ME day before check-in?

[ChrissyLady]

Hi!


My DH and I have reservations Nov 13-16 at AoA but chose to come a day early and stay off property. We have family that will be at AKL and we are wondering if we can take the ME straight there to meet them for dinner. We will be arranging for ME on the way home, so hoping we can just book a round trip. Only problem is our reservation isn't until that next day. We have no problems picking up our luggage or anything like that.

Anyone ever tried this?

 

[goofy4tink]

You can only use DME when you have an active resort reservation. So, if you are arriving on Nov 12, there is no way you can ride DME. You get to ride it to the resort you are staying at, once the resort reservation is in force.
Now, you could get your own bags, go to the Mears counter and book, for about $19 pp, a ride to AKL. They might even put you on the DME bus but you do have to pay for it at the Mears counter.
How would you get back to your offsite resort after dinner?

 

[ChrissyLady]

We would take a cab. Of course it makes total sense to take the Mears shuttle

 

[ChrissyLady]

We would take a cab later that evening. Of course, it makes total sense to take the Mears shuttle and that's our plan for now. We just like the ME Gets us in the spirit!

I was just wondering if they may be able to make an exception. DH got on without any sort of reservation to surprise me at the Beach Club for my birthday last year. So I'm positive that they will break the rules once in awhile Although it was probably a mixture of the CM being in a very good mood, his exceptional charm, and the fact that it was a bday surprise! Haha!

 

[Alesia]

We would take a cab. Of course it makes total sense to take the Mears shuttle

What will you do with your luggage during dinner?

 

[ChrissyLady]

Like I said, we will be visiting family who are staying at AKL so we will just keep it in their room until we finish dinner.

We just thought it would be funner to take ME there : If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Wow that will be an expensive dinner at $40 roundtrip per person just to meet up with family! You may as well rent a car for the day. It would be a lot cheaper!

 

[goofy4tink]

We would take a cab later that evening. Of course, it makes total sense to take the Mears shuttle and that's our plan for now. We just like the ME Gets us in the spirit!

I was just wondering if they may be able to make an exception. DH got on without any sort of reservation to surprise me at the Beach Club for my birthday last year. So I'm positive that they will break the rules once in awhile Although it was probably a mixture of the CM being in a very good mood, his exceptional charm, and the fact that it was a bday surprise! Haha!

Here's the problem. You already had a reservation that was active. So, not a stretch for a cm to allow your dh on a bus. He shouldn't have been allowed to, but that's a whole different story. The other thing is that you may not get on a DME bus! You could easily end up being in a meats van!
Why not just have dinner the next night?

 

[purple figment]

I was just wondering if they may be able to make an exception. DH got on without any sort of reservation to surprise me at the Beach Club for my birthday last year. So I'm positive that they will break the rules once in awhile Although it was probably a mixture of the CM being in a very good mood, his exceptional charm, and the fact that it was a bday surprise! Haha!

If your husband was on your resort reservation last year, he was able to ride DME.

If they did make an exception last year, I wouldn't count on pixie dust a second time. You can ask, but most likely they will direct you to the Mears shuttle counter.

 

[sam_gordon]

Can your family add your names to their reservation for one night (and then cancel maybe once you get there)? Then you would have a valid reservation AND at the correct resort.

However, some thing to look out for...
1) If they are on some kind of package (either room + ticket or room + dining), that might force a higher cost as you'd need to pay for the package for you and DH
2) How many people are in their party and how many are allowed in their room. You'd only be able to do this if there's room in their room.

 

[ChrissyLady]

Here's the problem. You already had a reservation that was active. So, not a stretch for a cm to allow your dh on a bus. He shouldn't have been allowed to, but that's a whole different story. The other thing is that you may not get on a DME bus! You could easily end up being in a meats van!
Why not just have dinner the next night?

DH didn't use my name at all while riding the ME (illegally it seems! Lol), so I think he just got a little bit of extra pixie dust blown his way

And we want to have dinner that first night because, well, it's our first night of vacation! And we already have all of our meals planned. My fellow DISers should understand this...

Renting a car will be too much trouble, dot want to take the time to return it once I'm there. Really its just simply a question of whether we'd be allowed to board ME early or not. Seems like it is unlikely!

So we'll go with Mears for the trip there and taxi it to the hotel and back to AoA the next day. I think they've got a full room at AKL so I wouldn't try to get on the reservation.

The juice may not be worth the squeeze on trying to get on the ME that night!

Thanks for all of your feedback, guys! I appreciate it!

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm really not trying to be negative but your dh got incredibly lucky if he was able to just get on a bus! I point that out merely to be sure others know this is far from a common occurrence. I would hate for someone to think it was commonplace.
Have you looked into getting a room at Pop for that first night? That sure would make things easier.
Here's the thing. DME doesn't work for everyone. It isn't a service that can be truly 'personalized'. It is to be used when there is a resort reservation in effect.

 

[amypetecar]

I'm really not trying to be negative but your dh got incredibly lucky if he was able to just get on a bus! I point that out merely to be sure others know this is far from a common occurrence. I would hate for someone to think it was commonplace.
Have you looked into getting a room at Pop for that first night? That sure would make things easier.
Here's the thing. DME doesn't work for everyone. It isn't a service that can be truly 'personalized'. It is to be used when there is a resort reservation in effect.

This seems to make the most sense.

Add up:
$40 bus from mco
$25 cab to off site hotel (could be upwards of $60 depending on where its at....)
Free shuttle from off-site hotel to mco to catch magical express? Or cab fee back to disney?
Price of off-site hotel

Does that add up to more or less than the $120 for a night at POP before any discounts available?
Plus, how much more convenient to take ME on your arrival day.... And just walk across the bridge from POP to AoA the next morning?

 

[goofy4tink]

This seems to make the most sense.

Add up:
$40 bus from mco
$25 cab to off site hotel (could be upwards of $60 depending on where its at....)
Free shuttle from off-site hotel to mco to catch magical express? Or cab fee back to disney?
Price of off-site hotel

Does that add up to more or less than the $120 for a night at POP before any discounts available?
Plus, how much more convenient to take ME on your arrival day.... And just walk across the bridge from POP to AoA the next morning?

I would be happy to pay the addtl amount to be at Pop. As you said, just walk across the bridge with your stuff the next day and get checked in. That way, you could take DME to Pop upon arrival. Now, here's the thing....try to keep your carryon bags to a minimum if you do it this way. Why? There are many times the DME bus to Pop also stops at AKL. You may get lucky and be able to just stay on the bus and go to AKL without having to use Disney transportation after Pop checkin. The issue would be having to tote those carryon bags back to Pop from AKL...if they are just backpacks, it won't be an issue if you use Disney transportation. You could just hop on a bus to DHS and then transfer to the Pop bus. The issue is that Disney doesn't allow luggage on the regular resort to park buses!!

I just checked the WDW site...with the discount of 15%, you can get Pop for about $103 the night of the 12th...go, book it now!!! You have to look under the 'special offers' section though!! Otherwise it's about $121.

 

[ChrissyLady]

This is a great idea!!! Thanks guys!!!