ME or Towncar?

[Ohana4]

We are due to arrive at MCO at 8:30 AM. Should we take our chances and go with Disney's Magical Express or play it safe with a towncar?

Samething applies for our return. Our flight is 7:50 PM.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

We are due to arrive at MCO at 8:30 AM. Should we take our chances and go with Disney's Magical Express or play it safe with a towncar?

Samething applies for our return. Our flight is 7:50 PM.

I'm not sure why Disney's Magical Express would be the "take our chances" option, or why a towncar would be be the "play it safe" option.

The towncar service is clearly the more personal, more luxurious option. And most towncar services offer a grocery stop.

The negatives of towncar are that you have to wait for your baggage at the airport baggage claim before you can depart from the airport. Towncars are sometimes late (that's happened to me 3 times). And, of course, a towncar is expensive compared to the Magical Express service.

The Magical Express service is free -- even the inbound bell service gratuity is paid by Disney. Magical Express is clearly more convenient from a luggage standpoint; you bypass the airport baggage claim entirely, and you don't even have to be in your room when your luggage is delivered.

The negatives of Magical Express are that you're on a shared motor coach with dozens of other people. You may have to wait a while before the coach departs. And you could make a couple of stops at other resorts before you get to your resort.

 

[stacy6552]

Having done both, I'd say you are dead on with the ME=taking your chances. The cool thing about ME for your ealy flight, is not dealing with your luggage once you get there. You can head straight for a park or other activity, since you arrive so early. BUt yes you might have a long wait on the bus.

Going back, ME never showed up for us. But Disney did step right up without delay and sent us in a prepaid cab.

 

[CleveRocks]

I totally agree with Horace. Why is there such negativity out there about DME? I went from getting in the DME line to being dropped off at my resort in 53 minutes. Waiting for my luggage and making a grocery stop (and of course the ride in a towncar) surely would have taken longer than 53 minutes! And speaking of groceries, I got a delivery from Gooding's that I didn't have to schedule because they deliver to Bell Services and BS delivers to you when and only when you're ready -- they even keep the cold stuff cold for you!!!

Following Horace's lead, I'd say your choice is between $120 for a limo ride or no additional cost for a ride in a plushly upholstered bus (complete with entertaining WDW infomercial) with a lot of other people. Don't think of it as safe versus risky.

-- Eric

 

[Lewisc]

Actually you have it backwards. If a towncar doesn't show up you're on your own.

If the DME bus doesn't show up Disney will put you in a taxi and pay for it.

DME is the safe alternative.



The town car is private, more luxurious, will probably make a grocery stop and might even let you cut the timing a little closer on the way back to the airport. BUT it's certainly not safer.

 

[Danthesand]

The one other advantage of DME is their passengers are given priority of room assignments at the resorts.

Specifically:

- When you book ME, you flight info goes into a ME database.
- The moment your flight lands in Orlando, the ME system -- which is tied into airline systems -- automatically sends a message to your resort, alerting the room assigment CM that you will be arriving at their resort within the next few hours.
- Per current Disney policy, the CM must then immediately review which rooms will be coming available within that time, and assign you one of them. This is designed to insure that you will be able to go right to your room on arrival.

Disney implemented this policy back in June, presumably in an attempt to raise the satisfaction levels of ME users (after all the start up issues and related guest complaints in May).

Consequently, those showing up at the same resort on their own (ergo, not using ME) are now getting pushed into the back of the room assigment queue, and are much more likely to have to wait (often until late afternoon) to get into a room -- and often one that is in the "leftover" category (less preferred locations/views, etc.)

 

[aubriee]

The one other advantage of DME is their passengers are given priority of room assignments at the resorts.

Specifically:

- When you book ME, you flight info goes into a ME database.
- The moment your flight lands in Orlando, the ME system -- which is tied into airline systems -- automatically sends a message to your resort, alerting the room assigment CM that you will be arriving at their resort within the next few hours.
- Per current Disney policy, the CM must then immediately review which rooms will be coming available within that time, and assign you one of them. This is designed to insure that you will be able to go right to your room on arrival.

Disney implemented this policy back in June, presumably in an attempt to raise the satisfaction levels of ME users (after all the start up issues and related guest complaints in May).

Consequently, those showing up at the same resort on their own (ergo, not using ME) are now getting pushed into the back of the room assigment queue, and are much more likely to have to wait (often until late afternoon) to get into a room -- and often one that is in the "leftover" category (less preferred locations/views, etc.)

Hey I was one of those that used DME back in May. Even then because they knew we were coming the resort had LOTS of CMs on duty to check us in and the rooms were preassigned. I got a perfect room. He had my requests noted and I went straight to check it out and drop off my carry on. My checked bag was waiting for me in my room when I returned from the park that night. I arrived at MCO about 9:20am, was delivered to my resort, checked in, took a few minutes to check out my room, and was in the MK for lunch. Of course my resort was the first stop, which may have helped.

I had a great experience with DME even though I was one of the early ones to use it. I will be using it again in Sept and again in Dec. last january I used a towncar and was happy with them, but DME got me to my resort just as quickly, I didn't have to deal with luggage, and it was FREE.