I've posted about this before, but the threads were quickly buried and I'm not the type to bump them up just to make them seen.
I traveled May 8 - 14 and have nothing but great things to say about DME. I took notes -- since I was going so early there were people on another board counting on me to report back as much as I could.
I got into the LONG line at the DME counter at 9:37 a.m., but was served and done by 9:42 a.m. -- there were 14 CMs working the counter along with 2-3 managers. I received my DME tags on the afternoon before I left. There were 6 of us (the wife and me, our 2 pre-schoolers, and her parents who insisted they travel with us), so we got 12 tags, but we only checked 4 suitcases, so to be safe I put 2 tags on each suitcase. Just paranoid I guess.
I got in line for my bus -- Caribbean Beach Resort/All-Star Sports/Animal Kingdom Lodge at 9:44 a.m. It was the longest line of the 6 there. The line began moving at 9:54 a.m., and we were on the bus at 9:55 a.m. We were on a DME bus -- air conditioned, comfy burgundy velour (?) upholstered seats, TV screens, etc. The bus was full but not uncomfortably crammed.
We pulled out of the airport at 10:02 a.m. In total, 25 minutes from first getting in line to leaving the airport. Not bad. Impressive, actually. I'll bet I would have waited that long just to finish with baggage claim!
I was in luck, as CBR was the first stop. We pulled in there at 10:30 a.m.
In total, 53 minutes from getting in line at the DME counter to being dropped off at my resort. Don't get me started about the 30 minute wait to check in at the resort, however! And by the way, I was one of the first off my bus, so it's not like the delay was caused by the bus I was on.
I got to my room by about 11:15 a.m. or so. Whenever I travel ANYWHERE I make sure I bring 24 hours of supplies in my carry-on, anyway, so I wasn't concerned about my luggage. It arrived at my room around 2:30 p.m. when I was at the pool with my kids. Around the same time, my grocery delivery from Gooding's also arrived. It was so cool -- I thought I was going to have to schedule my Gooding's delivery, and have to hang around the room waiting for them like waiting at home all day for the cable guy. But guess what? They deliver to Bell Services, and then Bell Services delivers to the room. Before I left home I asked what would happen with my refrigerated stuff (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.), and Gooding's told me that CBR has either refrigerators or a refrigerated room to hold the stuff, and Gooding's separately bags and labels anything needing to be kept refrigerated or frozen. If you have that sort of stuff, Bell Services calls you to make sure you're at your room to accept your delivery -- my mother-in-law was in her connecting room so she answered the call and took the delivery. If I had missed that call, no problem, my stuff would have been properly stored and I would have gotten a call later, or I would have called them. Everything was great.
No problems on the return trip, either. Bell Services was backed up around check-out time, so they told me to just leave my bags (checked and carry-ons) inside my room. We used Express Checkout so I didn't have to do anything other than leave. We returned to the CBR Custom House at 3:15 for our scheduled 4:00 p.m. pickup for our 6:45 p.m. flight back to Atlantic City. The 3:30 p.m. DME bus came about 10 minutes late, but the 4:00 p.m. one came 5 minutes early. About 20 minutes before my bus was scheduled to arrive, I got Bell Services to retrieve my bags (12 total) from storage (we had to deal with the luggage because we weren't using one of the "participating" airlines); she was quick and friendly and refused my tip! She told me to keep the bags on the rolling cart she used. A few minutes later I rolled the cart up to the DME driver, who needed to see either my DME return voucher or anything official from Disney with my name on it (such as my WDTC hotel voucher). He asked my what airline and how many bags.
The bus was far from full. We went directly to the airport, no stops. We watched an entertaining Disney sales pitch on TV on the way back to the airport. When we parked, the driver asked everyone to stay seated while he unpacked ALL the bags from the hold (suitcases and carry-ons) and lined them up outside. When we got off, I immediately got the attention of a skycap, who loaded ALL our bags on a big rolling cart, and accompanied us on a long walk and then elevator ride up to Spirit Airlines. He waited by our side while we checked in, and after we got the airline tags on our checked bags he rolled them to the TSA or airline guy at the x-ray machine.
So as you can see, I was totally satisfied with DME, and I used it on its 4th day of operation!
-- Eric
