Magical Express night before early flight?

[sarah-jane]

Hi,

Searched the threads and found great info, such as ME will run for a very early flight (7:00am departure). However, as we have my four year old with us we were hoping to take ME to the airport in time for bedtime (10:00pm ish)the night before our flight leaves and just sleep at the onsite airport hotel so we can get up much later to catch our morning flight (as it is a real challenge getting everyone moving for a 4:00am bus). Will ME take us the night before our flight, as we are essentiually just wanting airport transportation about 8 hours prior to our flight instead of 3 hours prior. Our current reservation checks out the day before our flight because we hadn't planned on the only available being 700am and don't want to lose a whole day of our planned park time to travelling home. As we are international travellers, we always have to carry our own bags around on the ME bus anyway, so the bag check-in is not an issue for us. We want to book a seat sale today, so any info would be very much appreciated.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm not exactly sure of what your situation is. So, here is an example for you...
let's say your resort checkout day is Friday. But your flight is very early on the Friday. So, you want to head to MCO on Thursday, stay overnight there and get your early flight. Yes, you can take the DME bus back on Thursday. Just talk to the front desk, early on in your stay, and arrange for pickup that Thursday evening. Should be no issue.

You can take DME back to the airport at any time during your resort stay. My dh has actually taken it back about 5 days before my dd and I have.
Hope that helps.

 

[sam_gordon]

Simply tell ME your flight leaves at 10pm the night before. (ie: if your actual flight is 7am Friday, tell them it's 10p Thursday). They'll pick you up at your resort ~7p on Thursday and bring you to the airport.

NOTE: You'll have to take your checked bags with you on ME and check them with the airline yourselves before your flight (which you'd have to do anyway with such an early flight).

 

[sarah-jane]

Thank You! That is exactly what I was wondering. The 7;00am flight is $600 cheaper for our family but my husband is dead set against the midlle of the night wake-up with kids (we'd have to be up at 2:00 because it takes that long to get us out the door properly).

 

[sam_gordon]

I wonder (and someone here probably has an answer) if you can check your bags with the airline the night before (12 hours before flight?).

Here's what I'm thinking...
ME picks you and your luggage up around 7pm and drops you off at the airport.
You check in for your flight at the counter and check your bags (keeping your carryons w/sleep clothes & clothes for next day).
Then, instead of going to security, go to hotel and check in.
When you get up in the morning, you already have your BP, so you check out of hotel and go right to security.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I wonder (and someone here probably has an answer) if you can check your bags with the airline the night before (12 hours before flight?).

Because you're asking about checking your bags at the airport, you're probably already aware that Resort Airline Check-in (RAC) at your Disney resort is not an option. RAC is open from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., and bags must be checked 3-12 hours before your scheduled departure. So, with a 7 a.m. flight, RAC is impossible to use.

As far as checking your bags with your airline at the airport, you'll need to check with your airline, but it's very unlikely. For example, American Airlines has a rule, "Baggage cannot be checked prior to the day of departure."

In any case, even if the airline allowed it, I wouldn't want my bags sitting somewhere in a "secure" back room overnight, when few, if any, airline employees are around -- but someone just might be curious what's in your lonely, unlocked bags. I prefer my bags being among the tens of thousands being rapidly processed before flight during the day (or locked up in the secure, TSA-approved RAC system).