magical express issue when switching resorts

[aripantaloon]

We just had a bit of a split stay on our recent trip with 8 nights at the Poly and 1 night at the POR. When I booked our trip, I had originally just booked the Poly part and had both portions of our ME on that reservation. Then, I booked the one night at POR and gave them our airline info for the return trip only on that reservation. Before we left home, we got 2 sets of Mickey mail with ME vouchers under both reservations. Both of these reservations were made under the same WDW account and both showed up on wdw.com under my itineraries.

Since we were not checking in to POR until 3, I assumed that our ME info regarding our pick-up time would be given to us soon after check-in. When it wasn't there when we returned from dinner at 7, I called the "front desk" to ask about it. I know that this is truly not the front desk of the resort, so I put that in quotes. The CM who answered (I really wish that I got her name.) said that she would send a runner with it to our room asap. We were exhausted and fell asleep soon after getting the kids ready for bed. We didn't set an alarm and slept in until 8:30 am. Now, our flight wasn't until 1:15, so we were ok.

However, no ME info was under our door or on the knob outside. *sigh* I called the "front desk" again and was told by this CM (again, I didn't get her name. Kids were loud, I was frustrated, and she had an accent that made it slightly difficult to understand her) that a runner would never be sent with ME info and that she could not find us in the system at all for POR, so she would contact ME to figure things out. Put me on hold for a while and came back saying that something was wrong with the ME phones and she couldn't get a live person. Gave me the phone number and told me to call myself while she contacted the Poly to see if they had my info and said she would call me back. I just got voicemail (generic message of you have reached voice mail of *phone number*) multiple times. I left a very annoyed message and ended up calling the *front desk* a third time.

After being on hold for at least another 10 minutes (by this time, it's 9:30 and I haven't been able to get ready since I've been on the phone for an hour), this cast member told us that we were to be picked up at 10:30! WTH?!!? Now, I don't know why we weren't "in the system" for POR since I had the vouchers in my hand that specifically had our flight info listed as well as voucher numbers for POR.

So, we hurried up to get ready and ran to the food court to grab some breakfast. Got to the lobby area just before 10:30. Bus didn't arrive until 10:45, then it went to 2 more resorts before finally getting on the road to the airport. We had 1 hour 15 minutes before our flight left when we finally got to the airport (not before it boarded, but before it LEFT) as we got there at noon.

To make matters worse, whoever did the resort airline check in neglected to print one of my daughter's boarding passes. Granted, DH should have checked to make sure all 5 were there, but this was a big oops on Disney's part. I took the 2 little ones through security (with the help of an extremely nice security guard who took pity on the mom freaking out and almost in tears over the stress - thanks to PMS, hunger, and some really uncooperative kids) while DH ran back to the ticket check-in to get DD her boarding pass.

Thankfully, the security line for our area was short as DH and DD were not far behind us. We were able to eat lunch and made it to the gate as the plane was boarding.

I really don't understand how Disney could have had such a problem with our ME reservations given the fact that split stays seem fairly common; at least on here. I'm most upset with the nameless cast members who claimed they would help us, but either gave up or passed the buck. Next time, I will always remember to make a note of the cast member's name; especially if I'm having an issue.

 

[prncess674]

Not sure what the big deal is on this one. You got dropped of at the airport in time for your entire party to handle a boarding pass issue, clear security AND have time for a sit down lunch.

 

[bumbershoot]

That must have felt scary and nervewracking to not know 100% that you would be getting on the bus back to the airport. I'm really glad it did all work out, and that you didn't have to run for the plane (we had to do that once going home from Disneyland, though when we got to the gate it was unboarded, despite being 5 minutes from scheduled takeoff).

Glad you know that the CMs you were talking to weren't at the resort; next time you'll know to walk to the front desk, right? And hey, this gives you the excuse to take 2 nights at the resort you're leaving from, to give them time to get you your ME info.

 

[goofy4tink]

A few thoughts...did you check in your info packet to see if they had your info correct??? If you got two packets, one of them should have had your departure info. I just checked my dd's and it does say vouchers to be used for travel to and from the airport. I also would have stopped at the front desk, in person, and made sure they had the family in the system correctly for the next day.
I have done split stays and it seems that when it's just the one night, it can fall through the cracks. So, it's a good idea to check when you're standing there, checking in, to see if DME is reserved for your departure.

It isn't Disney's fault that the boarding pass wasn't printed. That is RAC's fault..not Disney people. And as always, you need to take responsibility here....would it have been different if you had been standing at the checkin counter at the airport?? It's so easy to get distracted while at WDW...we seem to just assume that things will work correctly, so don't pay quite as close attention as we would elsewhere....been there done that.

