Will Disney deliver our luggage if we don't ride ME?

[n2mm]

if you read the small print, there is a small possibility that you can not to resort baggage check in. this happened to us. I caleed the day before, paid for the bags. morning of departure, went to do the airling check in (ckech the bags, get boarding passes printed out... NOPE! we were randomly chose to not be able to do this!!!
there was NO talking anyone out of this (even tho hubby's back "went out" and couldn't carry luggage.)

also, we had to pay again for the luggage, at MCO, and then apply for a refund when we got home for the money we spent on pre payin gfor the luggage the day before. it took a couple weeks, cause the y have ony one person handling this, who works only 2 days a week, and you leave a message with them nad you BETTER answer the phone when they call , cause you can't call them what a hassle!!!

Generally there are times when you are randomly selected, but that is throught the airline and not RAC. The same that sometimes at home you can't print your boarding pass and can only do it at the counter at the airport. This is not an RAC issue. That sucks that you got stuck paying for your luggage twice -- glad you got a refund. Again an airline issue not RAC. Yes that can happen to anyone even if you're using DME. They call it "extra" security, or an individual flyer is "flagged" (happened to my SIL until he corrected it with TSA).

 

[Sandisw]

We have done this before twice, renting at the Regal Sun resort I believe through Dollar. You can walk from DTD. However, it wasn't super convenient...anyone had better luck or service from the Car Care Center rentals? The Dollar shuttle is spotty and that location at Regal Sun has limited hours.

We had great luck renting from both Alamo/National at the Dolphin. We take ME to the resort, then pick up the car the next day. We return the day before we leave and then take ME to the airport.

This summer, doing it this way, saved us over $400 on a minivan. We are paying only $200 instead of $600. We are staying at BWV so getting it from the Dolphin is no big deal. And, when we return it, we are staying at BLT, but will simply take one last walk through Epcot and get the bus or monorail back.

Very easy and I love not having to drive in/out of MCO.

 

[simmons_m]

This is correct. It's called RAC. We don't use DME (rental car only) and always use this service to check our bags and get our boarding passes. We've used this service at least 25 times now at a variety of WDW resorts. Just remember this is a tipped position and is similar to curbside service at the airport (just alot better).

Great to know. Thank you!

 

[keishashadow]

AND.. you don't have the hassle of driving from the airport.
manning, do they pick you up at your resort?

imo it's far bigger hassle to wait for the ME bus when i'm itching to get to 'the world'

i price out the rates for national/alamo from both CCCenter & Dolphin & it's always more expensive (higher priced weekly rate) than from MCO

 

[jekjones1558]

Rental car rates vary a great deal depending on the dates, length of stay and size of vehicle. Sometimes renting at the airport is cheaper (almost always the case when we go), sometimes renting off-airport is cheaper. We rent at the airport and take 417 to WDW because it is always less traffic than the Beachline and I-4--in fact a pleasant drive. We book Alamo and use the kiosk or Budget with FastBreak, so we are on our way in minutes. At departure we use RAC for luggage, so returning the car is easy and we only need to go through airport security.

 

[CarolMN]

Moved from DVC Boards

 

[seashoreCM]

Disney-bound ...

1) First, luggage and riding the bus are not connected.
2) Even though some say they are.
3) They are two separate and non-related activities.
...
6) At no time does the DME scan inter-relate to whether you took the bus

Yes, what you said is accurate. But ...

Why baggage problems with your airline can be a big problem for you ...
If your airline fails to get your checked baggage into Orlando at all,then it is normally up to you to file a claim with the airline within some time limit typically 4 hours after landing.
However there is a small kludge for DME guests (i.e. those who followed the DME instructions and rode the bus). They can file baggage claims at the resort as soon as they find the baggage missing. (What happens next is magic.)

DME hints: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2015788

 

[goofy4tink]

A few corrections...RAC and DME are not the same entity. The RAC counter has nothing whatsoever to do with DME. Think of RAC as very distant curbside service. Curbside service isn't going to do anything about DME!!! Neither will RAC.

