Lisa F
is a very wise woman
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
- Messages
- 11,129
So I am just back from the 2/22 eastern fantasy with SWDAS and I don't really plan to do a full trip report - I had several questions before my trip that I wished I could find more info on but couldn't and I figured I'd post a rundown of them here to help anyone else who has similar questions.
First was about how Disney transport worked.
I was at a Disney resort before the cruise and it seems like everyone in my cruise FB group at resorts got picked up sometime between 11-12pm. I've seen on the internet anywhere from 10:30 - 1:30pm but we were all in this window - closer to 11 for an earlier stop, closer to 12 for a last stop. We were at the boardwalk and had an 11:55 departure with a meetup time of 11:40. I checked the MDE app in the morning and got a breakfast ADR at Ale and Compass once we knew what the situation was - it was a pretty quiet and relaxed morning. We could have had any number of other breakfasts including Cape May, Bon Voyage, Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana, 1900 Park Fare, Boma etc... I'd definitely just book morning of once you know the situation if you want breakfast before boarding. I left my luggage right at the door with tags and everything else I left in the main part of the room and nothing but the 3 bags with tags was taken and I was able to finish packing up our carryon stuff after breakfast.
The trip out went very smoothly. We were supposed to meet at the Belle Vue lounge 15 minutes early but because checkout is at 11, everyone was there early. We met a Disney Cruise rep who let us know that we'd be heading over to a meeting point for the bus different from DME - it was over by the boardwalk convention center and she walked us out there from the belle vue lounge. The cruise rep was super nice and we were chatting with her, she said the worst thing you can do is decide to "ride the skyline" while you wait - she has had several people miss the bus due to stoppages in the skyline and she cringes when she hears people say that. We were the last stop but it was no trouble at all finding seats together and it took about an hour to get to the port. Winds were high that day and we were requested to stay seated by the driver from the bridge into the port.
We arrived at the port around 1pm and with buses arriving together the lines for security felt a bit long - last time we arrived on our own more like 12:30 so before the buses and after the crowds and lines were much shorter. But all in all I would say it took us about a half hour to get through security and through the check in process - neither of which were that difficult and of course no wait to get on the ship and we were walking on 1 or 2 minutes after 1:30 - the timing was pretty much perfect. Honestly I'd say that if I did private transport I'd avoid the crowds on both ends and only arrive a half hour earlier than we did so I did not feel like there was an impact to my vacation by arriving "late." I have seen reports of people getting to the port very very late but that was not our experience OR the experience of anyone on our cruise, we all got there pretty much the same time and boarded right as rooms were ready.
We dropped our stuff and went up to Cabanas - there was no CM at the door requiring people to wash hands but I saw one a bit up the buffet line telling some parent her kids needed to wear shoes in the restaurant so I'd guess she left her post to deal with another hygiene issue. We did wash hands and I made my kid re-sanitize after touching utensils and before eating since there was no one posted when we went in (that was NOT the case the rest of the cruise, there were always CMs posted.)
Cabanas was not that busy at this time. I mean there were people but it wasn't uncomfortably busy and we had no trouble finding a table in a sheltered outdoor area (I think there were some tables indoors also.) Overall the timing of the resort transport was great IMO, I would not hesitate to do it again because we were in vacation mode and not chomping at the bit to be the first people on the ship.
The trip back was a bit of a different story and has me wondering if I might just want to spring for private transport next time (lord knows where that will be.)
First of all we had late seating so our scheduled breakfast was at 8am and I had a 12:40 flight booked. The materials left in the stateroom before were a little unclear about the timing - there was a paragraph after the paragraph about direct checking your stuff with airlines that if you have a flight before 1pm you must be on a bus no later than 8am or your stuff would be removed from the bus and you would need to deal with your own luggage at the airport. They weren't 100% explicit that this only applied to people using the direct luggage checkin service but from context I figured that we'd be ok since we were already dealing with our own luggage. The people at the table next to us also were a bit confused by the language so I figured I'd mention it.
