We're just finishing a vacation similar to the one you plan...here's what we encountered:
ME delivers your luggage to your room...it takes 2-4 hours after your flight arrives...you do not need to be in the room for ME to leave your luggage in your room.
For luggage transfer when you change resorts:
We were at OKW Friday night, SSR Saturday night, a preferred view room at BWV Sunday night, and a standard view villa Mon-Thurs nights...
All four transfers required us to "make an appt" w/Bell Services at the resort we were sleeping at (did it in person at OKW and SSR; at BWV I called and that was "good enough")...we would have moved our own luggage at BWV, but the new room wasn't ready til 3, and of course we had to be out of the first room by 11...so we had to use Bell Services at least for storage...and since we had to use them for storage, we also used them for pick-up...See below for delivery hassles...
At all three resorts, they required us to be in our room for the luggage to be picked up (you can bring it yourself to the Bell Stand, if you want).
Disney transfers luggage between 1 and 3 in the afternoons. It is available for delivery to you at your new resort after 4. (This was true for all of our transfers). You must also be in your room to have your luggage delivered (this was a surprise to us. Because ME delivers whether you're there or not, I was surprised to discover Bell Services would not deliver unless we were physcially present)...you're pretty much at the "mercy" of the Bell Station when waiting for your luggage...they're not able/willing to give you a time when they'll deliver...the best we got out of them anywhere was "as soon as possible...maybe half an hour?)
At BWV, we tried to pick up our luggage ourselves from Bell Services...Bell Services would not give it to us, however. They insisted on bringing it to us themselves. My two teenaged guys were standing right there asking for it, and Bell Services refused to give our luggage to them...said they'd deliver it themselves (and to be fair, they did so "immediately"). At SSR, when I called for our luggage, they said they'd send it "as soon as a bell person was available--in about 30 minutes." We didn't want to wait for it, so asked if we could just come get it ourselves. They said we could, but when we did, there was a bell person available who drove it (and us) back to our villa. Kind of "magic" how it worked out that once we arrived and would have taken the suitcases ourselves, all of a sudden there was someone there after all who could deliver...scratch my head in wonder on that one...
Luggage transfers, we found, worked really great on the front end...each resort's personnel arrived exactly when they said they would to get our luggage. Getting it back was more of a trial. BWV came closest to being prompt...and since we had to be there to get the luggage, sitting around waiting for it was a pain.
I don't mean to be cynical...but it kind of "smells" like forced tips to me...it's really expensive in tips...you have to tip the people who get your luggage, and then tip the people who bring your luggage...even if you bring the luggage to the Bell Stand yourself, the Bell Captain expects a tip when he/she takes the bags from you...
Not that I object to tipping...I think Bell Services folks generally deserve their tips...but I don't like a set-up that "forces" it...and I definitely didn't like the requirement that we be physically present for luggage pick-up AND drop-off, altho at pick-up it wasn't so bad because they came when they said they would...drop-off was "painful" each and every time...
Don't know if there's a better way, but this way was the worst part of changing villas and our vacation...
