Magical Express luggage delivery - disappointing experience.

[Boardwalk III]

Well should have learned our lesson last time. Just arrived Boardwalk tonight from MCO on Magical Express. Flight got in at 7:45. Now almost 1:00 am and all bell services can tell us about our luggage is “en route” from MCO, but have been saying that for 2 hours.

This happened to us a few years ago but flight got in around 9pm that time. Why I hoped it wouldn’t happen again I don’t know.

Not sure if they expect us to stay up all night to wait for the knock on the door but this really seems unreasonable.

5 hours later and no idea when it will be arriving. And nothing they can tell us. Not very Magical!

 

[kaytieeldr]

You could call back Bell Services and ask them what they expect you to do.

You could call back Bell Services and ask them to hold your luggage until you call in the morning.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Thanks, it arrived about 1:15 am. I thought of doing that but our guests didn’t want to sleep in their clothes and unfortunately have to drive to Tampa unexpectedly for the day tomorrow as had a death in the family (we are all from a Boston but the relatives lived in Fl). So they needed their outfits for the services etc.

Bell services told me 5 hours after you arrive at the hotel is normal. We never used to have this issue and if that is truly the case I think they need to change the “up to 3 hrs” lingo in their written communications!

At this point I’m almost tempted to walk over and get in line with the diehards for ROTR, but think sleep is in order.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Sorry about the funeral. It doesn't matter now, but it's always best to pack everything you (they) need for the first 24 hours in carry on luggage. You never know when the airline will misdirect it.

Since you're sleeping in, definitely take some time to discuss the time discrepancy with resort management. Three hours has always been the outside delivery range. You're right, they shouldn't be publishing "up to three hours" if five or more is (cough) 'normal'.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Thanks, I am one of those people that packs the biggest carry on I can with at least a days worth of clothes and all essentials. Airlines have lost my luggage a few times in my life and learned the hard way.

And yes, I told people to bring anything they really need in a carry on , but they liked being “hands free” at the airport LOL.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

And yes, I told people to bring anything they really need in a carry on , but they liked being “hands free” at the airport LOL.

Agree with that statement. I hate lugging our bags form one side of the airport to the other.
But years of using ME has taught me a few minutes of aggravation at the airport is totally worth it to not have to experience the lengthy timeline you guys did.
Now my rule of thumb is if we land after 230pm we grab our bags.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Ha ha agreed. Never tagging bags again for an evening flight. But the messaging needs to be improved for sure!

 

[seashoreCM]

Was there another plane of your airline from your last connection point (or home airport) arriving in Orlando perhaps around 9:45? Maybe your bags missed your flight and arrived on that later flight?

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks, I am one of those people that packs the biggest carry on I can with at least a days worth of clothes and all essentials. Airlines have lost my luggage a few times in my life and learned the hard way.

And yes, I told people to bring anything they really need in a carry on , but they liked being “hands free” at the airport LOL.

Then it's solely on them. For all you know your bags were on a later flight. Things happen even without ME issues. They screwed up and it's all their fault they didn't have what they needed. The phrase suck it up buttercup should have been said if I was in your shoes

 

[Polydweller]

Another question, when did you arrive at your resort? Baggage delivery is not 3 hrs after your plane lands but about 3 hours after you get to your resort. And since it comes by truck through Bags it can be longer than 3 hours late in the day.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Another question, when did you arrive at your resort? Baggage delivery is not 3 hrs after your plane lands but about 3 hours after you get to your resort. And since it comes by truck through Bags it can be longer than 3 hours late in the day.

Arrived at resort at 8:30, so still close to 5 hrs (1:15 am).

It’s one thing for them to be delayed. It’s another thing when you are waiting at 1:00 am and there is no one that can give you any idea of where the bags are and when they might arrive, other than “en route” which they began telling us at 11 pm.

It was super frustrating, that’s all.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Was there another plane of your airline from your last connection point (or home airport) arriving in Orlando perhaps around 9:45? Maybe your bags missed your flight and arrived on that later flight?

Probably was another flight but the guy who delivered them last night told us they pretty much wait for ALL the evening flights to arrive and then do one big delivery after midnight.

Perfectly fine if that’s the model, but again this should’ve been communicated, rather than bell services saying “they should be here at any time” beginning several hours before they actually arrived.

 

[siren0119]

P

Perfectly fine if that’s the model, but again this should’ve been communicated, rather than bell services saying “they should be here at any time” beginning several hours before they actually arrived.

The thing is, Bell Services has NO IDEA when bags are due to arrive (it's not like each bag has a delivery tracking on it). They can give you best estimates based on what *should* be the normal process, but they don't have a way to follow up on any of that. So you can't hold them responsible for something they literally have no ability to provide detail on.

