How long did it take for DME to deliver your luggage to your room?

[anneboleyn]

Hi there, gang...I just set up my reservation for the Magical Express, and I am debating whether I want to get my luggage and bring it on the bus with me or let the Magical Express (or whatever third party they use) take it there for me. I know that it won't arrive until later (Disney website says approximately 3 hours), but I wanted to see if this timeframe is somewhat accurate.

My plane lands at 7:15 PM, and I expect to be Pop Century resort by 9:15 PM at the very latest. If Disney's website is correct, the luggage won't arrive until approximately 10:00PM or later. If that's the case, I think I would much rather haul the bag myself. It would be so nice to skip baggage claim, but I am paranoid that my luggage wouldn't show up until after midnight, or get lost altogether.

So my question is...how long did it usually take for your luggage to reach your room?

Thank you for your help!

 

[goofy4tink]

Actually, the clock starts ticking when you get to your resort. So, you should be at the resort by you should be at the resort by 8:45. This will have your bags arriving between 9 and midnight. Probably around 10:30-11ish. If you don't tag your checked bags, and get them yourself, you should be at the resort by 9:30ish.
Also remember that the bus drivers will expect to be tipped for luggage handling.

 

[anneboleyn]

Actually, the clock starts ticking when you get to your resort. So, you should be at the resort by you should be at the resort by 8:45. This will have your bags arriving between 9 and midnight. Probably around 10:30-11ish. If you don't tag your checked bags, and get them yourself, you should be at the resort by 9:30ish.
Also remember that the bus drivers will expect to be tipped for luggage handling.

Thank you so much, @goofy4tink! I will definitely have to take that in to consideration. I have to decide if getting the luggage that late is worth avoiding the chaos that is baggage claim!

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, you could tag the bags. Then, pack your carry on bag with anything you'll need for the night and the morning. Then when you get there and check in, let them know you want your bag held until morning. Stop at Bell Services and tell them as well. The. Hang out the privacy please hanger on your door and go to sleep. There will be a message light blinking on the phone when you wake up. Call Bell Services and ask to have your bags brought to the room.
I wouldn't be concerned about your bags not making it to you. Yes, airlines sometimes do misdirect bags. But it doesn't happen often enough to worry about.

 

[kristenrice]

Well, you could tag the bags. Then, pack your carry on bag with anything you'll need for the night and the morning. Then when you get there and check in, let them know you want your bag held until morning. Stop at Bell Services and tell them as well. The. Hang out the privacy please hanger on your door and go to sleep. There will be a message light blinking on the phone when you wake up. Call Bell Services and ask to have your bags brought to the room.
I wouldn't be concerned about your bags not making it to you. Yes, airlines sometimes do misdirect bags. But it doesn't happen often enough to worry about.

This is what I would do too...but does Pop Century have Bell Services? For some reason, I thought they have "luggage service" (or some other name) and they do not provide luggage pick up/delivery (except for DME), just storage. I haven't stayed there since 2009 so I don't really recall, but I am returning in October and I'd like to know. I would much prefer someone bring all our luggage to the room instead of hauling it myself.

 

[DebbieB]

Last October at BWV, my plane landed around 11:30am, got to the resort around 12:45pm. Luggage was still not in the room when I left for dinner at 5:45pm, it was there when I returned at 9:00pm. This year my flight doesn't land until 1:30 and I have a dinner reservation for 5:45. I plan to pick my luggage up myself, especially since a friend of mine had her luggage "lost" for 2 days. She had a split stay BLT/AKV. It went to AKV. She asked if they could check if it was there, they said they did and no it wasn't. They blamed Southwest. 2 days later it showed up and turns out it was at AKV.

 

[AT2136]

Thank you for the tip on carrying your bags with you on a split stay. I think we'll be transferring from the Poly to BC and am debating whether to have Bell Services do it or just take a taxi there with all our stuff.

 

[goofy4tink]

This is what I would do too...but does Pop Century have Bell Services? For some reason, I thought they have "luggage service" (or some other name) and they do not provide luggage pick up/delivery (except for DME), just storage. I haven't stayed there since 2009 so I don't really recall, but I am returning in October and I'd like to know. I would much prefer someone bring all our luggage to the room instead of hauling it myself.

The values, and I believe the moderates as well, have Luggage Assistance vs Bell Services. They will bring your bags to your room, but not nearly as quickly as you might like. If you aren't using DME to handle your bags, I would just take the bags vs having Luggage Assistance transport them. I recall the time I called Luggage Assistance at about 7:30am to come get my bags to move them to another resort. It took them over an hour to come!!! Won't make that mistake again!!

I have also had the experience of the resort not knowing where bags were at!!! Checked into POR..had one member of the group who had a DME handled bag. We checked in around 6pm...there had been an issue at the airport. Dd and I had our bags with us as we had driven over from Tampa. But dd's bf had checked her bag. When we got to the checkin line, for DME, we were told to proceed to the Pop bus line. Um, no, I had changed to POR.....about 6 weeks prior!!! I had been told that I didn't have to worry about the bag tags (that we received about 2 weeks before I changed our resort!)...they would be scanned and then sent to POR! But, our reservation at MCO showed Pop when they scanned our MBs. Had to go get addtl help. After checking and rummaging around in the system they finally saw that yes, we were at POR. Since we had our bags with us, they made the comment that at least we didn't have to worry about the bags getting to POR! Ah, no, we had one checked bag. Took another 15 mins for the CM to go somewhere and get that figured out!!! I was then told that I 'should have' crossed out Pop and carefully written in POR...despite being told the complete opposite on the phone! So, after heading to dinner and to watch the MK fireworks from ToTW, we got back to POR around 10:30.....still no bag. My dd's friend called to see if it could be brought to the room. Nope, they didn't have it! But, they would check on it. At 12:30am, I finally called down.....nope, it didn't seem to be there yet. Perhaps it had gotten misdirected. Called again at 1...was told that the bag was at Pop!!! And I was again told what I 'should' have done! Although, the scan should have told them POR...as long as the reservation number stayed the same. But no....evidently no one makes the change in the system!!!!
That bag finally arrived at 1:30!!! We were exhausted. That poor girl hadn't packed for the night in her carryon simply because she had used DME and it had been seamless!!! Won't make that mistake again!!!

