Early morning departure using Magical Express

[laurabelle]

My daughter and her friend are catching a flight home at 6:45 a.m. on Southwest. Does anyone have a recent experience doing this? They aren't checking bags and have Early Bird check in. Will they need to stop by the RAC desk or will their boarding passes be left on the door? Can they expect a 3 hr prior pick up time even at such an early hour? Thanks!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

My daughter and her friend are catching a flight home at 6:45 a.m. on Southwest. Does anyone have a recent experience doing this? They aren't checking bags and have Early Bird check in. Will they need to stop by the RAC desk or will their boarding passes be left on the door? Can they expect a 3 hr prior pick up time even at such an early hour? Thanks!

There's no need to go to the RAC counter if not checking bags.

With Southwest's EarlyBird Check-in, they can get their boarding passes from a kiosk at the airport. But if they prefer, the front desk at their Disney resort can print boarding passes.

DME pick-up for all flights is scheduled 3 hours before flight departure, plus of minus up to 15 minutes. The process of getting from the resort to the gate takes around the same amount of time regardless of the time of day. There might be less traffic in the morning, but traffic is usually not an issue. TSA Security can actually take longer if the security check-point is understaffed in the early morning.

 

[laurabelle]

Thanks for the quick response. I recall that Disney used to print your boarding passes and hang them on the door, so I guess they don't do that anymore. I didn't think about TSA at that time of day... It makes sense.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Thanks for the quick response. I recall that Disney used to print your boarding passes and hang them on the door, so I guess they don't do that anymore. I didn't think about TSA at that time of day... It makes sense.

I normally fly American, not Southwest, so I have no personal experience with getting Southwest boarding passes in my DME envelope on the day before departure.

Perhaps Disney still does this. If Disney does not provide the boarding passes in the envelope, there's no significant reason to print boarding passes at the resort if you've paid for Southwest's EarlyBird Check-in.

For passengers not checking any bags, I guess the advantage would be that you could then bypass the kiosks at the Southwest counter and go directly to TSA Security.

 

[goofy4tink]

Thanks for the quick response. I recall that Disney used to print your boarding passes and hang them on the door, so I guess they don't do that anymore. I didn't think about TSA at that time of day... It makes sense.

Some people have reported having SW boarding passes left for them, but I have yet to have that happen for me. They can either get their boarding passes printed out, at the front desk, or just head to one of the SW kiosks at MCO, and do it there.
RAC isn't even open at the time they will be leaving..it opens at 5am!!!

 

[mb187143]

Thanks for the quick response. I recall that Disney used to print your boarding passes and hang them on the door, so I guess they don't do that anymore. I didn't think about TSA at that time of day... It makes sense.

there were three of us on our trip this past June staying in 1 room - DF, me, and DF's best friend. DF's best friend had a 6:00 AM flight home on SW the day before DF and I were scheduled to leave, and he had it printed for him at the desk evening before he left.

Our bps were printed and hanging in an envelope on the door the next morning, the day of our check out for our 7PM flight that night.

With a 6:45 AM flight, it's probably too early to expect bps on the door for that particular person (pick up would be somewhere around 3:30-3:45 ish i would guess), however we've had our bps on our door each and every single time for the last 2 years that we've gone to WDW, with no exceptions whatsoever. I know not all posters have had the same experience with getting their bps on the door on the morning they depart, but we have gotten them each and every single time we've gone since as far back as Sept. 2010. We usually do EBCI so we're not worried about checking in, so it doesn't matter to me if we have it on the door or have to go over to the desk to get it printed out.

 

[laurabelle]

Thanks. I wondered too about having the boarding passes just for them, as there are 4 of us going, but two are leaving early. I'll probably have them stop by the front desk to print them out the day before.