DME serving Sanford?

[michelb]

I was with you until you said stop at MCO. That would make the bus ride from Sanford the third gate of hell.

The only way I can see a smaller airport serviced by DME would be if the airport was closer to WDW than MCO. Not the case here...a quick Google maps check has SFB to Caribbean Beach resort (picked that at random) at 55 minutes. As I said earlier and mentioned by others, the only DME service that would even be feasible would be a SFB/MCO shuttle. Allegiant just doesn't have enough flights to justify a DME fleet and the extra distance makes it even more difficult.

I agree that it would be less than ideal to do SFB -> MCO -> DW on DME but I think it's better than nothing. If DW is hesitant to offer DME from SFB, I think this is a baby step to get them to try offering it. If there's enough demand, I'm sure they'd switch to SFB -> DW direct.

 

[richmo]

Maybe the SFB-MCO shuttle might not be such a bad thing.

Consider this: lets suppose Disney does DME to/from SFB. The number of people coming into SFB is very, very small compared to MCO. Just think 1 airline with flights vs. many at MCO. The number of buses Disney/Mears supplies for DME would be directly proportional to the number of passengers...maybe a bus or two at a time. Since DME at MCO is constantly leaving with full buses, those buses only need to stop at a few resorts. A relatively full bus leaving from SFB would likely have to cover about half of the Disney resorts. Can you even imagine the time you would spend on that bus if you're the last stop (or first pickup)?

If DME ran a couple buses in a loop just between SFB and MCO, they should be able to handle the departures and arrivals at SFB. Granted, SFB and MCO are about 40 minutes apart, so even this isn't trivial. I guess SFB passengers would have to add about an hour to their travels each way (and I won't argue with you if you consider that underestimated). But, I can see where direct to Disney from SFB, covering many resorts, could result in even longer times, especially if you're near the end of the route.

 

[seashoreCM]

Hmmmmm. (thinking outside the box)
Given:
Approx. half hour service to and from every resort to and from MCO.
Averaging four different resort groupings.

Trahslate that to:
(pick a resort) Pop Century and Art of Animation Magical Express is through routed to Sanford.
Other buses run as usual to and from MCO.
All DME buses stop at a location inside WDW, say, ESPN Wide World of Sports, to exchange SFB and MCO passengrs. Exact location to be easier to get in and out of compared with loop the looping at MCO and returning to Rte 417 as a shuttle to SFB.

Result:
SFB will achieve 30 minute service.
No exchange at MCO that might cloud the definition of hotel to airport transportation.

If we just have service to SFB every coupl'a hours then SFB guests will be second guesting (horrible pun), er, guessing whether to use DME versus hire a livery service. depending on the scheduled bus times.

 

[richmo]

That's an interesting concept. Of course, it still doesn't eliminate a transfer. The part that jumps out at me though is sending all DME buses into WWoS, or any location for that matter. Wouldn't that slow down the entire system for the small number of SFB passengers it would serve?

 

[goofy4tink]

Still think it would make the most sense to provide a shuttle between Sanford and MCO. There's no way Disney is going to run buses between resorts and Sanford...just isn't cost effective. And sure, it means another transfer, but if you fly into Sanford, and you want a shuttle, that's what you have to deal with. Sanford is about 30 mins away, so shouldn't be a huge issue. Just run a bus back and forth.