Vote on your ME experience!!!

[zak'smom]

How far in advance of your flight home do they make you leave? Another words if your flight is sceduled for 2PM when do they want your luggage and when do you need to board their bus???

We were notified the day before our 6:19 flight that pickup would be at 3:25. So that would be a short three hours. You can check your lugguge in beforehand if you want to get to a park early. Then just show up at the bus stop and you are on your way.

 

[CleveRocks]

We were notified the day before our 6:19 flight that pickup would be at 3:25. So that would be a short three hours. You can check your lugguge in beforehand if you want to get to a park early. Then just show up at the bus stop and you are on your way.

Well, not always. You can only, as you say, "check your luggage in beforehand" if you're flying one of the "participating" airlines. If you're not flying a "participating" airline, you can have your luggage stored by Bell Services, but they won't get the luggage onto the bus for you. You must get the luggage from BS and then get it to the driver for him/her to load. And depending how busy BS is, that might take a while. When I checked out of CBR I was advised to ask for my bags out of BS storage about 20 minutes before my scheduled bus departure (4:00 p.m. for a 6:45 p.m. flight), and I got it all just in time. The BS CMs were very friendly, but they were also very busy.

-- Eric

 

[bengalbelle]

Well, not always. You can only, as you say, "check your luggage in beforehand" if you're flying one of the "participating" airlines. If you're not flying a "participating" airline, you can have your luggage stored by Bell Services, but they won't get the luggage onto the bus for you. You must get the luggage from BS and then get it to the driver for him/her to load. And depending how busy BS is, that might take a while. When I checked out of CBR I was advised to ask for my bags out of BS storage about 20 minutes before my scheduled bus departure (4:00 p.m. for a 6:45 p.m. flight), and I got it all just in time. The BS CMs were very friendly, but they were also very busy.

-- Eric

I'm new to all of this - we usually drive. How do you know if it's a participating airline? We're flying Southwest.

 

[ktink]

Southwest is not a participating airline, so from what I've read you have to check your own luggage on the return trip. But it will not effect your flight into MCO, they will still handle your luggage and it will end up at your resort. Hope that helps

 

[bengalbelle]

Southwest is not a participating airline, so from what I've read you have to check your own luggage on the return trip. But it will not effect your flight into MCO, they will still handle your luggage and it will end up at your resort. Hope that helps

Thanks!

 

[MinnieMouseMom]

Thanks for all the great information!!

 

[Helene]

Just got home yesterday. Overall, it was pretty good. Arrival went without a hitch and we were at our resort (POR) within an hour. Our luggage, however, was a different story. Last set of bags arrived @ 5 hours after we did. But I had packed what we needed for the evening in my carry-on so it didn't turn out to be a major inconvenience.

The return trip was not as smooth. We were scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. p/u, flight departing @ 10:20 a.m. Bell services did not have our bags ready when the bus was, so we had to wait for the 8 am bus. We then had to make 3 additional resort stops for other passengers and did not get to the airport until 9:10. Because we arrived so late to check-in, we were assigned the last 5 seats on the plane and we (me, dd 7 & ds 6) all had to sit separately. We really cut it close and were one of the last families to board the plane.

I guess you get what you pay for . Despite the return trip stress, I actually would consider using ME again, I would just plan/time things differently and actually request a departure time 1/2 hour earlier than they schedule.

Helene

 

[CleveRocks]

I guess you get what you pay for . Despite the return trip stress, I actually would consider using ME again, I would just plan/time things differently and actually request a departure time 1/2 hour earlier than they schedule.

Or schedule the pick up from Bell Services earlier. When I was at CBR in May we had a 4:00 p.m. pick up scheduled for a 6:45 p.m. Saturday flight. Check out is 11:00 a.m., as it is everywhere in WDW. At about 10:50 a.m. we called to get our bags picked up and stored so we could go off to DTD. We were told that Bell Services was swamped and they would be at least 45 minutes or so until they could get to us. We were advised to leave our bags inside our room and just go on our merry way (and to leave a tip on the bags if so desired). We got back to CBR around 3:00 p.m. and waited around at the Custom House for our bus. It still seemed VERY busy there, so I decided to ask a Bell Services CM how long it would take to get our luggage out of storage, and he advised me to request it about 20 minutes prior to our DME pick up time, which I did and it all worked out.

-- Eric

 

[ktink]

 

[ktink]

 

[ktink]

I talked to a friend of mine today that is at WDW now, staying at SSR, and she said that ME was wonderful. They were at the resort within an hour and able to get right to the parks. They came back in around 5:30 and their bags were in the room.

 

[ktink]

 

[ktink]

bump

 

[ktink]

Well now I can report first hand and I'd have to say we will continue to use DME. It was great, we checked our luggage at BNA and saw the luggage once it was delivered to our room. They brought 3 out of 4 bags but came back later and brought the other one. Everything just went smoothly and that's all that matters to us. We flew SWA so they weren't a participating airline and on the departure we just got a skycap and he did it all for us. It was great.