How long before did Magical Express pick you up for your home flight?

Adora

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
As the title suggests. Just curious how early were you picked up for the airport? Thanks
 
Four hours before your return flight, +/- 15 min, if you are flying direct to a Canadian airport
 


If you want a specific pick-up time, you can call DME directly at 1-866-599-0951. We have Nexus which gives us TSA pre-check so we don’t need 4 hours. I just call and request a pick-up time 3 hours prior. I tell them I’m picking up a rental car and not flying and it’s never been a problem.
 
International flights are 4 hours before flight time and domestic flights are 3 hours. I usually fly from Buffalo so it's the 3 hour pick up time but after having several long trips from WDW to the airport I started calling the day before and requesting an earlier pick up time.....I ask for 30 minutes earlier. If you are lucky and your bus picks you up and then goes straight to the airport the 3 hour pick up is perfect but I had three trips in a row that I was picked up and then the bus made 1-3 other stops before leaving the property for the airport. The time that is was 3 stops I arrived at MCO only about 70 minutes before my flight. That's just way to close for comfort, it's a very busy place even on a slow day.

The last time I used DME to get back to the airport I booked my earlier pick up and the driver was late, then we made another stop and at that stop there was one large family (approx. 15 people) that was not ready to board the bus. They were not all at the stop waiting, they had several strollers that they needed to unload and fold up, they wouldn't get on the bus until all their stuff was loaded underneath, etc, etc. This stop was over 20 minutes. Kudos to the driver for keeping his cool and being patient. We then arrived at the airport with less than 2 hours. Fortunately we didn't have any bags to check but the security line was the longest I've seen and took 45 minutes to get through.
 
Wow that is very frustrating when people have no regard for others esp. when flying. It’s always a stressful time. There is no excuse not to be at the bus stop on time.
We get the 3 hr DME pick up time because our connection is still in the US so it’s considered a domestic flight until our connection. I’ve always had more than enough time.
 


Always four hours UNLESS you have a ridiculously early flight. They did a 3 hour pick up for our 6am international last year because TSA literally would be closed til 430am.
 
It’s always about 3 hours. We check the bags at the resort and get boarding passes and once at the airport, go directly to security and to the United Club to wait for the flight. My family and I can go through the United premier security line which is sometimes even less than the TSA line depending on the time of day. But security at Orlando is always a crap shoot.
 
It’s always about 3 hours. We check the bags at the resort and get boarding passes and once at the airport, go directly to security and to the United Club to wait for the flight. My family and I can go through the United premier security line which is sometimes even less than the TSA line depending on the time of day. But security at Orlando is always a crap shoot.
based on the fact that you're able to check your bags at your resort I'm gonna say that you're flying domestically... this is the Canadian forum and our pick up for international flights is 4 hours not 3.
 
If it's direct, we've always had the 4 hr pickup. When we connect in the US we used to get the 3 hr pickup time but this last time, since our final destination was back in Canada, we still got the 4 hr pickup even though we were connecting in Houston. I phoned to have it changed the day before and had quite the discussion with the phone rep and in the end I had to verbally state that I took "sole responsibility" if we missed our flight. Funny that I needed to fight for them to follow their own policy.
 
We've always been 4 to 4.25 hours.

We did run into a fun situation last year -- our departing flight was delayed. In the morning, for our evening departure it was initially an hour and it just kept growing. We contacted Magical Express and asked if we could be put on a later bus. They said no, they only reschedule if your flight is outright canceled; they don't for delays because the delay times can change significantly.

In the end, while the max delay WestJet told us was about 5 hours (!!!), the plane actually left only about 3 hours late. I think they flew in a plane from somewhere else instead of the plane we were supposed to have. Let me tell you, hanging out in MCO after 9 pm when almost all the restaurants and stores etc is not so fun, especially when you have 3 more hours to go...
 
I was just there last week, our flight was direct to Buffalo at 12:50 pm and our Tragical Express time was 8:45, we actually ended up getting there early and took the 8:30 one. Seemed earlier than when we usually got picked up. When we got to the airport there was actually very little crowd for once and we were through and sitting in the Club Lounge at 9:30 am. Stayed for breakfast and lunch and then boarded :-)
 
Tell me more about this Club Lounge lol

It is the one described above. It's not the best lounge, it's a bit dingy and not the best options but certainly better than the very busy gate, the wifi is fantastic. We get in free with our credit card. I don't know if there is a rule against this or not but we have a youtube channel just search on youtube for Nicole.Erica Fun and I'm sure in one of our vlogs we have posted a bit about the lounge.
 
I have no memory of Orlando airport. But I remember Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Oh my god the tiniest place with no amount of seating. Is this what I have blocked out from Orlando?
 

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