ME report 5/8

[dreamingdisney]

We arrived at WDW (Poly) this morning for our 1st visit ever!! I am one of those who signed up with ME about two months ago, but never received tags or any information packets.

We arrived at MCO @ 6:30am and we were only one of two families at the ME counters. Everything went smoothly - the CM apologized for not getting the tags out to me in time and then asked me for my last name. She found my information in the computer and entered my claim ticket numbers into the system and asked me to physically describe each piece of luggage. I was given a confirmation sheet containing barcodes, and was told that I would need this at check out.

We were the only ones in line for the Poly bus and it was already there. We arrived at the Poly at about 7:30am. The only complaints I had was the lack of visibility of the ME CMs at MCO and the fact that it took a long time for our bags to be brought to our room - we didn't receive them until 4:00pm - and that was after I called ME to find out what happened. My advise is to definitely bring a day bag with a change of clothes or swim wear. We're hear until Friday May 13th, so I'll report on the return trip then. I honestly was expecting worse, but everything went pretty smoothly.

 

[scoutsmom99]

Thanks for the report and the tips. No luggage till 4pm would be very hard for me. I hope you enjoy your stay at WDW.

 

[sixcats]

We usually flight down on early flights. Not getting my luggage until 4:00 wouldn't bother me too much. Very often we can't get into our rooms until at least 3:00pm anyway. If we're going when we know the weather is warm, we always pack a bag with bathing suits just in case.

 

[arizonacolbys]

Thanks for the ME report! We're leaving in just 3 days & will also be using ME. We always pack a change of clothes & anything else we may need on our arrival day in our carry-on - there's never any problems that way. Hope you enjoy your trip!

 

[vascubaguy]

I'm not totally certain on the operation of the ME service, but from a business approach, I'm guessing they will fill the luggage trucks to capacity before delivering to the resorts. So, if you arrive early and not too many people there, your luggage gets loaded first on the truck. Then they continue filling up the truck with more and more luggage. When it's full it finally gets delivered to the resort and your luggage is the last to get unloaded. Hence the 4+ hours to wait for the luggage to arrive in your room.

I wonder how many luggage trucks they have, maybe they need more.

Hopefully some of the kinks I've been reading about will be ironed out before I use ME in a few weeks.

 

[Pedler]

I think the luggage delivery time is or is not a problem depending upon what time you arrive and what you plan to do the first day. We are going in August and will land at 11:40 am. My primary concern is getting to the resort and then getting to the parks with the kids. We will have one days worth of clothes with us in carry ons. If the luggage takes awhile to get to the room it isn't a big problem. I am just happy to not have to wait to get it at baggage claim and have to deal with it at the hotel.

On the other hand if we got in later in the day and they tried to delivery the bags late into the night I would have an issue with that. Also if our primary focus on the first day was the resort or unpacking then ME may not be the way to go. Of course with the new ticket pricing I think some people are rethinking what they do on arrival day.

While I assume that they will work on the system and continue to make it better I wouldn't be suprised if the best they could do on average is have a 3 to 4 hour lag between arrival at MCO and delivery of the luggage to the room. Just thinking about the logistics of waiting for the plane to unload, sorting the luggage, loading it on a truck, getting it to the hotel and then having the hotel get it to the room. Thats a lot of logistics to have to work just right. I know from the cruises we have been on that it has not been less than a 4 hour lag time between arrival and the luggage being in the room.

 

[bytheblood]

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like your experience was not too bad.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Thanks for sharing your experience. We arrive Saturday morning at 8 am so, hopefully it will work for us too. We don't have luggage tags. We are planning on spending the day at the resort so, we'll definitely bring day clothes and swim clothes for the day.

 

[Lewisc]

It's not that simple. Outgoing luggage, for guests using resort checkin, can't be kept in the resort for very long or the luggage won't make the flight. It probably doen't make sense to send the trucks from the airport empty.

I think the question is if guests arrive before rooms are ready would Disney rather hold the luggage at the airport or in the resort.

I'm not totally certain on the operation of the ME service, but from a business approach, I'm guessing they will fill the luggage trucks to capacity before delivering to the resorts. So, if you arrive early and not too many people there, your luggage gets loaded first on the truck. Then they continue filling up the truck with more and more luggage. When it's full it finally gets delivered to the resort and your luggage is the last to get unloaded. Hence the 4+ hours to wait for the luggage to arrive in your room.

I wonder how many luggage trucks they have, maybe they need more.

Hopefully some of the kinks I've been reading about will be ironed out before I use ME in a few weeks.

 

[vascubaguy]

It's not that simple. Outgoing luggage, for guests using resort checkin, can't be kept in the resort for very long or the luggage won't make the flight. It probably doen't make sense to send the trucks from the airport empty.

I think the question is if guests arrive before rooms are ready would Disney rather hold the luggage at the airport or in the resort.

Hrmm... I thought that everyone had to take their luggage on the bus with them when they are returning to the airport and the resort check-in was to get your boarding passes and routing information put on your luggage, which just keeps you from going to the checkin counter when you arrive. I would imagine holding the luggage at the resort to be "shipped" later wouldn't work very well.

 

[seashoreCM]

If your airline is represented at your resort, your bags get the official airline routing tags right there. While the ME bus normally gets you to the airport 2 hours in advance, the trucks only need to get your baggage to the airport about 1 hour in advance and the baggage goes to a bulk loading area, not the skycaps or gate agents. This gives some flexibility in running trucks.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/magicx.htm

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

From what I have heard, part of the luggage delay problem is that the computer scanners aren't 100% operational right yet, and everything is being inputted by hand. This is taking a LOT longer. Once the computers are up and running (within the next few days is my guess), things should run much smoother and QUICKER.