Late for Magical Express

[Maelstrom_]

Wondering what others experience is with showing up late for your return trip on magical express. Will they still give you a ride if you show up and hour or two late?

 

[goofy4tink]

Seriously??? Disney is under absolutely no obligation to put you on another bus if you show up late. They may call you a cab but you will be paying for it.

And being late by an hour or two is just foolhardy. You are given a pickup time of 3 hrs prior to your flight. This gets you to MCO about 2-2.5 hrs before your flight..the time that MCO suggests. If you show up an hour or two late? You are seriously putting yourself in danger of not making your flight.

If you 'missed' your bus, you might be able to be accommodated on a later bus. But, there may not be another bus for over an hour. DME buses to not automatically just stop at all the resorts. They stop only at resorts that have guests with standing reservations for that particular time. So, if you have a p/u time of 2:30, for a 5:30 flight (for instance) and you miss that 2:30 bus? There may be a bus arriving at 3, but if no one at your resort is scheduled to depart at that time, there won't be a bus. If you are lucky, there would be one at 3:30, which would get you to MCO 60-90 mins prior to departure...kind of tight. What if there was an accident on the road or the bus broke down, or the security line was really long?

I have seen reports of people deciding they didn't want to take the bus assigned to them. They wanted more park time, so they just showed up when they were ready to leave. Well, yes, there was a bus there. But there was no room on that bus. So, that dad started screaming that they could just put other people on the next bus so as to make room for them since their flight was sooner!!! Nope, Disney CMs wouldn't budge. They told the dad that they would be happy to call a cab for them, but it would be at the family's expense.

Nope, either plan on getting the bus you are supposed to be on or just book a car service for the time you want to leave.

 

[Lewisc]

Wondering what others experience is with showing up late for your return trip on magical express. Will they still give you a ride if you show up and hour or two late?

DME picks you up around 3 hours before your flight. Let's do the math. You're 2 hours late. That means one hour before your flight. DME drivers follow the speed limit, to a fault. Let's assume you're staying at POP, generally the last stop before the bus leaves WDW on their trip to MCO. You'll be getting to MCO 15 minutes before your flight. Southwest requires passengers be at the gate 10 minutes before the scheduled departure of your flight. Other airlines have similar polices. That means you won't be able to make your flight, even security was gone for the day and you literally didn't have to stop for one minute at security. 30 minute lines for security at MCO aren't rare.

More realistic numbers. You don't know how many stops the bus will be making. You don't know if the bus will be delayed a few minutes. Figure an hour from the time you board the bus to the time you arrive at MCO. That means if you're an hour late for your bus, and are accommodated, you'll arrive at MCO less then an hour before your flight. Good shot you'll be missing your flight.

Miss your bus call. If there is a bus scheduled for your resort, that has room, within 30 minutes of your original time you might give it a shot. Otherwise take a taxi.

 

[richmo]

It sounds like you'd be playing with fire doing that.

The idea of the approximate 3 hours before your flight is to get you to the airport in plenty of time. If you get on DME 2 hours late, I seriously doubt you'd make your flight. One hour, it'll still be close especially since times getting thru security at MCO can vary so much. I'm thinking you must have one of those frequent flyer passes for security (I forget what they're called).

Thing is, there's no guarantee they can accommodate you an hour or two later. Every seat in the bus could be accounted for or, it also possible there are no pickups at your resort the following hour (or two). If they don't think there's a need to stop there, they won't.

If you really want to run late, I would think you should change the DME reservation itself. Maybe change your flight to a dummy flight that leaves later. Or perhaps do a one way car rental.

 

[ktate82]

Once we left the park an hour before we were supposed to be back at the resort for our DME, and we just missed the bus (it was pulling out as we were pulling in). There was another bus half an hour later that stopped, and we were able to ride it to the airport with time to spare. The next time, we got back to our resort extra early (didn't want to risk missing it again), and were actually able to get on an earlier DME bus since it wasn't full. But as others have said, missing by an hour or two, is just not practical for catching your flight.

 

[Maelstrom_]

Wow! Shame on me for asking a stupid question. This isn't a very friendly message board.

Just got off the phone with ME. Had to try twice because they wouldn't change it the first time (which is why i posted thread here). But they bumped me to a new time 4 hours later, so I won't be showin up late anymore.

Thanks for the lectures on policies and my poor math skills.

 

[richmo]

Geez, I don't see a single post above that wasn't trying to be helpful.

It sounds like they messed up your original return time, in which case I think most would reply to get in touch with DME and get it changed.

 

[sam_gordon]

Wow! Shame on me for asking a stupid question. This isn't a very friendly message board.

Just got off the phone with ME. Had to try twice because they wouldn't change it the first time (which is why i posted thread here). But they bumped me to a new time 4 hours later, so I won't be showin up late anymore.

Thanks for the lectures on policies and my poor math skills.

I suggest you go back and reread your post from the eyes of people who have read dozens (if not hundreds) of posts asking if it's OK to miss the scheduled ME bus. In addition, everyone who's answered you knows when ME schedules the return trip, AND how long it takes to get to the airport, AND when airlines want you at the airport.

DME picks you up around 3 hours before your flight. Even if you are "an hour" late, that means leaving Disney 2 hours before. I don't know if anyone would recommend leaving the Disney area 2 hours before a flight, even if you had a friend driving and dropping you off.

No one was mean or rude. They were just factual.

I will say, I don't understand how ME put you on a bus 4 hours later... that would mean you're getting picked up at Disney an hour after your flight leaves.

 

[goofy4tink]

Wow! Shame on me for asking a stupid question. This isn't a very friendly message board.

Just got off the phone with ME. Had to try twice because they wouldn't change it the first time (which is why i posted thread here). But they bumped me to a new time 4 hours later, so I won't be showin up late anymore.

