Magical Express Too Slow?

[David Raguso]

Maybe i just happen to have bad luck but the magical express tends to be brutally slow. Dont get me wrong i dont expect to jsut walk on a bus and get rolling immediately but it has to be quicker than this.

• 10:30pm plane lands and i get right off with carry on luggage
• 10:45 im waiting behind a few people to check in at the magical express kiosk
• 11:00 im waiting for a bus to arrive to take me to saratoga springs
• 11:15 i get on the bus but the driver decides to wait for people, but its late at night, shouldnt they just give it only like 5-10 mins max and jsut go? its never going to be a full bus at that hour
• 11:45 - we finally leave the airport. Some random woman actually complained because it was late and she was tired, i couldnt blame her.
• 1215 - we pull into saratoga springs
• 12:30 i walk into the room

Does it usually take anyone else 2 hours from landing time to arriavl in teh room? i guess if it does id feel better but i wish they got people to the resort quicker, especially late at night when there isnt even a crowd

I took the magical express once before and it really wasnt much quicker, id say about an hour and a half. that wasnt late either, i landed around4p-5p

 

[Starr W.]

It's never taken us 2hr on DME. And we've used it 6 times in the last 2.5yrs

We're usually at SSR in about an hour. It's usually the first or second stop.

It does take a little longer for the Epcot resorts, as they tend to stop at CBR.

And I've been on late fligths too, landed at MCO Friday before T-givng about 9pm and I was checking in at 10pm.

 

[dianeschlicht]

That is exactly why we never have done DME. It always seems like a waste of time. I think the trip back to the airport is the real reason we don't use it. We have to leave WAY earlier than we do if we are driving.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Unfortunately, that's about what it took DH last year, 2 hours (actually 2 1/2) to get from touch-down at the airport to BCV. He grumbled, as did alot of other people, that it involved too much standing in line. And no fast passes
Actually, you missed the experience of waiting on the bus for about 15 minutes at the resort before pulling up to the point where you got off. DH had to sit on the bus on the other side of the bridge because there was already a bus at the DME drop-off point, and they'll only allow one bus there at a time. Unfortunately, that bus was just ahead of his, so it was a long wait.

 

[bobbiwoz]

1 1/2 hours is our average time. I know there have been some great, one hour experiences and we had a long one like yours which was also at night.

Bobbi

 

[Judy WI]

Unfortunately, that's about what it took DH last year, 2 hours (actually 2 1/2) to get from touch-down at the airport to BCV. He grumbled, as did alot of other people, that it involved too much standing in line. And no fast passes
Actually, you missed the experience of waiting on the bus for about 15 minutes at the resort before pulling up to the point where you got off. DH had to sit on the bus on the other side of the bridge because there was already a bus at the DME drop-off point, and they'll only allow one bus there at a time. Unfortunately, that bus was just ahead of his, so it was a long wait.

Sounds like the same bus I was on, Feb 22, or this maybe becoming a problem. It was sure upsetting to wait over that bridge I just wanted to scream let me out and I will walk.
And it was about 2 1/2 hours to get to BCV.

 

[mommyoftwo08]

We just used Magical Express last week for the first time. I know many people love this service and we didn't have high expectations, but our family will never use this service again. It's nice for people who do not have any other options. I will give credit to the luggage service end of it. It was great to have it delivered and check it in the day of arrival. But that is the only pro in our opinion of it. I'm sure our situation was unusual and doesn't happen every day.

 

[wildernessDad]

I usually budget 1.5 hours and we've been under that every time we've gone.

 

[wildernessDad]

We just used Magical Express last week for the first time. I know many people love this service and we didn't have high expectations, but our family will never use this service again. It's nice for people who do not have any other options. I will give credit to the luggage service end of it. It was great to have it delivered and check it in the day of arrival. But that is the only pro in our opinion of it. I'm sure our situation was unusual and doesn't happen every day.

You haven't really expressed what you didn't like about it. I am curious.

 

[rkwier]

I guess we are fortunate because we have always had pretty good luck with ME. We are usually to our resort within an hour to an hour and a half tops from when our plane lands. I think that it would take just as long (if not longer) to wait for my luggage, find the rental car place, get the rental car, find my way out of the airport and then pray that I find the resort without getting lost (I am geographically challenged). With ME, I just get to sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[casper]

I use DME every time I go. Some waits have been longer than others. Driving a rental car takes time too. Maybe not as much, but DME is a lot cheaper. I usually consider myself on vacation the moment I leave my departing airport. Once in the air, I'm on vacation and don't worry about the time too much. Once in Orlando, DME is part of the Disney experience. I'm usually so excited to get to the World that I can hardly contain myself. It is like being a child again. So, even if it only took an hour, it is going to seem long to me (builds up the excitment). However, much longer than a 2 hour wait might have me reconsidering DME. Sorry your waiting experience hasn't been so good.

