ME Review-the Good and the Ugly

katypop

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 4, 2000
Well, just got home yesterday and had another great trip, but not without some heartache this time.Just wanted to add my ME experience for those that are interested.

The Good- I arrived May 09 and returned home May 23. This was a solo trip for me, but I had a friend joining me for part of the time. I was in the group of people who had signed up for ME well in advance but did not receive the tags as expected. I made a few calls before I left for info and was told my tags would come and then no, not to expect them but disney would pick up my bags and not to worry about them, that they had been handling them without problem for the cruiseline for years. So when I arrived at MCO I was a little nervous about my luggage but found the Welcome Center without a problem and they assured me, even without the tags that they would collect my luggage. I was splitting my stay between POFQ and CSR. They had my info in backwards, that I was going to CSR first when in fact I was going to POFQ first. It took the CM about 10 min on the phone to someone to correct this. I again asked, since I knew by then my luggage would be on the carousal if I shouldn't go get my luggage myself, but once again was assured they would collect it. So off I went in line for my bus...and I walked right on just as it was preparing to leave :goodvibes I arrived at MCO at 3:00. My bus stopped at SSR then OKW then we arrived at POFQ. I was checked into my room at 4:30 :) Since I went off to Epcot right away I don't know when my luggage arrived but it was in my room upon my return at 10:00.
On the return trip I was leaving from CSR. I never received a ticket or voucher as promised the day before, so asked at bell services the night before my departure. They got one for me and told me my bus would leave at 7:00 for my flight at 10:00. I asked to be picked up in my room that morning as I needed help with my luggage. They booked a time at 6:40 and were there right on time. My bus left right at 7:00, stopped at PC and was at MCO at 7:50. Everything worked like clockwork. I would be praising this new service except for the UGLY:

The Ugly-My friend arrived on May 12. I was a little nervous for her as she hadn't stayed on property before. I called before her arrival to be sure they had changed the wrong info they had when I had arrived and that they would know she was 1st coming to POFQ. They had in fact NOT corrected it when I had arrived and still had it as if she was going to CSR first, so another 10 minutes on the phone but they got all the right info into their system, I think :confused3 So she arrived at POFQ at about 2:30 from a 1:00 flight. We toured around and went out for dinner and back to the room at about 8:30. To our surprise, her luggage was not there :sad2: We went down to the ME luggage area and they asked us why were just reporting it then??? Well, we were told it could be 3 hours so were we expected to stay in our room waiting??? They could not find it so we were told to go buy the bare essentials for the next day. To make a very long story a little shorter, she went home 7 days later and they never found her luggage. They did take us shopping 2 days later to a mall so she could get some clothes, swimsuit, etc. Each manager we spoke to (there were numerous as we stayed at two resorts) was very nice, but nothing happened and they never informed the next manager to our situation as promised. They did reimburse her for her purchases, but seemed to want to blame the airlines. When we asked if the airlines lost the luggage why no one from ME reported that her luggage wasn't there to be picked up, they couldn't explain, and admitted they had not followed through appropriately. I can't tell you how many disney employees (although no one in management) referred to the magical express as "tragical" express and admitted to us that many luggage had been lost and much money was paid out because of this.

So...based on my experience I would be raving about this new service...but I have seen the other side too :sad2: I am returning to wdw in Oct and really don't know if I will be able to trust them again. Hoping I read lots of good reviews between now and then.

Kathe
 
katypop said:
back to the room at about 8:30. To our surprise, her luggage was not there :sad2: We went down to the ME luggage area and they asked us why were just reporting it then???
Inappropriate question from the CM. It is normal for the guest to check in and then go out to the parks and when the guest gets back to the resort is normally unpredictable. If the bags have not magically appeared in the room by then, only then is it necessary for the guest to ask the first question. It helps if the guest stil has the original baggage claim checks or has the codes and information (excluding the bar code) on a piece of paper for the CM's to take over and trace the bags with.

katypop said:
I can't tell you how many disney employees (although no one in management) referred to the magical express as "tragical" express
Very noticeable to the rank and file CM's is that, for the leg between the resort baggage distribution and the individual rooms, there are no tips for carrying the baggage since the guest is not expected to be in the room.