Thanks for the lectures on policies and my poor math skills.

Ah, no lectures, just simple info. If you have a flight scheduled, then I can't imagine how they would reschedule you to a ride 4 hrs later. What time is your flight?
Many people come here and ask a question, hoping to get a particular answer. When they don't get that answer, they get angry and start saying we are unfriendly. there is no way we are going to give out answers simply to make someone happy....your arrival or departure is too important to try to give you 'happy answers'. Sorry you felt that we weren't friendly. Most people posting here want correct, accurate, up to date info so they can plan accordingly.

 

[Maelstrom_]

Sorry...didn't mean to be rude.

Airline called and switched my flight. I called DME to ask if I could get a new time that corresponds with updated flight and they said no. I was dreading leaving for airport 7 hours early so was thinking about just showing up late for ME...but I got it sorted out now.

 

[ktate82]

Sorry...didn't mean to be rude.

Airline called and switched my flight. I called DME to ask if I could get a new time that corresponds with updated flight and they said no. I was dreading leaving for airport 7 hours early so was thinking about just showing up late for ME...but I got it sorted out now.

Ahhhh that makes so much more sense! That would have been useful info in the original post

 

[Lewisc]

Sorry...didn't mean to be rude.

Airline called and switched my flight. I called DME to ask if I could get a new time that corresponds with updated flight and they said no. I was dreading leaving for airport 7 hours early so was thinking about just showing up late for ME...but I got it sorted out now.

When is your flight? Same flight number? I thought DME computers uses flight numbers and gets the flight times from the computer and not from the guest. Unless your flight is tomorrow the situation may correct itself.

Your flight is tomorrow. You probably need to be at the airport. There are numerous cases where the airline was able to go back to close to the original schedule stranding passengers who didn't find out the flight time was changed again.

 

[goofy4tink]

Sorry...didn't mean to be rude.

Airline called and switched my flight. I called DME to ask if I could get a new time that corresponds with updated flight and they said no. I was dreading leaving for airport 7 hours early so was thinking about just showing up late for ME...but I got it sorted out now.

Well now, that's a whole horse of a different color, isn't it!!! When you get to MCO, and get to the DME checkin area, they will usually ask you about your return flight info....to see if it is correct in their system. You could have given then the new flight details then. Of course, not everyone knows that.
We all just assumed you planned on ignoring your p/u time to give you more park time. Sorry.

 

[bdklein]

So many on Disboards just look for opportunites to jump on posters. This was another example. Although agreed that the repsonses would have been much different had the flight-change information been brought up in the original post.

 

[Lewisc]

So many on Disboards just look for opportunites to jump on posters. This was another example. Although agreed that the repsonses would have been much different had the flight-change information been brought up in the original post.

I don't agree. Taking a DME bus 1 hour before your flight would have been a disastrous plan. I think the responses were appropriate given the information provided in the OP.

 

[bumbershoot]

So many on Disboards just look for opportunites to jump on posters.

While that might be true on the CB, if there is one place in trip planning where you absolutely positively want the right, EXACT, answer, it's in the Transportation forum. My gosh can you imagine if the knowledgeable people on this forum were gone this morning and all the OP got was wrong answers then never checked back?

While it wouldn't have gotten the OP to miss the flight, they sure would have been angry if they thought they could get on the bus no problem, only to find out they would have to pay for a taxi.

Giving the full reason for asking a question is always important, and if that had been done, the responders would have been able to temper their response based on that, given suggestions on how to word it to the ME person on the phone, etc. Instead they had to give the whole spiel, to make sure nothing was covered, because the OP gave no reasons whatsoever.

 

[sam_gordon]

So many on Disboards just look for opportunites to jump on posters. This was another example. Although agreed that the repsonses would have been much different had the flight-change information been brought up in the original post.

What would have been an appropriate response? Remember, all anyone knew at the time was the OP was asking about showing up "an hour or two" late for their DME bus.

Would it have been better to say "don't do it" with no explanation?

 

[Sandi]

What would have been an appropriate response? Remember, all anyone knew at the time was the OP was asking about showing up "an hour or two" late for their DME bus.

Would it have been better to say "don't do it" with no explanation?

Exactly. The OP's original question should have included the information about the flight being changed to X# hours later. With that crucial information, the regulars on this board would have explained s/he was provided incorrect information by DME and that they certainly would change the p/u time at the resort. That flight time change thing happens all the time.

 

[goofy4tink]

So many on Disboards just look for opportunites to jump on posters. This was another example. Although agreed that the repsonses would have been much different had the flight-change information been brought up in the original post.

Could you, perhaps, give me an example of someone's 'jumping on a poster' here? I saw nothing like that at all. Responses were very civil for the information given. I'm not really sure what answers you would have preferred to see, again, based on the original post.

 

[seashoreCM]

The normal deadline for amending or modifying or even making your Magical Express reservation back to the airport is the morning of the day before the day you check out and take DME. When you get your DME confirmation (manually down at the front desk if not delivered to your room then) inspect it to be sure your bus is indeed about 3 hours before flight time.

Shorter notice changes are possible, say, your airline changed your flight on shorter notice, but buses may be fully scheduled and the bus time you get can be considerably earlier than the normal 3 hours before flight time.

If you needed to make a change that late, you need to get the new confirmation as soon as that is available. Don't head for the parks that morning of the day before day of checkout intending to pick up the confirmation when you get back that evening; something else might be wrong.

If you miss your DME bus back to the airport, it's the end of the world. You can get a later bus but this is on a standby basis. The new assigned bus will not be intended to meet or make any particular airline flight.

You need to be at the DME bus platform, ready to go, 15 minutes before your bus (departure) time. Shoot to be back at your resort an hour before then, allow a little more time if you need to get carryons back from Bell Services.