Magical Express at all hours of the night?

[snowbunny]

I'm considering a JetBlue flight that is supposed to arrive 12:45 am. Does ME run that late?

 

[bradk]

the transportation aspect, yes. the luggage delivery service, no. you are best served by not using the yellow tags and claiming your own baggage (unless you can carry everything you need for that night and the following day in carryon).

 

[hannah03]

They won't pick up your luggage that late at night for you?????

 

[bradk]

as far as picking up, there's some long thread about that, which i stopped following. all that aside, they do stop delivering luggage to the room over night unless you request otherwise because they operate under the assumption that most people don't want some stranger banging on the door at 3 in the morning.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Despite some recent postings on this message board, I'm not convinced there is now a requirement for guests on late flights to retrieve their own luggage. Since the launch of DME, bags with yellow tags have been handled by Disney (and Disney's contractor), regardless of when a flight arrives.

The Magical Express motorcoaches do not wait for guests with reservations to arrive. They are dispatched, as needed, after guests check in at the Magical Express counter.

Especially if I were arriving at 12:45 a.m., the last thing I'd want to do is spend an additional 20-60 minutes at the airport going to baggage claim, waiting for my bags, dragging them through the airport (possibly from one corner to the other corner of the huge terminal building), and dealing with them at the resort.

I'd take carry-ons for overnight, and I'd request DME luggage delivery of checked bags the next morning.

 

[Edd]

Horace,

I just found this out yesterday. Late at night the busses are very limited. So the passengers from the last flights in the evening after 0001 - 0300 hours will get held in the busses until maybe another bus rolls into the DME or until DME knows they will have no other passengers. They have no way of knowing how many busses are returning to the airport so they keep the last bus around until another pulls in or there are no more Disney guests.

That is probably the reason the lady on another thread complained she sat in the airport for almost an hour before the bus was rolling. The bags are still getting picked up, I think, by DME but are stored for shipment the next morning when the trucks return for another work day. This statement is not really confirmed, but was what I was told by a DME driver. It may not be credible.

 

[VAgal76]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. They will be there for you. I agree that you should take a carry-on with overnight essentials and have them hold your bags until the next morning.

FWIW, I had a few friends on late arrivals and they never had to wait a tremendous amount of time. They'd do ME again in heartbeat and enjoy the fact of not having to pay for transportation (town car service) and not having to hassle with a rental car.

 

[snowbunny]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. They will be there for you. I agree that you should take a carry-on with overnight essentials and have them hold your bags until the next morning.

Ok thank you everyone. I'm still trying to firm up plans, this is helpful.

 

[Disneyolic]

The bags are still getting picked up, I think, by DME but are stored for shipment the next morning when the trucks return for another work day. This statement is not really confirmed, but was what I was told by a DME driver. It may not be credible.

Say this is credible...

Does anyone know what time in the morning DME would begin with the luggage transfer. Going a step further, what would be a reasonable time time to expect your luggage in the morning at your resort?

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Say this is credible...

Does anyone know what time in the morning DME would begin with the luggage transfer. Going a step further, what would be a reasonable time time to expect your luggage in the morning at your resort?

I would assume a delivery time no earlier than 9:00 a.m., and possibly an hour or two after that.

If you pack carry-on bags with anything that you would need overnight and the next morning, the actual delivery time should not be an issue. You don't have to wait for your luggage. You can already be out having fun when your bags are delivered. Disney pays the inbound bell service gratuity.

 

[CarolA]

There have been posts of DME putting you in a prepaid cab for wee hour arrivals and departures. (Probably makes sense for them. If they only have a few folks arriving at 2 AM then it's not worth keeping a bus running)

 

[hannah03]

That might be okay for some people but I have a toddler who NEEDS a carseat and that wouldn't work for people like us.

There have been posts of DME putting you in a prepaid cab for wee hour arrivals and departures. (Probably makes sense for them. If they only have a few folks arriving at 2 AM then it's not worth keeping a bus running)

 

[Disneyolic]

I would assume a delivery time no earlier than 9:00 a.m., and possibly an hour or two after that.

If you pack carry-on bags with anything that you would need overnight and the next morning, the actual delivery time should not be an issue. You don't have to wait for your luggage. You can already be out having fun when your bags are delivered. Disney pays the inbound bell service gratuity.

Having a family of 5, a carryon for all our nighttime things and next day things probably won't work for us. I would definitely want my luggage early in the morning. Carryons just don't allow all my personal hygiene items that I would need to bring to make myself "pretty". I prefer my own liquid soap, hairspray, etc.

If we could have a guarantee delivery of luggage by 7 am, I would not mind at all. After that, I think we may hire a transport company so we won't have to lug all our luggage around plus 3 very tired kids.

I would have been one of those people who did not mind a "knock on the door" in the middle of the night with my luggage.

 

[clkelley]

Having a family of 5, a carryon for all our nighttime things and next day things probably won't work for us. I would definitely want my luggage early in the morning. Carryons just don't allow all my personal hygiene items that I would need to bring to make myself "pretty". I prefer my own liquid soap, hairspray, etc.

If we could have a guarantee delivery of luggage by 7 am, I would not mind at all. After that, I think we may hire a transport company so we won't have to lug all our luggage around plus 3 very tired kids.

