DME or towncar?

[123SA]

Dec 11th our flight leaves at 735pm, we are staying at the Poly. I have CRT at 12:05 on the 11th and I'd like to see the 300 parade at MK. Can I do this and still be on time using either DME or hiring a town car? *********** tours said they pick up 2.5 hours before, which is 500pm, but I would need time to get back tot he resort and get my luggage. I think it is enough time. Any opinions? I can't figure out how early DME picks up but I thought I remembered reading that they pick up 3.25 hours before, plus you need time to get your luggage (non-participating airline). Based on that I thought it was cutting it too close and I need to hire a car.

(By the way, I can't get FLtours to return my call -- I wanted to know how early they pick you up for the airport)

 

[goofy4tink]

DME will pick you up around 4:30ish, you'll get an addtl 30 mins using a towncar service. Since you'll be at the Polynesian, you should be able to fit the 3:00 parade in if you watch from the train station end of Main St...when it ends, just high tail it out of there back to the Polynesian. The only issue would be that since the parade starts in Frontierland, it might not end, for you guys, until close to 4!! But you could always cut out before it ends if it's too close. Just be sure to leave plenty of time to retrieve your luggage...it can take 20+ minutes sometimes for bell services to get the bags out to you.

 

[rantnnravin]

watch from the splashmountain side of frontierland. When the parade ends, turn around and hop onto the train.
Even if you have to wait a couple of minutes, you'll be to main street station before the parade makes it down main street.

 

[123SA]

Great idea!!! Thanks for your answers.

 

[VAgal76]

Definitely position yourself to exit the park ASAP. Those ME buses - well, they don't wait! You can squeak in, but I think for your situation I'd hire a towncar company. There is nothing more stressful than trying to hurry back to the resort, get your bags and barely making it to the ME bus - unless you're like me and miss the bus all together. That just made me think - next time I'm doing stuff in the park the day we check out I'm hiring a town car company and not booking ME. If you are on participating airline - check in and check your luggage before heading to the parks. Then you just need to grab your carry-ons from valet and roll.

Yes, I left well over 20 minutes to get luggage and check-in. It happened to fall about 10:30 on a Sunday morning. Apparently that's peak time for everyone to leave the resort.

This is not to bash ME. I used it in July and really liked it. 30 minutes didn't matter for that trip. I didn't expect such crowds in the lobby and for retrieving luggage. It happens and it was just a lesson learned for me.

If you miss the ME bus another usually comes 30 minutes to 1 hour later if they have other scheduled pick ups. I with my streak of good luck - ran into the problem of no one else being picked up after us. So, a cab was called and off we went. We still made it in plenty enough time. We did curb side check in and security was a piece of cake. Security has improved greatly over the past year.