HORROR STORIES w/Magic Express

[mom23boys]

We used DME in Jan when we went to FW Cabins. We usually rent a car but this was a short weekend trip.

It was great, very smooth coming and going. I would use it again in a heartbeat.

 

[BeckWhy]

When my uncle and his family went last July (I think it was July) they had a great experience. I'm not sure how long they waited at the airport for a bus, but after they arrived at Fort Wilderness (they were staying in a cabin) they took their golf cart around the grounds to get aquanted and came back and their luggage had been delivered. I asked him how long he thought it was and he said they weren't gone any longer than 45 min.

I've heard stories too. But I am more scared the airline will lose our luggage than our luggage taking 4 hours to get to our hotel. I have no intentions of checkin any luggage when we go in Sept. Our luggage will consist of two 21" rollies and 1 backpack. If we buy a lot of souvies then when we come back we will have two back packs.

 

[FigNewton]

The only problem we had with it was that our flight out was too early in the morning to use the luggage check in at the hotel. Our flight out was at 7:30, so we were getting picked up at the hotel at 4:30 am.

The only reason we were flying out that early though was because we weren't going home, but were headed to Ft. Myers, and didn't want to lose a lot of time on our first day at the beach.

 

[matysgrandma]

Hi Everyone,

Just so I have it right. If you fly southwest and use the ME when you arrive in Orlando, Your luggage will be picked up for you and transported to your resort? Its on your return that you have to check your own luggage at the airport? I also wanted to get my boarding passes 24 hours before we leave; will be bringing our laptop; but anyone know where we could print them out?

Any help would be appreciated.....Thanks....

As far as your boarding passes go, any disney hotel can and will print your boarding pass 24 hours prior to departure. AND any of the parks will, too. My flight last week left at 9:00pm and I knew I'd be at Epcot at 9, so rather than wait til I got back to the hotel, I brought my flight info with me, went to guest services and they printed up my boarding pass right there. I didn't have to stress about getting an A Boarding Pass and I could go to Jellyrolls right after Epcot without having to stop back at the hotel!

 

[byoung]

Used ME 5 trips now with no problems.

 

[Unregistered]

no problem here--it was a very smooth transition. We packed anything we might have needed immediately as we were a ware that the luggage may take a few hours to get to us. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again as it was a huge savings and less hassle tathan the lines to get the rental car.

 

[bellenbuzz]

A Big THANKS, most of these posts are quite positive !!
So nice to hear all this good news ! We DIS'ers appreciate it !

Question:

SO......this just dawned on me, on the day of our departure (yuk, I hate that last day feeling)....anyways, we leave our luggage in our hotel room at POR, check out & head towards the parks all day right, we must return to POR to catch our DME bus to MCO ??? But, we don't need to do anything with our luggage ???

 

[CleveRocks]

A Big THANKS, most of these posts are quite positive !!
So nice to hear all this good news ! We DIS'ers appreciate it !

Question:

SO......this just dawned on me, on the day of our departure (yuk, I hate that last day feeling)....anyways, we leave our luggage in our hotel room at POR, check out & head towards the parks all day right, we must return to POR to catch our DME bus to MCO ??? But, we don't need to do anything with our luggage ???

OK, a coupla different questions here. Number one, you must take care of getting your luggage out of your room. You may request Bell Services to do this (while you are in the room) or you may do it yourself, but your luggage will not "magically" leave your room, the opposite of the way it "magically" appeared inside your room at the beginning of your trip. [ETA: When your bags "magically" arrived inside your room at the beginning of your vacation, Disney "pre-tips" the Bell Services CMs for that service, but if they help you with your bags at departure then the tip is on you] You will need to get the luggage to the main lobby, regardless of how you accomplish that. What you do with it from there depends on which airline you're using.

If you're flying on one of the "participating" airlines, you can check in your checked luggage (the bags that will go in the plane's cargo hold) at your resort's Resort Airline Check-In desk (RAC). You won't see or be responsible for that luggage again until you see it on your home airport's baggage claim carousel. You can check your carry-ons with Bell Services at POR, and then reclaim them later.

You DO need to go back to POR if you want to take a DME bus back to the airport. But, there's no requirement that you take the DME bus back to the airport. If you really really wanted to, you could take your carry-ons with you to Epcot and then catch a taxi from Epcot to the airport.

