Update: Airport to boot Disney greeters

[ducklite]

So if I plan on about 70 minutes I'll be safe, right? Do you know if the station at Buckhead has any shelter if the weather is bad and I arrive before my ride to the meeting I'm going to?

**Apologies for a temporary thread hi-jack**

Anne

 

[inkkognito]

I wonder if the solicitations from some drivers are worse now that ME is in place. We've been coming to WDW for years and have only been solicited twice. The second time was when in the middle of the night, when our ride didn't show (not a limo company)...we were wandering around confused, as was a Mears towncar driver. I think he legitimately had a fare that did not show up...he wasn't just trolling for business. We were going to get a taxi but struck a deal with him instead. Other than that, we're never been approached.
Barb

 

[CarolA]

So if I plan on about 70 minutes I'll be safe, right? Do you know if the station at Buckhead has any shelter if the weather is bad and I arrive before my ride to the meeting I'm going to?

**Apologies for a temporary thread hi-jack**

Anne

Yes, you should be fine. There is shelter at the station that you can wait at.

Also, at the airport depending on when you are arriving you may have to change trains.

You want the North Springs Train. Late evenings and sometimes on weekends all trains from the airport are Doraville. you just get off at Lindbergh station and get on the next North Springs train. Remember Buckhead and Lenox while very close to each other are two different trains!!!

 

[ducklite]

Yes, you should be fine. There is shelter at the station that you can wait at.

Also, at the airport depending on when you are arriving you may have to change trains.

You want the North Springs Train. Late evenings and sometimes on weekends all trains from the airport are Doraville. you just get off at Lindbergh station and get on the next North Springs train. Remember Buckhead and Lenox while very close to each other are two different trains!!!

Thanks for the help. I'm actually arriving the night before, and staying in an airport hotel. I'll take their free shuttle back to the airport in the am, and catch MARTA from there. I'm glad I asked, didn't know I might need to switch trains.

Anne

 

[Candicno]

I just don't get it. Every airport has hotels that offer free shuttles. I agree with everyone else that this is no different.

How are they soliciting customers if you have to already be a customer to use the service (ie-have a hotel reservation)? That is not soliciting new customers, it is informing already customers about their services. I have seen plenty of signs (advertisements in the terminals) in airports for the airport hotels, touting their shuttle service, and ME should be no different. To me, signs solicit business, and they allow that. They really do serve the same purpose IMHO. Now, Disney SHOULD pay for the advertising, be it a sign or a person waving REALLY STUPID MICKEY HANDS. The aiport is a business and they can choose who to sell advertising to.

It's the classic tale of the little guy being pushed out, and trying to claw his way back up by any means necessary. Unfortuntaly, big businesses such as Disney are able to offer people what they want. This reminds me of Walmart...

 

[ducklite]

Candicno--They are not supposed to be "soliciting" business. But in reality, they are soliciting business by directing people to the Mears desk rather than a cab, a car service, or LYNX. As Mears has the contract for DME, they are unfairly steering business to their business partner, and away from teh other providers. Thye are able to do this because they are in the main terminal, arrivals level right where people get off the monorail from the airsides. That is what is not fair. They are able to solicit business, while others are not.

Anne

 

[safetymom]

I will have to watch more carefully the next time I am there. Every time I have seen a CM for DME standing there they were more interested in talking to the other CM than people.

I think this is sour grapes on the part of the other transportation companies. When the airport authority and Disney sat down to discuss this I am sure the airport authority knew that Disney planned to stand outside security. You can't blame this all on Disney.

Once the CM's are standing with the rest of them I am sure the transportation companies will find something else to complain about.

 

[Andrew Bichard]

I am getting confused.

I have not received my DME tags yet although I am departing in about a week and sometimes things get delayed in the mail, especially international mail. (I am travelling from UK)

International arrivals work slightly differently, because you have to retrieve your luggage from one carrousel, take it through customs, then put it back on another conveyor where it gets transported to the regular arrivals corrousels which internal flights use. I had assumed that should my tags fail to arrive, there would be Disney staff at outside customs to give me tags before I put them back into the system. (Just like the staff from Virgin Holidays directing their incoming guests).

Now I am not sure what will be happening. If I read this thread right, I am going to have to retrieve my luggage a second time and take it outside and find DME staff there, to find out if I can use DME. In a worst case scenario - if there is no space for me on a DME bus, I then have to take my luggage back inside, and go down a level to the Mears desk and see if they can take me.

Have I got this right?

Andrew

 

[safetymom]

If you have already signed up for DME there will be room on the bus for you. I would call DME and see if there is anything extra you need to do since you will be an international arrival.

 

[WillCAD]

I think this is sour grapes on the part of the other transportation companies. When the airport authority and Disney sat down to discuss this I am sure the airport authority knew that Disney planned to stand outside security. You can't blame this all on Disney.

Once the CM's are standing with the rest of them I am sure the transportation companies will find something else to complain about.

As I said in the original thread about the travel companies' complaint:

Yeah, having a business that you have busted your hump and sacrificed to build up over many years suddenly dry up and blow away because a multi-billion-dollar megalithic corporations starts giving it away free as a promotional perk tends to cause peoples' grapes to go a little sour.

Of coarse, Disney has a perfect right to operate a service like DME, and I think it is long overdue. But I do think that they will not provide the service for free in perpetuity; I'm certain that they will begin to offset the huge cost of DME by charging for it at some point, and knowing Disney, they will charge the same or a little more than Mears charges on their own busses ($29 r/t).

DME will become a perk that Disney can throw in for free for limited times, like the free dining plan, that will be very useful as a marketing and promotional device.

Personally, however, I will continue to rent a car on every trip. I'm willing to pay the extra money, and handle my own luggage, in order to be freed from hassles of riding in a shuttle with 50 other people.

 

[safetymom]

That is what free enterprise is all about. Many people don't want to have to pay for transportation to the resorts and Disney is filling that need along with their own.

Everyone is free to start a business and have to deal with competition.

What is stopping the other transportation services with coming up with their own new service?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Andrew - as Safetymom suggested, if you've reserved with DME you should contact them for specific information (and if you haven't, you should make reservations before leaving home).
This is just supposition on my part, but I'd think either of the following would work:
After clearing Customs, instead of placing your luggage on the second carousel, just take it with you to the DME counter (less preferable, hauling it up and down escalators), or
After clearing Customs, place your luggage on the carousel as usual, head off to the DME counter, check in and let THEM handle your luggage!