Magical Express, staying at hotel near MCO, and luggage transfer

[Masonmj84]

I understand that it's possible to stay at a hotel near MCO your first night in Orlando and then take ME into Disney the next morning (one way to do this is to tell Disney you're arriving on a flight arriving 15-30 minutes prior to the time you'd like to board the ME bus, even though you actually flew in the night before - in that regard, Disney doesn't care what flight you actually arrived on, they only care about managing the flow of guests using ME).

What if I want to do this but also want ME to take care of picking up my checked luggage at baggage claim? (assume my flight arrives before 10 pm) Can I just put the yellow tags on the bags, take everything I'll need for the first night at the hotel near MCO in my carry-ons, and assume my checked bags will be wating for me at my resort, even though I won't be arriving at the resort until the next day? Or will bell services send the bags back to MCO once they see that I don't have a room at the resort the first night? In that regard, is it advisable to tell bell services at my resort that this is my plan? Or am I better off not telling them that?

The reason I bring this up is that I'm planning a trip with my parents who are arriving between 7-8 pm from the West coast. My father is a notorious cheapskate and doesn't want to pay a lot for their first night if they won't get to the resort until bed time. When I suggested to him that they could stay in a value resort the first night and then have bell services transfer their luggage to our main resort (CSR) his response was, "I just went on Hotwire and saw that I can get a hotel near MCO for $50 with a free continental breakfast. Why would I want to pay more than twice that for a value resort plus have to pay for breakfast?" At the same time, they'd prefer to not have to worry about transporting their checked luggage around.

(FWIW, my father would be willing to come in on a red eye but my mother is opposed to that idea).

 

[seashoreCM]

You are supposed to handle your baggage yourself in this situation.

While yellow tagged bags will go directly to the resort, what happens next is unpredictable. The resort staff may try to match it up with your next-day reservation in which case they should hold it. Or they might miss matching it up and send it back to the airport as unclaimed or outdated.

One other thing to notice is that, if the airline lost a bag, no one will file a claim right away. When you finally discover it missing it is too late (more than 4 hours after the plane landed). While delayed bags will still be transported by Magical Express, you will not be compensated for an item lost for good.

IMHO Disney should not be that quick to send bags back to the airport since errors can occur with baggage matching with room reservations while guests have arrived and gone immediately to the parks. Admittedly this makes it necessary to be more vigilant about taking off the yellow tags before going home let alone before using the baggage for a future unrelated trip to Florida. (Yellow tags are not part of Magical Expres going home.)

 

[Lewisc]

Have him get his own luggage. You can't use DME prior to your check in date. I have no idea what DME would do when they scan his tag. Your father doesn't want to be going to the airline unclaimed luggage office the next day. My guess is he'd eventually get his luggage but it's not worth the downside "issues".

Some of the lower rated properties don't offer a free shuttle 24/7. His flight gets delayed and a taxi to his hotel will wipe out most of his savings. Hotwire doesn't guarantee an airport hotel shuttle will be complimentary or that it runs 24/7.