Split stays and ME

[jp02]

Has anyone had any bad experiences using ME when they have done a split stay? It seems simple enough; I would tell them to pick me up at a different resort than my luggage tags were for. I'm just worried there would be confusion and ME would pick me up at my first resort on departure day. Thanks.

 

[dansdad]

We've done 2 split stays and never had a problem. When you call to reserve ME just let them know you will be departing from a different resort.

To put your mind at ease, call ME after you make your reservation and ask the CM to read the details of your reservation back to you. Then you'll know if they have your reservation correct.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

I just did this myself. It was pretty easy, but like you said I'm still a little nervous. What I did was call up disney reservation gave them my first reservation # for my inbound flight and they added my arrival info to that reservation. Then I gave them my 2nd resort reservation # for them to put my outbound flight info on.

As another poster mentioned call ME a few weeks before your trip and make sure they have everything correct. That's my plan of action!!!

Just as a heads up too, I was told that you will only get a ME package that includes your arrival info for your 1st resort. For the departure you will just use the ME paperwork they hang on our resort door the day before you head home.

 

[roydavid7771]

I just did this myself. It was pretty easy, but like you said I'm still a little nervous. What I did was call up disney reservation gave them my first reservation # for my inbound flight and they added my arrival info to that reservation. Then I gave them my 2nd resort reservation # for them to put my outbound flight info on.

As another poster mentioned call ME a few weeks before your trip and make sure they have everything correct. That's my plan of action!!!

Just as a heads up too, I was told that you will only get a ME package that includes your arrival info for your 1st resort. For the departure you will just use the ME paperwork they hang on our resort door the day before you head home.

You're right in that you will only receive your inbound flight via mail. Disney will hang your departure info on your room door the day before your departure. We've done plenty of split stays and never had a problem with our luggage. If you're really nervous about it, don't use the tags and pick up your baggage yourself and bring them with you when you head to ME.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

You're right in that you will only receive your inbound flight via mail. Disney will hang your departure info on your room door the day before your departure. We've done plenty of split stays and never had a problem with our luggage. If you're really nervous about it, don't use the tags and pick up your baggage yourself and bring them with you when you head to ME.

Oh we've used ME a million times! I LOVE not having to get my bags and then them just magically appearing in my room!!

I'm more so nervous come departure time that something will be screwed up and I won't get my ME papers hanging on my room door at the second resort.

On another note. This our first split say so obviously I will need bell services at my 1st resort to transfer my luggage to my 2nd resort. Have you done this before? Is it easy? Is there any certain time I should have my luggage at bell services? Around what time can I expect my luggage to arrive at my 2nd resort? I was told it could take over 6 hours to do the transfer?

 

[Disneyqueendenmark]

Oh we've used ME a million times! I LOVE not having to get my bags and then them just magically appearing in my room!!

I'm more so nervous come departure time that something will be screwed up and I won't get my ME papers hanging on my room door at the second resort.

On another note. This our first split say so obviously I will need bell services at my 1st resort to transfer my luggage to my 2nd resort. Have you done this before? Is it easy? Is there any certain time I should have my luggage at bell services? Around what time can I expect my luggage to arrive at my 2nd resort? I was told it could take over 6 hours to do the transfer?

I switched from AOA to POFQ on my last trip. It worked okay.... I called lugage service at AOA and arranged them to pick my lugage up at my room and transfer it to FQ (called two days before). Despite the fact that they were almost an hour late, it worked fine They picked it up at around 10 am at AOA. But yes, it can take some time for it to arrive at the new resort! I tried to get it from bell service at around 1 pm, but I was told that it won't arrive until 3 pm. They said that in most cases you won't be able to pick it up before 3 or 4 pm!

