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

[Lilsia]

And what pray tell would they do if that family decided to stop to eat? Make y'all wait another hour?
You know people are allowed to do that? right?
Or what if their flight was late? Some are hours or even days late
What you were told was BS. Plain and simple.
Pure and flat B.S.
They do not wait in 1 family. Ever.
They do have continuous buses, every so often. When departing MCO. What you are describing does happen when leaving the resorts. Maybe you are mixing things up in your mind?
And I too have ridden ME a lot over the years.
They are supposed to leave in 30 min after the first family boards. Or the bus is full.
I guess those that wait 45 are doing it just because (maybe the family was a personal friend who contacted them?)
Just like the driver that told DH he could board at the Resort. It was an improper procedure but it happened anyway.
The 45 min wait was improper procedure but it happened anyway
Their telling you they waited on 1 family was improper but it happened.

What I think they do is wait up until a certain point, hence why there are such huge time discrepancies. I have never been on a full bus, but have waited various amounts of time.

 

[goofy4tink]

What I think they do is wait up until a certain point, hence why there are such huge time discrepancies. I have never been on a full bus, but have waited various amounts of time.

Nope, it all depends on when you board the bus. If you board as soon as the bus arrives, you will wait up to 25 mins...until either the bus is full, or the 25 min point is reached. If you board the bus after the bus has been sitting there for 20 mins, you won't be waiting on the bus for long. They truly do not wait for specific passengers. I know this because I've asked, multiple times.

 

[seashoreCM]

Then why, pray, have guests reported they were waiting for 45 minutes or more for the Magical Express bus to depart the airport?

Could it be that the guests misrepresented the time, like reported the time from plane arriving at the gate to the time the bus departed?

Could it be that DME took into account the time until the next bus would arrive to take its place so there would not be that long of a wait for the next batch of guests (split the difference)? Or even because it "looks better" when guests are not waiting for long at an empty platform?

And what pray tell would they do if that family decided to stop to eat? Make y'all wait another hour?

Meanwhile down at the DME baggage corral perhaps a quarter mile from the DME welcoming area: CM: "I've been scanning some of these suitcases over and over again and their owners haven't boarded the bus yet. To hell with it I'll just send all of the suitcases onward to the resorts."

 

[Lilsia]

Nope, it all depends on when you board the bus. If you board as soon as the bus arrives, you will wait up to 25 mins...until either the bus is full, or the 25 min point is reached. If you board the bus after the bus has been sitting there for 20 mins, you won't be waiting on the bus for long. They truly do not wait for specific passengers. I know this because I've asked, multiple times.

I would believe that if personal experience has not shown me otherwise. There have been times where we got on and the bus was almost full, and still waited a long time, usually for just 1 more family. Weird because I have asked also, and they say that they wait for specific passengers.

 

[AngiTN]

Meanwhile down at the DME baggage corral perhaps a quarter mile from the DME welcoming area: CM: "I've been scanning some of these suitcases over and over again and their owners haven't boarded the bus yet. To hell with it I'll just send all of the suitcases onward to the resorts."

Huh?

 

[Missyrose]

Meanwhile down at the DME baggage corral perhaps a quarter mile from the DME welcoming area: CM: "I've been scanning some of these suitcases over and over again and their owners haven't boarded the bus yet. To hell with it I'll just send all of the suitcases onward to the resorts."

I'm confused about what point you are trying to make. The luggage and buses are on separate systems/different companies, there's no cross checking done at the airport.

 

[goofy4tink]

Then why, pray, have guests reported they were waiting for 45 minutes or more for the Magical Express bus to depart the airport?

Could it be that the guests misrepresented the time, like reported the time from plane arriving at the gate to the time the bus departed?

Could it be that DME took into account the time until the next bus would arrive to take its place so there would not be that long of a wait for the next batch of guests (split the difference)? Or even because it "looks better" when guests are not waiting for long at an empty platform?


