Why do people take luggage with them on ME?

[Julylady]

Okay. This is an honest question. My family visits WDW 2-3 times per year. We usually take Magicial Express to the hotel. On our most recent visit in August we noticed that a large number of people in line for the ME buses were toting all of their luggage with them. I think one of the BEST parts of ME is being able to check your luggage at your home airport and not have to worry about it until it is delivered to your room by Bell Services.

My question is, "Why are so many people taking their luggage on the bus with them?" Is ME really losing so many pieces of luggage that this is now common practice? Are people just being paranoid after reading message boards? Are people so unable to be without their "stuff" for a few hours at the hotel? I am fairly sure that most of the pieces were checked luggage since they were so large, but maybe not?

Why do I care? The lines waiting for the buses were long and crowded. With so many families trying to shuffle several large pieces of luggage as well as small children up and down the line, it seemed to really bog things down. In addition, the time it took to load/unload the busses was much longer since the driver had to handle so many pieces of luggage at each stop. The time it took from our plane landing to arrival at our hotel (we were the 3rd stop) was much longer than previous trips and the fact that so many families were transporting all of their luggage seemed to be one of the reasons why.

Any comments?

 

[hsembrick]

I am going to assume that maybe they did not recieve there ME tags in time or that they booked a last minute trip. Last Sept. I did not recieve my tags in time, which was my fauly because I waited until the last minute to book my flights so I was one of the ones in line with my bags. I hated every minute of it too.

I too love the fact that I don't have to deal with my luggage when flying to Disney . It just makes my vacation that much better.

Love to hear what other people think though.

 

[Jestocost]

Okay. This is an honest question. My family visits WDW 2-3 times per year. We usually take Magicial Express to the hotel. On our most recent visit in August we noticed that a large number of people in line for the ME buses were toting all of their luggage with them. I think one of the BEST parts of ME is being able to check your luggage at your home airport and not have to worry about it until it is delivered to your room by Bell Services.

My question is, "Why are so many people taking their luggage on the bus with them?" Is ME really losing so many pieces of luggage that this is now common practice? Are people just being paranoid after reading message boards? Are people so unable to be without their "stuff" for a few hours at the hotel? I am fairly sure that most of the pieces were checked luggage since they were so large, but maybe not?

Why do I care? The lines waiting for the buses were long and crowded. With so many families trying to shuffle several large pieces of luggage as well as small children up and down the line, it seemed to really bog things down. In addition, the time it took to load/unload the busses was much longer since the driver had to handle so many pieces of luggage at each stop. The time it took from our plane landing to arrival at our hotel (we were the 3rd stop) was much longer than previous trips and the fact that so many families were transporting all of their luggage seemed to be one of the reasons why.

Any comments?

Well, any passengers arriving between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. have to collect their own luggage because Disney doesn't run the service during those hours, but I'm assuming you are talking about times when the luggage transfer service is in operation.

Based on what I read on these boards, there are a number of reasons why guests don't use the luggage transfer service. First, there probably is a certain percent who just don't know that it's offered or don't understand what it is (despite getting detailed info from DME). Second, there are plenty of people who post on these boards who either don't trust the service or just have to have their bags with them. Those reasons don't make sense to me, but who am I to judge. Finally, there are those who are arriving late, but while the luggage transfer service is operating, who don't want to have their luggage arrive in the middle of the night. If you arrive at 9:00 p.m., for example, an on-time luggage delivery could realistically be as late as 1:30 a.m.

 

[Jestocost]

I am going to assume that maybe they did not recieve there ME tags in time or that they booked a last minute trip. Last Sept. I did not recieve my tags in time, which was my fauly because I waited until the last minute to book my flights so I was one of the ones in line with my bags. I hated every minute of it too.

I too love the fact that I don't have to deal with my luggage when flying to Disney . It just makes my vacation that much better.

Love to hear what other people think though.

Some people probably do collect their bags for that reason, but it's not necessary even then. Even untagged bags can be collected by DME and transported automagically to your resort room. You just need to stop by the DME Welcome Center desk and provide them with your claim numbers and a description of your bags, and they will find them and get them to your resort. We've done that when we had more bags than tags and it worked fine.

 

[Julylady]

Thanks for your responses! I have been doing some reading on the Resorts Board and it talks about people cleaning their rooms upon arrival, bringing their own sheets, leaving luggage stored while they check for bed bugs, washing all the dishes in their DVC villa, hand sanitizing constantly, etc. I wondered if toting your own luggage was a similar phenomenon. These efforts make me tired just thinking about it! I wonder if they do this on all vacations or just Disney.

