Magical Express worth the trouble?

[ITGirl50]

Well, I can't convince DH to use ME. I think he likes the "star" treatment of having the personal driver and town car. It's something special for vacation

I have to admit though...I like the star treatment too. I guess skipping one TS dinner will pay for it.

 

[simzac]

ME is no trouble and it's free. Can't beat that IMO

 

[llmurphy17]

We love ME - used them 3 times and haven't had any problems.

 

[jarestel]

We tried it on our last trip. 3 hours after we touched down in Orlando we finally arrived at AKV. We normally rent a car and are in WDW within an hour of landing time. So I don't think we will be using ME anymore. The price is right, but not very convenient, IMO. I'd rather pay for the rental car and have the ability to come and go on my own schedule. But YMMV.

Good luck!

 

[FLYNZ4]

ME always plan on about 3 hours before your flight so not much different than what you plan. They just drop you off at the stop and you get to your gate, no car return, no luggage to haul. Some will always like to drive and some like the bus same as getting to the parks. It's how comfortable you are letting go of the control.

Judy,

You can check your luggage at the hotel independent of your decision to use DME.

/Jim

 

[mikeandkarla]

Trouble? We have not experienced anything but smooth sailing using DME personally.

Ditto! what a timesaver. With three small children, any time that I don't have to carry luggage around, the better.

 

[Melrosgirl]

Used it for three trips and it's always been smooth. The most we've waited before boarding the bus was 30 minutes. For free, we can't complain.

 

[castleri]

Judy,

You can check your luggage at the hotel independent of your decision to use DME.

/Jim

We have used ME several times to get to WDW and then rented a car at the Dolphin or Dollar for the return trip. We always fly SW so can't use the resort luggage check in and having the car makes it easier. Some of our group last Sept used ME for the return trip to the airport and were not happy with having to drag the luggage quite a ways through the airport with 2 young children also. Next time they said they will rent a car for the return trip also unless SW decides to participate in the resort luggage check in. I understand it is not connected to ME or Disney so guess they negotiate terms directly and so far SW doesn't see it as worthwhile.

 

[Lauralei]

We usually go by autotrain, so we have our own car, BUT one time I fly in with just me and my DS (7) at the time. We used ME. Going to the resort (CB) it was great, but we landed at around 11 p.m. so there were hardly any people with us. When we left to go home, first I had to keep calling CB to take us to the lobby (because we had many big suitcases and couldn't ride the Disney bus), then we were placed on a very crowded Mears Shuttle. We weren't on one of the airlines where you can preboard so he dropped us off first with all our luggage. A skycap was nowhere to be found and at this point my kid was cranky and started crying and screaming. So we were lugging our luggage around the airport to check in. It was a DISASTER Needless to say for our return trip, I really wish I booked a towncar or had taken a taxi. It would have been much better.

 

[Camster0307]

We tried it on our last trip. 3 hours after we touched down in Orlando we finally arrived at AKV. We normally rent a car and are in WDW within an hour of landing time. So I don't think we will be using ME anymore. The price is right, but not very convenient, IMO. I'd rather pay for the rental car and have the ability to come and go on my own schedule. But YMMV.

Good luck!

I totally agree! I hate how they want to pick you up around 3 hours before your flight. I want to milk every last second out of my time at WDW; so I don't like loosing that hour.

Another problem we had ...

One year, we landed at MCO around 1pm; we were at the BWV by 3-3:30. That was fine but our luggage didnt' get to our room until 11pm that night! I knew ahead of time that it takes a few hours to get your bags, so we were prepared to go out with a change of clothes. But, by bedtime, I was expecting to have my bags. Bell services excuse was that they were very busy. On top of that, one of my bags was missing - that didn't show up to the resort until 3am, which meant I didn't get it until the morning. Was not happy spending my first hours of my vacation worrying about missing luggage. I think if I were to do ME and would now use their luggage tags and I would claim my bags myself and make sure they're on the same bus I am!

 

[tvwalsh]

It is rare when something for nothing is worth so much more than it costs! The bus ride with the Disney video and high quality coach was great fun and got us in the mood. The luggage handling was super and made us feel like luggage was no longer a concern. Pay the $140 for the towncar if you choose, but be aware of the fact that you are missing something economical as well as convenient and fun.

 

[Harley-Mouse]

Ifg you think thay might lose your bags then pick them up at the baggeg claim yourself. Don't put the ME tags on them. Bring your bags to the Bus and the driver will put them under the bus. Same for going home. Try Me we love it we did send our bags with tags and had no problems at all.