As far as the 'you got there in plenty of time' issue....well, sort of. MCO recommends that you get there 2 hrs prior to departure. There is no way of knowing, prior to arrival, if an hour is going to be enough time. Security can be backed up....so sure, I can understand being upset about arriving just over an hour before your flight.

 

[seashoreCM]

You need to get your airport bound Magical Express confirmation sheet with bus time on the morning of the day before you check out of your last resort. Because you are finishing up with a one night stay (Port Orleans Riverside), you need to report there, do preliminary check in, and get your DME confirmation in the morning before going to the parks for that day before departure day. For those not changing resorts, if you don't get your confirmation at your room door the morning before checkout, you too need to go down to the front desk that morning to get it.

At the very least, since it was past noon, you should have stood there at the counter and waited for the DME confirmation sheet instead of had them try to send up a runner (courier).

If you are able to get the confirmation with bus time even earlier, say, when you are still at the Polynesian, so much the better. But this can't be guaranteed.

Separate and independent topic: You were scheduled on the bus 2-3/4 hours before your flight. This is not quite right with two more stops. Except in your case the previous bus, 3-1/4 hours before your flight, might have been fully booked. Provided you made the request by morning of the day before departure day you can always get an earlier bus which becomes your one and only assigned bus.

 

[goofy4tink]

I just quickly reread your original post. If you were standing there, with the vouchers for bus ride, they should have been good enough...at least that's what it says in my packet..vouchers for ride from, and back to, the airport.

To others...if the OP was standing there, at 9:30, then it was going to be hard to be on an earlier bus than 10:30. There may very well not have been a bus between 9:30 and 10:30. Nowhere are we told that the bus will pick you up 3 1/4 hrs prior to departure. We ARE told it will be about 3 hrs prior...could be 15 mins either way!!! So if your flight departs at 1:15pm, your DME bus departure time could be anywhere between 10 and 10:30. Even with two addtl stops.

 

[aripantaloon]

Not sure what the big deal is on this one. You got dropped of at the airport in time for your entire party to handle a boarding pass issue, clear security AND have time for a sit down lunch.

I'm not sure I would call wolfing down some McDonalds before hurrying to the gate a "sit down lunch," but yes, we were able to eat something before getting on the plane.

The only reason we were there in time to use the bathroom and eat was because the security line was basically non-existant for that particular gate area. We spent about 45 minutes in line on our last trip, so it's really the luck of the draw.

The whole thing was just very stressful since we had no clue when we woke up in the morning what time we were being picked up and when we finally got there and were handing our boarding passes and id's to the security agent, we realized that one was missing. We weren't sure how far DH and DD would have to go go get her pass since when the ME driver dropped us off, she said that we were ok at that location since we already had our boarding passes. To us, this meant that if we did not have our passes, that for Air Tran, we would need to go somewhere else. Turned out that it was just around the corner, but we didn't know it then.

It did all work out in the end, but it should have been a smoother process.

 

[aripantaloon]

A few thoughts...did you check in your info packet to see if they had your info correct??? If you got two packets, one of them should have had your departure info. I just checked my dd's and it does say vouchers to be used for travel to and from the airport. I also would have stopped at the front desk, in person, and made sure they had the family in the system correctly for the next day.
I have done split stays and it seems that when it's just the one night, it can fall through the cracks. So, it's a good idea to check when you're standing there, checking in, to see if DME is reserved for your departure.

It isn't Disney's fault that the boarding pass wasn't printed. That is RAC's fault..not Disney people. And as always, you need to take responsibility here....would it have been different if you had been standing at the checkin counter at the airport?? It's so easy to get distracted while at WDW...we seem to just assume that things will work correctly, so don't pay quite as close attention as we would elsewhere....been there done that.

As far as the 'you got there in plenty of time' issue....well, sort of. MCO recommends that you get there 2 hrs prior to departure. There is no way of knowing, prior to arrival, if an hour is going to be enough time. Security can be backed up....so sure, I can understand being upset about arriving just over an hour before your flight.

Oh, I fully admited in my first post that DH or I should have checked prior to leaving the resort check in desk to make sure that all the boarding passes were there. I was still annoyed that it happened.

They definitely had our correct departure information in the POR packet. All 5 of us had vouchers for our return trip. I think the issue was that we also had correct info and return vouchers for our stay at the Poly. When I spoke to someone on the phone back when I booked the POR day and gave her our flight info, she told me that I should just ignore the Poly return vouchers and use the POR ones as it wouldn't be an issue. Apparently, it was.

Oh, and we weren't standing at the ME bus stop at 9:30. We were in our room on the phone being told that we were to leave at 10:30. At that point, I took my 3 hungry kids to the front desk to check out (I didn't have a credit card on me when I checked in, so we didn't put one on the room card and had to check out in person.) and then to the food court to buy some food while my DH called bell services to pick up our bags and then use the resort airport check-in. We ate, used the bathroom, and then went to the ME stop shortly before 10:30.