Overall, people need to do what they need to do to make themselves feel safe. However, in regards to taking luggage on the ME busses, I definitely thought that the length of my transport was much longer due to all of the luggage on the busses.

As I said....we normally take ME, but after the long wait for the bus and the lengthy commute I am considering renting a car for our next trip.

 

[ancestry]

With most airlines charging for baggage, I bet there are quite a few people who bring their luggage as carry on items rather than checking it.

When we flew two years ago on Air Tran we each carried a travel suitcase and book bag (as our personal item). When boarding DME the suitcases were stored under the bus. We weren't allowed to take them on the bus.

When we flew Jet Blue this year we checked everything since it was free and the bags were transferred to the hotel by Disney.

I complete agree that having your luggage handled by Disney is a real bonus but that bonus is negated with the airlines charging so much for a checked bag.

 

[WizardLarz]

Maybe they did not do a carry-on and wanted to be able to change clothes after checking in to their Resort.

*** If you have arranged for ME but do not get your Yellow Tags before you leave, you Do Not need to grab your bags! Just go down to the ME area and tell a ME Castmember. They will take your boarding pass number and you'll be on your way!

 

[monarchsfan16]

I normally let DME transport my bags and agree that it's the best part of the service. I also don't understand people bringing all their luggage on the bus in the middle of the day.
However, I very well may be grabbing my luggage when I fly down in March. My flight isn't scheduled to land until 9pm. I COULD still use luggage service, but that would mean staying up a lot later than I probably want to, to receive my luggage. Not thrilled with that option. And murphy's law says that if I tell them (who is "them" anyway?) to hold my luggage until the next morning, some memo will be missed, and I'll be woken in the middle of the night by my luggage being delivered.

 

[Jestocost]

And murphy's law says that if I tell them (who is "them" anyway?) to hold my luggage until the next morning, some memo will be missed, and I'll be woken in the middle of the night by my luggage being delivered.

The trick is to make arrangements with the front desk to alert bell services AND to put your Do Not Disturb sign out on the door. We have been awakened before--once when our room didn't HAVE a DND sign and once when we didn't put it out--until we took that extra step.

And once you call in the a.m. your bags usually are there within 15 minutes.

 

[clkelley]

Some of it may be foreign travelers. They no longer get luggage tags, and if they clear customs in Orlando, they have to claim their bags at customs anyway, so they may just lug them on over to DME.

There are also just lots and lots of people that don't read, don't observe. I don't know how many times I've boarded the DME bus and seen folks frantically trying trying to attach the yellow tags to their backpacks that are in their hands AS THEY ARE BOARDING THE BUS!!

(Of course, there are also some so-called Disney Travel Agent Specialists who have even less of a clue and advise millions of travelers incorrectly!!)

 

[MagicKingdom05]

We haven't decided if we are going to put the tags on and let the ME people deal with our bags or get them ourselves. The reason I say this is, according to Disney, you are guaranteed to have your bags no later than 10 pm the day you check in. We are arriving at 12:15ish and with 2.5 year old and a 8 month old, we kind of need our bags before 10 pm.

 

[Jestocost]

We haven't decided if we are going to put the tags on and let the ME people deal with our bags or get them ourselves. The reason I say this is, according to Disney, you are guaranteed to have your bags no later than 10 pm the day you check in. We are arriving at 12:15ish and with 2.5 year old and a 8 month old, we kind of need our bags before 10 pm.

That's not the case at all. The only issue with 10 p.m. is that if your flight arrives after that time you need to get your own bags vs. having DME transfer them.

DME should have your bags in your resort room within three hours of when you check in. If you have a 12:15 p.m. flight, that means you should have your bags before 5:00 p.m. (and probably earlier).

Now if the airline loses or delays your luggage, or some other unusual event, then it can be later. But the three hour time usually is good.

 

[pinnocchiosdad]

Okay. This is an honest question. My family visits WDW 2-3 times per year. We usually take Magicial Express to the hotel. On our most recent visit in August we noticed that a large number of people in line for the ME buses were toting all of their luggage with them. I think one of the BEST parts of ME is being able to check your luggage at your home airport and not have to worry about it until it is delivered to your room by Bell Services.

My question is, "Why are so many people taking their luggage on the bus with them?" Is ME really losing so many pieces of luggage that this is now common practice? Are people just being paranoid after reading message boards? Are people so unable to be without their "stuff" for a few hours at the hotel? I am fairly sure that most of the pieces were checked luggage since they were so large, but maybe not?

