DME packet lost in the mail. Best option?

[The.Epcot.Man]

I've never had a problem with DME, but for whatever reason, my packet was lost in the mail and it is too close to my trip to get a new packet.

I talked to DME and they said to either give them the luggage tag information or bring the bags to the bus myself.

Which is the better (read: safer) option?

Thanks!

 

[LisaS]

Any bags without a DME tag go to the baggage carousel. They go round and round until all of the other passengers have claimed their bags. An airport worker will remove the remaining bags from the carousel and set them aside. Later, someone from DME will look through those unclaimed bags from your flight and match up yours via your luggage claim tags.

Given that luggage theft from airports is a very real problem, I would go claim my bags myself. I would not want my bags just sitting out in the open for so long. It will delay you by 45 minutes or so but it would be worth it to me to know my bags had not been "claimed" by someone else.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I've had enough problems with the MDE luggage service that I wouldn't trust them to pick up my bags based on a description. I would just take them to the bus myself. You can always hire a porter to help you get your luggage down to MDE if there's too much for you to handle alone.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Magical Express, including luggage handling, is going into its eleventh year shortly. While not downplaying that a very small percentage of overall DME users have had issues with lggage (that more likely could be attributed to airline misdirection), the Cast Members are extremely experienced obtaining untagged luggage using just descriptions and claim ceck numbers.

If you want to make it easier and faster for the CMs, tie some bright yellow ribbon to your luggage handles or use some yellow duct tape.

 

[goofy4tink]

If it were me? I would just get the bags myself and bring them to the bus. By the time the DME CMs are given notice that they are looking for your bags, who knows how much time has gone by...and that could be time that your bags were out in the open, unsupervised.
You're going to have to spend maybe 10 mins at the checkin counter giving a description of the bags and so forth...might just as well spend 20 mins getting the bags yourself. Yes, you'll have to tip the driver for the baggage handling, but that's just not a big deal.

 

[ironz]

Going to chime in on this one:
Background...long time DIS person (esp on Transportation), over 30 trips to WDW, and the majority of those using DME--with the yellow tags with not one problem.

Went for a short Food and Wine trip 2 weeks ago, and since I added my sister to the reservation only a few weeks prior, the DME info we received only covered me, as far as luggage tags. Which...since we got 2 Magic Bands, and I knew she was on the reservation, I hadn't looked at when that envelope arrived in the mail, assuming both tags were in there.

Morning of flight, discovering one tag, we had the choice of...do I just carry on my bag (it's a legal carryon), or... do what I see is possible on the DIS and just give them my tag number (I let my sis use the yellow tag) when we check in for the bus.
So...hey, let's test the DIS info... I'll check the bag and see how well the process works.

The reality--yes the bag gets there, but also, that bag does get delayed. And they will tell you that it will take longer than the tagged bags. They get the luggage info (not by size/color, but off of your baggage claim check) and eventually get your bag. Sister's bag showed up on time, but mine was delivered at least 2 hours after hers--at nearly midnight after a 5:30 pm-ish plane landing/resort check in about 6:55 pm.

So....it works without the yellow tag, but it doesn't work as well as WITH the yellow tag. If this happened in the future, I would either carry on, or go get my bag. (or check the envelope ahead of time and make sure I had both tags).