Transportation to/from airport from Universal Resort

[Goofy!!]

I emailed Tony via the address in this thread and got confirmation of availability. I was emailed a google form to fill out with flight info. Then I got an invoice via Square. It was super easy to book.
Our flight down was super messed up and I emailed him when we got a new flight number and arrival time. By the time we arrived, we had been traveling for 14 hours and it was after 1am. We were ready to be done but I didn't know where to find him. I had asked in an early email and he never replied. I texted when we were getting our bags- no response. We mistakenly went to ground transportation before realizing I could just call him. He told us to go out by baggage claim. We did that and some shady guy walked up to us mumbling about a taxi. I was really worried it was him. It wasn't. I called again and this time he asked what door we were at and then said to stay there. There was a huge crowd and he called a few minutes later saying he was stuck many doors away but to stay put.
He showed up quickly after and it was smooth sailing. He picked us up himself in a Suburban. The way home was with a different driver in a kind of sad van but no problems.

What was the email you used? (I went back a few pages but must have missed it.) We have used Tony ALOT in the past, but this will be the first time post covid. I used his aohb607 gmail address to book rides from the airport to the port, from the port to the Portofino and the Portofino to the airport. He responded that everything was set, no problems there. However, my kids are flying in at different times with him doing different rides to the port. When I ask for a cost estimate and how I could prepay the kids' rides, I am met with silence. I would love a square invoice and wondering if his children are running the accounting side now and I have booked my rides in the wrong place. I totally trust Tony that he will be there but would like to make it official with his company if it makes it easier for him.
I also tried his website, but the email at contact@thtransportservices.com is coming back as unreachable.

Thanks in advance

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

I can NOT recommend Tony Hinds. He was a no show for our return trip to airport.

I was told he would contact me with pick up time the day before pick up. I decided to contact him two days before, so I could make plans for my final day. He emailed me back and we agreed on a pick up time. On the return day, I was at the agreed pick up location 5 minutes early and one of the resort employees asked me if I needed help. I told him I had a car service coming and was checking to see if they were here. The employee told me no one from Tony Hinds was here yet. I texted Tony telling him we were ready, whenever the driver was. He didn’t respond. My family stood there waiting for 5 minutes past pick up time, I called Tony, got his voicemail and left a message. I also responded to our last email confirming time and told him the driver wasn’t at our resort and then I texted him again.
My family agreed to wait 10 more minutes before deciding we would have to split up and take Ubers. We never heard from Tony and when we got into the Ubers, no one from Tony Hinds was there for us. It was a very stressful end to our otherwise wonderful vacation.

I haven’t heard back from Tony.
I will never use him again.

Good luck to everyone else using his so called service.

 

[Goofy!!]

I can NOT recommend Tony Hinds. He was a no show for our return trip to airport.

I was told he would contact me with pick up time the day before pick up. I decided to contact him two days before, so I could make plans for my final day. He emailed me back and we agreed on a pick up time. On the return day, I was at the agreed pick up location 5 minutes early and one of the resort employees asked me if I needed help. I told him I had a car service coming and was checking to see if they were here. The employee told me no one from Tony Hinds was here yet. I texted Tony telling him we were ready, whenever the driver was. He didn’t respond. My family stood there waiting for 5 minutes past pick up time, I called Tony, got his voicemail and left a message. I also responded to our last email confirming time and told him the driver wasn’t at our resort and then I texted him again.
My family agreed to wait 10 more minutes before deciding we would have to split up and take Ubers. We never heard from Tony and when we got into the Ubers, no one from Tony Hinds was there for us. It was a very stressful end to our otherwise wonderful vacation.

I haven’t heard back from Tony.
I will never use him again.

Good luck to everyone else using his so called service.

Thank you for your experience. We have used Tony numerous times yearly pre-covid for years, to Universal, the port, and WWOS, but have not used him since 2019 when he transported many of our cheer gym around Orlando for Worlds. We have always had wonderful service. However, I am now getting a bit worried that his children are not running quite the wonderful service that he has always provided. (He did tell me on our last trip that his children were starting to take over the business since his wife passed away and he would eventually like to retire.) It seems they don't have the same work ethic as their dad.

