goofy4tink
No tags...not needed! Transportation moderator
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Messages
- 54,709
OK spoke to a friend and she said that this is what Magical Express told her.
If you tag your luggage, once the plane has landed at MCO there is a separate truck that comes and removes all Disney Tagged luggage. They do not send these luggage to baggage claim, they go directly the bus or luggage transporter van. (not sure how they transport them to the resorts). Anywho, it doesn't matter, I will not be able to retrieve my luggage from baggage claim anyway. So I guess we can go about taking our rental car and forgoing the ME.
Right?? Does that mean once we get off the plane we can go straight to our rental car and not even think about our bags?
Alrighty then....long story short. Can you tag your bags, have DME transport them for you, and you rent a car to get to your resort?? Yes. Does Disney want you to? No. Do they do anything to prevent this? No. BUT....be sure you understand, 100%, what can possibly happen if you do this.
If you tag your 4 pieces of checked luggage, and then head off to rent a car at MCO, and allow DME to move your bags, they have no idea how many bags to expect. This is what is 'supposed' to happen......
When you get to the bus lines, your vouchers are scanned. You are asked how many checked bags you have. They note that in their system. And off you go to the bus lines.
So, now DME workers know how many bags they need to find for your particular reservation. So, when the bags come along, each one is scanned. When all the bags are dealt with, if a reservation shows as missing a bag, the DME workers will go in search of it. They will head to the airline baggage office and start the search. Someone now knows that a bag has been misdirected.
BUT...if you tag those bags, then go off in your rental car...no one has any idea how many bags you are supposed to have. So....they get the 3 out of the 4 bags and send them to your resort. When you return to your room, probably many hours later, you find you are missing a bag. Well..no one has alerted the airlines. So, no one has any idea what the story is. And because you have allowed so much time to pass, who knows what the airline policy is regarding missing baggage and the time you have to report it. You may have a huge issue on your hands.
Now...with that being said, things will most likely be fine. Just want you to understand the reasons for not doing what you want to do.
I know a ton of people, especially on the Transportation board, get all in a twist about those who rent cars but tag their checked bags anyway. If Disney wanted to, they could prevent it. They don't really care...at least not all that much. They could tie your getting on the bus, or at least checking in at the bus lines, to your baggage delivery. You don't check in, your bags stay at MCO. Not all that hard to do. But they don't care. And yes, I know what the Disney website says. BUT..it says you may not reserve luggage only service. And that's not what you are talking about. No one is asking if you can specify baggage only. They just want to work the system to meet their own needs. And the way the system is setup, that's entirely possible.
Me??? I would much rather see guests letting DME take their bags when they aren't riding the bus vs those who are on the bus, but feel the need to not tag their numerous checked bags, and then bring them all to the bus with them. That slows down the whole thing for everyone. Now, the driver has to unstow all those huge bags at each resort. And that takes time. If you are the third stop, you've spent an addlt amount of time on the bus due to the excessive baggage.
So, do what you will with this info..up to you. By the way......the baggage handling heading back to MCO isn't done by DME. If you are checking your bags at your resort, that is the RAC system...not the same thing as DME at all. Yeah, I know...Disney lumps them together. But, RAC (remote airline checkin) is available to anyone staying at that resort. You don't have to take the DME bus back to MCO. You can rent a car, you can take a towncar..doesn't matter. Or, you can take your luggage with you, on the DME bus you are riding on. Well, it goes beneath your bus, not 'on' the bus. But the two systems are different. Just wanted to clear that one up for you.
To the OP, with the question of whether or not she can have her young friend ride the DME bus. Depends. You must be heading to a WDW owned resort (which I assume you are), and everyone riding the bus must be listed on a resort reservation.
So, the young person has to be listed on your resort reservation. If that is the case, then you are good to go. You can arrive, by any means, at MCO, and then take DME (with your luggage on your bus) to your WDW resort.
