magical express!!

[Brygida]

Brygida, if you took my tone to be negative, I apologize.

I guess it stems from a history on this board of fairly new posters posting what sound like outlandishly negative experiences with DME (so I guess that's how I interpreted your only 2 contacts waiting up to 14 hours for their luggage). Many of those posters, many people here suspect, are employees of companies which are losing out as a result of DME's launch. Those posters also often get some details wrong (because they just want to be negative and spread bad rumors), so I guess that's why I was grilling you on the facts.

PEACE.

-- Eric

Oh... okay. Apology accepted. I have nothing to do with any company that is "losing out" as a result of DME. I design aircraft for the military and my husband is a doctor at Yale. Nothing to do with Florida businesses.

I admit I am new to DIS boards... but I was posting on USENET RADP 10-15 years ago...

I rather doubt employees of "losing" companies are sent out to inflame people at Disney boards. There was one other family on board our Delta flight to WDW and they said the same thing about DME... they wanted to make sure they had their luggage immediately and they felt they needed a car anyway (they had a toddler and 2 older kids).

I think that DME would be just fine if I were staying for two weeks with a teenager (like I used to in the 1990's!!). You don't mind a few extra hours travel time and you may need to use Disney transport independently.

However, my son is young and we were only staying 6 days. I wanted to minimize time spent on transport and maximize time at our resort and at the parks. My son needed a car seat. We needed easy access to a grocery store and to a hospital if needed (When we went to Disneyland in April, 2005 he ended up in the hospital with a bad asthma attack!). I've heard that taxis in Florida won't take youngsters without a car seat. We wanted access to all his clothes, nebulizer, etc ASAP. All these issues made us choose getting a rental car. It cut out as much of the probability of things going wrong as we could control.

My point is many, many families have special needs which make DME not a good option.

Brygida

 

[henrylovespooh]

Cleverocks -

Thanks so much for your informative posts. We're leaving in a few weeks and DH was just asking me how DME worked, so my first move was to check the boards! The boards and DISers never fail me.

 

[scottb8888]

... yesterday and our travel date is the 16th. So my step daugter may be comming don to join us for a few days. Is it just as easy to have her go via Mears than to mess around with the DME changes? Thanks.

 

[scottb8888]

Our step daughter is now comming down for a small part of the trip. She will not be on the reservation. What's the best way to get her to SSR? Whe I spoke to the DVC folks there were not real cooperative because that would make 5 people in a 1 bedroom.

 

[Lewisc]

Our step daughter is now comming down for a small part of the trip. She will not be on the reservation. What's the best way to get her to SSR? Whe I spoke to the DVC folks there were not real cooperative because that would make 5 people in a 1 bedroom.

Unless there is a change Mears won't accept a reservation but she can go to the Mears desk, buy a ticket and Mears will transport her on a DME bus.

Since your daughter won't/can't be on the reservation I don't think she'll be able to use DME to get a ride for free.

 

[kritter]

have her take a taxi or mears and dvc will never know that you have her in your room not like they are goinmg to knovck on the door and count number of people in the room

 

[dialane]

New Question to Cleve Rocks (our Disney Magical Express Guru!): It appears to me after reading several threads that the buses have routes that they follow when delivering guests from MCO to the resorts. I have read several that said they were staying at Pop Century resort and that they were dropped off first. Also read several who were staying at Beach Club and were dropped off third in each case. My question is this: Does anyone (Eric?) know the bus routes? If we had an idea of what the routes were, we could better plan for how long it might take to get there and also knowing that we would be the 1st, 2nd or 3rd stop might make us more comfortable with the length of the ride. Does that make sense? I would assume that the buses would be routed to the Epcot Resorts, Magic Kingdom Resorts, etc. Would my assumption be incorrect? Thanks for any information!

 

[MamaQuack]

Yes, I'd like to know too. When I made our room reservations for YC I inquired and was told that it would probably be the 2nd stop but then again if things were very busy it could be a different route.

 

[DW mouser]

Subscribing

 

[Lewisc]

The routes are setup dynamically based on demand. For the most part resorts near each other are grouped together and resorts closer to MCO get dropped off first.

POP-CSR-AKL is a common routing but it will change based on the customer mix. There probably isn't much more than a 10 minute difference between the first resort to be dropped off and the last.

It's been posted the average time from landing to arrival at your resort is 70 minutes.

New Question to Cleve Rocks (our Disney Magical Express Guru!): It appears to me after reading several threads that the buses have routes that they follow when delivering guests from MCO to the resorts. I have read several that said they were staying at Pop Century resort and that they were dropped off first. Also read several who were staying at Beach Club and were dropped off third in each case. My question is this: Does anyone (Eric?) know the bus routes? If we had an idea of what the routes were, we could better plan for how long it might take to get there and also knowing that we would be the 1st, 2nd or 3rd stop might make us more comfortable with the length of the ride. Does that make sense? I would assume that the buses would be routed to the Epcot Resorts, Magic Kingdom Resorts, etc. Would my assumption be incorrect? Thanks for any information!

 

[Patricia721]

Can I use ME for the return trip to MCO only?

Here's my scenario - I'm traveling with my son & his family to WDW in May 2006. We're traveling on a participating airline and using a limo service for our arrival (my son's preference). I'm leaving 3 days before they are - can I use ME for the return trip to MCO only? If yes, what do I need to do?

Thanks for your help! aw:

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yep, you could even use DME one-way either way if you're flying a non-participating airline. Either call the DME number now or sometime in advance, or talk to the airline check-in counter when you arrive at your resort.

 

[travel with kids]

Ok--I have a question. (this thread is awesome!!).

Arriving and getting to our resort (pop) I am ok with. However, on the day we are leaving wdw my dh and dbil will be renting a car at MCO. Can they use ME to get to MCO (they will have no flight information)?

 

[renzdr]

I would love to know too since our situation is the same as the above post.

 

[airplane]

I loved ME so much that I would not mind paying for it.
If anyone has any specific questions, let me know. I just returned 10/17.

 

[MamaQuack]

airplane,
I see you stayed at the YC - what stops did ME make before getting you there? Also, what time of day did you arrive at MCO? We are going Jan 3 -1st time using ME - and I am trying to figure out adr's, etc.
Thanks for posting - so good to hear you liked it and congrats on the wedding!

MamaQuack

 

[kaytieeldr]

MamaQuack - keep in mind, your DME bus may not have the same routing as Airplane's did.

 

[Lewisc]

The average time between landing at MCO and arrival at your resort is 60-90 minutes. I'd be more concerned with airline, particularly weather related, delays. I wouldn't make any ADR that would be a problem if you're late, such as dinner shows.

airplane,
I see you stayed at the YC - what stops did ME make before getting you there? Also, what time of day did you arrive at MCO? We are going Jan 3 -1st time using ME - and I am trying to figure out adr's, etc.
Thanks for posting - so good to hear you liked it and congrats on the wedding!

MamaQuack

 

[MamaQuack]

Lewisc: thanks for the advice; I think I will stick with a very loose game plan for that first day. We arrive at 12:30 p.m. but one good blizzard could send Delta in to a tailspin that filters down to us. If our flight is on time and ME delivers us in 60-90 that will be incredible - what a great way to begin a vacation

 

[Lynn4Mel]

I don't know if this has been asked yet so I'm sorry if it has.... Where is the best place to attach your ME tag on your luggage????

I am thinking the handle on the top of my suitcases.