I booked several trips with him for August (MCO-port, port to Universal, Universal to MCO) through his gmail address. He responded quickly that it was all set "anything for you, goofy." However, I have sent 5 requests post booking for an estimate , both directly to him and through his new website. Crickets. I have requested, as others have done, the ability to pay beforehand because he is picking up our kids and bringing them to the port, but I want to cover it. Again, crickets. Now I am reading about the no-shows, the broken down vans, and others that he delegates to others that are not up to his standards.

I will ask one more time for an estimate and then it will be time to start looking elsewhere. Tony, if you are following this, let me know we are good to go.

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

I can NOT recommend Tony Hinds. He was a no show for our return trip to airport.

I was told he would contact me with pick up time the day before pick up. I decided to contact him two days before, so I could make plans for my final day. He emailed me back and we agreed on a pick up time. On the return day, I was at the agreed pick up location 5 minutes early and one of the resort employees asked me if I needed help. I told him I had a car service coming and was checking to see if they were here. The employee told me no one from Tony Hinds was here yet. I texted Tony telling him we were ready, whenever the driver was. He didn’t respond. My family stood there waiting for 5 minutes past pick up time, I called Tony, got his voicemail and left a message. I also responded to our last email confirming time and told him the driver wasn’t at our resort and then I texted him again.
My family agreed to wait 10 more minutes before deciding we would have to split up and take Ubers. We never heard from Tony and when we got into the Ubers, no one from Tony Hinds was there for us. It was a very stressful end to our otherwise wonderful vacation.

I haven’t heard back from Tony.
I will never use him again.

Good luck to everyone else using his so called service.

I had an odd experience-- when we were being driven to our resort at the beginning of the trip, I asked the driver if I would hear from Tony regarding the return trip or what protocol was. He asked when our return flight was, and told me to call him (the driver) the night before as a reminder once the flight information was confirmed. That's what I did. I also decided to email Tony to let him know that the original driver was going to pick us up the following day for our return flight, and make sure that was okay with him.

Tony emailed me back and said "sure, that works."

Our original driver picked us up for our return flight. As we were en route to the airport, I got a call from an Orlando #. I picked it up-- it was a driver that Tony had dispatched to our hotel for our return trip to the airport! I said I was sorry, I already had a driver and was already on my way back, and that I had emailed Tony to let him know and he said that it was fine.

So somehow, we ended up having double the drivers! I felt bad for the second driver that was sent there by Tony. There was a definite wire crossed on the communication.

 

[Goofy!!]

Just thought I would update. I am no longer concerned at all that Tony's company will not provide the same outstanding quality of service that I have always had from him. With all the crazy plane changes lately, he had to rely on a some others to meet demands. Unfortunately, a very few did not work out as planned. He told me he is going to scale back till things settle down and only book trips he can do personally so that his company can maintain the highest quality of service that he in known for. I am convinced because he has never, ever let us down in almost 20 years.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Just thought I would update. I am no longer concerned at all that Tony's company will not provide the same outstanding quality of service that I have always had from him. With all the crazy plane changes lately, he had to rely on a some others to meet demands. Unfortunately, a very few did not work out as planned. He told me he is going to scale back till things settle down and only book trips he can do personally so that his company can maintain the highest quality of service that he in known for. I am convinced because he has never, ever let us down in almost 20 years.

Thanks for the update. I knew he would do something so he could get a handle on things. I wonder if adding the website caused some chaos. He personally has been our driver most of the time and I really like him. We have him booked in October.

 

[G719]

Just thought I would update. I am no longer concerned at all that Tony's company will not provide the same outstanding quality of service that I have always had from him. With all the crazy plane changes lately, he had to rely on a some others to meet demands. Unfortunately, a very few did not work out as planned. He told me he is going to scale back till things settle down and only book trips he can do personally so that his company can maintain the highest quality of service that he in known for. I am convinced because he has never, ever let us down in almost 20 years.