But just be aware (I have never seen this written anywhere but maybe it is!) if you are flying one of the airlines that have direct luggage transfer AND your flight is before 1pm, AND you have late seating, you must have breakfast at Cabanas and be in the first wave of people leaving the ship. You must be ON the bus no later than 8am or they will remove your luggage and you will need to deal with it yourself. I had strongly considered flying back jet blue to have the direct luggage handling but ended up using Southwest for better return timing since I live on Martha's Vineyard and have the ferry to factor in and I'm glad I did.
I asked the kiddo if he just wanted to go to Cabanas and he wanted to see our servers again so we went to the 8am seating - I kept doing the math in my head and kept in mind that people always say they are at the airport way early but I was still a little anxious about the warning on the info the night before... but we sat and ate breakfast and were done a bit quickly (neither of us are big breakfast eaters and service was quick) - said our goodbyes and got on the debarkation line before the restaurants emptied out. The whole debarkation including getting through customs took about a half hour and we were sitting on the Disney bus by about 8:50. I was a little nervous that we were like the 2nd people on the bus thinking it could take a while to fill it up but it only took 10 minutes and we hit the road by about 9am, at the airport by 10am or shortly after. From an efficiency point of view it's a top notch operation and I would not hesitate to use it again based on timing and efficiency.
The buses ONLY go into terminal B (which I guess makes sense in retrospect since that's where all of the Disney buses are) which makes it a bit of a pain when dealing with all of the luggage and getting into terminal A.
I did have concerns about handling my own luggage (my kid is on the spectrum and has low tone so is not that useful in hauling around 150+ lbs of luggage) and I had read that there were plenty of porters to meet the buses at the airport. There were not. I walked over to the only one I saw (who was helping other people) and asked him how to find someone and he radioed over and had someone sent. I had to be kind of assertive about looking for him - as soon as I saw him I ran over and asked if he was the one the other guy sent and he was and right after I confirmed that some other people tried to poach him from me. I was a little surprised that they did not have a bunch waiting around to deal with people and it wasn't super obvious to me in my quick trip around the inside where the smart carts were either, though I saw a couple of people who had them. But it worked out ok - I had help with the luggage and he brought us over to southwest and we got checked in easily (they have TONS of self baggage check stations so there was not really any wait - the porter knew to go down to the end where they were empty rather than the first few which had longer lines.) So I would say if you think you need luggage help you should be prepared to be somewhat assertive about it.
We have TSA pre check and while it seemed like a longish line compared to what I have experienced at smaller airports, it went very quickly and looked to be about 1/10 of the regular security line, which had multiple long switchbacks and of course much more complicated screening. It was worth every penny. We were checked in and through security about a half hour after arriving at the port including unloading luggage, finding a porter, waiting for 3rd elevator, walking to Terminal A, checking in luggage and getting through security. We sat at the gate until about 11:15 at which point the previous flight boarded and the area emptied out, I went and bought us a real (fast food) lunch before boarding the plane, we finished it by about noon with enough time to hit the bathroom before the 12:10 boarding process started for the 12:40 flight. Overall the timing felt great, not so little time that we were rushed but not so much time that the wait felt ridiculous (it's hard for my kid to wait sometimes but of course he had his electronics to pass the time.)
The thing that gives me pause about using Disney transport again in the future was that on the trip back, the family surrounding us (next to us and in front of us) had a sick child. The girl was sitting with her mother and was puking for most of the first half of the trip. The mother was ready with bag and wipes and I was hoping that it was just motion sickness but when we stood up to get off the bus the girl was sprawled on the two seats and looked straight up at us and open mouth coughed right at us. She was super glassy eyed and obviously feverish. When she started puking I told my kid to put his hands in his pockets and not to touch ANYTHING on that bus but when she open mouth coughed at us and was obviously very sick upon boarding I really got pretty peeved. We were pretty much surrounded by this family with an obviously very sick child and I think that the family should have talked to Disney about alternative transport rather than putting their feverish puking child on the bus and exposing everyone on the bus to that... not only us leaving but whatever people who would be taking the return bus to the port - if Disney is not concerned about those leaving the ship they should be concerned about people vomiting on a bus that would be bringing the new batch of people to the ship. I did mention it to the driver but since there was no cleanup required he didn't seem that concerned, I'm not sure what he could have done anyway.
