How Often Does The ME Run?

[jrmmfm67]

My Question is How often does the Magicial Express run (ex: every 20 Mins or every 1/2hour)?

 

[CleveRocks]

My Question is How often does the Magicial Express run (ex: every 20 Mins or every 1/2hour)?

There's no schedule. It's all on an as-needed basis. Since there are reservations, they know about how many people are arriving at the airport at about what time and what resorts they're going to. There are many buses, it's not like there's one bus that waits around for everyone. Like I said, no schedule whatsoever. At least not for when you arrive at MCO and go to your resort.

When you leave your resort to go back to MCO, DME buses run about every 30 minutes at each resort. You will be assigned a specific bus time (usually 3 hours prior to your flight time) and will be notified the day before your departure -- you'll get a notice hanging on your resort room door knob.

And by the way, unlike when you RETURN to the airport at the end of your trip, when you arrive at MCO you are not already assigned to a specific bus or bus time. That is, you can't possibly miss "your bus" because you have not yet been assigned a bus until you check-in at the DME Welcome Center in the airport. So if you wish, after you get off your plane you take your time, use the bathroom, etc., you don't have to rush to get your bus. You won't miss your bus, and you won't be holding anyone else up, because it's not like they have a pre-existing passenger list and they'll be holding the bus for you. Of course, I'm in a rush to get to the bus just because I don't want to waste time in the airport, but then there are people like my mother-in-law who insist on browsing at airport shops UPON ARRIVAL because she wasn't sure she'd see enough gift shopping opportunties at WDW.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

My Question is How often does the Magicial Express run (ex: every 20 Mins or every 1/2hour)?

CleveRocks gave an excellent answer.

I'll only add that there's a huge fleet of Magical Express motorcoaches. In the early days of Magical Express, a Mears driver posted that there were 37 coaches in the fleet and 23 more on order. That would mean 60 coaches! At peak times, there's a coach leaving MCO every few minutes, which each coach supposedly going to no more than four resorts. In reality, it seems like they usually go to no more than three resorts.

 

[clkelley]

The also supplement the DME busses with Disney Cruise Line busses, so add another 10 or 12 busses to the mix.