DME & Saratoga Springs Route?

[disney323]

We're staying at Saratoga and are using Magical Express. We land at 10:30pm. What other hotels will we stop at first and are there several stops w/in Saratoga or just 1 big stop?

Thank you!

[CleveRocks]

Disney's Magical Express is a shared ride. It would be very rare for a bus to have guests from only one resort.

There are no pre-set routes. There are no pre-set groupings of resorts. They'll tend to group resorts geographically, but that's just a tendency and not a rule ... if there aren't any guests going to resorts near SSR at a certain time, then at that time the SSR guests will be on a bus with guests from resorts not in SSR's general area.

Some people might post that they went to this resort or that resort first, but let me assure you that others' experiences can't predict your own, as bus groupings can change on an hour-by-hour basis, and the bus drivers themselves decide the order of the drop-offs ... they are told what resorts are on their bus for that run, but the driver himself/herself decides the order of the drop-offs.

[DizneyRox]

Originally, I thought the only rule was that the Grand must be the first stop if the bus was going there during their drop offs. Has that changed?

[princessjojo]

We've done SSR as both an early and a late arrival and each time we were lucky enough to be one of the few guest on the bus leaving the airport. The only stop we made other than our own was at OKW, and once we were the first stop, probably because the only guest were SSR guest. Guess it all depends...

[CleveRocks]

Originally, I thought the only rule was that the Grand must be the first stop if the bus was going there during their drop offs. Has that changed?There is only one concrete rule about DME drop-off order, but I didn't include it here because it doesn't usually involve SSR.

It is true that it is Disney policy for Grand Floridian guests to be dropped off first. But there's also an exception to this rule. If there are ALSO Polynesian guests on that same bus, then the bus must stop at Poly first before going to GF. It's not that Disney is prioritizing Poly guests over GF guests, it's a matter of logistics. Poly and GF are along the same dead-end street. The only way to get to GF is to drive by Poly first, and both resorts are on the right side of the street when driving in that direction. If the bus went to GF first and then had to go back to Poly, that big motorcoach wouldn't be able to make the tight left turn into the Poly complex ... the bus would have to stop, back up, and then go forward again (a K-turn), which would cause big problems on the road.

That's why any bus going to both Gf and Poly must stop at Poly first.

[TheRustyScupper]

We're staying at Saratoga . . . What other hotels will we stop at first
. . . there could be up to three other hotels
. . . usually SSR will be the last for the route
. . . even though there are no longer set routes

and are there several stops w/in Saratoga or just 1 big stop?
. . . one stop
. . . this is at the check-in building

NOTE: Make sure you take your luggage on the motor coach with you. (Retrieve it from Baggage Claim and take to DME.) Otherwise, your luggage will not arrive until the next morning.