Magical Express & Luggage

[Belle2002]

I am just curious...I am booked for the magical express, but I'm not sure about trusting them to pick up my luggage and then have it delivered to my hotel up to 3 hours later. I am phobic about being seperated from my bags (lost luggage experiences in the past!!) So basically what I am wondering is can we pick up our luggage ourselves and go on the Magical express with our bags??

 

[Mickey&Donald]

Yes, you can -- just don't put the yellow ME tags on your bags! Your bags will have to ride under the bus, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a problem with that.

I was also nervous about leaving our bags under someone else's supervision, but there were no problems with ME. They have a very secure process for handling the baggage and they can be trusted!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yep - trusted MUCH more than the airlines. After all, who lost your luggage last time? Not Magical Express, right?

 

[Boncho]

Just don't put the yellow ME tags on your suitcase and you can pick it up yourself. I'm like you, I don't trust anyone to look after my luggage. When we went this year, we just left the ME tags off the luggage, picked it up ourselves and it was put in the storage compartment under the bus without any problem, and don't worry, you won't be the only one taking your luggage to the bus yourself.

 

[CleveRocks]

Here's info posted by someone else some months ago about the DME luggage procedure. The poster had a lot of details and appeared to know them first-hand. I changed some of the wording for the sake of grammar and "flow," but ALL of the info below comes from that person and not from me:

Most of the major airlines drop off yellow tagged luggage at designated drop off points where they are then picked up by a different contractor and taken to a sorting facility. These drop off points are supervised by Disney CM's.

Not all airlines use the drop off points. Many of the smaller ones don't. There are Disney CM's working behind the carousels pulling the yellow tagged bags off before they make it out onto the public baggage claim carousel and setting them aside to be picked up and taken to the sorting facility.

There are Disney CM's assigned to every airline to catch the bags that the airlines missed taking to the drop off point. They also check every unclaimed bag against a manifest to insure that the bags are found even if by chance the guest forgot to put on the tag or it fell off (highly unlikely).

DME luggage tags have barcodes. All of the bags are scanned when they get to the sorting facility, again after they are put in a locked cage and again when the cage is put in a truck. That's 3 barcode scans so far.

The DME luggage delivery trucks all have GPS devices and their location can be pinpointed at any time.

The bags are scanned again when they arrive at the resort and again when taken to a guest's room. That's now 5 separate scans.

Disney is well aware of where the bags are at all times.

If a bag is delayed the resort will call a central DME office at the airport and the first thing they check is to see if the guests checked in through the Welcome Center and rode the motor coach. If they did not, the bags will not be sent to the resorts. I know for a fact that this happens and the guest is required to contact the airline to see about getting their bags.