Do you have to board ME the day your flight arrives?

[jade1]

Or can you go over to US, then go back to the airport days later and return the rental car and get on ME for the Disney portion of the stay?

 

[ancestry]

ME is for the day that you check-into your Disney hotel reservation. I don't believe you can use ME on a day that you are not checking into or out of a Disney hotel.

 

[tjmw2727]

Yes as long as you are a WDW resort guest on the day you want to use DME you are fine, it dosen't matter how you actually got to the airport.

For ease you may want to give the CM a flight that arrives about the time you want to depart from the airport. Or if you call DME directly the CM's there are more knowledgable about how to book the DME transfer without flight information.

 

[tjmw2727]

ME is for the day that you check-into your Disney hotel reservation. I don't believe you can use ME on a day that you are not checking into or out of a Disney hotel.

Just to clarify -
You are not limited to check in or check out day - but you do have to be a WDW resort guest when you use DME. DH has arrived a day after us in the past and had no problems using DME. We have also returned a rental car to MCO during a trip and used DME back to the resort.

 

[ancestry]

Just to clarify -
You are not limited to check in or check out day - but you do have to be a WDW resort guest when you use DME. DH has arrived a day after us in the past and had no problems using DME. We have also returned a rental car to MCO during a trip and used DME back to the resort.

Correct. But if your party is due to check into a Disney hotel on a Tuesday you can not use DME on Monday. If you check out on Thursday, you can not have DME pick you up on Saturday because you want to go somewhere (such as US for two days) else first.

 

[tjmw2727]

Correct. But if your party is due to check into a Disney hotel on a Tuesday you can not use DME on Monday. If you check out on Thursday, you can not have DME pick you up on Saturday because you want to go somewhere (such as US for two days) else first.

Exactly but you posted that you had to use DME on check in or check out day so I tried to point out that that is not the case. You can use DME any time DURING your stay for one r/t bus ride per person. It does not have to be check in or check out day.

So in the OP's case it sounds like they are heading to US prior to the WDW stay. If so they can return the rental car to MCO anytime during their WDW resort stay and use DME to go back to the WDW Resort.

 

[jade1]

I see, thanks. Can you leave WDW in the middle of your stay (check out), then return (check back in) and finish your stay and utilize ME on arrival and return? Such as rent a car a couple days and hit Clearwater or US to break up your stay. Sounds like that is 2 ressies and does not qualify? Or would 2 ressies get you 2 RT tickets on ME?

 

[goofy4tink]

If you are planning on being someplace else in the middle of your WDW time, are you canceling your WDW reservations for that time period? You can only use DME during the time frame of your actual reservation. If you have a reservation, at a WDW resort, from Sunday to Sat...you can use DME (one time each way), between those two dates.
If you reserve from Sat to Thursday, and then a second one from Sat to Monday, then you can use DME twice (2 round trips) but they have to fall within those reservation dates and they have to be booked seperately.

 

[NJRRK]

I would think this would be quite a hassle. Why not rent an Alamo or National Car, do US, drive to WDW, check in then return the car to the CCC and get the shuttle back to your hotel or to a park. I've done this and it wasn't much more ($10) than returning to the airport and a heck of a lot easier.

You then can use ME for your return to MCO.

 

[jade1]

Yea its a lot to think about. No plans yet, just might do 2 weeks in August and want to spend a couple days at US-either to start or in the middle. Not really worth renting a car for the whole 2 weeks, would like to check bags home the last day from the resort and get boarding passes, we like ME anyway etc.

Leaning towards starting out at US, return the car and jump on ME for 10 days at WDW, or do NJRRK's suggestion.

 

[jade1]

I would think this would be quite a hassle. Why not rent an Alamo or National Car, do US, drive to WDW, check in then return the car to the CCC and get the shuttle back to your hotel or to a park. I've done this and it wasn't much more ($10) than returning to the airport and a heck of a lot easier.

You then can use ME for your return to MCO.

What/where is CCC?

 

[tjmw2727]

Yea its a lot to think about. No plans yet, just might do 2 weeks in August and want to spend a couple days at US-either to start or in the middle. Not really worth renting a car for the whole 2 weeks, would like to check bags home the last day from the resort and get boarding passes, we like ME anyway etc.

Leaning towards starting out at US, return the car and jump on ME for 10 days at WDW, or do NJRRK's suggestion.

CCC is the Car Car Center at WDW IIRC its National/Alamo. They will provide a free shuttle to/from your resort if you rent or return a car there.

For your return trip from a WDW Resort you can use the RAC to check your bags for the return flight regardless of how you get to the airport. The checking of bags on the flight home is totally separate from DME so anyone flying a participating airline case use it.

So you can check your bags at the resort and drive your rental back to the airport or use the DME bus.

 

[mom23guys2]

This only works when using a car company that the CCC services. Sometimes that isn't the cheapest rental car option. For our dates and needs Thrifty was hundreds cheaper.

 

[jwcollin]

Two years ago, we went for 18 days with the first 8 days doing Universal, Sea World, etc. When we flew in, we picked up a rental car at the airport did our 8 days and returned it back to the airport. Then we hopped onto the DME and off to the World we went! Worked perfectly!

 

[jade1]

Great advice from you all. Really appreciated. Harry Potter caused this in our household-we will see if its worth it.

 

[amyy]

We are flying in on Monday, renting a car, driving to our Dinsey hotel and starting our vacation. That Fri we are flying home for the night (driving our rental car to the airport) but keeping our room as it is just easier. We are flying back down the next day, Sat, and staying until the following Sat. The ME supervisor says we can not use ME to our Disney hotel when we arrive on Sat as that is not the first night of our stay. (they say we can use it to go home on the last day)

Just to explain-we are flying in on Monday with my mom for our Disney wedding. She doesn't want to fly alone so we are flying home with her on Fri and back down by ourselves on Sat. We are spending a bit of money at Disney on our weddding, reservations, have friends that are staying on Disney because we rave about them, been to Disney 6+ times. I am really annoyed that they won't let us use ME part way through our trip. It seems like crappy customer service to me.

Do you all think I can get them to let us use it? Talking to the supervisor didn't help so maybe I can email someone???

thanks for your help and letting me vent

 

[tjmw2727]

We are flying in on Monday, renting a car, driving to our Dinsey hotel and starting our vacation. That Fri we are flying home for the night (driving our rental car to the airport) but keeping our room as it is just easier. We are flying back down the next day, Sat, and staying until the following Sat. The ME supervisor says we can not use ME to our Disney hotel when we arrive on Sat as that is not the first night of our stay. (they say we can use it to go home on the last day)

Just to explain-we are flying in on Monday with my mom for our Disney wedding. She doesn't want to fly alone so we are flying home with her on Fri and back down by ourselves on Sat. We are spending a bit of money at Disney on our weddding, reservations, have friends that are staying on Disney because we rave about them, been to Disney 6+ times. I am really annoyed that they won't let us use ME part way through our trip. It seems like crappy customer service to me.

Do you all think I can get them to let us use it? Talking to the supervisor didn't help so maybe I can email someone???

thanks for your help and letting me vent

You should have no problem using DME when you return for the second part of your vaction. I would call DME rather than the regular reservation line. The DME CM's can deal with the exceptions and have info that the room reservation CMs don't really need on a day to day basis