My ME woes of June 2-6

[Georgieut]

I was pessimistic about using ME from the start then closer we got to June 2nd the more optimistic I got. We received our tags 10 days before our trip. Great right? Well we landed at MCO at 1:55 pm. Thinking awesome we can make our 4:15 tee time. Went like clock work. Got to the ME counter in 15mins or less. No lines nice Mickey handed people around. Checked in no problem. Walked over to the CR bus line. The excitement is on. Lines formed in the other resorts and one by one those lines were taken to their bus as my line was not. After 45 mins of jokes and tricks from CM we boarded our bus. At 3:30 we left the airport. CR was the first stop and arrived at 4. Called the palms and they said to come over even though we would miss our tee time. Got to our room. No bags. Thought that’s ok we can still get 9 holes in if we get there by 6pm. Went and ate at the Fun Food Center, still no bags. No golf either.(sigh) Went for a ride around the monorail. No bags! Decided to go to the shops. Got back to the room and there was 5 of our bags out of 8. They came in between 7 and 7:30. So Hubby is a little annoyed his suitcase and his clubs plus mine were missing. We thought we would give it a little time before calling. We went swimming. No bags. Watched the 9pm firework show. No bags. I called. Nice guy said he would look into it. So apparently he didn’t know where our bags were either. Nice huh? So he calls back. He found one bag still at the airport. Over 7 hours later and still at the airport, with ME tags. I pictured it going around and around and around on the carousel. We watched the water pageant. At 10:30 2 of our bags show up. My clubs and DH suitcase. Man he’s fuming now. It was his clubs still missing. Not just any clubs either. So they show up at Midnight. This ends the first part of the ME experience. Need to take the word magical out of that phrase.

Now for the trip home. We get our letter under the door the day before. All info was right. Looked great. We get up nice and early June 6th, have BK at the Concourse at 7:20 or so. Eat then go to our room and get our bags to check in at the Delta Counter just outside the front door. Since it was a participating airline. I go tocheck in and guess what. They didn’t have us in their computer. Nice huh?????? Now this time I am fuming. Oh was I. Well came down to it that our flight number had changed (I knew this weeks ago) Booked it months in advance and it had changed. Even our letter had the changed flight. A piece of paper. But not the ticket counter at our Resort. So they call Delta and they say they have all our information we are ready to go. They just can’t update the computer at the resort so we couldn’t check in they couldn’t take our bags and no boarding pass. All of this took forever. Bell service had already put our carry on in storage since we were not leaving till 5:30pm. So now we had to get them to come get the rest of it. We had 16 pieces by the way. So we go inside to the hotel and say hey this is whats going on and it needs to be fixed. Didn’t happen. They had 4 ½ hours to fix it and nope come 2:30 we still had to check in at the Delta Ticket counter. We get on the 2:30 cruise line bus go to the other resorts get to the airport. I was told there were be sky cap there to take our bags to the ticket counter. They all swore by it. Hotel credited our account 15 bucks to pay for sky cap. No sky cap there. DH went and hunted down someone to help lug 16 pieces of luggage up stairs to delta. Then we stand in line forever. Then they blame Disney, Disney blames delta. Nightmare. 2 kids under 9. 77 year old lady and almost 60 year old as well. 2 golf bags, 8 carry on’s , and 6 suitcases filled to the brim with stuff we bought. So anyway we finally get up to the counter we check in, I send the kids, mom and grandma to the bathroom. Then Delta said we had to take our checked bags and take them over to the x ray machine. Did they help. NOOOOO Cause you can’t leave your bags unattended. Luckily mom and grandma and the kids took their carry on with them. Nightmare let me tell ya. If we hadn’t left 3 hours early we would have never made our flight. That was the worse experience of my life and ya it was free but ridiculous. It shouldn’t be offered if they couldn’t live up to what they claim. I called before our trip. Oh bags now are reaching the rooms before you even get there. Bunch of crap. They say it’s convenient, saves time, false advertising if you ask me. So will I use me again? No way! Did I have a wonderful trip. Heck ya! Just will do it differently next time around. This was our first trip and felt gypped because people can't be up front and honest to say hey. Your not going to get your bags any time soon. Hey you may still have to check your own bags.

So thats my ME experience. Guess you have to believe in the magic just once and try it.

 

[jjan]

How much money did you save not renting a rental car or paying for a towncar?