Now, if you're NOT flying a "participating" airline, you can have POR Bell Services store your luggage and carry-ons for you, then go out to play. When you get back to POR you'll need to reclaim your luggage from Bell Services. Bell Services will NOT take your luggage from storage and load it onto the DME bus. In my case (with 12 total bags, including carry-ons, for 6 people), the Bell Services CM brought my luggage on a luggage cart and told me I could hang onto it while I waited. When the bus came, I rolled my luggage to the bus, we took our carry-ons, and I made sure the driver loaded all the checked bags. You CAN have your carry-ons stowed under the bus, and you'll actually HAVE TO do so if they're too big to fit under your own bus seat or on the overhead shelf.

I hope this all makes sense.

By the way, I just booked my November Jersey Week trip, and I'm using DME again. I LOVE that service!

 

[bellenbuzz]

YES YES I totally understood your explanation. I appreciate it very much !
It's just that when you've never done something before (DME), sometimes its hard to completely "get-it"!
Kind of like when I 1st heard about Fast-Pass, and it sounded so confusing & time restricting, but now that we've done Fast-Pass, It Is Awesome !!
There is a total of 10ppl in our group, so we will have lots of luggage I'm sure....
THANKS AGAIN

 

[CleveRocks]

Bellenbuzz, from our "tickers" it looks like I'll be leaving WDW the day before you'll be arriving. I'll be staying at POFQ -- if you need any more info just let me know and I'll leave a note for you somewhere!

 

[bellenbuzz]

Thanks for the Offer !
I'll keep you in Mind !

 

[kaytieeldr]

Can anyone tell me what airlines are part of the program? OR better yet, where does Disney list the same? Since our trip is (exactly) 500 days away, we won't be able to book air right away and that list could change....

If you check the Transportation board, there are several recent posts from people who've contacted the company that provides the luggage service - and it appears that several more airlines will be added to the "participating" list in the reasonable future. Meantime, Delta, American, United/Ted, Northwest, JetBlue, Alaska Air and maybe a couple more.

I also wanted to get my boarding passes 24 hours before we leave; will be bringing our laptop; but anyone know where we could print them out?

You can check in online and 're'print your boarding passes at a self-check kiosk when you get to the airport; or you can ask the front desk if they'll check you in.

We have a group of 10 ppl, will we all be together on 1 shuttle bus ???
How big are the DME busses ???

If you all check in together and are staying at the same resort, you'll all be on the same bus. If you check in together but are staying at separate resorts, you may or may not all be on the same bus depending on the routing. The buses are tour-bus size.

1) We'll be checking out & returning to parks, then will return to hotel for bus. Where do we leave our luggage.
2) Is there an actual ME desk @ resort to check in with prior to departure

Leave your luggage with Bell Services/Luggage Assistance. Just allow yourself enough extra time at the hotel to claim your luggage before your DME bus arrives. Yes, there is an actual DME counter where Guests flying on participating airlines (see above) can check in and check their luggage through; at this time, AirTran is NOT one of them.

I went last May just a few days after DME started and opted not to use it. I still may not use it on my next trip. I am terrified they are going to lose my luggage. I'm amazed enough when the airline doesn't lose it. It seems to be tempting fate. Am I stressing over nothing? Anyone? Has DME lost your luggage?

The closest I've ever heard to DME 'losing' luggage is from a friend who had two rooms - one for her and her husband, one for the young-adult kids. The hotel (not DME!) put all the luggage in the kids' room - and since they were off at Pleasure Island until late, my friend didn't have her checked baggage until the boys got back.

 

[bellenbuzz]

We are also flying AIRTRAN.....
I'll have to go to Transportation Posts to understand the difference between "participating" airlines & not.
Thanks for taking the time to respond !!

 

[seashoreCM]

We are also flying AIRTRAN.....
I'll have to go to Transportation Posts to understand the difference between "participating" airlines & not.:

Participating airlines -- Those airlines for which you can check luggage at the resort when going home. Currently Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Jetblue, Northwest, Song, Ted, flights leaving after 8 AM.

There are no other differences.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

i had a bad experience. we were doing a Magical Gathering event because it was my fiance and his family.


first bad thing that happened, we never got our luggage tags in the mail. one person out of the party got luggage tags, and they were for the wrong resort. so we had to bring our own luggage down to the ME bus when we arrived at the Orlando Airport.

second bad thing, ME was very new when we went, and they really didn't tell us ANYTHING about it. just "oh we'll bring your luggage to your resort for you!" so i wasn't told to keep all of your medicine in your carry-on and keep a change of clothes in your carry-on, etc. we got to our resort at around 4 and at 6 we had to leave to go to the Cirque show Downtown. and by 6 we still hadn't had our luggage, which meant i was already late on taking some of my meds and i didn't have anything to change into, so i had to go in pants and a t-shirt in 90 degree weather. we didn't even get home until midnight and that's when we had to put our luggage away.

we had his mother and his aunt staying in a cabin with us, and they even told us the luggage didn't even get there until about 8pm. the rest of the family in the Magical Gathering got their luggage about 15 minutes after getting to their resort.

i don't understand, they have your luggage in the bus with you, why can't they just drop it off with you when you get to your resort? why would it take them 4 hours to drop off our luggage when it was with us the whole ride there anyway?

