ME Luggage - Many ?s

[Bowen9475]

I am signed up to use Magical Express on May 5th. I have not yet gotten my luggage tags or any written information. I spoke with DME earlier this week and was told I could still use the service without the luggage tags. My question is - What should I put on the bag if not the ME luggage tags? Just a regular tag with my name? What else should I put on my tag? I was also told to keep the luggage tag receipts from the airport. When checking the luggage the sky caps will put tags on them, correct? What will you all be doing if you don't get the ME luggage tags - picking up you own luggage and carrying it to the ME bus or letting the ME CMs go retrieve your luggage? Thanks!

 

[WaterWish]

When I double-checked on Tuesday, Guest Services was quite confident that I would be receiving my luggage tags. He said if I don't have them by Monday to call again. Presumably they are expressing them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[WDWsnooper]

I am glad that you asked that question, for I asked the very same and this is what they told me.

I was told that the airline bar coded receipt was enough, but during the conversation, I explained that I was concerned that the luggage might go unclaimed or worse, returned to my home. After brief discussion, this is what we came up with (as there is no policy on such)

I am using the regular suitcase ID tag and putting the magical express client's name in caps, then next to it in parentheses the name of the person registered at the resort. Under that, the name of the resort and address (if known), the dates of stay and the room reservation/confirmation number. I was told that the entire DME info can be brought up with the ressie number.

Sort of like this:

MARY SMITH (k. johnson)
DISNEY'S GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT
May 6-12, 2005; Res # 1234567890

He also said to be sure to note the type of suitcase and put something identifiable on it, such as colored ribbon or similar. (All our luggage has yellow ribbons stenciled on each side--easy to recognize)

I was told that the phone number for DME rings at the airport, that they are located there. He said the above info should ensure arrival at our destination.

I plan to take along return address stickers to put on the tags for our return home.

I *hope* this helps, I know you are a week out and less for mail purposes. Our tags are not here yet. Still hoping yours does too...
Snooper

 

[digdoug007]

I will most likely go and get my own bags and take them to the bus.
How in the world are they going to locate my bags going around the carousal by just having a baggage claim receipt. My fear is that someone else will pick up my bag before the CM does or it will sit there forever until it gets stolen.
My take on this is that Disney should have guarenteed the tags to be there even if it is a free ride. We still spent thousands of dollars to stay there, its the least they can do.

 

[LisaS]

I will most likely go and get my own bags and take them to the bus.
How in the world are they going to locate my bags going around the carousal by just having a baggage claim receipt. My fear is that someone else will pick up my bag before the CM does or it will sit there forever until it gets stolen.
My take on this is that Disney should have guarenteed the tags to be there even if it is a free ride. We still spent thousands of dollars to stay there, its the least they can do.

I'm with you on this. If I don't get my official ME tags before I go, then I'll retrieve my own luggage and bring it with me to the bus. I don't think it's feasible to give my luggage claim checks and a verbal description of my bags to someone and leave them to track down my bags.

I understand that it's a new service and some times things don't go according to schedule so I'm somewhat sympathetic about the delay in getting us our tags. However my gripe is with the total lack of communication on this. Disney has my email and home address and yet if not for these boards I would have no info on what's going on with ME. In fact, I signed up for ME over a month ago, maybe even two months ago and never even received any sort of confirmation about ME. The latest resort confirmation I received a few days ago does not mention ME. When I checked my reservation info on line, there is no mention of ME. I finally called CRO yesterday just to double check that I am in fact signed up for ME and the woman I spoke to did not want to look it up for me -- she just kept saying "your tags will come. don't worry about it" but I stood my ground and said that I would like her to verify I am signed up for this service given there has been no confirmation of this from Disney. She finally agreed to check and I am signed up. She said they only provide confirmation of ME to people who book packages and I have a room-only reservation, hence no ME confirmation. That makes NO sense!