I deal with a lot of things with my kid and I get that kids get sick etc. I have been sick myself on vacation. And I get that they just want to get home. I do have sympathy for that family. But I can say with 100% certainty that I'd not be taking my feverish and vomiting child on a bus full of other people, I would have gone to guest services and figured out how to arrange alternative transport, but I would not have tried to get on a plane either with that going on. It never even occurred to me that someone might do this and honestly it was a little distressing being stuck on that bus surrounded by that family... the puker was in front of us but dad and siblings were next to us, and when the puker was puking, the two siblings sharing a seat next to dad started heaving as well.
For that reason I think I'd probably stick with private transportation going forward. So far so good, doesn't seem like we contracted whatever she had but it was a level of stress I did not need and I spent the whole ride hoping things would not get worse than the kid in front of me puking into a bag and the kids next to me dry heaving. Disney does not do any health screening for boarding their buses like they do boarding the ship so someone would have to take it upon themselves to talk to Disney about alternatives, which of course makes it far less likely for a prepaid service like that.
Please note that right now is the peak of cold/flu season and I heard that the cruise following ours had 1/3 (!!) of the passengers cancel at the last minute due to cold/flu symptoms. A LOT of people on my cruise are reporting coming home with something (thankfully the vigilant hand washing, sanitizing of hard surfaces on the plane and taking immunity supplements - not sure if they really work but figure that at worst there is the placebo effect) seems to have kept us both healthy. But honestly next time I'd just go back to private transport during the peak of cold/flu season to further reduce our chances of getting sick from someone else. I'd probably consider Disney transport again outside of peak sick season though, otherwise everything went super smoothly and efficiently and the timing was great - but I could have achieved that timing with private transport as well. It would have cost twice as much for two of us with tip but for what I spent on this vacation total, it would have been worth the extra $80 to not be exposed to other people's vomit.
Hopefully that is helpful for someone else, I have seen very few details about the whole process and would have liked to have had a better grasp on it!
First was about how Disney transport worked.
I was at a Disney resort before the cruise and it seems like everyone in my cruise FB group at resorts got picked up sometime between 11-12pm. I've seen on the internet anywhere from 10:30 - 1:30pm but we were all in this window - closer to 11 for an earlier stop, closer to 12 for a last stop. We were at the boardwalk and had an 11:55 departure with a meetup time of 11:40. I checked the MDE app in the morning and got a breakfast ADR at Ale and Compass once we knew what the situation was - it was a pretty quiet and relaxed morning. We could have had any number of other breakfasts including Cape May, Bon Voyage, Chef Mickey's, 'Ohana, 1900 Park Fare, Boma etc... I'd definitely just book morning of once you know the situation if you want breakfast before boarding. I left my luggage right at the door with tags and everything else I left in the main part of the room and nothing but the 3 bags with tags was taken and I was able to finish packing up our carryon stuff after breakfast.
The trip out went very smoothly. We were supposed to meet at the Belle Vue lounge 15 minutes early but because checkout is at 11, everyone was there early. We met a Disney Cruise rep who let us know that we'd be heading over to a meeting point for the bus different from DME - it was over by the boardwalk convention center and she walked us out there from the belle vue lounge. The cruise rep was super nice and we were chatting with her, she said the worst thing you can do is decide to "ride the skyline" while you wait - she has had several people miss the bus due to stoppages in the skyline and she cringes when she hears people say that. We were the last stop but it was no trouble at all finding seats together and it took about an hour to get to the port. Winds were high that day and we were requested to stay seated by the driver from the bridge into the port.
