Using ME on the flight back

[princesspwrhr]

We usually drive to WDW but have planned a surprise trip for my daughter's bday this Aug and are flying, so I have a few ?? on how ME works. We will only be gone 4 days 3 nights so will probably only have a carry on each. (rolling pilots case size)

Should we just carry these with us for the flight down and take the ME bus to the resort? We arrive at MCO around 8pm, so I figure it will be 10 when we get to the resort. Maybe it would be better to have a reg bag to check and a carry on with jammies, the next days clothes and toiletries???

Our flight back is an evening flight, it leaves MCO at 6, how does ME wrk on the return trip? When we check out can we leave our bags and go play? Do we go back to the resort to pick up the ME bus? About what time? We have a layover, if we send our bags with ME will they arrive at our home airport with us at baggage claim?

Mostly I'm curious how to work the bags and bus so that we can still go play for at least half a day before heading to the airport.

TIA

 

[kaytieeldr]

Nope, if you can get everything into your carry-on luggage, more power to you! DME is first a people-transport service; the luggage transfer is just an added perk. Don't feel that you need to have checked luggage to use it!
On the way home: If you have just carry-ons again, you can leave your luggage with Bell/Luggage services and pick it all up before you board the DME bus. To be 100% safe, plan to be back at your resort a half hour before your scheduled departure. If you have checked luggage and are flying a participating airline (see the sticky at the top of the Transportation page), you can check in for your flight, check your luggage through to your home airport and get your boarding passes. If you're flying a non-participating airline, you'll need to retrieve your luggage and bring it to the bus yourself, then check it and you in at the airport yourself.

 

[CleveRocks]

Our flight back is an evening flight, it leaves MCO at 6, how does ME wrk on the return trip? When we check out can we leave our bags and go play? Do we go back to the resort to pick up the ME bus? About what time? We have a layover, if we send our bags with ME will they arrive at our home airport with us at baggage claim?

Mostly I'm curious how to work the bags and bus so that we can still go play for at least half a day before heading to the airport.

TIA

For your return home from WDW, the details about DME depend on whether or not you're flying a "participating airline." If you are, and if you have checked luggage, you can check in that luggage earlier in the day, and then not see it again until it's on your home airport's baggage claim carousel.

You asked if you change planes or have a layover if your luggage will arrive home with you. Yes, it will. Allow me to explain, and this may help. DME exists only in the space between MCO and your WDW resort. It does not exist anywhere else in the world. If you do fly a participating airline and check in your checked luggage at your resort's Resort Airline Check-In desk, all that means is that a subcontractor will transport your luggage to your airline for you. Once your airline accepts your checked luggage at the Resort Airline Check-In desk (anf it gets transported to the airline's facility at the airport), it's not treated any differently than if you lugged it to the airport yourself and checked it in with a ticketing agent. When you check yourself and your luggage in at an airport, your luggage (USUALLY!!!) goes on the aircraft with you, gets transfered with you as needed, etc. It's exactly the same with DME. Like I said, once you check your luggage in with the airline, it's the same as the rest of the luggage. "Participating airlines" agree to have a proxy, the Resort Airline Check-In desks located at each WDW resort, serve as their agent to accept checked luggage and deliver it to the airline at MCO.

DME has served over 2 million passengers since its inception on 5/5/05. If baggage problems were common, DME wouldn't be such a huge success. WDW started it as a trial run, initially to expire in October of 2006, but it's been extended (and kept FREE) through 2011.

All the above is well and good, but any experienced air traveler, REGARDLESS OF DME, would have you heed Ronda's advice in the above post -- if you can get away with using ONLY carry-ons and not checking any luggage, DO IT!!!

 

[CleveRocks]

Our flight back is an evening flight, it leaves MCO at 6, how does ME wrk on the return trip? When we check out can we leave our bags and go play? Do we go back to the resort to pick up the ME bus? About what time?

Sorry, I forgot to answer your other questions. DME bus departures are usually scheduled about 2.75 to 3 hours before your flight time, so figure you'll be scheduled to get the bus at around 3:00 p.m. on your day of departure. If you are going to take the DME bus back to MCO, you have no choice but to do it from your resort. No theme parks, no other resorts, only the resort you were staying at. If there's any problem with this, you're under no obligation to take the DME bus back to MCO -- you can get back there however you want. It's OK to use DME only one-way.

Bell Services/Luggage Assistance will hold your bags for you after you check out so you can go out to play. Any halfway decent hotel in the USA will do this for you, and WDW resorts are no exception.