Late arrival food and transportation questions

[Mich123]

Hi DisFriends! I am planning a trip that has us leaving home at 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday night and arriving at 8:40 p.m. (per Southwest). If all goes well, this flight has historically arrived a little early. I'd prefer to have dinner at a resort or Disney Springs, than at the airport. I'm concerned that the Magical Express will be a lengthy wait at that hour. So, what would you do? Here are the options I'm seeing, I'd love to hear about your experiences!

-Take a taxi/Lyft to Disney Springs and have dinner, then head to the resort?
-Take a taxi/Lyft to hotel (not sure where yet, AKL, YC, and POR in contention) and then have dinner, making a reservation in advance?
-Take a taxi/Lyft and make reservation on the way?
-Take DME to resort and go to quick service (will only pizza be available?)?

Follow up question for bonus points! Will my luggage arrive at 1 a.m.?

 

[Shanti]

Hi DisFriends! I am planning a trip that has us leaving home at 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday night and arriving at 8:40 p.m. (per Southwest). If all goes well, this flight has historically arrived a little early. I'd prefer to have dinner at a resort or Disney Springs, than at the airport. I'm concerned that the Magical Express will be a lengthy wait at that hour. So, what would you do? Here are the options I'm seeing, I'd love to hear about your experiences!

-Take a taxi/Lyft to Disney Springs and have dinner, then head to the resort?
-Take a taxi/Lyft to hotel (not sure where yet, AKL, YC, and POR in contention) and then have dinner, making a reservation in advance?
-Take a taxi/Lyft and make reservation on the way?
-Take DME to resort and go to quick service (will only pizza be available?)?

Follow up question for bonus points! Will my luggage arrive at 1 a.m.?

I personally wouldn't take a taxi or Lyft from the airport just to get to a dining reservation. That would basically be an expensive upcharge to your meal, and a flight delay would remove any of the benefits of doing so.

Using DME, you likely won't arrive at your resort until around 10pm (we often arrive late and haven't found evening DME waits to be worse than daytime waits), and the resort restaurants will be closed or closing as you arrive. I don't know what hours are for Disney Springs restaurants as we rarely go there.

Either way, I don't recommend going to any Disney table service restaurants that night that would require an ADR. You're just arriving too late to ensure that you could make it, and Disney would charge you for a no-show. Some of the DS restaurants can be reserved outside of Disney, with no fee for no-shows, so feel free to do that if you're inclined.

But honestly, my instinct would be to just get room service at my resort after a flight coming in that late. Does your resort offer 24-hour room service? I don't know where you're staying.

Your luggage will arrive in the middle of the night. If you don't want to be disturbed, stop at Bell Services upon arrival and tell them to hold your bags until you call for them in the morning.

 

[Mich123]

@Shanti I hadn't considered room service--great idea--that is one more vote in favor of AKL and WL!

 

[Shanti]

@Shanti I hadn't considered room service--great idea--that is one more vote in favor of AKL and WL!

I just checked and AKL offers room service until midnight, but I couldn't verify hours for WL. Different deluxes have diferent room service hours. Some offer 24-hour service, and others don't, so be careful.

 

[Best Aunt]

If you are going to be hungry on the plane, make sure you are aware of what Southwest is serving for snacks these days, and bring your own or buy in the airport if necessary. On my afternoon flight recently, the only snack was Wheat Thins. I knew peanuts were gone, but I was hoping for an alternative to the Wheat Thins. I asked about cookies, and the flight attendant told me cookies were only given out on morning flights.

I personally don't do Magical Express. It's a long day of travel, and I just want to get to my hotel. I would check the hours of the quick service restaurants in the hotel I was considering. If at YC, you can walk over to the Dolphin and one of their places is open 24 hours, I believe.

I would not make a dinner reservation because if your flight is late and you can't make the reservation you would be charged a no-show fee. You could make a restaurant reservation during that annoying time when your plane is on the ground but you can't get off it yet.

What are you planning to do with your luggage if you Uber/Lyft from airport to a restaurant at Disney Springs?

 

[Mich123]

@Best Aunt I was thinking of sending my luggage along and not taking the Magical Express. I won't do that if it would slow down others. I was going to call to find out.

Do you take Uber/Lyft to your hotel? How much is it to the resorts area? I don't mind the extra expense if I'm making up time. I'm also terrible about budgeting on vacation when there's a convenience factor. A couple of years ago, we had to wait for about 25 minutes for the bus to fill and that was on a holiday. I've also taken Magical Express later at night and had to wait 45 minutes, but that was about 14 years ago, so I'm hoping that is not the usual late night standard these days.

Thanks for the tip on the Swolphin restaurants!

 

[DLgal]

Personally, I'd grab some dinner at the home airport just before boarding, like a sandwich or some pizza or something. Eat it on the plane. But we eat between 5 and 6pm normally. I can't imagine eating so late at night after 3 hours of traveling. When you land, grab a snack or some dessert at the airport before heading to the resort. I would definitely not make an ADR for that night.

 

[Buddy40]

See attached thread from Disney Parks Mom's Panel
https://disneyparksmomspanel.disney...luggage-disney-magical-express-resort-348637/
Note that if you are delayed and land after 10 pm, you need to pickup your luggage at baggage claim.
We have landed a couple of times after 10 pm and never had much of a wait at DME.

 

[Best Aunt]

@Best Aunt I was thinking of sending my luggage along and not taking the Magical Express. I won't do that if it would slow down others. I was going to call to find out.

Do you take Uber/Lyft to your hotel? How much is it to the resorts area? I don't mind the extra expense if I'm making up time. I'm also terrible about budgeting on vacation when there's a convenience factor. A couple of years ago, we had to wait for about 25 minutes for the bus to fill and that was on a holiday. I've also taken Magical Express later at night and had to wait 45 minutes, but that was about 14 years ago, so I'm hoping that is not the usual late night standard these days.

Thanks for the tip on the Swolphin restaurants!

Actually I take a towncar from airport to hotel because I like the included grocery stop. I use Uber or Lyft to get from hotel to airport on departure day.