As for split stays....be aware that you might not get your bags at the new resort until very late in the afternoon!!! I have yet to get a transferred bag before 5pm!!! If I have to have those bags for something later in the day, I take a cab, with the bags, to the new resort.

 

[Disneyfanatic108]

Our arrival time at MCO was 10:30 am. Our luggage was at our room 3 hours later

 

[anneboleyn]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone for your input I really appreciate it!

So here is an odd question...just how chaotic is MCO? I have only ever been on a plane once (2 years ago), and that was when I went to London and Heathrow airport was like the 2nd ring of hell. So I kind of just assume that all airports are like this haha. We have always driven down to Disney World, but I have decided that a 2 hour plane ride will be much, much better than a 20 hour car ride! But I would just like to know what type of insanity I may be walking in to when I get to the baggage claim area of MCO

 

[jtowntoflorida]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone for your input I really appreciate it!

So here is an odd question...just how chaotic is MCO? I have only ever been on a plane once (2 years ago), and that was when I went to London and Heathrow airport was like the 2nd ring of hell. So I kind of just assume that all airports are like this haha. We have always driven down to Disney World, but I have decided that a 2 hour plane ride will be much, much better than a 20 hour car ride! But I would just like to know what type of insanity I may be walking in to when I get to the baggage claim area of MCO

MCO departures can be hectic, but arrivals, especially that late at night, are not too bad and nothing like Heathrow. We flew in late on our visit last month and there were probably less than 20 people at the bag claim.

 

[GWS]

I recommend taking your own bags, the last time we used the DME our bags did not arrive in our room until after 1 AM, we checked in at 6:15 PM. This was frustrating for me and my family causing the first night to be stressful. We will not be using DME to deliver our baggage this coming trip.

 

[goofy4tink]

MCO is nothing like Heathrow!!!! Yes, it can get busy, but it's not huge or chaotic. You can take your time. Here's the only issue you may run into. I don't know what airline you're arriving on. That will make a difference. Some flights land on Side A of the airport, others on Side B. You can think of MCO as a giant X, with a blob in the middle. The left side of the X would be Side A, the right side would be Side B...so to speak.
Now....DME is located on level 1 of Side B. So....if you're flying an airline that lands on Side A, you will have to go down to Side A baggage claim, level 2 (you arrive on level 3), get your bags (no more crowded than other airport baggage claim areas), then go back up to level 3 and cross over to Side B, and then down to level 1, to get DME. How far your walk, on level 1, will be is going to be predicated on which end of the airport you landed on. But, it's easy to find.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Something to be aware of.....you might have to go the A side to get your bags and then back over to the B side to get on DME. When we arrived at MCO in March we got in late afternoon and waited at the baggage carousel for 40 minutes before any bags started to come out and then ours where another 10-ish minutes. I've had that experience a few times at MCO. They also changed the carousel twice while we were waiting. It was actually kind of funny to see the heard moving from one to the other after the sign changed.

I think when we go back next March we are going to just use DME and tag the bags. We have used it many times without any problems. I would say on average our bags have arrived in our room about 2 hours after our flight has landed. I think we have been lucky and gone from the plane to being in our room in 90 minutes every time. I remember once walking into our room and the bags were already there. I think that was at ASMu.

 

[marinejjh]

We wouldn't use it for a late flight. Last trip we arrived at 5pm and our bags weren't in our room until after 11pm. It was hard because our kids were small and we're trying to get to bed for an early day. That being said our trip on January will be a much earlier flight so we will try again.

 

[anneboleyn]

I appreciate everyone's feedback on this subject! From the sounds of it, delivery time can be hit or miss, and I think it will be best for my nerves and mental soundness if I just pick up my luggage from the baggage claim, instead of spazzing out over whether or not it will ever show up in my room haha. I will make sure to get cash out to tip the ME driver for helping me to put it under the bus

Thanks again, everybody!

 

[fairy oma]

On our last trip we arrived at MCO at 1:20 pm and at the resort about 2:30 pm; our bags arrived in our room about 4pm and were pleasantly surprised. It does sound as if we were very fortunate they arrived so expeditiously.

 

[pooh2001]

How many bags can a DME bus carry underneath ?

What if every guest on the bus has their own bags with them and rides DME to their resort?

 

[sam_gordon]

OP, regardless of whether you let DME take care of your luggage or you plan on picking it up yourself at baggage claim, there are two things you should do...

1) Cross pack. If you check more than one suitcase, put something for everyone in each suitcase. If you do one suitcase with everything for the adults and one with everything for the kids (however you break it up), if one suitcase takes a "detour", someone will be without clothings.
2) Pack EVERYTHING you will need for the first 24 hours in a small bag and take it as a carryon. This way if your bags go missing OR if you have flight problems, you'll have access to your toiletries, sleep clothes, and at least a change of underwear (we also pack swimsuits in ours).

Just because you have a direct flight doesn't mean you shouldn't take these precautions. My aunt had a direct flight to us for DD's 1st birthday. Her checked bags never made it on the plane!