Very late arrival - ME or taxi?

[SAHDad]

Question for those who have done this:

On our next trip (in October), we will be arriving to the Orlando airport about midnight, possibly a little later, depending on flight delays, etc. We will have two young (and very tired, possibly sleeping) children in tow, and going to Wilderness Lodge.

We have been taking Magical Express (and have used Mears in the past), but, given the lateness of the hour (and the two kids), would getting a taxi be appreciably faster than taking ME?

 

[Jestocost]

Getting a town car or cab almost certainly will be faster at that time of night since you will need to get your own bags whether you are using DME or not. From baggage claim you can be in a town car or cab and on your way in minutes after your bags come out. With DME it's going to take a while to get to the welcome center, check in, wait for a bus (and possibly ON a bus after that), then potentially stop at one or more resorts on your way to your resort. All things considered, I would expect a town car or cab will get you to your resort at least 20-30 minutes faster than DME and possibly more than that.

 

[SAHDad]

Thanks! That's pretty much what we figured. ME can be pretty slow at times, but arriving in the middle of the day, it's not such a big deal. But the various waiting, etc that late at night is probably going to be difficult with the munchkins.

 

[Jestocost]

Thanks! That's pretty much what we figured. ME can be pretty slow at times, but arriving in the middle of the day, it's not such a big deal. But the various waiting, etc that late at night is probably going to be difficult with the munchkins.

The biggest difference in the middle of the day is that you can use the DME luggage transfer service and skip baggage claim. That makes the time it takes to get from plane to resort about the same whether you use DME or take a cab/town car and wait for your luggage. Since DME stopped doing luggage transfers for flights arriving after 10:00 p.m., however, the only advantage left for DME after that is that it's not going to cost you anything but a tip for the bus driver for handling your bags.

 

[SAHDad]

The biggest difference in the middle of the day is that you can use the DME luggage transfer service and skip baggage claim. That makes the time it takes to get from plane to resort about the same whether you use DME or take a cab/town car and wait for your luggage. Since DME stopped doing luggage transfers for flights arriving after 10:00 p.m., however, the only advantage left for DME after that is that it's not going to cost you anything but a tip for the bus driver for handling your bags.

Yeah. As I said, we've been using DME for our past couple trips, but we have taken fairly early flights. We wake up the kids, get them dressed, let them eat breakfast in the car on the way to the airport (and since the trip to the airport is a good 90 minutes, sometimes they go back to sleep), and take an 8 am or 9 am flight. This time, since DS will be in school, we're waiting until school is done for the day, which means he misses one less day, but it will put us on a late flight.

 

[CleveRocks]

The biggest difference in the middle of the day is that you can use the DME luggage transfer service and skip baggage claim. That makes the time it takes to get from plane to resort about the same whether you use DME or take a cab/town car and wait for your luggage. Since DME stopped doing luggage transfers for flights arriving after 10:00 p.m., however, the only advantage left for DME after that is that it's not going to cost you anything but a tip for the bus driver for handling your bags.

I agree 100%.

I'm a huge DME fan, and I'll put MY time experiences with DME against anyone's experiences of going to baggage claim and then getting a taxi/car service/rental car. DME has always been rather speedy for me ... times, in minutes, from airplane exit to resort drop-off have been 63, 56 and 57.

But I completely agree with Jestocost that if I arrived after 10 p.m. and had to go to baggage claim, then at that point a taxi would be quicker than DME.

Better yet, contract a car service to meet you there. For roughly the same amount of money, you will get better service and a better vehicle.

 

[chinsmom1997]

Your best bet would be taxi or towncar. Actually a good site to look into would be mearstransport.com They have very good rates and drop off to all Disney Resorts. I would check them out. They have share a ride service and private towncars.
Sherri

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

One thing to think about is ME is free...... a cab is not. Why spend money if you don't have to ??

 

[SAHDad]

One thing to think about is ME is free...... a cab is not. Why spend money if you don't have to ??

As I said, a cranky 5-year old and a cranky 2-year old. The wait for ME in the middle of the day is fine, but at midnight? The cab fare isn't that much, in exchange for making the trip as easy as possible for DW, DS, DD and me.