ME to Caribbean Beach - questions

[The Expert]

I've been to WDW hundreds of times, but we always rent a car. I've never taken ME, believe it or not! DH has a conference at the end of April at Caribbean Beach and I'm going down a few days after him. I'll need to take ME from the airport to CB. I don't plan to check any luggage.

Now my questions:

1. Since the reservation is in his name, he is NOT taking ME and I'm arriving a few days after he's checked in, will I have any problem adding ME transportation for me to the reservation?

2. I've read that it's possible to take ME without arranging for it in advance if they have room and if you don't need them to pick up your bags. I'll be landing about 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. Should I take my chances with this route?

3. Does the ME to Caribbean Beach stop anywhere else? If so, in what order?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[dacky041208]

1. I know that all people listed on the reservation are entitled to a ride from the airport, and back. We've had family show up a day or two later and had no problem getting them on ME.

2. I don't know about this, I would talk to ME and get a reservation.

3. The bus will most likely stop at other resorts, but it isn't a set pattern, and CBR could be first or last. All of our ME trips, they stopped at 3 resorts. I would imagine they wouldn't stop at many more than that.

 

[The Expert]

Thanks dacky! Sounds like I need to at least get listed on the reservation.

Anybody else know about the route to CBR and whether it stops at other resorts?

 

[debster812]

My replies are in blue.

I've been to WDW hundreds of times, but we always rent a car. I've never taken ME, believe it or not! DH has a conference at the end of April at Caribbean Beach and I'm going down a few days after him. I'll need to take ME from the airport to CB. I don't plan to check any luggage.

Now my questions:

1. Since the reservation is in his name, he is NOT taking ME and I'm arriving a few days after he's checked in, will I have any problem adding ME transportation for me to the reservation? Not a problem for you to take ME, however, you will have to add it to your reservation, either on line or on the phone

2. I've read that it's possible to take ME without arranging for it in advance if they have room and if you don't need them to pick up your bags. I'll be landing about 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. Should I take my chances with this route? NO! You cannot ride ME without a reservation. This is per Disney's arrangement with MCO. The only exception to this would be if you walked up, paid for a ticket with Mears, and they put you on a DME bus

3. Does the ME to Caribbean Beach stop anywhere else? If so, in what order?

Thanks in advance!!DME routes are generally pretty fluid. There will likely be multiple stops for the bus. We've taken DME to to CBR and I don't remember what other resorts we stopped at, but there were 2 stops prior to ours

I hope this helps. We've always had pretty good luck with DME. Have taken it to CBR (2x), POR (3x), and WL (1x).

 

[The Expert]

Thanks Deb! Great info there.

I've got my husband's reservation number but can't seem to find a place to look it up online. It's under his name alone since it's a work thing, so when I log in with my ID it isn't there. The only place I can find to put in a reservation number is for online checkin, which isn't available yet. We normally travel DVC, so I'm not that familiar with that part of the site.

I guess I should just call, but I'd really rather just handle it!

 

[goofy4tink]

You are going to have to call and add DME to the reservation.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, first she or her husband is going to have to call and add her name to the room reservation, otherwise no, she won't be able to use Magical Express, luggage or not.

2. I've read that it's possible to take ME without arranging for it in advance if they have room and if you don't need them to pick up your bags

NO!!! Whoever wrote this is operating under SERIOUS misconception!! Per Walt Disney World's agreement with OIA, any Guest transported on a Magical Express bus MUST have an advance reservation!!!!! NO walk-ups!!!!

 

[TheWog]

If I remember correctly when we used ME to CBR in 2006 we were the first stop for our trip. As others have mentioned it is pretty fluid and can change for any given trip.

 

[The Expert]

Thanks again for the help and additional info. I'll have him call and add me and set it all up. I'm not in a rush to get to the resort, though fewer stops would be nice.