Taking Magical Express on a day other than our arrival day?

[triplejen]

I have been watching airfares for a while now, and I am not able to get a flight for the day I want at a price I want. I HAVE, however, found a very nice low fare on the day before what is scheduled to be our arrival day. The thing is, the flight arrives later in the evening, and it kills me to spend the cost of another night at our WDW hotel just to toss down our bags and go to sleep.

(Also, with bags arriving a few hours after us, we wouldn't even be able to put the kids right to sleep. We'd be getting a knock at the door later that night with our bags. Yuck.)

I realized that it would actually save us about $200 to take the cheaper flight the day before, and then just spend the arrival night at the hotel inside the airport.

So here's my question: can we arrive one evening and take Magical Express the following morning? And will they just pick up my bags and send them along to the hotel for me (leaving them in bell services, I suppose, until we get there in the morning)? For the latter, we would be on a flight that arrived before 10:00 pm, so ME's bag service would still be in effect.

We will literally not be leaving the airport in between landing and boarding ME - it's just that there will be a span of about 12 or so hours (which will make it the next day) between those two events.

Thank you for any and all help - I really appreciate it!

-Jen

 

[seashoreCM]

Yes that will work fine. Do not use the yellow cardboard tags. I'm not sure whether the Hyatt still has the perk of having Bell Services take your bags down to Magical Express for automagical delivery to your resort.

To make the required DME advance reservation process go smoother, have in mind a flight, any flight, any airline arriving on resort check in day roughly at the hour when you will be heading to Disney. The reservationist may or may not ask for that.

 

[Missytara]

The Hyatt does have a service that you do pay for, that assists you in getting your luggage down to ME the next morning.

 

[PrincessAlways]

Wow!! That's a great idea!! I didn't know you could do that. I'll keep it in mind for future trips!!

 

[triplejen]

Thanks guys!

So it sounds like I can still use Magical Express for the ride, but I will not be able to have them handle the luggage for me? I will need to go pull my bags off the carousel, bring them back up to the Hyatt, and then back to Magical Express again the following morning? (Or pay someone at the Hyatt to bring them back down for that morning.)

What if I just gave ME my actual arrival information, and put the yellow tags on my bags. Wouldn't they realize when ME delivered the bags to the hotel that I wasn't assigned a room yet and then stick them into bell services until the morning?

And what would happen if I just showed up at ME with unused tickets from the day before? They'd be able to check to see that I was registered at a WDW hotel, so wouldn't they just let me board the bus anyway? Or could I even possibly call after arriving to change my ME reservation time?

(I am not trying to be difficult, just hoping I can make this work in a way that doesn't make me have to schlepp my own bags )

 

[Hopefully]

You will have to schlep your own bags. You can get the ME bus the day after you actually arrive, but your luggage can not go to WDW the night before, before you.

 

[seashoreCM]

What if I just gave ME my actual arrival information, and put the yellow tags on my bags. Wouldn't they realize when ME delivered the bags to the hotel that I wasn't assigned a room yet and then stick them into bell services until the morning?

Unpredictable things might happen, particularly if the bags got misplaced by the airline on the way to Orlando. See, also,
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2015788

And what would happen if I just showed up at ME with unused tickets from the day before? They'd be able to check to see that I was registered at a WDW hotel, so wouldn't they just let me board the bus anyway?

Do not do this. This will not help or change the baggage delivery process. When you don't show up at the DME welcoming area after getting off the plane and you don't follow the DME instructions e.g. ride the bus then, then the same unpredictable things could happen to the bags. Furthermore you may be treated as a walk-up guest and denied boarding the DME bus. If your flight was cancelled and the replacement flight into Orlando was the next day causing loss of your first resort night, also call DME to let them know; this kind of call does not need 48 hours' or even 24 hours' notice.

Yellow tagged bags coming off the airplanes before 10 PM are summarily removed to the resorts unsynchronized with guest movements. It is perfectly okay to make your DME reservation for the morning of your check in day but if you try to let the bags go to the resort the night before, unpredictable things may have happened to the bags long before you get to the DME welcoming area as planned.

 

[smj2610]

I have an opposite question, my flight going home has been changed to the day after i check out of disney(not my doing but the airlines) I looked at staying on property for an added day but it was close to 1000.00 for the extra night so I booked at the Hyatt at the airport, how do I find the latest flight to book and take the ME back to the airport

 

[seashoreCM]

How do I find the latest flight ...?

You'll have to riffle through the various airline booking web pages. Just say you want to leave Orlando between 10 PM and midnight.

You'll get a listing of the late evening flights. Try more than one airline.

 

[goofy4tink]

Short and simple....you can not ride, nor can you have your bags dealt with, if you do not have an active WDW owned resort reservation.

If you arrive the day before, DME will not touch your bags. Sure, they may see those yellow tags on them, but once they scan them and see that you do not have a resort reservation that day, who knows what will be done with the bags. I'm almost 100% sure they won't go to your future resort. So, yes, you will have to get them yourself, at baggage claim upon arrival. Then they will go with you to the hotel room for the night. The hotel, if it's the Hyatt, may be able to take the bags to the DME luggage area for you.


For departure.....just talk to the front desk when you arrive at your resort. Tell them you need to get to MCO on the day you checkout but that you don't have a flight. They can get you reserved on one of the later DME buses back to the airport. You really don't have to go searching for a late departing flight. Just take care of it, in person, when you checkin at your resort.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

have you looked in to adding one night of a value resort or renting dvc points for one night in a studio?? this may be cheaper than a hotel that you were looking at and definately worth the convenience of ME. we added 2 days to our recent trip and it was cheaper to go 2 days earlier in a rented saratoga springs studio than to pay the airfare for saturday morning. just a suggestion.