Magical Express Travel Times

[Haley R]

How long you have to wait for your bags very much depends on how efficient your airline is at unloading & where your bags are in the unloading (hate it when my bags are one of the last to emerge on the carousel!) so add 15+ min.s plus for that.
Frontier uses the A terminal so add 5-10 minutes to schlepp your bags over to the B terminal where DME is.
Now you may immediately board a bus or what a short bit. There are always buses there and they direct you to a bus going to your resort - the buses leave all the time, so it’s not like just missing a park bus @ WDW, there’s no set schedule, they put you on a waiting bus and when enough people are on it they go.
Once you’ve been directed to a bus & stowed your bags underneath you may wait awhile for more people to get on the bus or you could leave right away. Assume 20 minutes here.
Once you arrive at WDW the real wild card enters the equation - how many resorts are they stopping at and will yours be the first or last stop. I’ve been first and I’ve been last, the worst was last after 7 stops. Usually it’s 3 or 4 stops. Plus how long does the bus have to stop to unload people at each resort. One ride I remember a stop at one of the all stars where this family had a gazillion pieces of luggage and strollers and what not to be unloaded out from under the bus - plus, oblivious to the rest of us patiently waiting on the bus they delayed the driver even more w/ a lengthy conversation. If everyone has several bags to be unloaded and you’re the last stop it can be a long time on the DME bus.
Personally I love the luggage delivery service, nothing better than not having to hoist my big bag off the luggage carousel, wheel it through the airport w/ carryon, purse, etc., dropping my carryon in my room and going to that first park then returning to find the bags waiting in the room.

We are staying at POP. I'm not sure where they fall as far as being dropped off and in what order. Do you happen to know this?

We fly in at like 5:30 pm or something around that time so I don't want to wait another possible 4 hours for our luggage. By the time we get to POP we will probably be ready to wind down and relax and not worry about where our bags are.

 

[Haley R]

That's because you were on Southwest, not Delta. Southwest is much less efficient at baggage delivery. They are much slower.
I fly them, Delta and American fairly evenly and Delta and American always get our bags to the carousel fairly quick, Southwest takes twice as long.

I'm thinking it may be price-related, but I'm not positive on that. I just know by flying with Frontier frequently that they have horrible customer service and quality of service, but we continue to pay to get such cheap rates.

 

[AngiTN]

I'm thinking it may be price-related, but I'm not positive on that. I just know by flying with Frontier frequently that they have horrible customer service and quality of service, but we continue to pay to get such cheap rates.

Maybe but other than that Southwest has top notch customer service. They have good quality of service too. The only place they lack is bag claim in my experience

Southwest does likely handle more bags since they allow 2 per passenger at no charge. Delta, AA and others charge some guests so there are fewer who check bags. They can move then faster I'm sure

 

[Haley R]

Maybe but other than that Southwest has top notch customer service. They have good quality of service too. The only place they lack is bag claim in my experience

I don't think we can fly Southwest. We are from the Midwest so the cheapest airlines for us are either Frontier or Allegiant (both pretty bad).

 

[AngiTN]

I don't think we can fly Southwest. We are from the Midwest so the cheapest airlines for us are either Frontier or Allegiant (both pretty bad).

We have to drive a couple hours to use Southwest. I will not fly Allegiant, even though they operate out of our local airport

 

[Haley R]

We have to drive a couple hours to use Southwest. I will not fly Allegiant, even though they operate out of our local airport

Our closest airport is 1 hour, but their rates are always higher so we end up driving 2 hours and fly with Frontier. Even though we have had bumps with them, they always throw vouchers at us which we make good use of. We were able to fly to Colorado in July for $3 after vouchers. They also changed our flight time for our flight this coming February and gave us $300 in vouchers so we all get free checked bags now.

 

[sndral]

We are staying at POP. I'm not sure where they fall as far as being dropped off and in what order. Do you happen to know this?

We fly in at like 5:30 pm or something around that time so I don't want to wait another possible 4 hours for our luggage. By the time we get to POP we will probably be ready to wind down and relax and not worry about where our bags are.

They have no set order, they seem to group close together resorts, so Pop would tend to be w/ the All Stars & AOA. If I'm going to AKL we usually stop at some combination of that group and/or CBR or Coronado Springs before heading to AKL. But I've read some drivers reverse the order - so there's really no predicting.

 

[Moliphino]

They have no set order, they seem to group close together resorts, so Pop would tend to be w/ the All Stars & AOA. If I'm going to AKL we usually stop at some combination of that group and/or CBR or Coronado Springs before heading to AKL. But I've read some drivers reverse the order - so there's really no predicting.

Last year our ME stopped at AoA first when I was staying at Pop and we just got off there and walked over the bridge (we already knew our room number and could go straight there, no need to go to the front desk).

 

[sponica]

They have no set order, they seem to group close together resorts, so Pop would tend to be w/ the All Stars & AOA. If I'm going to AKL we usually stop at some combination of that group and/or CBR or Coronado Springs before heading to AKL. But I've read some drivers reverse the order - so there's really no predicting.

POP was my freakishly amazing magical express/luggage delivery experience. Bus left in like 5 minutes after arrival, I think it was combined with CBR and then dropped at Pop. But my luggage was already in my room when I got to it...I want that luck EVERY time.

 

[Haley R]

Last year our ME stopped at AoA first when I was staying at Pop and we just got off there and walked over the bridge (we already knew our room number and could go straight there, no need to go to the front desk).

I didn't think about getting off at AoA. I'll probably do that if the bus stops there first.