 

[ElizabethG]

We have done this a couple of times. Last October was the most recent. We actually received two sets of ME tickets in the mail. It was like I got one for each reservation. One listed my inbound flight and for outbound it said something like 'unavailable' or something. The second was reversed, but did list my outbout flight information. On the night before departure, the ME time was on door. The ME time was different than I had expected so I looked up my flight information on my phone. The airline had moved the flight time earlier! So, thanks to ME, i didn't miss my flight.

So, I wouldn't worry about it. Disney allows you to book ME for only one end of your trip. That is what you are doing for a split stay. The return trip is linked to your second reservation.

 

[pixarmom]

We love split stays and we love magical express! We've done three split stays over the past year and it always goes smoothly in the end. But for some reason, the system never understands what we're doing! We usually get two sets of ME tags in the mail, even though we only booked MCO-WDW for Resort #1 and WDW-MCO for Resort #2. And then we frequently get an ME notice without flight info in Resort #1 the day before our transfer.

Whenever we get this extra stuff, I call to straighten it out. But as long as they have our arrival to Resort #1 and departure from Resort #2 in the system, all is well!

 

[Annie78]

What about splits involving a DVC points rental plus a regular resort reservation? I have my arrival night booked at POP via Disney, and my last two nights booked at BLT via points rental.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

I switched from AOA to POFQ on my last trip. It worked okay.... I called lugage service at AOA and arranged them to pick my lugage up at my room and transfer it to FQ (called two days before). Despite the fact that they were almost an hour late, it worked fine They picked it up at around 10 am at AOA. But yes, it can take some time for it to arrive at the new resort! I tried to get it from bell service at around 1 pm, but I was told that it won't arrive until 3 pm. They said that in most cases you won't be able to pick it up before 3 or 4 pm!

Thanks for the info. I been hearing the same thing that luggage isn't delivered to your second resort till after 3 which I'm ok with. I just am nervous it will be later then that. We are planning to head to MK for EMH around 6-7p. I just want to have everything away and settled for the week before we head out.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

What about splits involving a DVC points rental plus a regular resort reservation? I have my arrival night booked at POP via Disney, and my last two nights booked at BLT via points rental.

I'm doing the same thing. You book the inbound on the regular reservation. You will have to get the DVC member to add the outbound info for ME for you.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

I just found this thread as I was searching around for info on DME and split stays.

Question: Has anyone ever gotten one combined DME booklet for both portions their split stay?

Everything I've read, and my own personal experience with past split stays, has people getting two DME booklets (one for each reservation in their split, with one booklet covering arrival and one departure).

Long story short, yesterday we got a DME booklet for the second half of our split. It had luggage tags (which I don't need) and vouchers. Arrival info was not listed (as expected because we're arriving before that ressie starts) but departure info was correct.

I was concerned that we got our departure pack before our arrival packet so I thought it was worth it to call the DME hotline. Turns out the first part of our split stay didn't download to their system but she was able to locate it while I was on the phone.

She said she's requesting a new packet to be sent, but here's where I get unsure: she says it will be one DME reservation and one combined booklet covering both parts of our split stay. She did read everything back to me (flight numbers, which hotel to drop us off to and which hotel to pick us up from). New packet will be here in 7-10 days.

The worry wart in me is concerned that this is going to get messed up and the luggage will get delivered to the wrong hotel since it'll be one DME reservation number, so I'm assuming two hotels will pop up when that number is scanned. Logic would tell me that they'll go by what's written on the tag (which should say POR assuming everything in the new packet is right) but like I said, first class worry wart here! I was hoping maybe someone out there can reassure me that they've seen it done this way before, lol!

 

[TaraPA]

What about splits involving a DVC points rental plus a regular resort reservation? I have my arrival night booked at POP via Disney, and my last two nights booked at BLT via points rental.

We've done this before (and are leaving tonight for another cash/points stay!) Just make sure your DVC owner adds your ME info & you will get 2 sets of ME tags, one for arrival & one for departure.

Question: Has anyone ever gotten one combined DME booklet for both portions their split stay?

In all my split stays I have never received them combined, always 2 separate booklets/mailings. Maybe if she was expediting it for you she was able to do it that way by overriding the system.

