Our Magical Express Experience 5/7 - 5/11 (without luggage tags)

[LittleDino]

Our flight arrived in Orlando at 6:25 PM on Saturday, May 7th. There were many Disney workers with the white Mickey gloved hands waving. We walked up to one lady, and told her that we didn't have luggage tags, therefore our bags weren't marked. She said we were allowed to either grab our bags ourselves, or just give the Magical Express workers our baggage claim tickets and they would find it but it may take a few hours. I felt more comfortable getting our own bags. So we went down to baggage claim, grabbed our bags, then went over to the magical express counter. The cast member there asked if we got our Magical Express vouchers in the mail... we said "no." He apologized and was very nice and helpful. He printed up new vouchers right there, confirmed our return flight time and sent us to the lines for the buses. We stood in the line for about 3 or 4 minutes, then we were shown which bus to board. The bus driver put our luggage under the bus, and soon we were on our way. There were about 17 people on the bus. The trip took just under an hour and we arrived at All Star Music at 7:45. The bus driver then unloaded our luggage and we went to check in. It was a very smooth process and went well for us.

We then went to Magic Kingdom for 2 hours, and came back to the room and a piece of luggage had been delivered to our room that wasn't ours... but they had the same last name as us. So... someone was without their bag for a little while. We called the front desk and told them we received a bag that didn't belong to us. They came and removed it... I hope the person got their bag soon after that.. it was close to 11PM by then.

Our return trip on May 11th went smoothly as well. We checked in at the hotel, they took our checked bags. We went to the Animal Kingdom, then on to Epcot for the day, then came back to the hotel at 6 PM. Our flight was at 9:45 PM, and the bus picked us up at 7:00 PM. Although, this time it was a Disney Cruise Line bus that took us to the airport, rather than the Magical Express bus. Oh well... it all worked the same. There were only 6 people on our return trip... seems like a waste of bus space, but we arrived to the airport at 8:00 PM with plenty of time to get through security.

So for those of you who haven't received tags yet... don't worry! If you want peace of mind, just pick up your own bags at baggage claim. Disney's Magical Express worked very well for us, and we'll be using it again for our trip in September.

 

[Nanajo1]

Thanks for posting your experience. I think it will put some folks at ease.

 

[Bethany]

Thanks for that info! I was sitting here freaking out about not recieving any tags yet and we leave on Saturday. Now that I've heard your story I'm left with peace of mind. Thanks again!!!

 

[Kae]

Glad it worked out so well for you.

Kae

 

[WillowPuff]

So glad the Magical Express went well for you. These are the reports I like to see!

 

[MaryJ]

Glad it worked for you. Hope we have the same experience on Monday. I have one question. You mentioned that you left your luggage and went into the park on your last day. What did you do with your carry on luggage. Were you able to leave it at the front desk and pick it up before you got onto the bus? That's what I'm hoping to do, since I don't want to cart it into the park with me.

 

[LittleDino]

Yep! That's exactly what we did. All Star Music took our carry on luggage, and "tagged" it with their own claim ticket, and stored it in a room (behind the guest services desk) for us. When we were all done at Animal Kingdom and Epcot, we went back and gave our claim ticket to them, and they brought out our carry on bags for us. They ask that you come claim your carry on bags 15 minutes before your scheduled ME bus pick-up. It worked out very well!

 

[cdrn1]

I didn't get my luggage tags either, and everything went very well on our trip 5/9 to5/13. I did a lot of needless worrying before we left!

 

[palmtreegirl]

Thanks for the report!

 

[nickandalexmom]

Thanks for making me feel better about this service. We leave on 5/21 and was getting nervous since we have no tags and the things I had read earlier said horrible things about the service.