Magical Express question..........

[dkrauss]

Hello folks,

I'm having a heck of a time booking our flight to Orlando in November (Jersey week). We're set to check-in at Ft. Wilderness Cabins on Saturday November 4th. Normally we fly in first flight in the morning out of Newark or Philly.

To give myself some flexibility I booked a night at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. It's a bit weird, I know but we walk by it all the time and............well ya know I have free cancellation on the room so nothing lost for just booking now. There are a lot of caveats to this plan.............which is why I got a free cancellation deal. I've got a couple of other scenario's rolling in my head too.............most include a room on Disney property.........so nothing is set in stone.

Back to my question...........will DME let us get a bus in the morning instead of the night before when we arrive? That way we can sleep in a bit...........no rushing..........and we still get the full day in WDW.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Doug

 

[adelaster]

They operate based on the flight time you give them. One way to delay a pickup or dropoff time is to give alternate flight info. They're not going to check with the airline.

So for example, choose flight info for the day you want to depart with a landing time about 20-40 min before when you'll want ME service.

If you have checked luggage, and want to use luggage delivery, that complicates things. Otherwise just grab the checked luggage for yourself.

I am sure that either way you can call ME & sort it out. I personally used alternate flight info (to delay our pickup for the way back) as that was easiest for us & them, and it worked fine. As a general rule, it's best not to give more information then is needed in an interation like this one. They just want to know when to pick you up, and when to drop you off, and that you have a valid reservation on property.

My suggestion: finalize your plans, and then set up ME. Their FAQ page is useful for operation times, etc. Hope this helps!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Disney doesn't monitor what flight you're on. When we've stayed at the Hyatt, we just picked the first flight into Orlando that morning (I think it was a Delta flight from Atlanta) as "our" flight when booking DME.

 

[msjprincess]

Like others have said just pick any flight from that morning. They don't know nor care which flight you're actually on.

 

[dkrauss]

PERFECT!!! DIS'ers are the best!!!

Doug

 

[Kaytie]

Or, you could call and reserve your DME transportation without a fake flight.

 

[Shanti]

Hello folks,

I'm having a heck of a time booking our flight to Orlando in November (Jersey week). We're set to check-in at Ft. Wilderness Cabins on Saturday November 4th. Normally we fly in first flight in the morning out of Newark or Philly.

To give myself some flexibility I booked a night at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. It's a bit weird, I know but we walk by it all the time and............well ya know I have free cancellation on the room so nothing lost for just booking now. There are a lot of caveats to this plan.............which is why I got a free cancellation deal. I've got a couple of other scenario's rolling in my head too.............most include a room on Disney property.........so nothing is set in stone.

Back to my question...........will DME let us get a bus in the morning instead of the night before when we arrive? That way we can sleep in a bit...........no rushing..........and we still get the full day in WDW.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Doug

No problem at all to do this. Easiest way is to pick any random flight that will be arriving the morning you plan to take DME to your resort. Don't worry about matching the flight arrival time to your MDE time: buses run constantly after they start in the early morning, & you get on the first available. No one monitors whether you were on the plane or if it was from your hometown. Doesn't matter. Your DME use is legitimate for that day because you're beginning your WDW resort stay that day. The upcoming resort stay is what they check for, not how/when you got to the airport.

The MCO Hyatt is a wonderful hotel, btw. You'll really like it.

 

[alliecat523]

I don't even think you need to pick a flight the same day. In October I arrived on Monday for a conference at the Hyatt. Hopped on ME on Thursday with no issue.

 

[dkrauss]

The MCO Hyatt is a wonderful hotel, btw. You'll really like it.

We're actually kind of excited about this...............you always walk by it........and think "how cool would it be to stay there for a night". Maybe that's weird but.............. I got a deal thru a website that includes breakfast. We're thinking how much more relaxing our morning will be not having to get up at 3am for a 6am flight out of Newark.........and we still get the full day in the parks we always want. Pricing is between value and mod so the cost can be done.

Doug

 

[china mom]

We fly standby so we never actually end up on the same flight that we told MDE that we would be on. The only problem we have ever encountered was when we put the luggage tags on our suitcases and then didn't make it until the next day (spent the night in Raleigh-Durham). To complicate it more, we were on a split stay and cancelled the night that we didn't make it. So, some of our luggage found its way to DME and some was left at the airport because we had canceled our reservations. All of the luggage found us by that night so all ended well.

