Magical Express Expert Help Needed

[AuroraBeauty]

Hello,

We will be traveling in September and had thought of using ME but a family member said they could probably pick us up.

If we tag our luggage but then our family member shows up to pick us up, will our luggage still get to our hotel? Do we have check in somewhere to make that happen or if we don't go on a bus our luggage is left at MCO.

Please help.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

In order for your luggage to get on a bus, you too must do so. If you are unsure, don't tag the bags with the ME tags and pick them up at the carousel. If your relative shows up, then you're all set. If not, just bring the bags to ME check-in and you'll be taken care of....

 

[Edd]

Your luggage will go to Disney and the resort you are staying at if you use the Disney tags. You don't need to check in anywhere to make this happen. The only problem everyone is going to start making you think you will be in trouble if your luggage is lost. I wouldn't listen to that. There has never been any credable reports of luggage getting lost if you use the luggage feature of the DME.

You do not have to be on the bus or check in at Disney in order for the luggage to get to Disney as the above poster stated.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

You do not have to be on the bus or check in at Disney in order for the luggage to get to Disney as the above poster stated.

Which is exactly what I used to believe until I had to drive back to MCO to pickup my bags last August....

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/common/helpFAQ?id=HelpFAQDMEPage

 

[seashoreCM]

Which is exactly what I used to believe until I had to drive back to MCO to pickup my bags last August

We would love to know about any instance where incoming baggage supposedly part of Magical Express did not make it to the resort.

Did you put the yellow Magical Express tags on the baggage at the start of your trip?

Who told you you had to go back to the airport to get your baggage?

What did you say to that person before he told you you had to go back to the airport?

 

[Edd]

I am sorry you forgot to pick up your bags or didn't put the right tags on them. IMHO there is a problem with your story. You were a member of Disboards but did not report that problem to other members. That is one of the most controversial topics on this board.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

Duplicate Post.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

Had my bag with the EP tag on it for my BCV stay. Wrapped it around the handle with it clearly displayed (as per instructions) and just like I had done previously.....

However, there was significant damage to one of my checked pieces from the time I checked it in at LGA to the time it arrived at MCO - front of it was basically ripped off and parts of the content were clearly exposed. I'm talking SIGNIFICANT damage.

When I called down to bell services, they had no record of my luggage being transferred. I was placed on hold for ten minutes before I hung up and walked down to the front desk. After finding the gentlemen that had been helping me on the phone I was told that there was some problem with my luggage and that they couldn't bring it to me and they specifically mentioned it was because I hadn't used the transport portion of ME.

After I got to the airport, I found my luggage which had been claimed by DME personnel, and they told me that at first they wanted to show the damage prior to transporting the luggage. They had the agents at the check-in counter waiting for me to direct me to them so I could see it before it left MCO for Disney.

Later, they realized I hadn't used the transport and realized it was against company policy to be transporting the luggage and therefore needed to hold it.

The DME staff was very professional and followed company procedures and policies that were outlined in the literature that was sent to me explain ME.

My guess is that my experience was by far the exception to the rule, however exceptions, like mine, obviously do exist.

Edd - Your insuinaton that *I* did anything wrong was both immature and inexcusable. DME followed their clearly stated policy, probably only in part because of the extreme nature of my rather odd situation. IMO, it's better to advise people based on the policies of DME as they may be applied, rather than what usually happens that isn't within the written policy.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

You were a member of Disboards but did not report that problem to other members. That is one of the most controversial topics on this board.

Feel free to check the history of my 500 posts, but you'll find that I only started recently visiting the Transportation Board (within the last three months). Before that almost all of my activity was on Resorts/Restaurants/DVC/Park Strategies boards.

I don't care if something is controversial, I just try to give factual advice. After my specific incident, I thought I was in a position of being knowledgeable on the matter. Apparently, you believe you know more than I do. I'm okay with that, but it won't prevent me from offering advice based on my experience.

I'll also accept that I very well may be the exception to the rule. But users of the service should know that exceptions do exist. And it sucks to find that out once you have already driven to your resort, like I did.

 

[Edd]

The clearly stated policy of Disney in a contract with the Orlando International Airport is to transfer all luggage that has the tags on them to Disney. Disney does not alter its policy between them and Orlando International. Disney has no policy on not transferring luggage if you don't ride the busses. If you have a reservation you are entitled to both or one or the other if you are staying at a Disney resort.

One piece of luggage significantly damaged would not affect the transfer of other pieces because the only determination of transfer or not is the luggage tag itself. If the Disney tag is there it gets transferred. If it is not there some problems may exist. Disney has no way of knowing whether or not you make the flight. The luggage comes off the plane and is immediately directed to Disney or to the carousels. If the luggage does get to the carousels either the Disney workers pick it up or the airline employees call Disney to pick it up. You may come in on a different flight 4 hours later but your luggage will be at Disney within 3 - 4 hours after it is picked up. Luggage is not grouped by passenger name until it gets to the resorts.

I have actually found out a lot since the days of a few years ago when everyone swore the luggage did not get to Disney unless you rode the DME bus. Riding a bus is not a determination whether you get your luggage delivered to your resort in Disney.

