magical express question

[buzz2400]

I did not think I would stay onsite again but I am thinking of going early december. have a few questions regarding magical express question.

1. I am renting a car at the airport but would love for my luggage to go directly to resort. is that possible or do you have to be on the bus.
2. Can I have my luggage sent to airport when I am departing if I am going to airport in rental car. Would be nice not to have to lug the luggage around.
3. I will be flying southwest and it states that resort would get my boarding passes printed. Is southwest one of the airlines that disney would do it for. I will be staying at Pop Century.

Thanks for your help.

 

[safetymom]

You need to be on the bus when you arrrive for the luggage to go on the bus.

 

[philaround]

You need to check in at the DME desk on level 1 of terminal A when you arrive. They will scan your DME bar codes into the computer. Doing this will activate the luggage transfer portion of the service BUT I believe that you must give the bus driver [or a curbside CM] your bus pass when you get on this bus so it can be scanned again. If you skip any of these steps your luggage will probably remain at the airport. I believe the return trip to the airport operates in a similar manner.
In other words, if you are not on the bus don't expect to see your luggage again unless you are willing to go back to get them.

 

[goofy4tink]

You need to check in at the DME desk on level 1 of terminal A when you arrive. They will scan your DME bar codes into the computer. Doing this will activate the luggage transfer portion of the service BUT I believe that you must give the bus driver [or a curbside CM] your bus pass when you get on this bus so it can be scanned again. If you skip any of these steps your luggage will probably remain at the airport. I believe the return trip to the airport operates in a similar manner.
In other words, if you are not on the bus don't expect to see your luggage again unless you are willing to go back to get them.

Yep. I asked our bus driver what would happen if we checked in at the desk but then walked off and grabbed a rental car. He said our bags wouldn't get to WDW, that's all!!! So, you have to go on the bus in order for Disney to transport your bags.

Now, as to POP and SW boarding passes. Yes, they will do that for you. I came back from an EMH at close to 2 am the day before (actually the day of!!) I was leaving. Stopped at the front desk and they were more than happy to print out our boarding passes. since we only had carry-on stuff for that trip, it wasn't a big deal that we couldn't get our bags checked through to the airport due to our flying SW.

 

[CleveRocks]

You need to check in at the DME desk on level 1 of terminal A when you arrive. They will scan your DME bar codes into the computer. Doing this will activate the luggage transfer portion of the service BUT I believe that you must give the bus driver [or a curbside CM] your bus pass when you get on this bus so it can be scanned again. If you skip any of these steps your luggage will probably remain at the airport. I believe the return trip to the airport operates in a similar manner.
In other words, if you are not on the bus don't expect to see your luggage again unless you are willing to go back to get them.

On the return trip, you can use DME as a luggage-only service. Disney doesn't care how you get back to MCO.

The reason for all the rules is dollars and cents. When you arrive at MCO, any money you spend on a car service, taxi, or rental car is money you won't be spending on Disney property. PLUS, if you make a grocery stop that's less money you'll spend on Disney property. Even worse, in their view, is if you rent a car you have easy access to "the outside world" for meals, souvenirs, other entertainment, etc. By offering you a free bus ride and sweetening the deal with the luggage handling, they hope to earn more of your money. So by looking at it this way it makes it easy to understand why they make sure you don't just use DME as a luggage delivery to your resort and then rent a car. For the trip back to MCO, by that time you're done spending money on Disney property, so frankly they don't care how you get back to MCO and whether or not you have to pay for it; that's why they allow it to be luggage-only for the trip BACK to the airport.

Disney's plan worked for me. I booked my May trip last October. I fully planned to use Murray Hill for transportation back and forth, but when they announced DME I was all over it. I arranged a grocery delivery from Gooding's (www.goodings.com), and others on this board have liked using Wegoshop (www.wegoshop.com) to save money on groceries (compared with spending Disney prices on groceries or meals) while still taking advantage of DME.

-- Eric