 

[jade1]

We must be lucky as well. Pretty much just head from the plane and get in line for ME-that line has usually been less than 5 or 10 minutes, certainly less than waiting for bags and renting a car. Pretty sure the bus has been sitting there every time we get in line, I guess loading and waiting takes some time but nothing extreme I ever remember. Head right to a park knowing the bags will be in the room on return.

Coming home is even better. We tend to take a night flight home so we check our bags at the resort in the AM (and they show up back at MPLS that night is unbeatable) and get our boarding passes. Stick any carryons in storage and go to the parks for another bonus day on the AP. Works especially well when at the BCV/BWV-head to either EPCOT or DHS with no concerns on how long it will take to return to hop on ME.

Seriously saving $500 on a car (totally unecessary at BCV/BWV) is great, and having this service built into the stay anyway is way beyond our expectations.

 

[tjkraz]

If it makes you feel any better, we rented a car for a trip a couple weeks ago and it took us about 1:45 from touchdown to entering our villa.

I've been wary of DME myself but looking at your timeline, about the only thing that seems questionable is the 30 minutes you waited for other people. If that had been a more reasonable 10 minutes, it still would have taken 1:40 for the entire process.

Unless you catch a ton of breaks, I'm not sure that it's possible to get from MCO to a Disney resort in under 90 minutes. 90-120 seems to fall within an acceptable range whether driving or using DME.

Could you tell if the bus was waiting for a specific group of people? I know DME asks for exact flight information when you register. Perhaps they had one more party scheduled for an SSR arrival and then nobody else the rest of that night. It would really stink to miss a bus by a few minutes and discover that you have to wait 45 minutes for it to complete its rounds and return.

 

[mommyoftwo08]

You haven't really expressed what you didn't like about it. I am curious.

Sure - sorry, I didn't want to make it a lengthy post.

We waited at the airport for about 40 minutes for our bus to arrive (we were at AKV). Then it stopped at Pop Centry when no one was even on the bus for that location. Where the driver did paperwork for about 15 minutes. Then proceeded to Coronado Springs where it took about 40 minutes to get everyone off. No big deal. We anticipated that.

We loved, loved the luggage service. Especially with having a 2 year old and a 5 year old in tow with us.

On our return trip we were told that we didn't have a return reservation in which we did since we had our paperwork and tickets to get on. The date and time was clearly marked. We boarded the bus at 4:00. Left AKV at 4:35 after waiting for others to show up and for the driver to talk on the radio to home base. He warned us saying they had a full load at Pop Century to pick up and there were problems with which bus was going there and we had to go as well. Off we went to Pop. There had to have been a 150 people waiting to get on this Magical Express bus at Pop. We had to wait there for 45 minutes while they communicated back and forth who would get on our bus and who would get on the next bus and when that bus would arrive. It then took them 30 or so minutes to load those folks. Then took the driver several minutes to review his paperwork prior to pulling away. We were extremely frustrated with the wait times on the way to the airport at it was we would be running to our flight. Then as soon as the driver pulled out of the Pop lot, an older boy sitting next to my husband (both on the outside seat) got sick everywhere, and I mean everywhere. His parents didn't speak English and they were communicating back and forth to each other prior to this. His mom was searching her bags and she and the dad were laughing. Not sure if the boy warned them or not, but they did nothing to clean it up, nor did they tell the driver. So we had to ride the entire way to the airport like that. My husband was going to tell the driver but it didn't seem that he would even have anything to clean it up with and we would definately have missed our flight - which would have cost us atleast $400 to rebook. I understand it could have even been my child to be sick. Please no flames, but we were already frustrated with the service prior to that incident. It was just (sorry to be gross) but icing on the cake for us. It of course caused a chain reaction with the little girl behind my husband and who knows who else back there. A sad and nasty experience to say the least. The driver seemed not evn to notice as I was in the first seat on the right and my husband directly behind me. He could clearly see it.

We know that most trips do not have a problem. But we have decided in the future we would either drive (from Atlanta) or hire a town car service. Bus transportation was awesome the entire trip. However, I do know that the same scene that happened on our bus could have happened on any bus anywhere.

Great service for some. Just not for us.
Hope that helps.

 

[Uncle Remus]

Put me in the crazy category, I consider ME my first Disney ride,
Soarin' and Mission Space are my favorites, but ME is fun too.

 

[pilferk]

Maybe i just happen to have bad luck but the magical express tends to be brutally slow. Dont get me wrong i dont expect to jsut walk on a bus and get rolling immediately but it has to be quicker than this.

