Magical Express to end in 2022

[New Mouse]

Do people really not think that the infrastructure in Orlando can handle this? That seems ridiculous to me. Major airports all over hte world handle this sort of thing every day. Plenty of private companies will fill in the gaps and rental car companies will increase their fleets at MCO. It stinks that DME is going away, but every experience I had using it of late was pretty negative. The luggage transfer on the other hand was really nice and it is a shame to see that go.

The infrastructure is not currently in place for the volume as it was always Disney/Mears handling it. Someone will have to be willing to invest in the logistics side of things and then the labor cost will be a gamble due to an unknown volume.

 

[morrik5]

The infrastructure is not currently in place for the volume as it was always Disney/Mears handling it. Someone will have to be willing to invest in the logistics side of things and then the labor cost will be a gamble due to an unknown volume.

Personally, I would assume that by January 2022 numbers will be back to close to normal for travelling from MCO to WDW - or am I just naive??

 

[nkosiek]

Do people really not think that the infrastructure in Orlando can handle this? That seems ridiculous to me. Major airports all over hte world handle this sort of thing every day. Plenty of private companies will fill in the gaps and rental car companies will increase their fleets at MCO. It stinks that DME is going away, but every experience I had using it of late was pretty negative. The luggage transfer on the other hand was really nice and it is a shame to see that go.

Airports all over the world tend to have public transit attached to them. Having flown into airports in NYC, Philly, London, Paris, Munich, Rome, Kuala Lumpur, and a few others, I find that the fact there is a public transport option to be very common. That's not the case at MCO. Before you mention Brightline, let's be clear, not ONCE has that been mentioned for anything other than high-speed rail, not as a commuter/spur to WDW. While I don't doubt there will be a ramping up, I also believe that there will be problems once numbers start coming back.

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

Personally, I would assume that by January 2022 numbers will be back to close to normal for travelling from MCO to WDW - or am I just naive??

I will be really curious to see what the recovery arc looks like. 2022 seems pretty optimistic when you factor in previous levels of international travelers especially, as different countries are getting the vaccine out at very different rates. Plus economic recovery and just people readjusting to life... I feel like families may do baby steps with more local travel that first year or so. The idea of a big airport will just feel germy to a lot of people for awhile. It takes awhile to re-acclimate, I think. Right now most people aren’t even taking young children on errands to the grocery store and Target, so I think a trip to Disney may feel overwhelming at first.

My guess is that it will be about 3-4 years before things get fully back to normal, although when they do rebound, crowds may exceed pre-Covid levels due to pent up demand. I feel like 2022, 2023 is when Disney may roll out incentives to increase travel, while travel will simultaneously be naturally recovering as well.

 

[ford91exploder]

I thought this blog post from Disney Tourist Blog was really interesting on the topic. The final paragraph:

Ultimately, that leaves us exactly where we were upon the announcement of this news: confused. This move is a lose-lose for both guests and Disney. (There are two big winners: struggling local small businesses and Universal; it’s highly unlikely that helping those parties is Disney’s motivation.) There’s no making sense of it. This could be a shortsighted move made with the tunnel vision of direct cost savings, but we don’t have that low of an opinion of Disney’s leadership. They make dubious decisions from time to time, but this would be next level. Which is why we hope/suspect there’s still another shoe to drop here.

Also, I have no idea if there's anything to this, but one of the comments on that post said this:

I can think of a few reasons, however, why Disney might be making this announcement with no promised replacement (at least for now).
1. Termination Notification Date: Many long-term service contracts have clauses requiring the party receiving the services to notify the provider that they don’t intend to renew their contract. Oftentimes the deadlines for these termination notices can be a year or more in advance of the end of the contract.
2. ROFO (Right of First Offer Clause): It’s also common to see ROFO clauses in these contracts, which would allow Mears to match or slightly improve any offer Disney might receive from a competitor if Disney tried to switch ME over to another bus company.
3. Non-Compete Clause: Although less common (and also less likely that Disney would provide its own fully-owned and operated bus service), it’s still possible that there is a non-compete clause in the ME contract that would prevent Disney from starting its own ME replacement for a certain amount of time (1-2 years or so) after any termination of its contract with Mears.
4. DVC Issues: With 2022 bookings soon opening for DVC members, Disney probably wants to at least provide notice that unless something changes, ME will not be offered starting in 2022. It’s far easier to add a new service to existing bookings than it is to take it away.
5. Negotiation Tactic: It’s likely this is a negotiation tactic. It would be fairly devastating for Mears to lose this contract with Disney since they probably have way more busses than they need if they are no longer providing ME. Sure, there will still be a market for their services from MCO to WDW, but a lot more people would switch back to ride-share/cab or renting a car instead of using whatever non-ME replacement ME offers. If Disney had to provide advance notice that they were not renewing and Mears hadn’t budged in negotiations to their liking, it would make sense for Disney to send the notice anyways and make it clear they were willing to end ME unless the terms change more to their liking. By taking the public hit and announcing the end of ME now, Disney is putting pressure on Mears to come back to the negotiating table or risk losing the valuable ME contract.