 

[WaterWish]

OK, the definitive answer is... the tags are arriving in dribs and drabs because of "printing issues"; which sounds to me as if the original print order was probably not big enough and they had to reprint. He also said that the order goes in to have them mailed as soon as you make the reservation (in my case, last Monday). He said there was a very good possibility that they would arrive on time. If not, I'm supposed to give them my claim checks, etc. same story as many have shared. I think I'll put a color or some kind of identifier on the bag and then also put the same thing on my claim checks, if it comes to that.

I booked Room Only through Disney Travel Co. and they were perfectly able to confirm my ME reservation on Tuesday. I don't know what CRO is, but that sounds pretty crazy that they can only confirm ME for people who have booked packages... I think whomever you spoke with is mistaken.

 

[LisaS]

I booked Room Only through Disney Travel Co. and they were perfectly able to confirm my ME reservation on Tuesday. I don't know what CRO is, but that sounds pretty crazy that they can only confirm ME for people who have booked packages... I think whomever you spoke with is mistaken.

Sorry for the confusion. I am referring to written confirmation, not verbal. I have received two or three hardcopy reservation confirmation statements from Disney since booking my room-only reservation and ME with them. These written materials confirm the name of the resort, the dates, the number of people traveling, etc. but do not mention that I am also signed up for Magical Express. When I checked my reservation info online, there were several items displayed to me encouraging me to sign up for ME -- which led me to wonder if my ME reservation had disappeared and the system thought I was not signed up for this.

CRO = Central Reservations Office (or something similar) It's just an acronym for the Disney Reservations folks. The woman there did finally agree to look up my ME status. When I asked why my hardcopy confirmation materials don't mention that I am signed up for ME, she said, essentially, that they do provide written ME confirmation if you reserve a package but not if you have a room-only reservation. This doesn't make sense to me and probably leads to more calls to Disney's reservations folks when people receive confirmation documents that confirm everything BUT the fact that they signed up for ME.

 

[CarolA]

What I heard was that the ink would run on the original tags which could be an issue if your luggage gets rained on!

 

[seashoreCM]

No written confirmation? Ask again for written confirmation.

Also print this Disboards thread so if you don't have written confirmation by the time you depart, you can still board the bus if they say you never had a reservation.

If they refuse to provide written confirmation, its your word against theirs and since they invented the system, doubts go in the other party's (your )favor.

 

[tiggerju]

I am with a lot of you on this, especially LisaS, in that the lack of communication and the misinformation is the biggest problem with ME so far. I have had ME booked for over a month, so I don't see how they have been able to express ship luggage tags to people who just signed up for the service at the 10 days, yet I was told this week (a couple days over the 10) that it is too late for them to re-express ship luggage tags to me since mine have already been shipped. It doesn't help that the ME CMs changed their whole stance on the shipping of the luggage tags. Towards the end of just last week they said that if I don't have mine when it gets to be 10 days before I leave to call them back and they will re-ship me new ones by express mail. Since I leave on the morning of May 7, I am already past that time. A couple of days ago when I called the ME number they said that if I don't get the luggage tags to not worry because I can still use the free transportation. Except now I would have to either hand over my claim check ticket to one of the CMs at the airport or go get my luggage myself and take it to the ME Welcome Center (it depends which CM you talk to on the ME number of what they tell you to do). Now for people like me who have never flown before, one of the major reasons I signed up for ME was that I wouldn't have to deal with my luggage at all when I get to MCO. It sort of bugs me that they keep telling me that you can still use the FREE transportation when I think for a lot of people that probably isn't the reason that persuaded them to take ME instead of a town car or other method. You can pretty much see this by all the posts here on the boards with people asking if they can just use ME for luggage purposes only and not for the transporation. Another problem that I can see with not getting your luggage tags is that I'm not so sure I would want to hand over my claim tickets to my luggage if I would not have a copy of them. What would happen if the airline did lose the luggage (or Disney themselves), and you had no proof that you even checked your luggage. That could be a true nightmare! I am hoping that I receive my luggage tags in time (and that everyone else does, too), but if I don't, I might just reconsider taking a towncar instead if I'll possibly have to lug my luggage around the airport anyways. If I wasn't flying for the first time this wouldn't be such a big deal, but for me, this doesn't sound like a pretty scenario. I've only been in an airport once and that was South Bend, so you should all understand why I'm more than freaking out about this! Let's hope that everything (and I mean everything) gets straightened out before I leave Indy.

