Magical Express-Contemporary question

[tlhbdm]

If anyone has gone from MCO to Contemporary on ME what hotel's stop is first? Or can you give me a link that tells me which stop is first please and thank you.

 

[goofy4tink]

Since the routes are not set in stone, you won't get that info. I have ridden the same route three times now...AKL, POP, and CSR. Both times CSR was the second stop, but once AKL was first and POP last. The other two times, POP was first and AKL last. Same resorts, different order. No way of telling who's first, second or third. I would imagine that depending on who CR is sharing with, it could be first or second.

 

[laura001]

We were there this week, ME took us to the Contemporary first, then went on to the Poly. I don't believe the routes are set, I think it depends on how many people there are for the resort. Either way, it would only add an exta 5 - 10 minutes to your trip.

 

[CleveRocks]

I agree with all of the above. It's all based on how many people are expected to be heading to which resorts at what times. Someone going to Contemporary today at 5:00 p.m. might get off first from a bus that is also taking people to Wilderness Lodge and Polynesian. But at 8:00 p.m. today, people heading to Contemporary might get of last, after stops at Pop Century and Grand Floridian.

They do have the resorts grouped into zones (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and DTD), but those zones still aren't bus routes. If a bus has guests all from one zone, there can be up to 4 resorts on the same bus. On a bus combining resorts from 2 or more zones, there is a 3 resort maximum. So as you can see, there's no requirement that resorts from the same zone must be on the same bus together. They group the resorts on each bus based not only on geography, but on reservations/demand, as well. In other words, if at any given time the only MK-zone passengers with DME reservations are going to Contemporary, it won't be a bus of only COntemporary guests (unless there are enough of them to nearly fill the bus) ... they'd put the Contemporary folks on a bus with folks going to 2 other resorts, resorts possibly in one other zone or possibly in 2 other zones.

And the resorts aren't necessarily in the zones you'd think they'd be in. For example, most of us think of Fort Wilderness as being in the neighborhood of Magic Kingdom (after all, it's just across Bay Lake!), but FW is actually a Downtown Disney-area resort as far as DME goes, along with SSR, OKW, and the 2 Port Orleans resorts.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

They do have the resorts grouped into zones (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and DTD), but those zones still aren't bus routes.

As usual, Eric (CleveRocks) gave a good answer.

Just to expand on the resort zones...

There is a set of zones that applies to luggage tags. For example, luggage tags for the Boardwalk are marked with "EC" on a blue Mickey head, and luggage tags for Old Key West are marked with "DD" on a black Mickey head. Somewhere, I saw a complete list of luggage zones, and there weren't very many. Presumably, the luggage zones on the tags are used to sort, organize, and load the WDW-bound bags at the airport.

In addition, there are quite a few different queue lines for guests who are waiting for their WDW-bound DME ride. There are several resorts listed for each line. When a DME motorcoach is boarding, guests may be pulled from more than one line. Also, just because a line has three resorts listed, the people waiting in that line at any given time might all be going to the same one or two resorts.

 

[localdriver]

For the Magic Kingdom Resorts, Disney requires that G-flo be first stop unless Poly is on route, then G-Flo MUST be second. So the normal sequence with all four MK resorts is Poly, G-Flo, WLodge, Contemp. From roll out at MCO this route is 1:05 on avg. If G-Flo is not on route, the driver can run route as desired.

 

[OKW Lover]

For the Magic Kingdom Resorts, Disney requires that G-flo be first stop unless Poly is on route, then G-Flo MUST be second. So the normal sequence with all four MK resorts is Poly, G-Flo, WLodge, Contemp. From roll out at MCO this route is 1:05 on avg. If G-Flo is not on route, the driver can run route as desired.

Interesting about the GF/Poly thing. It seems that our ME driver in December got it wrong then since he went to GF first even though there were guests for the Poly too.

 

[PlutoPony]

Two weeks ago we had GF, Poly, Contemporary, and WL on the same ME bus from the airport and WL was the first stop... since we got off there, don't know who was next but I"m guessing Cont. For pick-up to go back to MCO it was the same resort grouping with Contemporary first, then WL, Poly and GF last.
When all the MK resorts are together it would seem the quickest route would be WL-Cont-Poly-WL since there'd be less backtracking. But I wouldn't expect GF to consistently be the last drop-off either as this is their "flagship" resort. Maybe our experience is the exception?

 

[localdriver]

Two weeks ago we had GF, Poly, Contemporary, and WL on the same ME bus from the airport and WL was the first stop... since we got off there, don't know who was next but I"m guessing Cont. For pick-up to go back to MCO it was the same resort grouping with Contemporary first, then WL, Poly and GF last.
When all the MK resorts are together it would seem the quickest route would be WL-Cont-Poly-WL since there'd be less backtracking. But I wouldn't expect GF to consistently be the last drop-off either as this is their "flagship" resort. Maybe our experience is the exception?

Either way you are backtracking past 2 resorts, pretty much the same distance traveled, same time elapsed just ends up Contemp is last. Disney requests we do it the way I stated previously, so that's how I do it and encourage others to do it. Some drivers comply, others choose otherwise. Either way everyone is at their resort within an hour +/- 5 min of leaving the airport.