Nothing to worry about, we've already not received any ME info by mail, had the wrong guest/flight/day on our ME info, etc. It has always been fixed very easily & very quickly by either a phone call to ME or by going to concierge at the resort.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

In all my split stays I have never received them combined, always 2 separate booklets/mailings. Maybe if she was expediting it for you she was able to do it that way by overriding the system.

Nothing to worry about, we've already not received any ME info by mail, had the wrong guest/flight/day on our ME info, etc. It has always been fixed very easily & very quickly by either a phone call to ME or by going to concierge at the resort.

Thank you for the reassurance, I appreciate it! I live in perpetual fear of lost luggage - it's a curse!

 

[TDC Nala]

I just did this myself. It was pretty easy, but like you said I'm still a little nervous. What I did was call up disney reservation gave them my first reservation # for my inbound flight and they added my arrival info to that reservation. Then I gave them my 2nd resort reservation # for them to put my outbound flight info on.

As another poster mentioned call ME a few weeks before your trip and make sure they have everything correct. That's my plan of action!!!

Just as a heads up too, I was told that you will only get a ME package that includes your arrival info for your 1st resort. For the departure you will just use the ME paperwork they hang on our resort door the day before you head home.

You don't need the DME packet to go home. There's no check-in and no luggage service operated by DME on the way back. If you send your luggage back through the resort airline check-in, that is a different system from DME and you do not need your DME vouchers for that (but remember to bring your ID!)

Just take what they hang on your door (you should have a sheet for each party member) and present it to the DME driver.

I've done DME on many split stays and there has been no confusion and no problems.

I don't recall them ever combining both stays in one booklet. A split stay is two separate reservations and you get one DME reservation for each one. I don't think I've ever gotten a booklet for part 2 of a split stay. You dont need the booklet if you are already at WDW and are only going TO the airport. You do not need or use DME luggage tags upon departure. They are only for arrival.

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm more so nervous come departure time that something will be screwed up and I won't get my ME papers hanging on my room door at the second resort.

On another note. This our first split say so obviously I will need bell services at my 1st resort to transfer my luggage to my 2nd resort. Have you done this before? Is it easy? Is there any certain time I should have my luggage at bell services? Around what time can I expect my luggage to arrive at my 2nd resort? I was told it could take over 6 hours to do the transfer?

Even if you don't get them, you can go to the lobby concierge and get them to help you. We had that happened at WL last month. Grand time to travel, when computer systems are all messed up, and one part of ME could see our departure but the other side couldn't. The lobby concierge called someone at ME, got a number for me, and he wrote up a slip for me to give to the driver. Although I was a little stressy (long trip, computer problems the whole way, and DS wasn't feeling well) it didn't take as much time as it felt like at the time, and it worked just fine. We used RAC, we got on the bus, our bags were in Seattle when we got off the plane, it was all good. Even though we didn't get anything on our door.

This was our first time using DME or RAC, but I've booked DME before (the call of the rental car always gets us...this time we turned in the car the day before going home), and we've so far always had split stays. I just do it one at a time. Fill out the form or talk to the CM for the part getting from the airport, and I'm done with that form or phone call. Then later I do the part going home. That way it's two separate things.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Hi again! I just wanted to update on my post from last week about getting a combined DME booklet for a split stay. My new packet arrived and it does have the arrival and departure all in one book. The luggage tags and vouchers both say POR, which is good because that's the arrival portion of our stay.

One thing I noticed was that on the luggage tags, neither of the strings of numbers matches either of our resort confirm numbers. I know the first string is the DME ressie number (it matches what's on our vouchers) but on the last packet the second string of numbers was our BC reservation number. DH called DME and they looked up the second number and said it was linked to our DME ressie and they do have us correctly listed as arriving at POR and leaving from BC.

So that's my long-winded story of our split stay combined booket. I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know if it goes off without a hitch!