 

[missiowa]

I recieved my ME luggage tags on tuesday. I was kinda dissapointed. I wanted cool looking tags like the tinkerbell ones that disney sends but instead they are bright yellow the the hotel your staying at on them. Kinda like a paper/plastic material like what the cheap wristbands are made of. They have a bar code and a color code. We are staying at the AKL so ours have a green mickey head on them with "AKL" in large letters. I have heard there are 4 colored zones. We are the green zone. ALso have our names and ressie # on them. Good luck, we are leaving May 6th~

 

[ken skellington]

If I receive no tags, I will be getting my own luggage - there is no way i will just pass over my baggage info. to a CM or code my black suitcase (the kind everyone else has!) with a colored ribbon - Give me a break! I will be carrying my bags on the ME bus - or renting a car. Let's hope they arrive - I am dissappointed because this is our first WDW trip and when we booked ME express three months ago, everything seemed to be going so smoothly. Oh, well.

 

[Daxx]

Daxx's Wife here. DS & I are leaving on 5/5 as well and just called CRO yesterday about the ME tags as I haven't received mine. I was told that there were delays in mailing them but mine would be federal expressed to me. What!? You mean to tell me that I'm leaving in a week and you haven't mailed them out yet!? What is up w/that!? Therefore, I am expecting them tomorrow. If I don't get them tomorrow, I'm calling CRO again. This is ridiculous. They told me, when making the ressies, that the ME tags would be sent out 2 weeks before departure ... meaning they'd be here by now. And, CRO tells me that they're going to fed ex them to me? That means they haven't even mailed them to begin with. What is up w/that!? I don't know why they're telling people they're sending them at this late date while they're telling other people that it's too late to send them.

I've had my booking since ... geez ... late February, I'm going to guess. That isn't enough time to get this on track? How long have they known that they were going to do this? And, they leave it to the last minute to attempt to straighten out? What if I hadn't called? Would I have ever received ME tags if I didn't call? I'm starting to wonder if I'll get the ones I'm supposed to receive.

I thought this was supposed to be a convenience for me. At this point, it's been a nervous waiting game. I am going to be so mad if I don't get the ME tags b/c this whole luggage thing was to save me the time and effort of having to get my luggage. Heck ... this is what you're selling -- the convenience of not dealing w/luggage. If they said "you get your luggage and board our free bus" then I'd have no problem as I know what *my* responsibilities would be. But, when they tell me that I'm luggage free, that's what I expect! I know that this is a new system ... but don't you check the water resistance of the ink before you go printing all these tags? Honestly, after working in advertising for years, I'd think that the ink's quality would be a big concern and not overlooked ... if that's the real problem. And, the communication could be better!

 

[mousefan]

Got this information from our Disney Dist. Mngr.

Guests are to head straight to the Welcome Center. There will be plenty of signage and cast members all over the airport. If you did NOT recieve your tags, you are to tell a cast member in the Welcome center and they will personally go with you to the luggage area and pull your luggage. At NO time are you to board the bus without doing this, as you will not recieve the luggage at the resort.

Of course if you recieved your tags your all set to just go to the Welcome Center.

We were also told there is to be a D Mail sent to us tonight with updated info. if anything different than what was told to us , will post it here.

 

[thedish]

After a couple of phone calls I am concluding that we will not get our tags. We were probably part of the first group that had the tags printed with non-water proof ink. Having worked with computer programs it is probably a lot of work to restart their program to rerun a few hundred tags. (But they may) At this point it would be a better public relations move to give out a free gift say they are sorry and move on.