 

[erin.w]

Another person that loves the ME. We only travel with carry on bags (2 adults), and haven't had to deal with waiting for bags, although if we did we would just bring some necessities in our carry on bag. Never had a long wait for the ME to leave the airport (love the video), and never had to stop at many resorts (maybe 1-2). We will continue using it on future trips.

 

[Alexander]

We like it for getting to the resort, but not back to the airport. We had a horrible experience last August when we left the BWV. We stopped at Carribean Beach and then were supposed to head to the airport. The driver got a call that there was a wheelchair guest at Coronado Springs who needed our bus since it had the lift. We drove all the way to CS (the complete opposite direction of Carribean Beach, past BWV, and definately not in the direction of the airport. It took a very, very long time (over 45 minutes) to load the guest, then the lift didn't want to come back up...

The first stop at the airport was for the A side (we of course were B side), the driver wouldn't let anyone off the bus until he unloaded all of the luggage. Then he drove to the B side and again wouldn't let anyone off until he unloaded all of the luggage, by now I am furious, we have no luggage under the darn bus and our plane was leaving in 30 minutes! We had to run to security, thank God there was a very short line, and made it to the gate for boarding.

So much for having plenty of time when they pick you up 3 hours before your flight. We will NEVER take DME back to the airport again. I don't like relinquinshing all control of when I am going to arrive at the airport.

 

[crisi]

We've done it several times. I like getting to Disney on ME, going back I'll admit I too can prefer a cab. We tend to fly out early, and ME is just a little TOO early. A cab is about $40 - and at 5am that extra 30 minutes of sleep is worth it. And, although I've heard about long waits for cabs at Christmas time, there is always a cab waiting for us for our airport trips.

But I'll never do a towncar again. We've simply been picked up late too many times.

 

[jarestel]

Pay the $140 for the towncar if you choose, but be aware of the fact that you are missing something economical as well as convenient and fun.

Been there, done that! It wasn't fun (tv monitors not working) & it definitely wasn't convenient, for our requirements anyway. The cost isn't a make or break deal for us, so I will probably pay for a rental car in the future rather than subject myself to the uncertainties of the "Magical Express" again. But I can understand the attraction of ME for some folks.

 

[Iggipolka]

We've used ME twice and loved it both times. The most we waited on the bus at the airport to leave for Disney was 15 minutes. We were at our resort about an hour after arriving at MCO. Pretty darn good!
The first time we used ME, our luggage arrived within 15 minutes of our getting into our room. The second time, it was about an hour. No big deal at all.

We absolutely love checking our luggage at our home airport and not having to deal with it at all at MCO. It's great to just have it "Magically" show up in our room.

I do find that leaving from Disney to MCO 3 hours ahead of time, to be a little excessive. We'd rather have another hour at the parks to play than wait at the airport. However, at least we know we'll be on time for our flight!

With all of this, a question. For our upcoming trip, our flight is scheduled to arrive at MCO at 5:30pm and we're taking ME. We're staying at WLV and have 7:30 ADR's at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Do you think this is enough time to make our ADRs? I'm thinking I should push it back to 7:45 or 8:00.

Even though we've had nothing but positive experiences with ME, after reading all of the negatives about ME, I'm tempted to get a town car just to make sure we make our ADR that night!

 

[ITGirl50]

With all of this, a question. For our upcoming trip, our flight is scheduled to arrive at MCO at 5:30pm and we're taking ME. We're staying at WLV and have 7:30 ADR's at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Do you think this is enough time to make our ADRs? I'm thinking I should push it back to 7:45 or 8:00.

I guess I would be more concerned about the flight arriving on-time than the transfers from the airport. It does seem to be cutting it close. Maybe 8:00pm would be better if you really want to eat there. You can always arrive early if everything is on time.

 

[drakethib]

140 bucks?

I am doing the town car for $105 including tip.

BTW, ME is a good service and I know they are "hiding" the charge of the service in tickets and such, but if it was a pay outright service I would not use it.

Don't get me wrong, we have used it in the past, but it just takes forever to get to your resort at times. A couple of times it has taken us 1.5 hours from leaving the airport on ME to getting to our resort.

 

[ITGirl50]

140 bucks?
I am doing the town car for $105 including tip.

Okay...$135. It's $95 + tip. Those drivers are very good and we tip them well for their service. They are always early, drive us safely to our destination, have very clean/nice cars, load/unload our luggage, and are very courteous.

Only once did we have a poor experinece with a car service and that's when we decided to use something other than Tiffany. What a mistake...my DH thought it would be fun to get a Limo and hired a different service. The guy was very late picking us up for the airport, made lame excuses about it and was cold and rude to us. (This was a real Limo that cost a lot more than the Town Car.) We swear by Tiffany...excellent service.