When you get to the airport, your luggage goes to a holding area where it is loaded onto a box truck and delivered to the resorts. The ME yellow tags tell them which resort to deliver the bags to, and at the hotel the names on the yellow tags tell Bell Services which guest room to deliver them to. In the evenings when fewer flights are arriving, it's highly likely that a single box truck is delivering bags to multiple resorts. I wonder if there's an expectation that bag delivery is working with a logistics system like Fedex, but it's just not that way.

It's perhaps a suggestion that can be made to management, but not a reason to blame the Bell Services folks.

 

[Boardwalk III]

The thing is, Bell Services has NO IDEA when bags are due to arrive (it's not like each bag has a delivery tracking on it). They can give you best estimates based on what *should* be the normal process, but they don't have a way to follow up on any of that. So you can't hold them responsible for something they literally have no ability to provide detail on.

When you get to the airport, your luggage goes to a holding area where it is loaded onto a box truck and delivered to the resorts. The ME yellow tags tell them which resort to deliver the bags to, and at the hotel the names on the yellow tags tell Bell Services which guest room to deliver them to. In the evenings when fewer flights are arriving, it's highly likely that a single box truck is delivering bags to multiple resorts. I wonder if there's an expectation that bag delivery is working with a logistics system like Fedex, but it's just not that way.

It's perhaps a suggestion that can be made to management, but not a reason to blame the Bell Services folks.

Huh, interesting. The bell Services person looked on a computer system last night and told me that she could see our bags were “enroute” , (meaning no longer at the airport). Thus it seems like they do have some sort of tracking ability? If so, Maybe they could just improve on that a bit.

And I agree that bell services shouldn’t be held responsible for any of this! Disney uses a third party company for MDE luggage which apparently has no customer service number for bell services to reach in the evening. Just don’t think that makes good sense.

 

[linzjane88]

We got in around 630 pm in October and the bags didn't show up til almost midnight. We had 7 sleepy people that wanted toothbrushes and clean clothes after 12 hours of travel. I've only used DME a few times and it was fast so didn't think to bring some overnight stuff. Now we know!

 

[siren0119]

Huh, interesting. The bell Services person looked on a computer system last night and told me that she could see our bags were “enroute” , (meaning no longer at the airport). Thus it seems like they do have some sort of tracking ability? If so, Maybe they could just improve on that a bit.

And I agree that bell services shouldn’t be held responsible for any of this! Disney uses a third party company for MDE luggage which apparently has no customer service number for bell services to reach in the evening. Just don’t think that makes good sense.

They can probably see when it has left the airport, but not how many stops or where on the "route" an individual bag is. Kind of like the old USPS "priority" packages where you could see when it was scanned in at the drop off, and at the destination post office, but nothing in between. I agree they could improve the tracking, especially if it becomes a guest request frequently enough.

 

[Boardwalk III]

They can probably see when it has left the airport, but not how many stops or where on the "route" an individual bag is. Kind of like the old USPS "priority" packages where you could see when it was scanned in at the drop off, and at the destination post office, but nothing in between. I agree they could improve the tracking, especially if it becomes a guest request frequently enough.

Ah got it, thanks!

 

[Boardwalk III]

We got in around 630 pm in October and the bags didn't show up til almost midnight. We had 7 sleepy people that wanted toothbrushes and clean clothes after 12 hours of travel. I've only used DME a few times and it was fast so didn't think to bring some overnight stuff. Now we know!

We never use to have this issue. But having now experienced it twice my guess is they have cut back significantly on the number of drivers and deliveries. I think people now should plan on at least 6 hours regardless of time of day. And WDW should communicate that so as not to put the poor Bell services staff in the middle of this.

Oh well, was nice while it lasted!

 

[sponica]

We never use to have this issue. But having now experienced it twice my guess is they have cut back significantly on the number of drivers and deliveries. I think people now should plan on at least 6 hours regardless of time of day. And WDW should communicate that so as not to put the poor Bell services staff in the middle of this.

Oh well, was nice while it lasted!

I also wonder if there are also fewer people going with checked luggage...my husband travels for work and almost never checks luggage. He laughs at me because I check everything and the kitchen sink AND have a carryon.

 

[AngiTN]

We never use to have this issue. But having now experienced it twice my guess is they have cut back significantly on the number of drivers and deliveries. I think people now should plan on at least 6 hours regardless of time of day. And WDW should communicate that so as not to put the poor Bell services staff in the middle of this.

Oh well, was nice while it lasted!

Hasn’t been my experience at all. We use it every 6 weeks or so. Not once have we waited 5 hours. Not even when landing at night. There may have been a shortage of staff those nights but not regularly short

if you don’t know for sure your bags were on your plane, like AA and Delta provide you tracking in real time then you aren’t sure who is delaying them

what bell services needs to stop doing is telling folks they know how they are handled. They have no ideas what Bags inc is doing