 

[ken skellington]

Daxx's Wife here. DS & I are leaving on 5/5 as well and just called CRO yesterday about the ME tags as I haven't received mine. I was told that there were delays in mailing them but mine would be federal expressed to me. What!? You mean to tell me that I'm leaving in a week and you haven't mailed them out yet!? What is up w/that!? Therefore, I am expecting them tomorrow. If I don't get them tomorrow, I'm calling CRO again. This is ridiculous. They told me, when making the ressies, that the ME tags would be sent out 2 weeks before departure ... meaning they'd be here by now. And, CRO tells me that they're going to fed ex them to me? That means they haven't even mailed them to begin with. What is up w/that!? I don't know why they're telling people they're sending them at this late date while they're telling other people that it's too late to send them.

I've had my booking since ... geez ... late February, I'm going to guess. That isn't enough time to get this on track? How long have they known that they were going to do this? And, they leave it to the last minute to attempt to straighten out? What if I hadn't called? Would I have ever received ME tags if I didn't call? I'm starting to wonder if I'll get the ones I'm supposed to receive.

I thought this was supposed to be a convenience for me. At this point, it's been a nervous waiting game. I am going to be so mad if I don't get the ME tags b/c this whole luggage thing was to save me the time and effort of having to get my luggage. Heck ... this is what you're selling -- the convenience of not dealing w/luggage. If they said "you get your luggage and board our free bus" then I'd have no problem as I know what *my* responsibilities would be. But, when they tell me that I'm luggage free, that's what I expect! I know that this is a new system ... but don't you check the water resistance of the ink before you go printing all these tags? Honestly, after working in advertising for years, I'd think that the ink's quality would be a big concern and not overlooked ... if that's the real problem. And, the communication could be better!

Right On!

 

[Bowen9475]

It seems kind of crazy that people leaving later than others have already gotten their tags.

 

[tiggerju]

This whole situation wouldn't be quite so bad if they weren't selling ME on the television commercials as a way to not have to worry about your luggage as it will "magically appear" in your resort room. Now that many of us during the first days will not get to use the main service that is the point they are using to sell ME, it seems like Disney isn't actually providing the guests with what they originally promised. Does anyone else feel that they should change the commercials so that at the end they say really fast, "Bypassing airport baggage claim does not apply to those traveling the first two weeks in May"?

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

I'm with you on this. If I don't get my official ME tags before I go, then I'll retrieve my own luggage and bring it with me to the bus. I don't think it's feasible to give my luggage claim checks and a verbal description of my bags to someone and leave them to track down my bags.

I understand that it's a new service and some times things don't go according to schedule so I'm somewhat sympathetic about the delay in getting us our tags. However my gripe is with the total lack of communication on this. Disney has my email and home address and yet if not for these boards I would have no info on what's going on with ME. In fact, I signed up for ME over a month ago, maybe even two months ago and never even received any sort of confirmation about ME. The latest resort confirmation I received a few days ago does not mention ME. When I checked my reservation info on line, there is no mention of ME. I finally called CRO yesterday just to double check that I am in fact signed up for ME and the woman I spoke to did not want to look it up for me -- she just kept saying "your tags will come. don't worry about it" but I stood my ground and said that I would like her to verify I am signed up for this service given there has been no confirmation of this from Disney. She finally agreed to check and I am signed up. She said they only provide confirmation of ME to people who book packages and I have a room-only reservation, hence no ME confirmation. That makes NO sense!

EXACTLY!!! This is what I was just saying to my DH. Never did I receive anything from Disney that said I had signed up for ME and that I was confirmed to have transporations. If I didn't read these boards, I would be clueless and still be waiting for tags that I now understand I am probably not going to get. I called the ME office today and was told to mark my bags some way (they suggested a ribbon - like that is going to help a whole lot) and find a representative in the baggage claim area to give them my claim checks. The reps would then help me retrieve the luggage, get it put on the truck to the resorts and escort me to the welcome center to get my bus voucher. When I first called they were not even able to find me in the system and then when they found me they didn't have my flight info. Something about the CRO system not transferring over to the ME systems and the databases not talking to each other. All I know is I am glad I called or who know, I may not even have transportation at all.
Plus, I think I read somewhere that the people who are getting their tags and booklet are getting a voucher for a lanyard and pins. Does this mean we aren't going to get this too?

 

[ken skellington]

This sucks!