magical express service - good? or bad?

pintradingwedding

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 11, 2006
Messages
423
has anyone used magical express? is it GREAT? or do you get dragged to 10 different hotels first and it takes forever to get to your hotel and it would be better to just get tiffany towncar or some other private, paid for service?

i want to know if i should recommend this service to my guests or not

i'm shocked it's free !!!

thanks!

:)
 
For us it was good. We had great service yes we went to several hotels before ours but it was relaxing for us to see everything. It was also my DH's first trip to Disney so seeing the different hotels was cool. I have heard of others with bad experiences but I personally had a great experience with it, and best of all it was free. :)
 
We had a great experience and will use it on future trips. They have several lines for buses to different hotels making the ride very easy and bearable. We happen to be the first stop but its way only going to 2 other hotels. It was fast, easy and we didnt have to lug all of our luggage around. We went to the park for a couple of hours, came back and are luggage had magically appeared!
 
As far as I know it is only free for a limited time, during the Happiest Celebration. When we were there in November, a slow time, we got the Tiffany Town Car Service. When our driver was loading our car and we left, people that had gotten off our plane were standing in a line that had probably 200 people in it. I have heard that it can take up to 3 hours to get from your airport to the hotel, since the express makes numerous stops to all the resorts needed. Depending on the time of year, this could be a terrible experience.

Tiffany Town Car was amazing. The driver met us at the baggage claim, helped claim our bags and loaded everything for us. We had a group of 9 so we had a passenger van, as opposed to a car. But, i would recommed this service to anyone!!
 

We took the Magical Express on our last trip in December when we were trying to keep the trip cheap. ME is worth its price - free (for now, I'm not sure how long it will continue to be free, but I think it does go beyond the end of the Happiest Celebration) but I am not convinced I would take it again unless it was another trying to keep it cheap trip. We have used Tiffany Towncar in the past and have nothing but positive things to say about them. Our next trip we'll be using Tiffany Towncar again.
 
ME is GREAT!!!

From what I've heard (on the rumors board) ME will stay free through 2007 and possibly 2008. Disney has renegotiated the "contract" with MCO through 2010. If they decide to add a fee, it will be after 2007 (at least that's the last rumor I heard)

We LOVED it and would use it again and again! The buses from MCO are assigned to a "group" of resorts. For example, ours was for CBR, BWI, and YC/BC. At most, I think there were three or four resorts grouped together.

We loved that from the time we left home 'til the time we got home, we didn't have to worry about driving anywhere, Disney took care of EVERYTHING!
 
We used ME on our last trip in Oct. it was fantastic. We Stopped at 2 other resorts but it did not take overly long at each. One of the Stops was the Port orleans French Quarter and we were staying at Riverside. The line moved fast and the luggage was in the room when we got back from the park.

In the very beginning there were some horror stories but for the most part the kinks have been worked out of the system.

I would use the service again and I am telling my wedding guests to use it. Come on how often does Disney offer something for Free?
 
definetly recommend magic express to you guests. its free & convinient. all of our guests used it to get from the mco to the allstar movies. most of our guests when straight to the allstar movies but a few had a bus that stopped at the other allstars. we used the ME from the airport to the yacht club too, it stopped at the beach club first. it was no biggie in all it took about 45 minutes & saved us $.
 
I am one of those guests who did not have a good experience with ME and have never used it since - not even the ride back to the airport that first time.

It seems that people who have bad experiences with ME have VERY BAD experiences with ME and that's why you'll hear some of us vowing to stay away, regardless of the savings.

If time is not a huge factor for you, I'd still say to try it with the following caveats:

Be sure that your entire group is comfortable waiting. If you have one of those "We're here, we're here, let's get going!!!!!!!!!" type folks in your group, ME may not be for you. (That's me, by the way...) :teeth:

If you are traveling during Pop Warner week, dance and cheer nationals or any other very large event consisting of mostly high school students, skip ME. They tend to arrive in large, large groups and back up the lines quite a bit.

