allearsnet.com has a pretty good segment on the Magical Express. But, I have to disagree with your dd as far as WDW transportation goes. I'm not sure whether or not she is talking about transportation from the airport to WDW or actual on-site..resort to park...transportation issues. We have used Mears just once and said never again. So, we have used towncar services and really liked it. We have reservations for ME and are really looking forward to it. We have never had an issue with the on-site system and we have stayed in all areas of WDW..yes, even the dreaded Epcot resorts with the 'lousey' bus service. And we found that to be a non-issue on both trips to BWV.
As far as ME goes....you can make reservations now for anytime after May 5. You will be sent luggage tags that will allow your stuff to go directly from the plane to a special truck and then to your resort. You will not go to baggage claim at MCO. When you get off your flight, you will be directed by Disney personel to a special area where you will most likely check in and board one of the new ME buses. Each bus will hold approx. 57 people (we figure this breaks down to about 15 parties. Then the bus will make several stops to the resorts in it's sphere. Say...all the MK resorts, all the Epcot resorts and so on. So you might have 4 stops but since people won't be retrieving their luggage from the belly of the bus, it should go quite quickly. And since Disney knows who is coming in at what time and where they will be going to, they can disburse the buses quite efficiently (we hope).
The returen is a little different. If you are flying on a participating airline (Delta, Song, United, Ted, American?? and maybe NOrthwest) you can check your luggage at your resort upon checking out. You can then print out your boarding pass. then go on with your day, go back to the resort at the time your bus comes and off to the airport. You can go straight to security because you have already checked in back at your resort and your luggage has gone on ahead of you. But, if you are flying on a non-participating airline you can still take the bus but you can't check-in ahead of time and your luggage goes with you on the bus. And then you check-in at the airport just like you normally do. This is just a brief overview and I'm sure you can find more in depth info.