That's good to hear. Tony was always great and his son Neil was too. Last summer Neil picked us up from the airport. A different driver took us back to the airport. He drove way over the speed limit and the van smelled like cigarettes. I feel like Tony hated to tell people that he was booked and couldn't take them but it's probably the best thing he could do to keep up the expected level of service.

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

Just thought I would update. I am no longer concerned at all that Tony's company will not provide the same outstanding quality of service that I have always had from him. With all the crazy plane changes lately, he had to rely on a some others to meet demands. Unfortunately, a very few did not work out as planned. He told me he is going to scale back till things settle down and only book trips he can do personally so that his company can maintain the highest quality of service that he in known for. I am convinced because he has never, ever let us down in almost 20 years.

Thanks for the update.
However, I don’t find it acceptable for a company to not respond to a customer who confirmed pickup date/time/location two days in advance. That would have been the time to tell me he no longer could pick us up.
Also not acceptable to ignore my phone calls, texts and emails, while I was waiting for ride back to airport.
Even then, he could have responded to let me know something out of his control happened. But no, he didn’t respond and let us know if a driver was coming or not. We had to then make the decision to make alternate arrangements to get our family back to airport. Totally unnecessary stress for us to have to deal with at the end of our vacation.
All of this could have been avoided with communication on Tony’s part.
Not professional at all.

 

[GulAtiCa]

For this past Universal trip, we Universal's Superstar Shuttle service. If you have a hotel only reservation, you can call them up and just book a 1 way or 2 way return trip. That's what I did, you just need your hotel reservation #. Here is the number if anyone wants it: (800) 232-7827. It was $39 per person for the round trip btw.

The Universal Superstar Shuttle was pretty good. I was a little disappointed it was just a normal Mears bus, was kinda hoping for Minions or something on the outside haha. But went well, probably wait about 20 minutes for them to leave, we were the only one there for a bit till 2 or 3 families showed up. Coming back was a bit of an issue. We were suppose to meet the bus at 6:35am outside Adventura, but the bus never came. A Mears bus did seem to go to Sapphire Falls and then leave. We ended up calling the phone number and apparently they marked us as a noshow??? But thankfully the operator called a Mears Taxi for us, picked us up like 1 minute later and had a private Taxi ride to the airport, no cost (since already paid for by the shuttle). So overall, was a good experience, the problem got solved quickly, so we will def do it again.

 

[wdhinn89]

We are going to Uber from the Contemporary to Royal Pacific and then from Royal Pacific to MCO, does anyone have an estimate to what each trip would cost for an UberX/Lyft for each trip?

 

[wdwrule]

We are going to Uber from the Contemporary to Royal Pacific and then from Royal Pacific to MCO, does anyone have an estimate to what each trip would cost for an UberX/Lyft for each trip?

It all depends on the day and time of day but our average with Lyft to and from UO property to Disney Springs/Hotel was between $16-$25 recently. Average to MCO from UO property was $25-$33. Lyft was usually $1-$3 cheaper than Uber when we checked.

 

[wdhinn89]

It all depends on the day and time of day but our average with Lyft to and from UO property to Disney Springs/Hotel was between $16-$25 recently. Average to MCO from UO property was $25-$33. Lyft was usually $1-$3 cheaper than Uber when we checked.

Thank you!

 

[bchbetha]

We are going to Uber from the Contemporary to Royal Pacific and then from Royal Pacific to MCO, does anyone have an estimate to what each trip would cost for an UberX/Lyft for each trip?

The Uber (and Lyft) websites have fare estimators https://www.uber.com/global/en/price-estimate/

 

[raidermatt]

Used Mears Global (the private service) for MCO to Universal, Universal to WDW, and WDW to MCO earlier this month. Total of 7 rides for groups between 4 and 8 (different hotels). Every driver arrived early and there were no issues. Cost was $53 to $105 per ride.