Make sure you have everything you will need for a full 24-36 hours in your carry-on bag. Luggage delivery policies can vary by resort and, depending on your flight time, your luggage can be delayed until the next morning if anything goes wrong - even things completely beyond your control. :confused3

Since I'm so obviously venting, I'll give you the story:

In my case, we had a long wait (more than 45 min) for a bus, and we were at the front of the line. That was frustrating. Then we had a luggage delay - a very long one. When the front desk gave us a voucher for the hotel gift shop, they had run out of pajamas of any kind since so many people had bought them with their already issued vouchers. Not fun. The front desk later billed that voucher cost to our room - it took 3 visits to the front desk to fix this on check-out day. Extremely not fun. And then, to add salt to the wound, the ME phone folks blamed the airline - which would have been okay, except that I called them, too. They talked to the folks on the ground who were able to identify the missing bag without any description from me (it was the only one there) and said that it had been waiting for Disney for more than 10 hours. Insulting to us and the airline - and still, no fun.

Since that trip last year, I've never been willing to try again - not in the last 3 trips and not in the next 2 we have planned.

And don't fool yourself into thinking that ME is "free." Disney is not foolish, especially with things that cost them money. They know that if you skip renting a car, you'll stay on site for pretty much everything, including high-priced groceries, movie tickets and restaurants. :thumbsup2

Jennifer
Intimate Wedding 12/11/06
Wedding Pavillion
 
We used the ME last April and absolutely loved it. It was so nice to not have to worry about our luggage (which magically appeared in our hotel room a few hours later), and it didn't take long at all to get rolling on the bus. There were several lines for different groups of resorts and we got onto our bus in about 10 minutes. We will be using it for our trip this December and are saving loads of $ by not renting a car. Just from our experience, I would highly recommend it. :wizard:
 
We went in January, It was GREAT!

we'd never been to Florida before...and it was our first big trip 'together'. We didn't want to spend more money trying to get from the airport to WDW.

We didn't have to get our bags, we just followed the signs, and hopped on the bus!

same with going home, everything was great, had a ride, didn't have to worry about anything!
 
I am using ME on my upcoming trip next week. I am going down for a site visit, and wanted to experience ME so I could recommend/ not recommend that my guests utilize the service. I am glad to hear that most of you had good experiences!
 
We had a great experience with it and recommended it to our guests that will be coming down in late Oct/early Nov. Something tells me time of year has a lot to do with it. We had heard the horror stories so we each split our luggage up - checked one and carried on one so if we did lose our luggage or if it was late it wouldn't really affect us. But anyway, we gave our guests a few options for getting to their hotel from the airport and let them know the good and the bad and let them make their own decision.
 
I'm just too big of a control freak to use ME! :rotfl: We got Tiffany Towncar for our honeymoon arrival. The very idea of leaving the "getting of my bags" to other people just freaks me out! I"m sure it's a great experience for those who use it, but I'm going to be very glad walking right to my car with my bags in hand and being driven to my resort with no delay! I'd be obsessing about my bags and when they arrive and it would make my DF nuts! Also, Tiffany Towncar will do a 30 min stop at a grocery store on your way to the resort so you can pick up so groceries without having to outrageous resort prices! WooHOO!!! :woohoo:
 
We used ME once and won't do it again. We didn't have a terrible experience, but we don't like waiting, waiting in line for the bus to come, and then when it does come, going to several different hotels.

We're at WDW; we're spending buckets of money to be there. For us, the time we waste sitting on that bus is $$ wasted - we've paid for a day at WDW and want to get into the magic. So we use Tiffany Towncar, spend $55, and get to ride in quiet, air-conditioned comfort to the hotel.

Oh, also I'm one of those people who gets carsick on buses -I start to feel really queasy, so a car is a much better option for me.
Cheers!
Heather W
 
My husband and I used ME this past October. We LOVED it! It was so nice not to have to worry about the luggage and everything else, along with hauling a DRESS!

Our line was very short and we didn't have to visit too many hotels before we got to ours. We will definitely use it again, especially with a baby coming along.

The luggage did not take us too long to get it. We got settled in around 5ish, and left around 6:30 to go to MK with my parents. By the time we got back around 9ish our stuff was there.

Now my uncle was the only one who had a problem with it. His stuff didn't come until 1 AM, but I believe he got there in the late evening. Plus, he whines about everything. LOL.
 


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