Meanwhile down at the DME baggage corral perhaps a quarter mile from the DME welcoming area: CM: "I've been scanning some of these suitcases over and over again and their owners haven't boarded the bus yet. To hell with it I'll just send all of the suitcases onward to the resorts."

People are always 'misrepresenting' times. Dear God....I once got behind a woman at an AKL bus stop who was screaming at the driver that she had been standing there, waiting for over 30 mins!!!! Kind of impossible lady...I've been here 15 mins and you arrived about 5 mins after I did!! Some lie, some remember incorrectly. But, in all reality, the vast majority of wait times are under 30 mins for DME.

And that whole 'meanwhile, down at the DME baggage corral' statement? Sorry. First there is no 'DME baggage corral'. Tagged bags are pulled out and just put aside. Are they scanned? Sure. But not to match them up with any passengers!!! Not sure where you get that idea!!! It's never been that way. In fact, there is probably less bag scanning happening now than ever before.

I would believe that if personal experience has not shown me otherwise. There have been times where we got on and the bus was almost full, and still waited a long time, usually for just 1 more family. Weird because I have asked also, and they say that they wait for specific passengers.

Yes, they will wait for specific passengers if those guests have just checked in at the podium. But..they are not holding the bus to Pop, for the Smith family that just got off the plane!! That family could be stopping at the restrooms, stopping to get their bags, grabbing a bite to eat, before heading to DME. For instance, there was the time my dd and I were arriving on a specific flight, we had DME reservations. Dd's friend was also arriving but on a later flight. Our plans changed, we didn't actually fly in, but drove in that day. We met dd's friend, and headed to DME. I doubt that our original bus was held, waiting for us to show up. BUT...if we had already checked in at the podium and were making our way to the appropriate bus line, then yes, they would hold the bus. Of course, there have been times that the bus has closed it's door, and pulled away as I arrived at the front of the bus line...perhaps they had stopped boarding before I scanned my band at the podium.

 

[seashoreCM]

... First there is no 'DME baggage corral' ...

The baggage corral: A place originally a short distance from the DME main terminal, not with that name, mentioned in early Magical Express descriptions, and where bags are sorted onto different trucks to be dispatched to different sections of WDW e.g. "Animal Kingdom area."

Now the yellow tagged bags set aside as they come off the planes have to be gathered from the various gates. We are not sure whether there was possible refinement of procedures where trucks stop at each gate and then proceed directly to WDW where the sorting is done.

... meanwhile down ...

A description of the pitfalls of trying to match DME baggage with DME guests, made into a story.

While scanning of bags is part of the normal procedure, sometimes human mistakes are made anyway and the information printed on the yellow tag comes in (or should come in) handy to get a bag that ended up at the wrong resort over to the correct resort..

 

[Lzylitnin]

I do know that we have waited on a "Magical" Express bus for over 45 minutes before leaving the airport, multiple times. From the time we sat down on the bus, not from the time that we got off of the plane. It has been 2 years since this has happened, so it may have improved. I always allow at least 3-4 hours to get to my resort room from MCO, if I'm using ME. It may not take that long, but I have had it take that long, multiple times. We've been the 4th stop, twice. I know they are only supposed to make 3 stops, max. This isn't always the reality, however. Because of this, we've been using alternative transportation and collecting our own baggage or carrying on. I'm considering using the ME tags and our own transportation, which brought me to this thread.

Thanks for all of the advice and information. I'm still not decided on whether we will ride ME and let them handle everything, try the luggage only, possibly risky, option, or handle it ourselves.

 

[BellaBaby]

After going to WDW many times and using our own transportation, we finally decided to use the ME tags and still take our own transportation and it worked out great! We were able to just get our rental car and head to the parks and then when we got to our room, there was our luggage. Highly recommend!

 

[Castillo Mom]

Last trip we used the Minnie Van service to get us to our resort from MCO. Due to a severe lightning storm, although we were able to deplane, there was a delay in getting luggage off. After waiting almost an hour at baggage claim, our driver coordinated with ME to have our luggage delivered so that she could get us to our ‘Ohana reservation on time and she did.