We arrived at the port around 1pm and with buses arriving together the lines for security felt a bit long - last time we arrived on our own more like 12:30 so before the buses and after the crowds and lines were much shorter. But all in all I would say it took us about a half hour to get through security and through the check in process - neither of which were that difficult and of course no wait to get on the ship and we were walking on 1 or 2 minutes after 1:30 - the timing was pretty much perfect. Honestly I'd say that if I did private transport I'd avoid the crowds on both ends and only arrive a half hour earlier than we did so I did not feel like there was an impact to my vacation by arriving "late." I have seen reports of people getting to the port very very late but that was not our experience OR the experience of anyone on our cruise, we all got there pretty much the same time and boarded right as rooms were ready.
We dropped our stuff and went up to Cabanas - there was no CM at the door requiring people to wash hands but I saw one a bit up the buffet line telling some parent her kids needed to wear shoes in the restaurant so I'd guess she left her post to deal with another hygiene issue. We did wash hands and I made my kid re-sanitize after touching utensils and before eating since there was no one posted when we went in (that was NOT the case the rest of the cruise, there were always CMs posted.)
Cabanas was not that busy at this time. I mean there were people but it wasn't uncomfortably busy and we had no trouble finding a table in a sheltered outdoor area (I think there were some tables indoors also.) Overall the timing of the resort transport was great IMO, I would not hesitate to do it again because we were in vacation mode and not chomping at the bit to be the first people on the ship.
The trip back was a bit of a different story and has me wondering if I might just want to spring for private transport next time (lord knows where that will be.)
First of all we had late seating so our scheduled breakfast was at 8am and I had a 12:40 flight booked. The materials left in the stateroom before were a little unclear about the timing - there was a paragraph after the paragraph about direct checking your stuff with airlines that if you have a flight before 1pm you must be on a bus no later than 8am or your stuff would be removed from the bus and you would need to deal with your own luggage at the airport. They weren't 100% explicit that this only applied to people using the direct luggage checkin service but from context I figured that we'd be ok since we were already dealing with our own luggage. The people at the table next to us also were a bit confused by the language so I figured I'd mention it.
But just be aware (I have never seen this written anywhere but maybe it is!) if you are flying one of the airlines that have direct luggage transfer AND your flight is before 1pm, AND you have late seating, you must have breakfast at Cabanas and be in the first wave of people leaving the ship. You must be ON the bus no later than 8am or they will remove your luggage and you will need to deal with it yourself. I had strongly considered flying back jet blue to have the direct luggage handling but ended up using Southwest for better return timing since I live on Martha's Vineyard and have the ferry to factor in and I'm glad I did.
I asked the kiddo if he just wanted to go to Cabanas and he wanted to see our servers again so we went to the 8am seating - I kept doing the math in my head and kept in mind that people always say they are at the airport way early but I was still a little anxious about the warning on the info the night before... but we sat and ate breakfast and were done a bit quickly (neither of us are big breakfast eaters and service was quick) - said our goodbyes and got on the debarkation line before the restaurants emptied out. The whole debarkation including getting through customs took about a half hour and we were sitting on the Disney bus by about 8:50. I was a little nervous that we were like the 2nd people on the bus thinking it could take a while to fill it up but it only took 10 minutes and we hit the road by about 9am, at the airport by 10am or shortly after. From an efficiency point of view it's a top notch operation and I would not hesitate to use it again based on timing and efficiency.
The buses ONLY go into terminal B (which I guess makes sense in retrospect since that's where all of the Disney buses are) which makes it a bit of a pain when dealing with all of the luggage and getting into terminal A.
I did have concerns about handling my own luggage (my kid is on the spectrum and has low tone so is not that useful in hauling around 150+ lbs of luggage) and I had read that there were plenty of porters to meet the buses at the airport. There were not. I walked over to the only one I saw (who was helping other people) and asked him how to find someone and he radioed over and had someone sent. I had to be kind of assertive about looking for him - as soon as I saw him I ran over and asked if he was the one the other guy sent and he was and right after I confirmed that some other people tried to poach him from me. I was a little surprised that they did not have a bunch waiting around to deal with people and it wasn't super obvious to me in my quick trip around the inside where the smart carts were either, though I saw a couple of people who had them. But it worked out ok - I had help with the luggage and he brought us over to southwest and we got checked in easily (they have TONS of self baggage check stations so there was not really any wait - the porter knew to go down to the end where they were empty rather than the first few which had longer lines.) So I would say if you think you need luggage help you should be prepared to be somewhat assertive about it.