I would have been one of those people who did not mind a "knock on the door" in the middle of the night with my luggage.

If you rely solely on a towncar, then your trip at the airport will be like this.

Depart the plane, go to Level 2, wait on luggage anywhere from 20-40 minutes.

Between the towncar driver and yourselves, haul all the luggage down to Level 1. (5 minutes)

Wait at the curb until the driver goes to their parking lot and retrieves the car, load all the luggage in the car and head for the resort. (That can take as long as 10 minutes)

Those steps can take a lot of time.

If you really want to get the kiddos to the resort ASAP, I would recommend the following.

One adult and the kiddos proceed directly to Magical Express and get to the resort ASAP and get checked in. Perhaps pack the kiddos night clothes as carryons and get them settled.

(Or, if it appears that it may be a wait for a bus to load/depart, grab a cab and get to the resort).

The other adult waits on the luggage and then heads for Magical Express and comes when they can.

 

[CarolA]

That might be okay for some people but I have a toddler who NEEDS a carseat and that wouldn't work for people like us.

Why not? Most cabs have carseats or I am sure Disney could arrange a car seat.

 

[Edd]

The OP perhaps exagerates a little on the car service. First off don't make the mistake of getting a town car. The vehicle is to small for your family. Request an SUV which will hold your family and your luggage. There are many good companies that will be able to help you.

The OP has no idea which airlines you are landing on so it could be that your walk to DME will take you 15 - 20 minutes, from one side of the airport to the other. With a car service you deal with the side of the airport your airplane deplanes at. Your wait for luggage may equal your walk to DME. Many car services will have their vehicle within walking distance or one minute from where you are asked to wait, so that would not be a problem. DME transportation, as posted on the boards, tends to slow down in the late hours of the night. Once in the car service vehicle it is 25 minutes to your resort, with all your luggage, and check-in. At present time it is unknown how long it take the DME vehicle to get you to the resorts.

I have noticed some posts that mention DME will put you in a taxi. That is true, more than likely because there are no more busses available. The taxi belongs to Mears and Mears pays the Mears driver a contracted rate to take you to your resort. The procedure is followed, usually after it is known no other busses are available.

As I have mentioned, late at night, DME passengers may be experiencing longer waiting times due to the limited numbers of busses that are available. A bus may be assigned more resort stops to accommodate everyone. I would guess that your luggage would go in the process, at the airport, of being delivered to Disney around 0700 hours the next morning.

 

[clkelley]

The OP perhaps exagerates a little on the car service. First off don't make the mistake of getting a town car. The vehicle is to small for your family. Request an SUV which will hold your family and your luggage. There are many good companies that will be able to help you.

The OP has no idea which airlines you are landing on so it could be that your walk to DME will take you 15 - 20 minutes, from one side of the airport to the other. With a car service you deal with the side of the airport your airplane deplanes at. Your wait for luggage may equal your walk to DME. Many car services will have their vehicle within walking distance or one minute from where you are asked to wait, so that would not be a problem. Once in the vehicle it is 25 minutes to your resort, with all your luggage, and check-in.

As I have mentioned, late at night, DME passengers may be experiencing longer waiting times due to the limited numbers of busses that are available. A bus may be assigned more resort stops to accommodate everyone. I would guess that your luggage would go in the process, at the airport, of being delivered to Disney around 0700 hours the next morning.

Before Magical Express, we used towncars and towncar vans exclusively to get to WDW and I am NOT exaggerating on the amount of time it takes to get into a private car service, at least in our experience on the 7 trips we made using private car/van service. I'm one of those OCD type people and tend to time how long things take.

 

[Edd]

I have been around the airport for 10 to 12 years, daily not 7 times, so I too, am familiar with the times. I have seen luggage come out in five minutes and not 20 - 40 minutes, in fact sometimes it is coming out as you walk down the escalators. Many drivers do walk to the bullpen and pick up their vehicle and that is 5 - 10 minutes, but there are many more who park in the CVPA which is about 20 yards from where they are going to pick you up. Many times the driver will invite the passenger to walk to the CVPA with them and load the vehicle. It is possible on both sides of the airport.

 

[clkelley]

Perhaps the flight we generally come in on just happens to be on the "long" side of the averages as its never been on the carousel for us.

One thing I just thought of, and this may be why it takes so long for the luggage to get to the carousel on our flight is there is usually between 1 - 3 ECVs on our flight. (My hubby and our friends that travel with us). They unload those first before luggage is unloaded. Me and the boys usually hustled on down to baggage claim hoping to speed things up, however it became a joke that when the elevator opened with them on the ECVs is about when the luggage carousel would crank up.

 

[Disneyolic]

We have used a van escort by FL Tours in the past. We were very happy with the turnaround time from the time we met the driver, getting our luggage, and getting to the resort. We did have to help the driver carry some of our bags up or down (I can't remember) an elevator to another level. However, once there, the driver brought the van to us within just a minute or 2.

The longest I have waited for our luggage at the carousel is over an hour because of severe lightning storm. In that case, no one gets their luggage no matter what and it's just a waiting game...

I think it may "pay" to hire an escort just for our arrival to MCO. Even though DME is free, it may ultimately not be worth that hassle. We will definitely utilize it on our return home.