After reading most of this thread, I feel reassured that I shouldn’t have any issues using ME combined with Minnie Van service next trip.

 

[nkereina]

We will be in Orlando next week, and arranged and prepaid for a car service when we thought we'd be staying offsite. We're now staying onsite. Rather than hassle with a refund for the car service (and to get to WDW faster), I am planning to keep it and use DME to handle my checked luggage. Since there hasn't been any posts for a while, just wanted to check in to see if there have been any new considerations or hiccups with this process? It will be my first time doing this.

On a related note, after reading the first post, I understand that the risk is the window for reporting lost luggage with the airline may be closed by the time we are made aware our luggage is missing. Just curious if anyone has encountered this issue before and what recourse there might be, if any?

 

[AngiTN]

We have let ME deliver our bags, with us taking Uber, as recent as August. As always, bags are off and headed to sorting regardless on if you ride the bus. They don't hold them till someone checks in. Heck, on our trip in October, DH waited nearly 3 hours before even leaving the airport. He was meeting DGD's plane and it got delayed. He decided to go on and wait there rather than head to the Resort, then go back. His bag nearly beat him to the resort.

Your risk of a lost bag is still there. However, if you fly Delta or AA (no idea about other legacy airlines, but those for sure) they offer real-time tracking of your bag. You know if it's on your plane and you know when it's offloaded from the plane. They no longer track them once offloaded but you'll know who is responsible and where it goes missing. I always check the status of my bag each step so I know if it's making it or not. It's one of the main reason I don't like Southwest. I can handle the seating deal but hate that they don't track bags.

 

[nkereina]

We have let ME deliver our bags, with us taking Uber, as recent as August. As always, bags are off and headed to sorting regardless on if you ride the bus. They don't hold them till someone checks in. Heck, on our trip in October, DH waited nearly 3 hours before even leaving the airport. He was meeting DGD's plane and it got delayed. He decided to go on and wait there rather than head to the Resort, then go back. His bag nearly beat him to the resort.

Your risk of a lost bag is still there. However, if you fly Delta or AA (no idea about other legacy airlines, but those for sure) they offer real-time tracking of your bag. You know if it's on your plane and you know when it's offloaded from the plane. They no longer track them once offloaded but you'll know who is responsible and where it goes missing. I always check the status of my bag each step so I know if it's making it or not. It's one of the main reason I don't like Southwest. I can handle the seating deal but hate that they don't track bags.

Thanks for the info! Glad to hear nothing has changed.

We are flying Southwest, but we have a direct flight so hoping that helps to mitigate our risk of having a lost bag. But related to this topic, let's say my luggage was lost by the airline and I DID ride Magical Express. What difference does that make? Disney wouldn't know how many bags I checked, since they aren't cross-referencing passengers with bags. Just wondering how the risk of lost luggage is further impacted by not riding the bus.

 

[seashoreCM]

The chances of grief from airline baggage problems are slightly (in practice infinitesimally) greater when you use yellow tags compared with not using the tags and going to the carousel yourself.

Given Magical Express as it is now (after various changes and refinements were made over the years to maneuvers and procedures including no longer asking how many checked bags you have), the chances of actual baggage loss using yellow tags are the same whether or not you ride the bus.

(copied from another forum)
Disney has one added procedural patch (information tech folks call it a kludge) whereby when you follow the DME instructions including riding the bus to your resort, any baggage claims will be entertained at your resort regardless of where the bags got lost. The effect is that of treating the DME trip as a connecting flight and your resort is your final destination. Contrast that with not riding the bus where in all fairness the airport is your final destination regarding airline caused baggage issues. The majority of the latter problems are covered by DME persons at the airport scrounging up yellow tagged bags they find loose.