In your case, don't use the luggage tags. Pick up your own bags upon arrival at MCO and then carry them to the bus in the morning. Pick a random flight number for your "arrival day"

 

[ginny65]

We fly standby so we never actually end up on the same flight that we told MDE that we would be on.

I was just going to ask about this. Glad you posted that. We have the last flight out heading to WDW, and if my DH happens to get off work earlier than expected that day, we are going to try to get an earlier flight. We already weren't going to put the luggage tags on since we are originally suppose to land after 10:00 p.m.

 

[dkrauss]

We fly standby so we never actually end up on the same flight that we told MDE that we would be on. The only problem we have ever encountered was when we put the luggage tags on our suitcases and then didn't make it until the next day (spent the night in Raleigh-Durham). To complicate it more, we were on a split stay and cancelled the night that we didn't make it. So, some of our luggage found its way to DME and some was left at the airport because we had canceled our reservations. All of the luggage found us by that night so all ended well.

In your case, don't use the luggage tags. Pick up your own bags upon arrival at MCO and then carry them to the bus in the morning. Pick a random flight number for your "arrival day"

Good info..........but for us, we always carry our luggage with us. Paranoid I guess

Doug

 

[gohomekate]

If you're flying from New Jersey we started using TTN (Trenton Mercer). MUCH smaller than Newark - two airlines: Frontier and Allegiant (although Allegiant flies into Sanford and no DME), and the prices aren't bad. No frills, you get what you pay for but so far we haven't had any issues.

 

[Chip_Dale]

The incoming flight info helps them out for staffing and demand for buses.

 

[Snowie13]

We will be driving from Fort Lauderdale to MCO in a rental car and returning it at the airport. We would like to take DME from MCO to our Disney Resort hotel, how can we do this. We will also like to use DME to return to MCO for our return flight to California.

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

call them and make the reservation

 

[maramarrie]

We did exactly what you proposed back in November. We decided to fly in on Wed. night and stay at the airport because we were able to get the room for around $100. I explained what we were doing to a cast member over the phone when we were setting up DME and she put us in for arrival Thursday at 7am. We had absolutely no problems getting the bus (around 8am) and no questions about it at all.

 

[sunflowerblooms]

We did this both coming and going on our last trip. Sounds crazy but the flights got in late and left early and we have a great discounted room rate at the Hyatt. It was so nice to arrive at MCO and be asleep within the hour. The next morning we hoped on Magical Express, checked in at Yacht Club, left luggage with bell desk, and rope dropped Epcot! Magical Express just knew we were getting the bus at 7 am. No issues.

 

[Hopefully]

We will be driving from Fort Lauderdale to MCO in a rental car and returning it at the airport. We would like to take DME from MCO to our Disney Resort hotel, how can we do this. We will also like to use DME to return to MCO for our return flight to California.

There is a whole Forum on just these issues here on the DIS. The transportation experts on the Transportation Forum can help answer all of these DME related questions better than here on the Resorts forum.

 

[bumbershoot]

I booked a night at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. It's a bit weird, I know but we walk by it all the time and.......

There is absolutely nothing weird about this at all. It's done all the time.

will DME let us get a bus in the morning instead of the night before when we arrive?

Of course. Just call to arrange it.

We will be driving from Fort Lauderdale to MCO in a rental car and returning it at the airport. We would like to take DME from MCO to our Disney Resort hotel, how can we do this. We will also like to use DME to return to MCO for our return flight to California.

Just call to arrange it. We are entitled to a trip from and a trip to the airport during any given onsite reservation. Doesn't matter what order it's in it how we arrive at the airport or what we're going to do when we get to the airport. The only rule is that the trips have to be between checkin and checkout days.

There is a whole Forum on just these issues here on the DIS. The transportation experts on the Transportation Forum can help answer all of these DME related questions better than here on the Resorts forum.

Everything has been answered correctly fwiw. Yes there's a giant "sticky" thread in the Transportation forum all about DME, but in this case they got answers from people who spend time "over there" lol.