. He apologized profusely, saying 'Whoever delivered your bag didn't follow protocol and will be retrained. We're very sorry this happened.' Fine, but my question for him would be, how the heck did you know exactly where the red bag with dotted tape on it was!!!! I'm going to assume he was the one who incorrectly delivered it!!!
So, my tagged bag got to the resort just fine, without my riding the bus. The issues I had were completely resort based.

 

[bobbiwoz]

This is a long thread!

Just this week, my husband asked at BCV if we could use ME for luggage only and he was told yes.

Is this true. DH wants to sign up do ME but rent a car and not wait for luggage. The first post here says no. Has the policy changed since this thread began.

 

[Alesia]

This is a long thread!

Just this week, my husband asked at BCV if we could use ME for luggage only and he was told yes.

Is this true. DH wants to sign up do ME but rent a car and not wait for luggage. The first post here says no. Has the policy changed since this thread began.

The first post is still accurate. Are you supposed to do it? No. Will it work? Probably.

The first rule of WDW: never trust info from a CM about anything that is not very directly and narrowly related to their job.

 

[goofy4tink]

This is a long thread!

Just this week, my husband asked at BCV if we could use ME for luggage only and he was told yes.

Is this true. DH wants to sign up do ME but rent a car and not wait for luggage. The first post here says no. Has the policy changed since this thread began.

Can you? Yes, I did. Does Disney want you doing this? Not really, but they truly don't care. If they did care, they could change it up. My concern would be a CM saying that you can. Who did your dh talk to at BCV?

 

[Lilsia]

The first post is still accurate. Are you supposed to do it? No. Will it work? Probably.

The first rule of WDW: never trust info from a CM about anything that is not very directly and narrowly related to their job.

And even then it is iffy. I am staying at SSR now and the daily garbage pickup housekeeping kept throwing stuff away that was not trash so I went to front desk and asked them to stop coming every day. The cast member said that they do not do trash every day but only every 4 days. I explained to him the change they made and he still did not believe me. I insisted and so he went to ask someone and I followed and heard him say that pretty much I'm a nut case. Well the other cast member set him straight and he had to eat crow. Disney is not very good about training people. How hard is it to print up a sheet and post it in an area that all of the cast members will see.

 

[Alesia]

And even then it is iffy. I am staying at SSR now and the daily garbage pickup housekeeping kept throwing stuff away that was not trash so I went to front desk and asked them to stop coming every day. The cast member said that they do not do trash every day but only every 4 days. I explained to him the change they made and he still did not believe me. I insisted and so he went to ask someone and I followed and heard him say that pretty much I'm a nut case. Well the other cast member set him straight and he had to eat crow. Disney is not very good about training people. How hard is it to print up a sheet and post it in an area that all of the cast members will see.

That's exactly what i mean. If you have an issue with housekeeping, talk directly to housekeeping. Asking a front desk CM about anything that doesn't deal directly with their duties (i.e. check-in and check-out) is just asking for trouble.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Can you? Yes, I did. Does Disney want you doing this? Not really, but they truly don't care. If they did care, they could change it up. My concern would be a CM saying that you can. Who did your dh talk to at BCV?

He asked someone in the hotel lobby at BC.

 

[Missyrose]

I tagged my bags and didn't ride DME on Thursday, bags arrived fine. YMMV.

 

[mrd7896]

Leaving in less than 3 weeks (WOO!) planning on tagging our singular checked bag and then getting an Uber or Lyft. Should we bother scanning our MagicBands at the podium and then walking away to get our uber since all of the ground transportation is near one another? I know "Why would you bother doing that, just get on the bus" but that minute of our time is worth it if it will ensure anything more? (Unless that will screw things up for others/you have to check in multiple times before riding the bus. But i heard your bands are activated once you do that check in at the podium)

Did @Missyrose just went on their merry way, disregarding the DME area completely?

I'm only concerned with not riding the bus because we won't 'check in' until 10 at night when we return from a park. Not sure if that would effect our bags at all even though we are landing in MCO at around 9 am. I completed online check in but wasn't able to change the resort arrival part as it just says Magical Express.

Advice?

 

[Missyrose]

Did @Missyrose just went on their merry way, disregarding the DME area completely?

That's correct, I didn't check in at DME at all.

 

[sasmom]

I tagged my bags and didn’t ride MDE today. All bags arrived fine at WL.

 

[AngiTN]

Leaving in less than 3 weeks (WOO!) planning on tagging our singular checked bag and then getting an Uber or Lyft. Should we bother scanning our MagicBands at the podium and then walking away to get our uber since all of the ground transportation is near one another? I know "Why would you bother doing that, just get on the bus" but that minute of our time is worth it if it will ensure anything more? (Unless that will screw things up for others/you have to check in multiple times before riding the bus. But i heard your bands are activated once you do that check in at the podium)

Did @Missyrose just went on their merry way, disregarding the DME area completely?

I'm only concerned with not riding the bus because we won't 'check in' until 10 at night when we return from a park. Not sure if that would effect our bags at all even though we are landing in MCO at around 9 am. I completed online check in but wasn't able to change the resort arrival part as it just says Magical Express.

Advice?

Waste of time. It makes no difference and there are 2 scan points, one at check in and one as you board, so if you scanned at one and not the other they'd know you didn't ride.

 

[burrito25]

so my family 2 adults and 2 kids are going to disney this sat to sat and staying at Poly. a few months ago a cast member told me its fine if we dont physically ride the ME and our luggage will still get to the hotel. last night i spoke to them again and re asked the question to confirm and was told the opposite and that at least 1 person needs to be on the bus. by the looks of browsing this thread it seems the "rule" is you need to be on the bus but many many people get their bags fine without being on it. its a risk, but seems to be fine.

am i interpreting 30+ pages of posts correctly? we we just tag our 2 checked bags with the ME tags and take an uber to the hotel?

followup question... on the return home, can we drop our bags off for the remote check in (flying united) 3+ hours before the flight and get to the airport ourselves? we dont need to take the ME back to MCO right?