 

[Lewisc]

A number of us questioned what would happen if luggage was misdirected by the airline or damaged and the a guest didn't check in at the DME desk.

It looks like, at least under some circumstances, a guest who didn't check in at the DME desk might have to return to MCO in order to file a claim.

Makes some sense since guests checking in at the DME desk tell the CM how many bags they checked. In this circumstance the concern would be if other bags were missing the handles, hence all tags, and were in places unknown.

I have actually found out a lot since the days of a few years ago when everyone swore the luggage did not get to Disney unless you rode the DME bus. Riding a bus is not a determination whether you get your luggage delivered to your resort in Disney.

 

[nhl66pens]

I think its great that everyone tries to help each other out here, but it would be better if you keep it professional and not make snied comments about each other. If the events occurred as indicated, maybe damaged bags fall into a specific category or maybe circumstances happen every now and then that are not ordinary and DME handles those instances differently. Either way, I think the poster (Paging Tom Morrow) was just trying to alert the OP that they should check (maybe stop at the desk and alert the ME people about the # of bags or check with Disney before departing) and not just assume it will work out because they put the yellow tags on their bags. I know I would feel more secure having taken an additional step to insure DME was aware that my bags were on the flight but that I was not going to be boarding the bus.

 

[seashoreCM]

After finding the gentlemen that had been helping me on the phone I was told that there was some problem with my luggage and that they couldn't bring it to me and they specifically mentioned it was because I hadn't used the transport portion of ME.

After I got [back]to the airport, I found my luggage which had been claimed by DME personnel, and they told me that at first they wanted to show the damage prior to transporting the luggage. They had the agents at the check-in counter waiting for me to direct me to them so I could see it before it left MCO for Disney.

Later, they realized I hadn't used the transport and realized it was against company policy to be transporting the luggage and therefore needed to hold it. .

I think you hit the jackpot regarding DME luggage problems.

Disney decided to specifically catch you for not following the directions in the Magical Express brochure namely regarding your not checking in at the welcoming area.

I might add that in the various discussions of "DME for luggage only" that ensued over the months, the gray areas all had to do with luggage problems that started with the airline such as lost/delayed luggage. Under normal circumstances it is more trouble to cull the baggage of persons who did not ride the bus compared with letting the luggage flow to Disney and to the resorts despite guests' not riding the bus. Thus "everyone's" comments about "your luggage will get to the resort just fine".

I might also add that, had you ridden the DME bus as intended, chances are you would already be on the bus on the way to Disney before the behind the scenes baggage staff saw the damage to the luggage. In that instance it would be up to Disney to either DME you back to the airport and again back to Disney (not consuming your return voucher) or bring the luggage to you. More importantly, at least a few more damaged luggage instances would be brought to the attention of the owner within 4 hours of plane landing and a timely claim filed with the airline when the owner could be alerted at the resort check in desk. (This part is still not foolproof.) Now if the behind the scenes folks found the damaged baggage before you got to the welcoming area, you would be notified of the problem at the welcoming area when they scanned your documents and before you boarded the bus as you suggested.

Regarding (Disney) company policy not to transport luggage only versus a contract with the airport to take responsibility for yellow tagged luggage, the irregularity occurred when you put yellow tags on your luggage while not intending to ride DME. The instructions do say something like "if you are not going to ride DME, don't use the yellow tags".

 

[goofy4tink]

The clearly stated policy of Disney in a contract with the Orlando International Airport is to transfer all luggage that has the tags on them to Disney. Disney does not alter its policy between them and Orlando International. Disney has no policy on not transferring luggage if you don't ride the busses. If you have a reservation you are entitled to both or one or the other if you are staying at a Disney resort.

One piece of luggage significantly damaged would not affect the transfer of other pieces because the only determination of transfer or not is the luggage tag itself. If the Disney tag is there it gets transferred. If it is not there some problems may exist. Disney has no way of knowing whether or not you make the flight. The luggage comes off the plane and is immediately directed to Disney or to the carousels. If the luggage does get to the carousels either the Disney workers pick it up or the airline employees call Disney to pick it up. You may come in on a different flight 4 hours later but your luggage will be at Disney within 3 - 4 hours after it is picked up. Luggage is not grouped by passenger name until it gets to the resorts.

I have actually found out a lot since the days of a few years ago when everyone swore the luggage did not get to Disney unless you rode the DME bus. Riding a bus is not a determination whether you get your luggage delivered to your resort in Disney.

Edd....I know we've been down this street before, and pretty much everyone knows how I feel....if you tag your bags and let DME transport them, then you don't ride the bus, your bags will most likely get to your resort, but if something goes awry with the luggage, there could be an issue.
So....with that statement in mind....Disney has told guest after guest, who have called to ask, that they are supposed to ride the bus to the resort if they want to have their bags transported from MCO to resorts. While I do understand that Disney has a contract with MCO regarding transfer of luggage, it isn't the info that Disney gives their guests. And that is what most people are going to base their info on.