 

[Georgieut]

I really can't remember. But I'm thinking it was around 100 for towncar. But missing the opportunity to play at a PGA golf course for 20 bucks. (golf freaks here) Was something thay I am sure we will never have the chance to play again. They didn't even offer to pay for rentals or anything. $4000 is a lot of money and offering ME as another perk to just get you to stay on property and spend that way extra money was disappointing. Even talking with the golf course people made ME sound like the way to go and that our clubs would be there in time. Knife through the heart. But live and learn.

 

[SuzEm]

How much money did you save not renting a rental car or paying for a towncar?

I gotta say, saving $120 on towncar (fare and tips) wouldn't have been worth that kind of aggravation to me! It's stories like this one that makes me glad I chickened out at the last minute and booked a towncar. The peace of mind knowing I had my luggage was worth every penny, especially since it was just my daughter and me flying and we were arriving late. The thought of either being woken up at 4 am to deal with luggage - or worse yet - having to spend our first day in the park wondering if we would come back to have luggage or not is just not worth the savings! I might try ME when we go back in December, but I'm going to have to start hearing that it's performing better before I do.

 

[welovedis]

No offense but if the tee time was that important why didn't you use other transportation to be certain you were there on time? I really don't understand when people make PS arrangements or tee times, etc.... when anything can happen on the way down. What if your plane was delayed or your clubs got lost or something?

Its too bad your bags didn't arrive sooner but why didn't you arrange a tee time for another day instead of your arrival? Or rent a car or arrange for car service to ensure you got to play your game?

 

[Chicago526]

This is why we are still getting a limo for our honeymoon. First, it our honeymoon and we deserve a treat. Second, even if everything works as advertised, we'd still be on a bus, we'd still may have to stop at other hotels before getting to GF, and I'd spend the weeks leading up to the honeymoon with one more thing to worry about, and who the heck needs that?

Maybe we'll try it on our first trip after the honeymoon, but for such a special occasion, I'll spend the extra $$$ for comfort and peace of mind.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Well we landed at MCO at 1:55 pm. Thinking awesome we can make our 4:15 tee time.

Even with a Towncar, that's cutting it awfully close.

So they show up at Midnight. This ends the first part of the ME experience. Need to take the word magical out of that phrase.

Are you sure that the bags were delayed by DME, and not the airlines themselves? I know they've had a lot of delayed and/or lost luggage from the airlines themselves. Since the whole process is seamless, most guests just assume it's DME, and the airlines tend to encourage that type of thinking.

 

[TwirlerGirl]

We are just back from BCV stay. It was a family reunion of 17 people. Only one family had a problem with ME. I made all ME reservations, none of us received ME tags. The one family that had a problem was delayed luggage delivery; over 4 hrs. This is how we handled it: DH went to lobby area, spoke with manager asking for help to locate luggage. The manager was wonderful, said he would locate the luggage and gave us a small gift for being so patience (park pass). We never complained, reassured the manager we understood the new system had a few problems and asked if we needed to go to the airport to locate the luggage. He asked us to wait a while longer - we returned to our rooms as the missing luggage was being delivered.

PS

As we waited for the manager to do some checking, we overheared the CM's at check-in desk discussing some of the problems they had encountered with ME. We actually felt sorry for them, the verbal abuse they experienced sounded horrible. No one wants to start or end their vacation on a bad note, don't take it out on the CM's or you'll be on the naughty list.

I hope they get the final bugs worked out soon. When ME works, it's a great service. I will use it again in Dec.

Sandy

 

[eileenkeeney]

I know that there have been several posts, indicating that if one needs anything from their bags within several hours of arriving, that it is best to claim the bags and take them on the bus. I was really glad that I followed this advice.

As for the return trip, we had a very smooth return trip. I double checked the previous day to insure that our names were in the computer.

While your return experience fell short of what was advertised, and what I would have expected, how much worse was it than the use of a town car or other shuttle.
You would have still needed to handle your own luggage through the check-in process.
So really you saved a lot of money for a few extra bus stops on the way.

It is good that you posted your experience, as it will help influence the expectations of others.
Often our satisfaction and/or dissapointment is based on our expectations.

Treating the ME as nothing more then a free bus, seems to lead to the most satisfaction.

 

[Nebsky]

I hate to say this but you cut that way too close. 2 hours and 20 mins to get from Airport to hotel is no problem for a taxi or Towncar. Most of the time no problem for ME but to expect your golf bags to be waiting for you was a bit much. ME even advises your bags will arrive later than you.