I hope there is more to the story - as speculated above, for example, that Disney is taking a hit now to get out of a non-compete clause or something like that.

Based on past actions many of us DO have that low opinion of so called Disney leadership that it’s exactly what it seems a short term gain cost cutting action.

Because we collectively as Disney fans continued to visit not matter how much was cut. Some of us decided to vote with with our pocketbooks because by continuing to buy the product we signalled that we accepted the decline in quality and service. I miss visiting as for decades it was my happy place. And no I have not found a new happy place to replace it with.

Disney now assumes the power of the “Disney BRAND” will keep people coming no matter what else they cut including the easy transportation options.

Disney is desperate to keep those EPS numbers to where they were pre-pandemic.

 

[ford91exploder]

Personally, I would assume that by January 2022 numbers will be back to close to normal for travelling from MCO to WDW - or am I just naive??

Once vaccination opens up travel, I expect the volume to be unbelievable as people shake off a year or more of cabin fever.

 

[RamblingMad]

And there is now a change.org petition.

 

[mshanson3121]

And there is now a change.org petition.

For what?!

 

[RamblingMad]

For what?!

To keep the magical express going.

https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-world-guests-save-the-magical-express

 

[mshanson3121]

To keep the magical express going.

Oh heck, I'll sign that

 

[TinkB278]

For what?!

Signed hehehe

 

[skeeter31]

Maybe instead of a change.org petition someone should create a gofundme or kickstarter to send money to Disney to renew the contract with Mears. A petition isn’t going to do anything to sway Disney on this.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

And there is now a change.org petition.

And it won't do anything just like how the ones to keep the adventure's club and to keep Starbucks off of main Street in the magic Kingdom.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Maybe current management should consult with Mr. Eisner... I can remember the environment when ME was introduced and it was a decision made in response to the competition from families vacationing at those All-Inclusive Package Destinations and the Las Vegas beginning to expand to family theming. Competition was huge for Disney , believe it or not.
They also had a big problem with all of the traffic flow that all the small local independent shuttle drivers were creating back then. Remember the property infra structure was not as expansive back then. Disney has spent a lot to improve the flow of traffic on property... I don’t understand how this ME announcement is an improvement but it definitely is a short sighted solution...

Funny how all that money spent on that magic band technology is not being discussed . Was it just an expensive toy after all?
Ultimately we have paid for every budgeted decision management makes. The backlash and negative media this has created could have been avoided . We would have understood that empty busses are bad for the environment...

 

[YesterDark]

I'm still confused as anyone else. Disney has spent the last bunch of years working on going "green" when it comes to traffic on property. Reducing buses, adding a skyliner, creating bus lanes. This kind of announcement is just going to create more traffic on property which goes against everything they were working on.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm still confused as anyone else. Disney has spent the last bunch of years working on going "green" when it comes to traffic on property. Reducing buses, adding a skyliner, creating bus lanes. This kind of announcement is just going to create more traffic on property which goes against everything they were working on.

The real world came knocking and they had to chose between money and going green. Now we know how they actually feel about “going green”

 

[YesterDark]

The real world came knocking and they had to chose between money and going green. Now we know how they actually feel about “going green”

But they still have to pay for this service in 2021. In 2022 we should be ready to go and this probably LOSES them money in a year or so.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I'm still confused as anyone else. Disney has spent the last bunch of years working on going "green" when it comes to traffic on property. Reducing buses, adding a skyliner, creating bus lanes. This kind of announcement is just going to create more traffic on property which goes against everything they were working on.

Turns out that "going green" was only ever about "saving money."

 

[hereforthechurros]

Turns out that "going green" was only ever about "saving money."

You mean us re-using our towels so they have to do less laundry wasn't to save the environment?!

(we re-use our towels and don't mind doing so, but anyone pretending Disney or any hotel chain did it to do anything other than cut down on labor and costs with the cover of being green is ridiculous)

 

[hereforthechurros]

Personally, I would assume that by January 2022 numbers will be back to close to normal for travelling from MCO to WDW - or am I just naive??

We cannot ignore the economic recovery part of things. Virus wise, yes we are being told that by fall we should be getting back to "normal" but that means as far as distancing and masks. Millions of jobs won't just come back in the blink of an eye. There will be a slow climb, and many jobs won't come back as companies learned to run even leaner in a down year (or two). This means less luxury spending on things like travel.