Exactly how does the Magical Express/Luggage thing work? It makes me nervous lol

[Cad0587]

Do I not have to go to the luggage carousel AT ALL? Just how do my bags show up in my room? I'm VERY paranoid about losing luggage, always have been, and the thought of just leaving the airport without even going to look for my bags is very odd to me haha.

 

[bdoyledimou]

you will recieves special ME luggage tags that you attach to your luggage.
They have a barcode which indicates your resort info on them.
As they unload luggage at MCO, those with the ME luggage tags divert away from the regular luggage carosel and into a special holding area, which then travels to the resort a little later than you do.

Later that evening, your luggage will magically appear at your room.

 

[Cad0587]

What if the people who unload the luggage don't notice one bag has that special luggage tag on it???

 

[NYDisneyKid]

What if the people who unload the luggage don't notice one bag has that special luggage tag on it???

They stick out like a sore thumb. Cant miss em

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm sure you already do, but if you don't, you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS carry enough clothes, medicines, etc. in your carry on bag to support you for 24 hours. That has nothing to do with Disney or DME, but is good practice anytime you fly.

As mentioned, the DME tags, which are bright yellow and the same size as the airline tags are very visible. DME has been around for YEARS with very few issues.

If it's going to bother you that much, you are free to not put the tags on, wait at baggage claim, get all your bags, and bring them to the DME loading area. In fact, if your plane lands after 10pm, you'll have to do that anyway. The driver will load the bags under the bus and you'll claim them when you arrive at your resort. To me, that's a waste of effort, but you can do it.

 

[dburg30]

Do I not have to go to the luggage carousel AT ALL? Just how do my bags show up in my room? I'm VERY paranoid about losing luggage, always have been, and the thought of just leaving the airport without even going to look for my bags is very odd to me haha.

Then why check bags at all? Ship them so you have a tracking number and know exactly where you stuff is.. Guess my point is, you trust the airlines to not lose it at the airport, to put it on the right plane, transfer it from one plane to the other if there is a layover involved, unload it off the plane. But you are having a hard time with Disney transporting it from the airport 20-30 miles away?

If there is an issue with the luggage and you use the tags, disney will instigate the paperwork to help find your bags and you can go and start your vacation, other then that if you handle it yourself and something is lost, YOU have to spend the time at the airport.

If you decide to use DME delivery service, the bags will show up in your room approx 3 hours after CHECKIN at your resort. If your room is ready I've had mine show up less then an hour after check in... other times i've been out and about and they were in the room when I came back..

Luggage deliver thru DME is one of the BIG reasons I love WDW so much.. I dont want to deal with the bags.

 

[seashoreCM]

How does ... thing work? ...

Short answer: Like a layover where you change planes in a connecting city. Including the baggage claims procedure if, heaven forbid, you need that.

 

[goofy4tink]

When you reserve your ride with DME, you will be sent a luggage tag for each person on the reservation. If you need more than one tag (if you are checking more than one bag per person) you can call DME and they will send addtl tags for you. These yellow tags are bright lemon yellow..really hard to miss. They are about 18" long, so when you fold them over the luggage handle, there is about 9'' of tag now...with black lettering on it. It's really hard to miss. When these bags come off the plane, they are put aside, right away. The luggage people who get your bags off the plane know what to look for..they are so used to seeing these tags they don't even think twice anymore..just grab that bag and put it in the DME area.
THen, DME workers come along, scan the bags. The bags are now distributed to the appropriate resort area...Epcot area, DTD area, MK area, AK area..etc. Then, they are scanned again, and put into resort specific areas, then put into cages for each resort and off to the resort they go.
I have used DME more times than I can remember. I have never had an issue with my bags. You stand a much greater chance of having the airlines misdirect a bag vs DME.

As already noted, pack anything you will need to start your WDW stay in a carryon bag. That way, if the airline misdirects a bag, or it's slow in arriving at the resort, you can just head out and start your fun vs hanging around at the resort, waiting for the bags to get there. That can take up to 4 hrs!!!

And the one time I didn't pack my carryon correctly??? That was the one time I really should have. Our flight had to go back to Florida (due to snow) and we had to spend the night in Fl. If we had packed our carryon bags correctly, we could have stayed in Philidelphia for the night!! Our bags wouldn't have gone with us, but they would have delivered them the next day, and we could have saved ourselves an addtl 6 hrs of flight time. We could have spent the night in Philly, and taken the first flight out the next day to Providence. But since the carryon bags weren't packed correctly, we had to return to Ft Lauderdale, spend the night and go back to the airport early the next morning, go through security again, and fly another 3 hrs to Providence!!!! Learned my lesson that night!!

 

[MissManda]

My DH is so paranoid about our luggage being lost. Every time we fly, as soon as we drop off our luggage he starts in with the "I hope it doesn't get lost" worry. Then as we are waiting for it at the luggage carosel, he starts with "It had better be here" comments. As luck would have it, our luggage almost always seems to be the last to come off the plane. As more and more luggage comes out that is not ours, the worse he gets. I can tell you though that to date, our luggage has never been lost. (***knock on wood, it stays that way ***). Lord help us the first time it doesn't show up!

With that being said, our first trip to Disney, he insisted that we get our luggage ourselves. Both going to Disney and hauling it back to the airport. Which we did.

Our second trip to Disney, I convinced him put the Disney tags on it. It all worked out just fine. Our luggage showed up at the resort just like they said it would. By the end of the week, I even convinced him to do the baggage checkin at the resort. Sure enough, our luggage arrived home with us without any problems!

I often find myself wishing that every where we go had that option!

 

[Alesia]

I'm VERY paranoid about losing luggage,

I'm guessing that your luggage has never actually been misdirected

I've had to deal with it several times, and trust me - waiting (and waiting...and waiting) for your luggage, and then having to fill out paperwork when it doesn't show up is a miserable way to start a vacation. I would gladly pay someone else to deal with it. The fact that DME does it for free is awesome!