You need to get your airport bound Magical Express confirmation sheet with bus time on the morning of the day before you check out of your last resort. Because you are finishing up with a one night stay (Port Orleans Riverside), you need to report there, do preliminary check in, and get your DME confirmation in the morning before going to the parks for that day before departure day.

At the very least, since it was past noon, you should have stood there at the counter and waited for the DME confirmation sheet instead of had them try to send up a runner (courier).

If you are able to get the confirmation with bus time even earlier, say, when you are still at the Polynesian, so much the better. But this can't be guaranteed.

Separate and independent topic: You were scheduled on the bus 2-3/4 hours before your flight. This is not quite right with two more stops. Except in your case the previous bus, 3-1/4 hours before your flight, might have been fully booked. Provided you made the request by morning of the day before departure day you can always get an earlier bus which becomes your one and only assigned bus.

I assumed that the ME info would be dropped off mid to late afternoon as that was when my FIL's was dropped off at the Poly the day before as he left on Saturday when we checked out of the Poly. We left on Sunday. That's why when it wasn't there when we returned from dinner on Saturday night, I called to inquire about it. I assumed (wrongly, obviously) when a cast member immediately told me that she would send a runner over with it when one was available, that she was telling the truth and that if there were an issue, she would contact me.

So, do the buses generally leave on the same schedule each day? Every hour? I guess I assumed that they looked at everyone's flight times and grouped them together in terms of resort geography and flight times and then determined what time was needed for that bus run. Too difficult, I suppose.

That must have felt scary and nervewracking to not know 100% that you would be getting on the bus back to the airport. I'm really glad it did all work out, and that you didn't have to run for the plane (we had to do that once going home from Disneyland, though when we got to the gate it was unboarded, despite being 5 minutes from scheduled takeoff).

Glad you know that the CMs you were talking to weren't at the resort; next time you'll know to walk to the front desk, right? And hey, this gives you the excuse to take 2 nights at the resort you're leaving from, to give them time to get you your ME info.

Well, I definitely will not schedule a lone night at the end of a stay again, that's for sure. I would have personally gone to the desk the night before, but when the CM assured me that she was sending someone with our info, I assumed that all was taken care of. The next morning, I called as soon as we woke up and discovered the lack of info. Like literally within a minute or 2 of getting out of bed, I was on the phone. We had already showered the night before and just had to repack everything we took out, and get the kids and ourselves ready. I was on the room phone (so I had about a 9 foot radius that I could reach with the cord) for the better part of an hour as well as using my cell to try and call ME myself. Would have used speaker, but we were keeping the kids quiet with the tv and they would have not liked it with the speaker phone on. PITA kids. Sad to say that it did take us an hour to get everyone ready and the bags repacked. Plus, the first CM that I spoke to assured me that she was going to contact the Poly about our info and get right back to me. She never did. At that point, I had no reason to think "I really need to head to the front desk in person."

Next time I will know to just speak to someone in person if I haver a problem since the track record of people following through with with they say they will do on the phone is very poor.

Honestly, I think THAT is what makes me annoyed the most about this whole thing: that we obviously had a problem with our ME information and we NEEDED it in a timely manner; however not 1, but 2 separate CMs told us that they would take care of the problem for us, but never did and never got back in touch with us to let us know that the issue was not able to be resolved. A little communication goes a long way. If they would have told us that busses leave every hour (or whatever timeframe if they leave on a regular basis) and to just show up with our vouchers, that would have been more helpful than "let me get back to you."

 

[bumbershoot]

I sometimes wonder if the phone CMs really feel that they are getting things done at the resort. Like are there CMs out there thinking "I really helped that person", when of course nothing was done?

 

[goofy4tink]

I sometimes wonder if the phone CMs really feel that they are getting things done at the resort. Like are there CMs out there thinking "I really helped that person", when of course nothing was done?

My issue??? The vast majority of those 'phone' CMs really have no clue what they're talking about!! We are hearing more and more stories about guests calling the 'front desk' at their resort and getting some awful info. And that's maddening!! These CMs should be properly trained so they can give the correct info. If they don't have the answer, they need to find someone who does!!!

To aripantaloon....I think that I would have given up on the phone and just taken myself over to the main bldg!! Man, that must have been really annoying!!

And security is the luck of the draw. I know that when my step-sister picked me up on the late side for my flight home from FtL a few weeks ago, I was a nervous wreck in the security line. I like to be at the gate an hour prior to boarding. But, when you plan on leaving your home by 6am, for an 8:10am flight, and your ride doesn't show up until 6:30??? Well, when you get to security and have to wait for 20 mins to get through, it's nervewracking, to say the least. You just never know what security is going to be at any given time.