So, once again, I say......yes, your bags will most likely get to your resort if you tag them and they you take a towncar or a rental car to the resort. But, there could be situations that may prevent Disney from tracking your bags.
One of which is this....when you checkin at the DME welcome counter, you are asked how many bags you checked through. This way, DME has a number of bags to be looking for. If you checked 4 bags, but only 3 came through, and you hadn't checked in at the counter, how would DME know that they were short a bag? How would they know to track the missing bag? No one would realize it until the guest found the bags in their room, with one missing. And that could be many hours after getting off the plane.


So, yet again, I say.....be fully informed before you decide what you want to do. To be perfectly safe, you may want to head to the DME welcome counter, checkin with them and then head back to the rental car or towncar. A pain, for sure, but it's the only sure fire way to know that your bags will get to you with no problems.


Paging Tom Morrow's experience is exactly the type of experience I have warned against. And none of us were there, so none of us can say what the situation was...only Paging knows, and has posted. Why are we so quick to dismiss negative experiences? They do happen. Thank heaven they don't happen often but they do happen. Just because none of us have had similar experiences does not negate that experience.

 

[Lewisc]

Ed-not to split hairs but Disney made the poster go to MCO in order to file a complaint/claim with the airline. I doubt that conflicts with the contract Disney has with MCO.

This is a rare circumstance but passengers have to understand it can/and does happen. Sluggo mentioned the same thing in his posts.

The bags are pulled of at the tarmac. It's possible the DME CM would have had that information when the passenger checked in at the DME desk. Such a circumstance is probably rare enough to warrant the person pulling the bags to immediately let someone know. Disney doesn't want to be responsible for replacing a bag damaged by the airline.

 

[Edd]

I agree with Lewis on the last post. It looks to me like Disney does not file a claim if the baggage is damaged significantly. They requested him to come back and look at it before they transported it to him. I wonder if the poster would have had to pay his way back to MCO, to inspect the damage and file the claim, if he had got on the bus and was headed to Disney before the luggage damage was noted.

Also I wonder why he didn't get the rest of the luggage that was tagged. In the luggage area they don't look at names on the bags to see who they belong to, They just ship them in the direction the tags tell them to ship them and DME certainly didn't know how many bags he had at that time.

 

[Lewisc]

They probably held all the luggage so one claim could be filed. I have no doubt Disney would have transported the passenger back to MCO but I wonder if the passenger would have even had to go back to MCO. They may have found the damaged bag before the pax even left MCO. Disney may have been willing to make the claim without the passenger coming back to MCO.

My guess. A guest checks in at the DME and says how many bags he checked. At that point the guest is officially asking Disney to claim his bags, authorizing Disney to make a claim with the airline (if necessary) and transport the bags to the resort. Disney can't really place a claim with the airline for a damaged bag without knowing if another bag is missing.

I'll continue to say it's safer if "luggage only" guests send someone over to the DME desk to at least check in.

I'll agree with your general point, the risk is low but it isn't zero.

I agree with Lewis on the last post. It looks to me like Disney does not file a claim if the baggage is damaged significantly. They requested him to come back and look at it before they transported it to him. I wonder if the poster would have had to pay his way back to MCO, to inspect the damage and file the claim, if he had got on the bus and was headed to Disney before the luggage damage was noted.

Also I wonder why he didn't get the rest of the luggage that was tagged. In the luggage area they don't look at names on the bags to see who they belong to, They just ship them in the direction the tags tell them to ship them and DME certainly didn't know how many bags he had at that time.

 

[Edd]

Actually the big question that hangs in my mind is how can Disney file a claim, with the airlines, for a person when Disney doesn't know what is in the bag or how much may have been lost out of the bag. It seems to me someone would have to file who knows what could have been lost out of the bag if it was partially opened and lost some of its contents.

The fellow was lucky he had a rental to get back to MCO with.

 

[Lewisc]

The fellow was lucky he had a rental to get back to MCO with.

Agreed, if he had used a car service it would have cost $$$. I suspect Disney knew about the bag before the passenger would have left MCO in a DME bus. We don't know what would have happened if he had checked in at the DME desk but the damaged bag was discovered after he left MCO. Disney might have transported him to the airport or allowed him to inspect the bag at WDW. Disney had an out and took it. Again this is rare but it does happen.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> ... big question in my mind is how Disney can file a claim ...

The magic of "bags being scanned many times" as described in the DME procedures could include things like:

DME baggage handler pulls a damaged bag behind the carousel and scans it.

If the guest hasn't arrived at the welcoming area yet, when he does, the CM serving him scans his DME packet and (figuratively) warning bells ring.

Otherwise the resort is alerted to get a room ready which is normal.

When the guest gets to the resort check in counter and if by now the damaged baggage has been scanned, warning bells ring.

There is probably still time to courier the bag to the resort or courier the guest back to the airport to file a claim within the 4 hours required by the airline's contract of carriage, but what actually happens would be done on a case by case basis.

Or in the case documented, Disney absolves itself of further responsibility upon finding out that the guest did not follow all the instructions.

Not to say any of this happens or has happened but the technology makes it all possible.

By the way, Disney would want to not try to remove the damaged bag from the airport until after the guest has agreed not to hold Disney responsible for the damage or missing content per se.