 

[cjsmom5]

Thanks for the update.
However, I don’t find it acceptable for a company to not respond to a customer who confirmed pickup date/time/location two days in advance. That would have been the time to tell me he no longer could pick us up.
Also not acceptable to ignore my phone calls, texts and emails, while I was waiting for ride back to airport.
Even then, he could have responded to let me know something out of his control happened. But no, he didn’t respond and let us know if a driver was coming or not. We had to then make the decision to make alternate arrangements to get our family back to airport. Totally unnecessary stress for us to have to deal with at the end of our vacation.
All of this could have been avoided with communication on Tony’s part.
Not professional at all.

I respect your experience. All I can tell you is that over the last 15 plus years we have never had that experience, nor have any of the people I referred. They have always been wonderful to us. Not exactly sure what happened, but it was your experience and I respect that.

 

[cjsmom5]

Few years back, Tony had me assigned to Art for my rides
He uses a full size limo

You could fit your friends and peeps you don’t t like in that vehicle and still have room left in it

Art has picked us up several times. He has always been wonderful and provided great service.

 

[cjsmom5]

What was the email you used? (I went back a few pages but must have missed it.) We have used Tony ALOT in the past, but this will be the first time post covid. I used his aohb607 gmail address to book rides from the airport to the port, from the port to the Portofino and the Portofino to the airport. He responded that everything was set, no problems there. However, my kids are flying in at different times with him doing different rides to the port. When I ask for a cost estimate and how I could prepay the kids' rides, I am met with silence. I would love a square invoice and wondering if his children are running the accounting side now and I have booked my rides in the wrong place. I totally trust Tony that he will be there but would like to make it official with his company if it makes it easier for him.
I also tried his website, but the email at contact@thtransportservices.com is coming back as unreachable.

Thanks in advance

Use this number and text him. Tell him your name and what you are asking for ... he is very busy, I know personally, as I talked to him last week. 407.406.9093

 

[cjsmom5]

Thanks for the update. I knew he would do something so he could get a handle on things. I wonder if adding the website caused some chaos. He personally has been our driver most of the time and I really like him. We have him booked in October.

I have him booked for September, November and December. Then again in March 2023. He is and has always been amazing for us.

 

[Goofy!!]

Use this number and text him. Tell him your name and what you are asking for ... he is very busy, I know personally, as I talked to him last week. 407.406.9093

We have used him for years and have always been happy. I have both his text and his email, thanks!

UPDATE: We used Tony for our travel in Orlando/Port Canaveral last week. I did not see any deterioration of his wonderful service that we have come to love over the years. My only disappointment was that we did not get to enjoy Tony himself. I was hoping to connect after a couple of years of no travel . But he called several times, so it was nice to talk to him.

Juste (SP?) picked up our son and his fiancée at MCO late on 8/26 and brought him over to our hotel at the port. Communication by both Juste and Tony was superb and the ride was seamless. We used Cocoa Beach Shuttle from hotel to port because Tony agreed it was silly to have him come out from Orlando to take us less than a mile to the port. Although, I would have loved to give him the business.

Ryland picked the 7 of us up at the port after our cruise and took us to the Portofino. Again, wonderful communication between both Ryland and Tony. As we were disembarking, our genie found some erroneous charges on our bill and went to fix them before he escorted us off the ship. This made us a few minutes late getting to our agreed upon location and Ryland was made to move by the port authorities. Again, perfect communication and we found him right away outside the port. He was personable, helpful, and on time.

Ryland was again assigned to pick us up from the Portofino to take us to the airport. Again, he was on time, communication was excellent and everything was seamless.

Tony called several times to let us know who was picking us up and what time.

I am glad that the superb service of Tony Hinds continues after the small glitch during the crazy plane changes over the summer.

I will always continue to use his service as I have for close to 2 decades.

 

[Erica Ladd]

We are using Tony for our upcoming trip this weekend and I’m looking forward to it!!