The RAC counters open at 5am..you have to be walking away, boarding passes in hand and all bags checked, no less than 3 hrs before flight departure. It takes about 15 mins (provided there is no line!!) to get it all done...so if you have a flight at anytime prior to 8am you can't use RAC...safest if you are flying after 8:30am.

 

[smidgy]

Generally there are times when you are randomly selected, but that is throught the airline and not RAC. The same that sometimes at home you can't print your boarding pass and can only do it at the counter at the airport. This is not an RAC issue. That sucks that you got stuck paying for your luggage twice -- glad you got a refund. Again an airline issue not RAC. Yes that can happen to anyone even if you're using DME. They call it "extra" security, or an individual flyer is "flagged" (happened to my SIL until he corrected it with TSA).

they told us at the counter at POP century (resort airline check in) that it was TSA thing. at the airport the TSA guy told us "Oh! is THAT was Disney told you?" and kinda smirked.

 

[smidgy]

We had great luck renting from both Alamo/National at the Dolphin. We take ME to the resort, then pick up the car the next day. We return the day before we leave and then take ME to the airport.

This summer, doing it this way, saved us over $400 on a minivan. We are paying only $200 instead of $600. We are staying at BWV so getting it from the Dolphin is no big deal. And, when we return it, we are staying at BLT, but will simply take one last walk through Epcot and get the bus or monorail back.

Very easy and I love not having to drive in/out of MCO.

so, if I understand correctly, you need to get yourself to the Dolphin to rent a car.? and, when returning, you need to get back to your resort. they do not pick you up at yuor resort. (like they do in Illinois with Enterprise.. their motto is "we'll pick you up!")

 

[MichaelColey]

I have a question for you. When you have done both (rental car and DME), who arrives at the resort first, and by how much time? We always rent a car and use Emerald Aisle, so it takes very little time to get the rental car. Do you find the bus people are greatly delayed or not?

We did this on a recent trip. The kids and I picked up the rental car, stopped for a quick bite to eat at McDonalds (maybe 10 minutes - we ate in the car), then we drove to the resort and checked in. My wife rode DME, primarily because we had read mixed opinions about whether or not the bags would get delivered if someone didn't ride. She got to the resort while I was still in the check-in line. So in our case, it took about 10 minutes longer. (Of course if we had waited for our bags, driving would have been even slower than DME!) I was impressed.

It was a good thing that my wife rode DME. Our bags didn't show up that night. Disney was very helpful in getting us reunited with our bags. The problem turned out to be the airline. What happened was that our flight was cancelled and they put us on an earlier flight (which we couldn't get to in time) and then they rerouted us through Miami. The flight we ended of going on was in a different terminal, and our bags didn't make it to that terminal and on to our flight.

 

[GGOOFY1]

I always rent a car for one day at the Dolphin. I take a bus from my resort to the Studios and boat over to the Dolphin. Works out great. I prefer this to the other way, you can ride from your resort to Downtown Disney and get on a bus to the Dolphin.

 

[LSchrow]

so, if I understand correctly, you need to get yourself to the Dolphin to rent a car.? and, when returning, you need to get back to your resort. they do not pick you up at yuor resort. (like they do in Illinois with Enterprise.. their motto is "we'll pick you up!")

the dolphin location does not have a pick-up/drop-off service .(you would need to take WDW transportation to the resort, or to EPCOT/DHS and take a friendship or walk from there).
the car care center (again alamo/national) does offer p/u and d/o from/to your wdw resort if getting to the dolphin is not convenient.

we use DME and rent a car at the dolphin (amazing service - hi, D ) exclusively now......we prefer not waiting for then searching for and lugging our suitcases (there is a reason it's called luggage), enjoy the relaxed, no hassle DME ride to the BWVs, grab an ice cream cone for our leisurely stroll over to the dolphin, and wait no more than a few moments before we're signed in, getting our vehicle from the valet, and on our way.

imho, it's so much more relaxing than renting at MCO (which we used to do all the time), though we often do spend a little bit more for the convenience.

btw, we tried limos also - we found DME/dolpin rental starts our vacas on a wonderfully hassle free and enjoyable note