DF and I have used DME quite a few times over the past couple of years, and it's usually worked out fine. I agree with other posters that the chances of your luggage being lost by the airlines are probably much greater than being lost by Disney. Having said that, on our trip last fall, Disney did lose a piece of my luggage for quite a while. We arrived at our hotel around 3:00pm, checked in, and went off to enjoy the world. Having used DME several times before, we never thought twice about whether our bags would be there when we returned later that night. We did - as we always do when flying - pack one extra change of clothes and all of our personal belongings in a carry-on in case the
airline lost our luggage. When we arrived back at our hotel around 11:00pm, the bags were in our room, as usual, but one suitcase (my suitcase) was missing. We only had four bags - two suitcases and two small duffles - from a matching set, so I was a little worried. (I've heard of them miscounting bags, etc. when people are traveling with large parties and numerous bags.) I called the front desk and explained the timing to them (at that point we had been in Orlando for 10 hours, so I wasn't really comfortable with waiting to see if it turned up). The CM assured me there was no need to worry and said my bag was probably just delivered to one of the other rooms in which "the rest of my party" was staying. I politely informed him that "my party" consisted of me and DF staying in that one room, so if my bag had been delivered to the rest of "my [imaginary] party," I would be needing it back pronto!
At that point, the CM says, "Oh! Ummm...Can you hold on a minute?" and put the phone down. After a good 2-3 minutes of whispering back and forth with another CM, he got back on the phone, said they were trying to locate my bag, and he would call back as soon as they did. I thanked him, gave DF the scoop, and we waited...and waited...and...waited. At 12:45am, after they had been looking for my luggage for about an hour and a half and I had gotten a little
more worried, I called the front desk back. I gave the new CM the abridged version of what'd happened so far and asked if they could let me know the status of the search, so that we may go to bed. After another few minutes on hold, she came back and said that my luggage "should be in your room any minute." She didn't sound real confident, so I asked her if that meant they'd found it, and she replied, "Well, umm, we
think we
may know where it's located." Mmmkay. I thanked her, hung up, and gave DF the update. At that point we were envisioning my bag "being located" in Wisconsin or something, and I joked with DF about how unfortunate it would be for him to have to smell me in the same two outfits for our 10 day trip. We chuckled, hoped it wasn't really "lost forever," and struggled to stay awake. Shortly after 2:00am, we got a knock at the door. DF opened it up to a CM who said, "Here's your bag," handed it to him, and walked off. She didn't offer any type of explanation, and DF isn't one to ask questions, but I often wonder where exactly my bag traveled during the many hours it was missing. Given how long it took them to locate it, I'm guessing it wasn't merely misplaced at the hotel, but rather got delivered to another hotel or left at the airport or something. At that point, we didn't really care and were just excited to finally go to sleep knowing I'd have clothes for the rest of our vacation. We were never offered an apology, and we most certainly didn't receive any compensation for our trouble. It is interesting to hear about others who did. DF has often said we don't complain enough at Disney (not that others who've posted here did complain...we all know how horribly inconsistent guest relations can be), but we can't count the number of times we've seen someone pitch a fit over something incredibly trivial and get "compensated" with free tickets, free accomodations, or what have you. Anyway, I apologize for the long story. We think DME is a great service and have used it since, but we will be getting our own bags before getting on the bus when we travel to WDW for our wedding this fall. Good luck with whichever option you choose.
) and the logical explanation of how the luggage is handled separately, taken to a dedicated vehicle, and has the bar code scanned every step of the way will really impress him. Thanks!
)