katypop said:
To make a very long story a little shorter, she went home 7 days later and they never found her luggage. They did take us shopping 2 days later to a mall so she could get some clothes, swimsuit, etc. Each manager we spoke to (there were numerous as we stayed at two resorts) was very nice, but nothing happened and they never informed the next manager to our situation as promised. They did reimburse her for her purchases, but seemed to want to blame the airlines. .
There is a time limit on making claims with the airline for lost baggage. Depending on what that time limit is, and depending on how much patience you have and how many extra fastpasses tney will give you and your family in exchange for the inconvenience, tney could put you on ME buses back to the airport and back to the resort to make a claim against the airline.
katypop said:
many luggage had been lost and much money was paid out because of this. ... When we asked if the airlines lost the luggage why no one from ME reported that her luggage wasn't there to be picked up, they couldn't explain, and admitted they had not followed through appropriately.
They could call themselves their own guinea pig to explain this to management and point out short staffing or whatever. They need a procedure, using the welcoming area CM's and the guests' claim checks and perhaps a parcel tracking system similar to UPS', to determine how many bags did not make it to the resort. In addition since your friend stayed at two resorts, they need a procedure to search for baggage at each of the resorts.

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

Let's start a fad! If you have a digital or Polaroid camera, take pictures of your baggage to show to ME folks if needed.
 
Now this is a review from someone I know and who's opinion I value! (not that I don't believe other posters, but sometimes it's a little easier to hear things from someone you know personally) Thanks for the unbiased review Katypop! Hope that you had a great trip, can't believe that you are back already...

Sorry to hear about the rather large bump in the road. While my luggage has been lost or delayed by airlines many times, it always showed up, and never 7+ days later. With so many other agents involved, it's hard to figure out who is responsible.
 
Thanks Bavaria for your support :goodvibes I had a good trip but it was not the best trip I have had. Can't believe I'm home again already either!

My friend may have had no clothing but thank goodness she had lots of drugs LOL. All kidding aside, she is just recently diagnosed as diabetic and is insulin dependent. Thankfully, she had packed her carry-on full of the drugs, supplies, and food she needed.

As far as the claim goes, disney did file a claim with the airline as promised (WestJet) and WestJet is being much more informative about the process at this point than disney. They seem to feel that disney and WestJet will probably end up settling 50/50. I should add that one of the managers at POFQ did comp us one night's stay free for our trouble and did provide transportation to and from the mall.

Kathe
 


Sorry to hear about the problems your friend had with ME. This does have me a bit concerned about our August trip using ME. One question I had is did your friends bags have the ME luggage tags? Just curious if that may have had an impact on Disney's ability to track luggage.
 
Hi Pedler,
No, neither one of us received the tags before our trip. This did make us nervous but every CM we both had asked assured us it was not a problem and that they would still collect the luggage. My friend also offered to go get her luggage herself but was told this was not neccessary. The CM did take her luggage claim info. From what I understand, even those with the proper tags were not always collected before they made it onto the carousel. I hope they get better at this quickly and don't mean to scare any one from using ME, I just want to make everyone aware that there are some problems. I hope that there are mostly good reports in the future, but honestly after experiencing this I don't know if I can bring myself to try ME again, it is not fun to be without luggage and to waste a day of your vacation shopping when you'd rather be in the parks.
Kathe
 
I declined ME for my short trip next week! Not worth the worry for me a this point, and I pretty much always rent a car.

I guess that you get to find out how WestJet stands up to the good customer service reputation - United lost my luggage 2 weeks ago on my homeward trip, but it was a very smooth experience. (In fact, they paged me and told me that it wasn't on the flight, and I was out of the terminal and on my way home before anyone else actually had their bags off the carousel.)

It does certainly raise an interesting point for future, though - surely Disney must have some tracking system in place to discover that a suitcase is missing at the airport, and not hours later when a guest files a report? Don't they have a system to check that everyone's bags have arrived? Again, I realize that so many agencies are involved, but that makes it even more critical for everyone to have their ducks in a row.
 


A critical need of ME is the right to make baggage loss claims without the owner of the baggage present. I believe Disney has acquired that right, given years of experience doing "ME" with Disney Cruise Line guests.

katypop said:
When we asked if the airlines lost the luggage why no one from ME reported that her luggage wasn't there to be picked up, they couldn't explain, and admitted they had not followed through appropriately.
I suppose that an occasional mistake can happen but so long as Disney can make good on claims the overall process is no worse than how the airlines do.

Elsewhere (I forget exactly where) on The Dis forums someone mentioned that the success of ME depends on the vast majority of baggage being handled automatically. This underscores the need for Disney to take responsibility for lost baggage. Every road warrior forum e.g. Flyertalk.com is full of advice to carry one's baggage with one as much as possible, thus the problems of insufficient overhead bin space.
 

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