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

When in December did you go? We went on December 10th and it was awful. My husband must have been in line for over an hour before we were then able to get in the very long line for the bus. We waited another 30 minutes or more to get on the bus. Finally feeling relieved that we were heading to the hotel, the air conditioner gave out on the bus and the heat turned on. It was just awful. We all wished that we had just paid the $100 and gotten a town car to take us to the hotel.

It was not Magical at all for us.

glad i'm not the only one who had a problem with it. we usually used Mears transportation from the airport to the hotel and it was around $100. i'd rather have my luggage ready when i get to my hotel to put it away and then start my vacation, not have to wait for 4 hours to get it, when it's already on the bus that i'm on anyway.

 

[penguin087]

This may have been answered and I missed it but...Can you get off the bus at your resorts and stand there and wait for them to unload your luggage and take custody of it right then ?Or do you have to wait for them to bring it to you?

 

[CleveRocks]

i had a bad experience. we were doing a Magical Gathering event because it was my fiance and his family.


first bad thing that happened, we never got our luggage tags in the mail. one person out of the party got luggage tags, and they were for the wrong resort. so we had to bring our own luggage down to the ME bus when we arrived at the Orlando Airport.

second bad thing, ME was very new when we went, and they really didn't tell us ANYTHING about it. just "oh we'll bring your luggage to your resort for you!" so i wasn't told to keep all of your medicine in your carry-on and keep a change of clothes in your carry-on, etc. we got to our resort at around 4 and at 6 we had to leave to go to the Cirque show Downtown. and by 6 we still hadn't had our luggage, which meant i was already late on taking some of my meds and i didn't have anything to change into, so i had to go in pants and a t-shirt in 90 degree weather. we didn't even get home until midnight and that's when we had to put our luggage away.

we had his mother and his aunt staying in a cabin with us, and they even told us the luggage didn't even get there until about 8pm. the rest of the family in the Magical Gathering got their luggage about 15 minutes after getting to their resort.

i don't understand, they have your luggage in the bus with you, why can't they just drop it off with you when you get to your resort? why would it take them 4 hours to drop off our luggage when it was with us the whole ride there anyway?

Okay, a few different comments here ....

I first used DME on May 8, 2005. It was 4 days old. I actively found out everything there was to know about it, so that I could understand how it worked and thus could understand how to make my vacation experience as magical and stress-free as possible. I made lots of phone calls to ask questions and also read everything available online. So what I'm saying is, I knew the luggage would take several hours to arrive in my room. I planned for it. And no matter where I fly, I always pack a carry-on for the first 24 hours just in case the airline delays my luggage. Even the airlines tell you not to pack medication in checked luggage. It's just a smart, safe, self-protective way to travel. It's kinda the same as looking both ways before crossing the street even if you have a green light and a "walk" sign -- you SHOULD have the right of way but it makes sense to take precautions and protect yourself anyway, KWIM?

So you say you had a bad experience. Yes, you did, and it's a shame to start any vacation in such a stressful way, especially a Disney vacation. But in all honesty it wasn't Disney's fault. If you'd known what to expect, it wouldn't have been a bad experience. It's sort of like being very hungry with hungry and cranky kids, going into a waitress-service restaurant, placing your order with the waitress, and then complaining that your food took 15-20 minutes to arrive. That would be a bad experience if your expectation was that the food would be served the instant you ordered it. But since you know there's a lag between when you order and when you're served, you adapt by either going to the restaurant before you and the kids feel starved, or bringing crackers or some other little snack for the kids to help them be a little happy before the food arrives, and so on.

Back on May 8, 2005, Mothers Day. after we got to our resort, we eventually took the kids to the pool. Our luggage arrived while we were at the pool (we found it when we got back). We had all our swim stuff in our carry-ons -- we certainly weren't wearing bathing suits on the airplane!

Also, DME luggage is not transported on DME buses. The luggage is transported by trucks/vans that exist ONLY to transport DME luggage. So it's not like they have your luggage on the bus with you but refuse to give it to you.

