Magical Express Travel Times

[LeeAnn]

How long does it take from MCO to ASMu with Magical Express? Trying to plane my evening.

 

[Wood Nymph]

How long does it take from MCO to ASMu with Magical Express? Trying to plane my evening.

It takes at least 1-1/2 hours from the time you get off the plane until you arrive at the resort. Times vary due to many factors and you need to add time at the resort for check in or bag drops. And then we add 45 minutes to get to a park from the resort.

 

[maxiesmom]

Don't make any plans for at least 3 hours from when your plane is supposed to land.

 

[LilyWDW]

And if you are looking at ADRs really think about if being charged the no show fee is something you want to risk.

 

[disneyag]

Our past several trips, I timed our DME experience. In general, it took 75 minutes from the time we walked off our plane until we walked into the lobby of our hotel.

 

[Kimberle]

So many things can happen when you fly. Delayed flights, traffic, several ME stops, etc. I never make plans that I can't cancel (a/k/a, ADR's) for less than 6 hours after my flight is suppose to land.

 

[EsmeCullen]

You also may want to consider the time it will take to hop on the bus from your hotel to wherever you are making plans at, if you are taking resort transportation around the parks that is. I've heard that you should plan for 45 minutes to an hour or so just for that, though the Disney site recommends being at the resort transportation bus stop 90 minutes before your scheduled event.

Hope that helps as well. Have a wonderful vacation!

 

[dansdad]

Out of 13 trips our quickest from walking off plane to getting off ME at our resort is 55 minutes. Longest 2 hours and 47 minutes. Most have been 80-90 minutes.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

Average of 90 minutes from the time we arrive at the gate (sometimes we have a long taxi at MCO after our arrival time, too, so you might want to factor in some time for that) to when we step off Magical Express at our resort. I've timed it on most of our trips. Sometimes it's only an hour, and once it took us just under 3 hours. It can vary a lot. An hour and a half is our average, though.

 

[Haley R]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

 

[Dug720]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

Only in however long it takes the airline to get your bags to the carousel.

The biggest time factor is how long they hold a bus before sending it on. If you just miss a bus, you may have to wait a little while. OTOH, if you get on just before it leaves, very little waiting. Most of the time it seems you’ll hit somewhere in the middle.

 

[maxiesmom]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

I'd guess another 20 minutes or so.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

I can only speak for Delta, but most of the time my bags are already on the carousel when I get to baggage claim, or they come within 5ish minutes. Occasionally have waited a bit longer, but nothing bad. Experiences may be different later at night with lower staffing.

 

[maxiesmom]

I can only speak for Delta, but most of the time my bags are already on the carousel when I get to baggage claim, or they come within 5ish minutes. Occasionally have waited a bit longer, but nothing bad. Experiences may be different later at night with lower staffing.

I want to have your luck. My flight in October on Southwest we had to stand around. And stand around some more. And then stand around even more. It took a while for some reason.

 

[Shanti]

In our experiences with DME, it has taken 60-90 minutes from landing to entering our resort room. Never more than that. We always let DME handle our check-in bags, though. We don't wait around to pick them up.

 

[cruiser21]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

It will take the Airlines a lot less time to get you your bag then it will Disney.

 

[clippers6]

I can only speak for Delta, but most of the time my bags are already on the carousel when I get to baggage claim, or they come within 5ish minutes. Occasionally have waited a bit longer, but nothing bad. Experiences may be different later at night with lower staffing.

Delta has a 20 minute guarantee. If your bags aren’t at the baggage claim within 20 minutes after you get off the plane they give you around $30 worth of bonus miles.

 

[Haley R]

I can only speak for Delta, but most of the time my bags are already on the carousel when I get to baggage claim, or they come within 5ish minutes. Occasionally have waited a bit longer, but nothing bad. Experiences may be different later at night with lower staffing.

We’re flying with frontier (about as cheap as you can get) and the bags have never been ready when we get there but we deal with it since the tickets are so cheap. I just hope we don’t miss a bus because of waiting on bags. I guess we won’t be getting there super late and we don’t have any plans so it should be okay.

 

[sndral]

Does it take considerably longer if you are picking up your own bags? We are flying in at night so I don't want them to pick up our bags for us.

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.

 

[AngiTN]

I want to have your luck. My flight in October on Southwest we had to stand around. And stand around some more. And then stand around even more. It took a while for some reason.

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.