We have TSA pre check and while it seemed like a longish line compared to what I have experienced at smaller airports, it went very quickly and looked to be about 1/10 of the regular security line, which had multiple long switchbacks and of course much more complicated screening. It was worth every penny. We were checked in and through security about a half hour after arriving at the port including unloading luggage, finding a porter, waiting for 3rd elevator, walking to Terminal A, checking in luggage and getting through security. We sat at the gate until about 11:15 at which point the previous flight boarded and the area emptied out, I went and bought us a real (fast food) lunch before boarding the plane, we finished it by about noon with enough time to hit the bathroom before the 12:10 boarding process started for the 12:40 flight. Overall the timing felt great, not so little time that we were rushed but not so much time that the wait felt ridiculous (it's hard for my kid to wait sometimes but of course he had his electronics to pass the time.)
The thing that gives me pause about using Disney transport again in the future was that on the trip back, the family surrounding us (next to us and in front of us) had a sick child. The girl was sitting with her mother and was puking for most of the first half of the trip. The mother was ready with bag and wipes and I was hoping that it was just motion sickness but when we stood up to get off the bus the girl was sprawled on the two seats and looked straight up at us and open mouth coughed right at us. She was super glassy eyed and obviously feverish. When she started puking I told my kid to put his hands in his pockets and not to touch ANYTHING on that bus but when she open mouth coughed at us and was obviously very sick upon boarding I really got pretty peeved. We were pretty much surrounded by this family with an obviously very sick child and I think that the family should have talked to Disney about alternative transport rather than putting their feverish puking child on the bus and exposing everyone on the bus to that... not only us leaving but whatever people who would be taking the return bus to the port - if Disney is not concerned about those leaving the ship they should be concerned about people vomiting on a bus that would be bringing the new batch of people to the ship. I did mention it to the driver but since there was no cleanup required he didn't seem that concerned, I'm not sure what he could have done anyway.
I deal with a lot of things with my kid and I get that kids get sick etc. I have been sick myself on vacation. And I get that they just want to get home. I do have sympathy for that family. But I can say with 100% certainty that I'd not be taking my feverish and vomiting child on a bus full of other people, I would have gone to guest services and figured out how to arrange alternative transport, but I would not have tried to get on a plane either with that going on. It never even occurred to me that someone might do this and honestly it was a little distressing being stuck on that bus surrounded by that family... the puker was in front of us but dad and siblings were next to us, and when the puker was puking, the two siblings sharing a seat next to dad started heaving as well.
For that reason I think I'd probably stick with private transportation going forward. So far so good, doesn't seem like we contracted whatever she had but it was a level of stress I did not need and I spent the whole ride hoping things would not get worse than the kid in front of me puking into a bag and the kids next to me dry heaving. Disney does not do any health screening for boarding their buses like they do boarding the ship so someone would have to take it upon themselves to talk to Disney about alternatives, which of course makes it far less likely for a prepaid service like that.
Please note that right now is the peak of cold/flu season and I heard that the cruise following ours had 1/3 (!!) of the passengers cancel at the last minute due to cold/flu symptoms. A LOT of people on my cruise are reporting coming home with something (thankfully the vigilant hand washing, sanitizing of hard surfaces on the plane and taking immunity supplements - not sure if they really work but figure that at worst there is the placebo effect) seems to have kept us both healthy. But honestly next time I'd just go back to private transport during the peak of cold/flu season to further reduce our chances of getting sick from someone else. I'd probably consider Disney transport again outside of peak sick season though, otherwise everything went super smoothly and efficiently and the timing was great - but I could have achieved that timing with private transport as well. It would have cost twice as much for two of us with tip but for what I spent on this vacation total, it would have been worth the extra $80 to not be exposed to other people's vomit.
Hopefully that is helpful for someone else, I have seen very few details about the whole process and would have liked to have had a better grasp on it!
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