Also, you said since you didn't have your DME luggage tags you had to go get your luggage yourself. This was an incorrect assumption. You could have gone directly to the DME Welcome Center (and totally skipped baggage claim), told them your bags weren't tagged, and they would have gotten them for you and transported them for you. I didn't receive my DME tags until the day before we left. We were prepared to do without, and I knew what to do to still use DME as designed. In fact, one very nice DME CM suggested we tie some yarn or ribbon onto each piece of checked luggage to make it easier for them to spot. My wife bought some awfully loud ribbon. She not only put a piece on each bag, but planned to bring a swatch with her to give to the DME CMs to make their identification process that much easier.

I'm sorry if the above sounds critical. I don't mean it that way. I'm trying to help just in case you find yourself in the same position again. The more you know, the better your experience will be.

 

[CleveRocks]

This may have been answered and I missed it but...Can you get off the bus at your resorts and stand there and wait for them to unload your luggage and take custody of it right then ?Or do you have to wait for them to bring it to you?

If you take the DME bus from MCO to your resort, you have the option of having them deliver your luggage (it gets transported by truck/van) OR getting your luggage from baggage claim yourself, dragging it to the DME Welcome Center, then dragging it to the bus, etc. If you bring it to the bus yourself, the driver will load it under the bus, and then he'll unload it for you when you arrive at your resort.

Using DME the way it was designed is obviously faster, since you don't have to stop at baggage claim and wait for your bags. But you can choose to do it either way.

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

Okay, a few different comments here ....

I first used DME on May 8, 2005. It was 4 days old. I actively found out everything there was to know about it, so that I could understand how it worked and thus could understand how to make my vacation experience as magical and stress-free as possible. I made lots of phone calls to ask questions and also read everything available online. So what I'm saying is, I knew the luggage would take several hours to arrive in my room. I planned for it. And no matter where I fly, I always pack a carry-on for the first 24 hours just in case the airline delays my luggage. Even the airlines tell you not to pack medication in checked luggage. It's just a smart, safe, self-protective way to travel. It's kinda the same as looking both ways before crossing the street even if you have a green light and a "walk" sign -- you SHOULD have the right of way but it makes sense to take precautions and protect yourself anyway, KWIM?

So you say you had a bad experience. Yes, you did, and it's a shame to start any vacation in such a stressful way, especially a Disney vacation. But in all honesty it wasn't Disney's fault. If you'd known what to expect, it wouldn't have been a bad experience. It's sort of like being very hungry with hungry and cranky kids, going into a waitress-service restaurant, placing your order with the waitress, and then complaining that your food took 15-20 minutes to arrive. That would be a bad experience if your expectation was that the food would be served the instant you ordered it. But since you know there's a lag between when you order and when you're served, you adapt by either going to the restaurant before you and the kids feel starved, or bringing crackers or some other little snack for the kids to help them be a little happy before the food arrives, and so on.

Back on May 8, 2005, Mothers Day. after we got to our resort, we eventually took the kids to the pool. Our luggage arrived while we were at the pool (we found it when we got back). We had all our swim stuff in our carry-ons -- we certainly weren't wearing bathing suits on the airplane!

Also, DME luggage is not transported on DME buses. The luggage is transported by trucks/vans that exist ONLY to transport DME luggage. So it's not like they have your luggage on the bus with you but refuse to give it to you.

Also, you said since you didn't have your DME luggage tags you had to go get your luggage yourself. This was an incorrect assumption. You could have gone directly to the DME Welcome Center (and totally skipped baggage claim), told them your bags weren't tagged, and they would have gotten them for you and transported them for you. I didn't receive my DME tags until the day before we left. We were prepared to do without, and I knew what to do to still use DME as designed. In fact, one very nice DME CM suggested we tie some yarn or ribbon onto each piece of checked luggage to make it easier for them to spot. My wife bought some awfully loud ribbon. She not only put a piece on each bag, but planned to bring a swatch with her to give to the DME CMs to make their identification process that much easier.

I'm sorry if the above sounds critical. I don't mean it that way. I'm trying to help just in case you find yourself in the same position again. The more you know, the better your experience will be.

i didn't have all of my medication in that certain bag, most of it was on my carry on but not everything could fit into my carry-on.


i don't think that your comparing my bad experience with a restaurant was really accurate. i understand where you're coming from, but that's completley different. if my kids were hungry and crying i'd go to a McDonald's where i knew the food was fast, not to a sit down restaurant.

we DID go to the DME welcome center and told them our bags weren't tagged, and they told us that since they weren't tagged that we would have to go and get them ourselves. when we came back with them, they were there loading all of the luggage, and took ours, and put it all underneath the bus. it wasn't an "incorrect assumption" of anything. i was just retelling what happened.