Why do I care? The lines waiting for the buses were long and crowded. With so many families trying to shuffle several large pieces of luggage as well as small children up and down the line, it seemed to really bog things down. In addition, the time it took to load/unload the busses was much longer since the driver had to handle so many pieces of luggage at each stop. The time it took from our plane landing to arrival at our hotel (we were the 3rd stop) was much longer than previous trips and the fact that so many families were transporting all of their luggage seemed to be one of the reasons why.

Any comments?

In February we will arrive at BLT around 11AM. Most likely if I use my luggage tage i will not see my bags until 7PM. I will be taking my bags on the ME.

 

[Missytara]

If you didn't get your ME tags in time, or you booked a last minute trip, all you have to do is give your baggage claim tickets to ME and they will retrieve them for you. It is that simple.

I think if you read the boards, the vast majority want ALL of their luggage with them, with a close second not trusting that ME will find their bags and get them to the right point.

For those who insist they need all of their luggage with them, I don't know why they don't pack one carry-on with everything they would need for the first day until the time when their bags do arrive. I am not sure why they tie up all that time, either with ALL of their luggage, especially large families.

For those who lost luggage once, they often "assume" it was ME, not realizing that the airline MAY have misplaced it and ME is the one desparately trying to locate it for you. I would hope more and more people would read these boards and realize that and let ME do the work for them.

 

[Jareds_mommy]

Okay. This is an honest question. My family visits WDW 2-3 times per year. We usually take Magicial Express to the hotel. On our most recent visit in August we noticed that a large number of people in line for the ME buses were toting all of their luggage with them. I think one of the BEST parts of ME is being able to check your luggage at your home airport and not have to worry about it until it is delivered to your room by Bell Services.

My question is, "Why are so many people taking their luggage on the bus with them?" Is ME really losing so many pieces of luggage that this is now common practice? Are people just being paranoid after reading message boards? Are people so unable to be without their "stuff" for a few hours at the hotel? I am fairly sure that most of the pieces were checked luggage since they were so large, but maybe not?

Why do I care? The lines waiting for the buses were long and crowded. With so many families trying to shuffle several large pieces of luggage as well as small children up and down the line, it seemed to really bog things down. In addition, the time it took to load/unload the busses was much longer since the driver had to handle so many pieces of luggage at each stop. The time it took from our plane landing to arrival at our hotel (we were the 3rd stop) was much longer than previous trips and the fact that so many families were transporting all of their luggage seemed to be one of the reasons why.

Any comments?

we are not from the US and heve to pick up out bags to go through customs

 

[Darla125]

I had never thought of not taking letting ME take our bags, though on our last two visits - each time had one peice of luggage "missing" for about an extra hour or so each, after the initial delivery to our room. My jaded husband thought it was possibly an extra tip generator - I was super concerned that the bags were gone for good each time
May be a rare occurence to others, but ours happened at Wilderness and Poly. I still love ME and would gladly let them handle the bags!

 

[Julylady]

In February we will arrive at BLT around 11AM. Most likely if I use my luggage tage i will not see my bags until 7PM. I will be taking my bags on the ME.

OP here. As I said in my original post, we landed at OIA at 11am. We arrived at BLT via ME express about 1:30pm due to a lengthy wait for a bus followed by stops at Polynesian, Grand Floridian, and Wilderness Lodge. These stops were made longer due to the fact that the driver had to unload a ton of luggage at each stop.

Our luggage was delivered to the room by 2:30pm. Why do you expect that it won't be delivered until 7pm? Has that been your experience in the past? In my experience, our luggage has always arrived within 4 hours of landing.

 

[kycat]

We arrived around 3:00 pm on our last trip, and our bags did not show up to the room until close to midnight. They said that they had been taken to another resort and apologized....but it made our first night hard.

I still won't get our own bags on our next trip...but I can certainly understand why some people do.

 

[clkelley]

we are not from the US and heve to pick up out bags to go through customs

Yes, BUT you can place them on another belt after customs and they will be transferred to the main terminal for you. Then you can give your luggage claim tickets to the DME folks and they will pull your bags for you.

International folks DO NOT have to take their bags to the bus, but many do.

 

[Jareds_mommy]

Yes, BUT you can place them on another belt after customs and they will be transferred to the main terminal for you. Then you can give your luggage claim tickets to the DME folks and they will pull your bags for you.

International folks DO NOT have to take their bags to the bus, but many do.

al 3 times when we have booked we were told by disney that we had to transfere our luggage over our selves. So we have never even looked for somewhere to drop them