SeaSpray
Disney World fan since 1976
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2001
- Messages
- 15,143
I've purposely waited a few weeks to post this because I wanted time to reflect and think over what I want to say about ME...
In retrospect, ME was fine. They got us from MCO to AKL, and back, without incident. And it was free.
Now for how I really feel about ME... lol
We've always used a limo or towncar service for our Disney World and Disney Cruise vacations, but we thought we'd give ME a try for this recent trip. I guess we're a bit spoiled with being able to get off the plane, go down the escalators, and have a personal driver holding a sign with our name on it waiting for us.
And on previous trips we'd ALWAYS seen the ME people waving their big white Mickey gloves, pointing people in the right direction. This time? No ME people... no big white Mickey gloves... 
We went down to the same place where we usually go (the baggage claim area), only to find out that we were in the wrong place. LOL That's when I vaguely remembered reading something on the DIS boards about having to go to a different terminal for ME, than where we usually go.
Ok, so we backtracked, went back UP the wrong escalator, walked down the correct corridor, and then down the correct escalator. We finally saw the ME check-in area. We had to walk over to the counter where we had to wait in line. When we got to the counter we had to pull out the ME paperwork, have it stamped, then walk through a maze of roped off lines, to get on the right bus for our resort. I guess we must've missed a recent bus because we ended up waiting a good 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive. And it wasn't one of those cute ME buses, it was a plain white Mears bus. But hey, we were in Florida, we were on the bus that would take us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the very first time, so all was well....
well... they loaded us on the bus, along with our luggage, and along with people who were staying at Pop Century and also people who were staying at Coronado Springs. Guess who got dropped off last??
At least I got to see what Pop Century and Coronado Springs looks like in person. (Not impressed). And wondering WHY they'd drop us off in this order. Why not start at AKL so that the people staying in the moderate and value resorts can see how nice it is, and get them thinking of possibly staying there on their next trip? You know, free advertising? lol And yes I admit it, for the price difference, I'd expect to be dropped off before a moderate and a value resort. But I disgress...
So we finally got to AKL and that was that. We got there in one piece, and I guess that's all we really signed up for with ME. No promise of getting us there quickly; just a promise of getting us there. And they did.
For the return trip we went directly from AKL to the airport. But the bus was empty when we got on it, so it's not as if the Pop Century and/or Coronado Springs people had to wait for us to get on. I didn't like being picked up THREE hours before our flight. But I already knew about that before the trip, so it wasn't a surprise or anything.
In summation: ME was fine. Nothing more, nothing less. And it wasn't so bad that we'd never use it again.
(Just not any time soon! lol)
In retrospect, ME was fine. They got us from MCO to AKL, and back, without incident. And it was free.
Now for how I really feel about ME... lol
We've always used a limo or towncar service for our Disney World and Disney Cruise vacations, but we thought we'd give ME a try for this recent trip. I guess we're a bit spoiled with being able to get off the plane, go down the escalators, and have a personal driver holding a sign with our name on it waiting for us.
And on previous trips we'd ALWAYS seen the ME people waving their big white Mickey gloves, pointing people in the right direction. This time? No ME people... no big white Mickey gloves... We went down to the same place where we usually go (the baggage claim area), only to find out that we were in the wrong place. LOL That's when I vaguely remembered reading something on the DIS boards about having to go to a different terminal for ME, than where we usually go.
Ok, so we backtracked, went back UP the wrong escalator, walked down the correct corridor, and then down the correct escalator. We finally saw the ME check-in area. We had to walk over to the counter where we had to wait in line. When we got to the counter we had to pull out the ME paperwork, have it stamped, then walk through a maze of roped off lines, to get on the right bus for our resort. I guess we must've missed a recent bus because we ended up waiting a good 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive. And it wasn't one of those cute ME buses, it was a plain white Mears bus. But hey, we were in Florida, we were on the bus that would take us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the very first time, so all was well....
well... they loaded us on the bus, along with our luggage, and along with people who were staying at Pop Century and also people who were staying at Coronado Springs. Guess who got dropped off last??
At least I got to see what Pop Century and Coronado Springs looks like in person. (Not impressed). And wondering WHY they'd drop us off in this order. Why not start at AKL so that the people staying in the moderate and value resorts can see how nice it is, and get them thinking of possibly staying there on their next trip? You know, free advertising? lol And yes I admit it, for the price difference, I'd expect to be dropped off before a moderate and a value resort. But I disgress...
So we finally got to AKL and that was that. We got there in one piece, and I guess that's all we really signed up for with ME. No promise of getting us there quickly; just a promise of getting us there. And they did.
For the return trip we went directly from AKL to the airport. But the bus was empty when we got on it, so it's not as if the Pop Century and/or Coronado Springs people had to wait for us to get on. I didn't like being picked up THREE hours before our flight. But I already knew about that before the trip, so it wasn't a surprise or anything.
In summation: ME was fine. Nothing more, nothing less. And it wasn't so bad that we'd never use it again.
(Just not any time soon! lol)
for DME, but it's great to hear an honest, objective report about the service from someone who hasn't previously "taken a side" for or against. Your perspective is refreshing -- most of the things you didn't love about the service were things you were expecting, anyway, so you just rolled with the punches. 