 

[nkereina]

Disney has one added patch (information tech folks call it a kludge) whereby when you ride the DME bus to your resort, any baggage claims will be entertained at your resort regardless of where the bags got lost. The effect is that of treating the DME trip as a connecting flight and your resort is your final destination. Contrast that with not riding the bus where in all fairness the airport is your final destination regarding airline caused baggage issues. The majority of the latter problems are covered by DME persons at the airport scrounging up yellow tagged bags they find loose.

Thanks for the explanation! Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, Disney will provide some assistance in locating a lost bag if I ride the bus, since they are able to substantiate the resort was my final destination. Do they actually liaise with the airline and/or the airline's baggage office?

And if I were to not ride the bus, Disney will not provide further assistance (beyond looking around at the resort, I presume) because the bag could be essentially lost anywhere since the airport was my "final" destination. Is that correct?

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks for the info! Glad to hear nothing has changed.

We are flying Southwest, but we have a direct flight so hoping that helps to mitigate our risk of having a lost bag. But related to this topic, let's say my luggage was lost by the airline and I DID ride Magical Express. What difference does that make? Disney wouldn't know how many bags I checked, since they aren't cross-referencing passengers with bags. Just wondering how the risk of lost luggage is further impacted by not riding the bus.

Basically, the help they are willing to give. The risk isn't changed, just who you turn to for help, and how much help you can get, will, or could.
If they realize you didn't ride the bus, they may say, sorry, too bad. We aren't helping to locate the bags. That means, you won't know if they are lost by the airline or lost within Bags Inc's system.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks for the explanation! Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, Disney will provide some assistance in locating a lost bag if I ride the bus, since they are able to substantiate the resort was my final destination. Do they actually liaise with the airline and/or the airline's baggage office?

And if I were to not ride the bus, Disney will not provide further assistance (beyond looking around at the resort, I presume) because the bag could be essentially lost anywhere since the airport was my "final" destination. Is that correct?

Pretty much.

 

[Lilsia]

The chances of grief from airline baggage problems are slightly (in practice infinitesimally) greater when you use yellow tags compared with not using the tags and going to the carousel yourself.

Given Magical Express as it is now (after various changes and refinements were made over the years to maneuvers and procedures including no longer asking how many checked bags you have), the chances of actual baggage loss using yellow tags are the same whether or not you ride the bus.

(copied from another forum)
Disney has one added patch (information tech folks call it a kludge) whereby when you follow the DME instructions including riding the bus to your resort, any baggage claims will be entertained at your resort regardless of where the bags got lost. The effect is that of treating the DME trip as a connecting flight and your resort is your final destination. Contrast that with not riding the bus where in all fairness the airport is your final destination regarding airline caused baggage issues. The majority of the latter problems are covered by DME persons at the airport scrounging up yellow tagged bags they find loose.

I had an issue one time. I was coming in on the last flight of the night and 1 of my bags did not come out. I went to the airline desk and filed a claim. I went with my other bag to DME and got to my room. I had notified front desk that I was missing a bag and that the airline would let me know. Well the next morning, Disney contacted me saying that they have the bag and will bring it right up. It was on the plane but the handlers did not see it in the dark corner and it sat in the plane all night. But Disney acted as the go between and brought the bag to me. IDK if that was because I rode DME or just Disney customer service, but it saved me the hassle of waiting for someone from the airline to bring me my bag.

 

[seashoreCM]

... coming in on the last flight of the night ...

If your flight arrives after 10 PM, the Magical Express instructions say you need to go to the carousels. After 10 there is officially no DME baggage service so the bus cannot behave like a connecting flight. Filing a claim with the airline near the carousels if needed is a key requirement. That claim belongs to the airline and the airlines can use DME to help get the bag to you at a Disney's resort (which you experienced) contrasted with their using their own personnel or a courier if you were traveling elsewhere (including Swan, and Hilton Bonnet Creek) and your bag(s) did not come off your plane at your destination airport.

... Do they actually liaise with the airline and/or the airline's baggage office? ...

Only at the moments it is needed. There is no ongoing continuous liaison or cross checking in the background.