 

[AngiTN]

so my family 2 adults and 2 kids are going to disney this sat to sat and staying at Poly. a few months ago a cast member told me its fine if we dont physically ride the ME and our luggage will still get to the hotel. last night i spoke to them again and re asked the question to confirm and was told the opposite and that at least 1 person needs to be on the bus. by the looks of browsing this thread it seems the "rule" is you need to be on the bus but many many people get their bags fine without being on it. its a risk, but seems to be fine.

am i interpreting 30+ pages of posts correctly? we we just tag our 2 checked bags with the ME tags and take an uber to the hotel?

followup question... on the return home, can we drop our bags off for the remote check in (flying united) 3+ hours before the flight and get to the airport ourselves? we dont need to take the ME back to MCO right?

Last question first, RAC actually has nothing at all to do with ME so yes, you can use RAC and go back to the airport however you wish. No rules against that at all.

As to arrival, you have it right. There is no cross-check done between those who ride and the taking of bags. They'll pull your bags off the flight and route them on to Disney. Period. Plus, there's no time limit on how long you have between arrival and when you get on ME. For instance, if you were to stop and eat at the airport, or wait for a friend or family to arrive you may not even ride ME right away. In that case, your bags would go on well before you leave on ME anyway. Which is likely why they do no cross-checking to make sure the person who owns each bag has gotten on ME before they take it to Disney. And since there's no cross-check, there's nothing stopping you from taking Uber to Disney if that's what you want to do. Where you do take a gamble is if something were to happen to the bags. If it were discovered you didn't ride ME, it's unknown what Disney's stance would be in regards to helping you.

 

[seashoreCM]

(snip) there's nothing stopping you from taking Uber to Disney if that's what you want to do. Where you do take a gamble is if something were to happen to the bags. If it were discovered you didn't ride ME, it's unknown what Disney's stance would be in regards to helping you.

We have here a situation where neither the guest(s) nor their bags went to the resort via Magical Express.

"If I Ran the Zoo"

Let's say you were the Guest Services rep. who first met a family three nights ago and they are back because their bags have still not arrived. Last thing they said was that their airline had not seen the bags since. How would you handle it (help them) and what reasons would you be thinking of? (Don't all of you reply to this thread within the next two minutes.).

By the way, adding a cross check would be extra cost and complexity and would also delay getting bags to guests' rooms.

 

[AngiTN]

We have here a situation where neither the guest(s) nor their bags went to the resort via Magical Express.

"If I Ran the Zoo"

Let's say you were the Guest Services rep. who first met a family three nights ago and they are back because their bags have still not arrived. Last thing they said was that their airline had not seen the bags since. How would you handle it and what reasons would you be thinking of? (Don't all of you reply to this thread within the next two minutes.).

By the way, adding a cross check would be extra cost and complexity and would also delay getting bags to guests' rooms.

I haven't a clue what this post means.
I've acknowledged that anyone who puts the tags on the bags and doesn't take ME is taking a gamble if the bags don't come. Other than that, what the heck does your post mean?

 

[goofy4tink]

I am not a huge proponent of 'what ifs'. I don't much care about if I ran the zoo. Makes little to no difference. I care only for actual experiences. I've used every method of transport from MCO to my Disney resort. I've tagged my bags and hopped on the bus. I've tagged my bags and taken a rental car. I have had no issues.
Now....can I say what happens if I tag my bags, I rent a car and drive to my resort, only to find (many hours later) that one of my bags didn't arrive? Nope. We were told in the past that if we rode the bus and tagged our bags, Disney (DME/Mears) would find any missing bags. But, at that time, they asked how many bags we had checked, and put it into their records. That doesn't happen anymore. So, if an airline misdirects one of your tagged bags, and it finally makes it's way to MCO, I imagine that it gets picked up by DME and sent along to the resort. But....what if the bag is misdirected, you realize it's missing, who do you call to track it? Do you take care of it yourself? Do you expect Disney to find it? What is the time limitation on reporting a missing bag?

 

[mfly]

DME didnt send us our yellow luggage tags in time (despite me following up multiple times and them claiming to have sent them out).

We are only coming down for an (extremely) short one-night stay, so we had planned on ubering straight from MCO to the parks, and having our bags tagged and taken by DME.

Does anyone have any experience with giving DME your baggage claim tickets and then not taking DME?

 

[dancin Disney style]

DME didnt send us our yellow luggage tags in time (despite me following up multiple times and them claiming to have sent them out).

We are only coming down for an (extremely) short one-night stay, so we had planned on ubering straight from MCO to the parks, and having our bags tagged and taken by DME.

Does anyone have any experience with giving DME your baggage claim tickets and then not taking DME?

Couldn't you just pack in a backpack and then get a locker when you arrive at the park?

Personally, I would not trust that they would get my bag without the yellow tags. I've had issues with the tags on so....

 

[AngiTN]

DME didnt send us our yellow luggage tags in time (despite me following up multiple times and them claiming to have sent them out).

We are only coming down for an (extremely) short one-night stay, so we had planned on ubering straight from MCO to the parks, and having our bags tagged and taken by DME.

Does anyone have any experience with giving DME your baggage claim tickets and then not taking DME?

Personally if I have to go down and give them my tags I'm taking the bus. I am not giving them the tags and walking out. Until such a time they make an official announcement that you don't have to use ME to use the bag service.