Im a huge golf fan, but there would be no way I would have expected that.
Maybe if you got into MCO at 945 am you could have planned on playing later in the afternoon.

I had no major problems with ME on June 3 -June 6. It was just a free ride to and from.

 

[Georgieut]

Hi thanks everyone for the responses. I have been out of town without a computer so sorry for my delayed answers. Now mind you about the golf tee time thing. The golf course folks called me to change my 5 pm tee time to the 4:15. It was either that or no golf. I asked about the golf bags getting there. They claimed it was not a poblem that my bags would be there before I was. I even called them the day before and the DME also this was my first time even going to Florida had no concept of how huge the place was. Also we were playing at the Palms with was just couple mins from the Contemporary. Across the street from the Poly. When you play golf and stay onsite you get a free cab ride over. So we could of gone over no big deal. But to rent clubs was very expensive. Then not having your shoes, balls, and other stuff it would of made it not worth it. The resort wasn't going to rent us clubs either. Even though we found out they did for another party that very morning for this same reason. Bought them balls and shoes and everything. That would of been nice. We called the plams when we got there and they said to come over and they would fit us in. We had till 6pm. 4 hours after landing. Had we not had to wait for our bus for over an hour we would of been checking in around 3. Anyway I did learn my lesson. Don't believe everything your told but how do you not? This was my first experience there I was relying on what DME said what Eddie said from the Palms. Oh everyone was blaming everyone else. DME blamed delta delta blamed DME. The resort desk blamed DME and delta. Nobody would take responsiblity and that is why it doesnt work all the time.

Georgie

 

[hojo]

I know of a few people that waited for their golf bags at the airport and then brought them on board the ME bus. This worked out great for them. Who ever is that nervous about their bags, wait for them yourself and them stow them on the bus. That way they are there when you are!

 

[utahkennedys]

These kinds of stories are why I reserved a mini-van for our trip for $250. Not worth it to me to have such hassles on my vacation in September.

 

[Nebsky]

I had no problems with ME.
We landed at 9:45 and I was at the resort checking in at 10:30 and then in Epcot at 11:05 after going to my room.
It is a great service.

 

[ILPHIL]

When our tags still hadn't arrived by June 4th for our June 6th departure we decided to go with a Towncar. And I feel it was a good decision. When our tags did arrive on the 11th (my nephew was dog-sitting and called as soon as FedEx delivered them) they had NO arrival info listed. Our flight arrived a little after 7pm and that would not have been a good time to find out we didn't exist as far as ME was concerned.

I wasn't thrilled about having to spend the extra $$, but we made a grocery stop, checked in and got settled in time to hit the MK for fireworks and the Spectromagic Parade.

Sounds like ME is working fine in some cases, but we heard a lot of negative comments about it from other guests and CMs while we were down there. Yesterday our bellman told me that they are getting virtually no tips from people using ME since everyone is told gratuities are included. Problem is, Disney is not doing anything to reimburese the bell staff for the lost revenue. That might have something to do with the delays in luggage delivery. IF you were making $3.15/hr+tips and had to choose between a delivery that you would get $$ from or one where you will likely get nothing, which one would you do first??

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Yesterday our bellman told me that they are getting virtually no tips from people using ME since everyone is told gratuities are included. Problem is, Disney is not doing anything to reimburese the bell staff for the lost revenue. That might have something to do with the delays in luggage delivery. IF you were making $3.15/hr+tips and had to choose between a delivery that you would get $$ from or one where you will likely get nothing, which one would you do first??

That's not entirely true. On the INBOUND journey, the luggage is "GTD" which means that the Bellmen *DO* get a tip. It's similar to how convention group luggage works. On the return to home journey, if you elect to have Bell Services come pick up your luggage, THATS when gratuities are not covered.

 

[ILPHIL]

That's not entirely true. On the INBOUND journey, the luggage is "GTD" which means that the Bellmen *DO* get a tip. It's similar to how convention group luggage works. On the return to home journey, if you elect to have Bell Services come pick up your luggage, THATS when gratuities are not covered.

Ok...then the bellman lied to me yesterday because he was very specific in his comments. We had about a 15 minute conversation on the subject and I don't know what he thought he would have to gain by telling me something that wasn't true. (I had already tipped him)