• 10:30pm plane lands and i get right off with carry on luggage
• 10:45 im waiting behind a few people to check in at the magical express kiosk
• 11:00 im waiting for a bus to arrive to take me to saratoga springs
• 11:15 i get on the bus but the driver decides to wait for people, but its late at night, shouldnt they just give it only like 5-10 mins max and jsut go? its never going to be a full bus at that hour
• 11:45 - we finally leave the airport. Some random woman actually complained because it was late and she was tired, i couldnt blame her.
• 1215 - we pull into saratoga springs
• 12:30 i walk into the room

Does it usually take anyone else 2 hours from landing time to arriavl in teh room? i guess if it does id feel better but i wish they got people to the resort quicker, especially late at night when there isnt even a crowd

I took the magical express once before and it really wasnt much quicker, id say about an hour and a half. that wasnt late either, i landed around4p-5p

It's never taken us 2 hours on DME. I think the max for us is about 90 minutes, with the quickest being about 45 (which I maintain was a complete "time warp" aberation).

It HAS taken us 2 hours to grab our luggage, get to the rental car counter, get everything to and into our car, drive to our resort, and unload the car....which would be our alternative to DME.

That being said, we've NEVER flown in late before. Typically when we fly, we do so on an early flight out (around 7 AM) and arrive in Orlando sometime before noon.

 

[HayGan]

If it makes you feel any better, we rented a car for a trip a couple weeks ago and it took us about 1:45 from touchdown to entering our villa.

I've been wary of DME myself but looking at your timeline, about the only thing that seems questionable is the 30 minutes you waited for other people. If that had been a more reasonable 10 minutes, it still would have taken 1:40 for the entire process.

Unless you catch a ton of breaks, I'm not sure that it's possible to get from MCO to a Disney resort in under 90 minutes. 90-120 seems to fall within an acceptable range whether driving or using DME.

Could you tell if the bus was waiting for a specific group of people? I know DME asks for exact flight information when you register. Perhaps they had one more party scheduled for an SSR arrival and then nobody else the rest of that night. It would really stink to miss a bus by a few minutes and discover that you have to wait 45 minutes for it to complete its rounds and return.

Exactly! There is no super quick way from MCO to WDW. One way or another you are going to have at least an hour to two to get from one place or another. Our longest time (other than driving) to get to the resort was the time we rented a car from Alamo. Just getting the car took us almost an hour!

As for waiting for other people, ME has a schedule of flights and anticipated arrivals and that is what they go by in terms of departures from MCO. I would rather them wait an extra 20 minutes rather than having to have extra buses and to start charging for the service. They can't really have buses leaving every five minutes. Sure there are kinks in the service but I would say that a vast majority of users are more than pleased with the service.

 

[LisaS]

We've had great experiences with DME where we were at the resort in just over an hour from setting foot in the terminal. We got to our resort just as quick or quicker than if we had retrieved our own bags and driven to WDW in a rental and with less hassle.

But the last time we used DME was frustrating and downright scary. The driver had trouble with paperwork and passenger issues at every stop and spent lots of time on the radio which delayed our trip to the airport. He was very slow putting luggage under the bus. The guy was seriously overweight and out of shape and was covered in sweat even though it wasn't a hot day. Passengers were genuinely concerned that he might have a heart attack or something. While driving on the highway he was steering with his elbows for a couple of MINUTES while blowing his nose. Once we entered the airport grounds he reduced his speed to 10-15 mph under the speed limit making everyone even more nervous since we were already seriously delayed. Then he held everyone captive on the bus while he slowly unloaded all the bags from under the bus. This caused a lot of anxiety and anger among passengers, many of whom did not have any bags under the bus and just wanted to get off the bus and into the terminal.

I should have gotten his name and reported all this but at the time I was more concerned about grabbing my bags and running to the terminal since we were so late getting to the airport.

 

[Chellymouse]

The first time we did DME it was AWFUL! It didn't help that I was already grumpy about being late out of Atlanta (as usual... ) The line to check in for DME was nearly 30 minutes and by the time I had decided to grab a cab, our luggage had already been picked up so we had no choice but to wait to check in. We were told by a CM that it would be at least an hour before we would even board a bus. By now, I was making Malificent looking like Snow White so DH found us a cab to POR-FR. We arrived at POR-FR, checked in, stowed our junk and were boarding a bus to MK when the DME bus finally pulled in. Another guest remarked about "hey there's that crazy lady from the airport" (I was being a bit un-Disneylike) and then said "they were smart!" DH convinced me to give DME a second chance during our trip the following year and said he would spring for a cab if it looked bad and we haven't had a problem since. We've been on a bus within 30-45 minutes after landing and are usually to the resort within an hour, hour and a half of landing and that's the way it's been ever since our first experience. Our past 2 trips we arrived at SSR within an hour of landing! I don't know if we were lucky or just had some pixie dust, but it worked out well!

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Maybe it's just me, but I have trouble complaining about anything that's given to me for free.