Magical Express and Westjet?

[hipmaman]

Hi,

We are staying at the Coronado Springs and would like to take advantage of the Magical Express. The only thing that worry me is that I have read many reviews and there are mixed feelings about it, especially late and early flights.

We arrive at 10:15pm and depart on a 7:00 am flight between Toronto and Orlando. I will make sure we have our night stuff so we can go straight to bed once checked in.

Bhould I book something like the *********** taxi service to ensure late and early pick-up? I so don't want to miss my flight going home or having to wait for the communal ME at 3-4am for a 7:00 flight, kwim?

One other thing that worry me is the carseats. The kids still need carseats/booster. With the ME and the way buses work, I'm somewhat comfortable enough to fly without a carseat for the first time since having kids. But the *********** only would have one booster in the car.

What would you suggest I do? Stick to the ME?

Thanks.

 

[jmtf2004]

FWIW here are my thoughts.
Once you are on property, I assume you will be using Disney Transportation to get to the parks, since you do not mention renting a car. You cannot use the car seat on the Disney buses onsite, and realistically there is no difference between those buses and ME.
Overall ME has been praised and is being used as a model for other places to make airport transfers more efficient and user friendly throughout the US. I think that lots of people tend to post their bad experiences, but not that many post when they have had a good experience. Keep in mind that in the trial period from May through December 2005 ME transported 1.1 million passengers. There is one group of people who are truly unhappy with their experience with ME: the taxi and limo drivers who lost revenue when Disney introduced the new service.
I have seen comments from people who had to wait a long while for their luggage to arrive, but I have not seen that complaint so often recently. More often recently I have seen mention that luggage arrives less than one hour after they get to their room.
Whatever you decide to do, have a wonderful time at WDW.

 

[tophee99]

We used a limo/taxi service and it was amazing. They provided car seats (at no cost) and we also got a grocery stop on our way. They were waiting for us at the airport (with our name on a sign), and on time to pick us up for our return flight. For us, this was a better fit. It was about $85 and worth every penny IMHO. The driver was great and told us lots of stuff about disney and other landmarks on our way there.

Good luck!!

 

[Legend of Odon]

We are five happy ME travelers. We utilized ME last May after Air Canada flights from Pearson, so shortly after ME began. I was quite worried about it really after reading many stories from people who had endless troubles. But I put my faith in Disney knowing that I may need patience waiting for our luggage etc and hoped for the best. We were prepared with everything we needed in our carry ons. We checked into AKL and had lunch. By the time we were done lunch our luggage was in the room. No complaints with that service at all!! After shlepping luggage for many years mostly in overseas airports (and even dragging bags on wheels through the streets of Dublin once....but we won't go there.....!!) I was thrilled to give Disney a chance and look after my bags.

Our return flight was early......but all went off without a gliche. We did have to get up early and meet the ME bus 3 hours before our actual flight but in the end we needed ALL that time due to the extremely long lines inside the Orlando terminal.

We found ME great........relaxing and the perfect shuttle service for our Disney trip! We will be using ME again this August without hesitation. Personally I would rather use this complimentary service and use the money saved for a Segway Tour or other Disney delights!

 

[hipmaman]

I do realise that we hear more about complaints than satisfactory stories about anything, not just the ME. The taxi service sounds good too, but a town car only has one booster or one carseat (not two) and I'm just sure I can justify the extra $$ for a bigger vehicle. And there is no way I would be in a vehicle without proper carseat and booster for the kids.

So, I think we will do the ME. And 3 hrs lead time for departure is okay as I rather have the extra time to clear security and such.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[mom2brady]

Tophee99-Which town car service did you use? Am I allowed to ask for that info? If it can't be shared on the board, can you pm me with the info? We have a town car booked through the TA-but the charge is 150 CDN-they charged extra for the grocery stop! I have looked on the transportation board-but $88 is the cheapest price I've seen so far.
Mom2Brady

 

[daver]

We used ME in Feb and had more problems with baggage than ME. We arrived at Orlando, knew where to go and as we went down the escalator to level one there were ppl there with mouse hands. They told us exactly where to walk to. We got to the check in, gave our tickets and jumped on the bus. It all took about 15 mins between the check in and getting on the bus. We arrived at our room, chnaged to bathing suits and went to the pool for about an hour. When we got back to the room, the bags arrived 10 mins later. One bag was not ours, and we were missing one. That got fixed in less than 10 minutes. I dont think you can beat that!

 

[goofygolf]

We used Me this last feb and had no issues, we flew out of calgary and the bags arrived approx 2 hrs later. Friends of ours had a late flight so they just collected thier own luggage at MCO and then borded the ME this way they had everthing they needed with them when they checked in.

Andy