Thumbs up for Mears

[GeminiMom]

Just returned from 7 days @ ASMo, r/t transport included with package. Had absolutely no problem with Mears. Waited about 15 minutes from the time we left the Mears counter @ airport to board van to ASMo (used the time to phone family & let them know we arrived safely). For return trip, our flight was scheduled for 5:35, they suggested a 2:00 pick-up @ hotel. I would have chosen 3:00 if it were up to me, but I understand they have schedules to arrange & can't complain about losing an hour. Friend from Orlando told me she spent 1 1/2 hrs. checking in when she recently flew back to Orlando, so the extra time allowed us the freedom of not rushing through the airport. Mears bus (very comfortable) arrived @ ASMo right @ 2:00, picked up ASSp & ASMu fares & off to the airport. Sat right behind driver & listened to his dispatcher during the whole ride. Gotta give dispatcher credit, he was really hustling to get all the customers to their destinations. Was interesting listening.....heard him tell a driver that a customer had called from the airport & mistakenly given a $50 bill as a tip instead of a $10. Driver confirmed & I'm assuming that poor soul will get a check mailed to her, lol). All in all, great service from Mears. Hope this helps someone.

 

[patti2]

Thanks for the info. We will be using Mears for our AS Movies stay in a couple weeks. Did you make your arrangement for return pick-up when were at the airport or did you call day before? How long did it take to AS movies and did it make a lot of other stops too? Thanks.

 

[GeminiMom]

Patti2,
We got a return voucher when we checked in upon arrival @ MCO. Called Mears about 4:00 Saturday for a 2:00 Sunday pickup for departure. They request you give them 24 hrs notice I believe, but counter worker will explain that to you when you arrive. I'm sorry I can't remember how long it took us to get to ASMo, but we were so excited just being on Disney property that we could hardly contain ourselves, lol. They loaded us onto a van, although they did have large coach type busses taking people to resorts also. (We got one of these on return trip & boy was it ever comfortable & clean!) If my memory serves me right, we stopped @ OKW first, then ASSp & ASMu before getting to ASMo. Not bad as the AS resorts are all close together. My target time to be in AK was 1:00 (our flight landed 10:15). It might have been 30 to 45 minutes to get to ASMo. Driver was very efficient in getting people off @ their resort & back on the road. Check-in @ ASMo was a pretty long line but we got lucky as I requested Fantasia and got it....our room was even ready @ check-in so we got to take luggage & check out the room before heading to AK. We made our target time of 1:00 @ AK, & had a great week after that! Hope you have the same success in your upcoming trip. Have a ball!

 

[Planogirl]

We have always had good luck with Mears. We never could justify the cost of the limos and we never needed a grocery stop either. Mears has always arrived on time and we never had much of a wait at the airport.

We had a bus last time. Those are SUPER nice and roomy.

 

[seashoreCM]

Question: If it gets close to some passengers' plane departures, will the Mears shuttle driver put a moratorium on further stops and beeline it to the airport, while radioing for another vehicle to take those stops?

Question: Does Mears have any grouping of passengers, for example one van going to the MK area only: Poly, GF, Contemp, another going to AK area: AS, CS, AKL, and so on? I typically stay on site and find it annoying to get hung up at traffic lights on International Drive.

Hint: When riding any shuttle in any city, you have to keep an eye on your baggage. Things have been stolen or even taken out and left behind at intermediate stops.

More Disney tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

9/65 Disneyland
3/75 (World Inn* off I4 near DD)
4/85 (Kon-Tiki* on 192)
'80s Disneyland once or twice
7/94 PORiv
9/97 ASMu
11/98 ASMu
12/98 (Knights Inn on 192)
9/99 ASMo
12/00 ASSp
9/01 ASSp
11/01 ASSp planned
*no longer exists

 

[T3trish]

Hi, This is our 1st trip to WDW and I'm totally confused on transportation from the Orlando airport. Their are 3 of us, DH, DS-11 and myself going to the all-star-sports. Where do I find the prices for a taxi and this Mear thing. Sorry if I sound like a dumby but ... nope no excuse this is new and well basically when it comes to this I'm well a dumby. Thanx so much.

 

[cheeringmom]

Do they provide car seats? My baby and I will arrive before my hubby does(he is driving) and the car seat will be with him. Anyone have any info? Thanks Pam

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by T3trish
Hi, This is our 1st trip to WDW and I'm totally confused on transportation from the Orlando airport. Their are 3 of us, DH, DS-11 and myself going to the all-star-sports. Where do I find the prices for a taxi and this Mear thing. Sorry if I sound like a dumby but ... nope no excuse this is new and well basically when it comes to this I'm well a dumby. Thanx so much.

You would be better off with a car service then. It will cost the same or less, plus if you use Tiffany they will stop at a grocery store for free...no meter running like a cab.

Anne

 

[atigeg]

Price out all your options...towncar will be cheaper than a taxi and probably a shuttle too. We use Happy Limo on all our trips and wouldn't do it any other way. They do the free grocery stop too.
Barb

 

[Planogirl]

The Mears website ( https://secure.mearstransportation.com/ ) is showing the prices to be $27 per adult and $19 per child for a round trip to Allstar Sports. Tiffany Town Car is showing their rate to be $80 for a round trip in a Lincoln Towncar with a grocery stop. This seems like a pretty good deal for 3 people. We usually have just 2 in our party and have no desire for a grocery stop so Mears is fine for us but you may want to consider Tiffany or one of the other towncar services. Tiffany's website is http://www.tiffanytowncar.com/ and it was VERY slow loading.

 

[GeminiMom]

seashoreCM: Since this was our first experience with Mears, I'm afraid I can't give you a definite answer about cutting off other stops in order to get to the airport on time. It seems like they allow plenty of time when you call to schedule your return trip to the airport. Ours was a 2:00 pickup for a 5:30 flight, plenty of time. The dispatcher did seem to be very competent in trying to find available drivers to pick-up fares for people who needed rides (they must have been last-minute call-ins, not pre-arranged, and seemed to be needing rides from parks back to their hotels, not the airport). If you are on a shuttle heading to the airport, I would say that they would NOT pick-up any extras that were not on the schedule unless they were sure it would still allow you plenty of time to make your flight. On our trip, the dispatcher did ask the driver to pick up some people @ the Dolphin, but he called back & said he'd already passed the exit & couldn't. Our route back seemed to be quite organized, but again, anything could happen with any service, so I can't say that everyone would have the same experience. Good advice about watching your luggage. We purposely chose a seat by the luggage side in order to do this.

 

[winnie11]

We are thinking about using Mears to go from All Star Movies to Universal. Will they get us there before opening time? The Universal hours are 9:00 to 7:00 when we go and we need every minute since the hours are short. Has anyone taken Mears to Universal and back and how was it ? Thanks for any information

 

[HHGhost]

Can you have Mears pick you up at a different motel than you were dropped of at? I'm almost certain this can be done but I want to make sure.

Thanks,

HHGhost (34 Days) ;8^}

 

[fyi]

Mears being the largest company is not always the best. Now that transstar is out of buisness mears can not handle the load but wont tell you so guess who will wait and suffer? good guess. Go to the net find a local company that offers transportation to disney most are more then far in there rates and more personal.

 

[Tiger926]

I wasn't aware that Transtar went out of business - we just used them in August. We always use Transtar because we find that they are better than Mears. I just went on their website www.transtar1.com after reading your post and it is up and running and even has today's date on it. Where did you hear that they were closed? I'd been interested to know for our next trip to Orlando.
Tiger